We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paul Nurnberg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Paul, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Having been in my own business for 37 years it is hard to imagine having a “regular” job. Although I really don’t have to imagine too hard, as I had jobs in my field of photography for six years after graduation from collage. While there may be some advantages to working for someone else, such as paid vacation, and sometimes paid health insurance the freedom of owning a business outweighs the stress and uncertainty of being a business owner. My wife and I love to travel so not haveingh a set number of days a year I can travel is a wonderful feeling and lets me live a fantastic life. I have been thinking about it a lot recently as I am planning trips this to Costa Rica, Alaska ( for the 7th time in eight years), New Mexico, New England and NYC. And have recently been to The Everglades, Southern Florida, Alaska, and many long weekends away.

Also have had a number of family deaths in the past few years requiring travel to other places to be with and help family. So not needing to worry about asking for time off is very freeing.

I don’t think I could ever go back to working a “regular” job with set hours and a boss that was not me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As you probably have already seen from the article, I am a professional commercial / advertising photographer. It all started with a an older brother who did some photography, way back in the film days, and had set up a darkroom in our family basement. I ended up taking a couple of photography classes in high school and really enjoyed it. When I got my first job, as a bicycle mechanic, in high school, I asked my father to lend me enough money to buy a good camera. I did pay it off but he later said that was the most expense loan he ever made as hid did end up paying for a lot of my collage expenses when I went to Rochester Institute of Technology to get a degree in photography.

After graduation I move to Boston , MA where I work as an assistant in a commercial studio for a few years and then as an in house photography for two large corporations. I opened my business when my wife and I moved to NC after eight years in Boston.

Since I have lived in smaller markets I decided pretty early yo be a generalist rather than a specialist. Being more of a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Because of this I have offered many kind of photography and have always had a studio. My work ranges from simple business head shot portraits to large complex multi day shoots for large corporations. Jewelry, food, fashion, heavy equipment, healthcare, people, industrial sites (including paper and steel mills), and boats are all part of typical photoshoots. I do very little retail photography and almost all of my work is directly for corporations or through ad agencies and design firms.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I would say that I have two best sources of new clients. One is great website SEO. I have gotten many new clients simply from having a great website that shows up when clients are looking for the types of photography I do. I just recently photographed a corporate jet in Savannah for a client in Dubai, a gorgeous house on a private island for architectural firm in New York City, and am doing many architectural photo shoots of commercial buildings for another local client, all who found me via web searches. I also just a few days ago sent out a proposal for a large job for a firm in Baltimore that will be a large hospital near Charleston. I also photographed railroad engines being loaded onto a ship at the Port of Savannah for a British ad agency for a Scandinavian company. All found me from a web search.

The other great source is referrals form existing clients. That has also been a huge source of great new clients. That also is an indication that I am treating my clients well.

Interestingly, I was just having a conversation with one of my assistants talking about how I used to get work. That back in the “old days” before email and websites ( Yes I have been in business that long) I used to have ads in more than 20 different yellow Paige phone books and did a lot of mailing out of physical pieces and making appointments to go show my portfolios in person. I really do miss going to show my printed portfolios and meeting prospective clients in person.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being in the creative field is the freedom that I have to actually create something that didn’t exist before and have it work for your client. I tell people that I have, over the course of my career, photographed. A lot of people doing jobs that I’m glad I don’t have and it is something different almost every day and I have been fortunate to get access to a lot of situations and people that I wouldn’t have in a “normal” job. Things like flying in helicopters and cool aircraft and getting into some very interesting industrial sites like papermills and steel mills and other manufacturing plants and I’ve gotten to ride and work on huge container ships. I have also worked with several Hollywood motion pictures and national television doing set dressing, pictures, and behind-the-scenes images. And some of that includes photographing very famous people..

Also over the course of my career I have been able to use my creative abilities to work with and volunteer and help organizations that I truly believe in, especially environmental organizations. And have it be something other than just donating money. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve received two different publications for great environmental organizations that use my images on the cover and they look gorgeous.!

And it’s wonderful to be able to see my work in print and on websites and other electronic uses.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nurnbergphotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nurnberg/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nurnberg.Photography/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nurnbergphoto/
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/paul.nurnberg/

Image Credits

Credit for my portrait: Karen McDonnell