Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Phil Rugari. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Phil , thanks for joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success carries different definitions depending on who you ask. Some people label success by a dollar amount made per year, or maybe by the car you drive or the house you live in. These are all physical identifiers of success. Others label success by recognition by peers & fans, or achieving an individual goal. To me success comes in many forms but there is one thing that all people who achieve “success” have – perseverance. Success doesn’t usually come quickly, it’s something that’s forged over time and time again, and doing the things that no one wants to do, over and over again day in and day out. Success is a choice that someone has to make to do the hard things. One of the best quotes I’ve ever heard sums it up: The answers you are looking for are often hiding behind the things you are avoiding.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When I was a kid my mom had a Nikon N2000, in our world today this is a very basic film camera. We would take pictures and get them developed to see how they turned out. I didn’t quite understand the ins and outs of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO at the time but I knew they all had to be balanced to take a good photo. As I grew older I learned to edit digital photos on photoshop in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, I would go in and edit each individual pixel to make the photo sharper and have better contrast and image quality. Now we have the ability to do all that with a click of a mouse…. During college I took some photography classes and learned to develop film in a dark room, after that I shelved my love for photography for a number of years. Fast forward to more recent time I met a friend who was shooting professionally for some very large companies and had contracts with them. We became good friends and shot together for years. We created content for those companies to use on their print, social media and advertising needs. We would travel all over Florida and the south east to get the shots needed for these companies. At the time we were shooting with Cannon and the quality was awesome. My friend decided to get out of the business so I had to invest in new equipment and start doing things on my own. I decided to go with Fuji because their color theory fit my eye best. Yes the same photo from different brands of cameras can produce strikingly different photos. I still shoot with Fuji today and love the way their cameras capture images. I feel they invoke a different emotion than that of Cannon. I shoot mostly private events/ functions and I also do work with companies looking to grow their social media followings, need website photos etc. My work is artistically and stylistically my own, I do not attempt to be like others and my editing style reflects that. I know it’s not for everyone, but it does produce some stunning images. Feel free to stop by my website at www.therugaricollection.com to see some of my work.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Overall I don’t shoot photography for others. I do this more as a creative outlet for myself. I own a few businesses and photography is not my number one source of income. I do this on the side. For me when I go to a shoot I like to get to know the client(s) and make them as comfortable as possible. If the client isn’t comfortable you can throw the shoot away. I like to explain the process and how to pose for different shots. I try to share what the camera will see before we start shooting. When you bring all of this together you can get some magical moments captured on the camera. Half the time you take 100 shots and 10 turn out good….but the most rewarding aspect is finding the one “hero” shot in all the shots you take. Sometimes you know when you press the shutter button that you just got the shot, other times you are going through editing the hundreds of photos that you took and the surprise presents itself as the shot you didn’t know you took. For me the editing process is hands down the most rewarding. Finding that photo and knowing your clients will be extremely happy with your work.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

At the end of the day its quality work and the right equipment. When you have a basic camera and dont understand the exposure triangle your work is going to suffer. If you take the time to learn how each aspect of the exposure triangle affects each and every photo you take, you then realize that sub par equipment doesn’t cut it. I’m not saying everyone needs to use the same equipment that I use, everyones eyes are different and the way you view photography art is different but at the end of the day, exploring options and educating yourself on proper photography will help immensely. Not all post photo editing can cure bad shots. I also think if you are editing in Lightroom you should have your own style presets. Many photographers will just use basic presets available in Lightroom or ones they may have purchased, but unless you have taken tens of thousands of photos and understand how to edit the right way, your work will suffer.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.therugaricollection.com
• Instagram: @the_rugari_collection