We were lucky to catch up with Stewart Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stewart, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

I would say the thing that has kept me in business for over 25 years as my customer service. I always go above and beyond the call of duty. The best example I can use is I do a lot of modeling portfolio sessions. The reason why I think these sessions are so popular is because of the things I do for my clients. I help guide them from the beginning to even after the photo shoot is done.
So many times, this is a person‘s first photo shoot. I help them choose the right wardrobe, I direct them through the photo shoot and then once the photo shoot is over I help them get the right pictures in front of the right people. Years after our photo shoot has taken place. I still make myself accessible to my clients if they ever need help with anything. There are so many agencies out there that are scams and try to only take money from people and never do anything for them. I look into these agencies and help my past and present clients choosing to go with them are not based on their reputation.
I have helped launch numerous careers and gotten a lot of my clients published. I believe that is what sets me apart from many other photographers.

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

I would say the biggest reason I got into the industry is because my sister was a photographer. She let me play around with her camera when I was young and I knew instantly this was something I loved to do. It was a great way to express myself. There was something magical about creating images of my friends and showing them the images and getting a reaction out of them without having to say anything. I learned early that I could show somebody a photo and make them laugh. To this day, I still love the feeling of watching people’s faces light up or even make some people cry because they think the photo is so beautiful of them or sometimes when I do a high school senior many times the mother might cry as they look at the photos knowing their little boy or girl is now a young adult and about to move onto the next journey. I guess I can just say I love making people feel good about themselves is the best feeling.!

After answering the last question I feel I can elaborate a little more. I am very hands-on with my clients. When anyone hires me, they are not leaving my studio until they are 100% satisfied with what we do. That goes for wherever we do a photo shoot I am constantly showing my clients the images on the back of my camera for their approval. I tell them this is their time to be a diva And tell me if they like the images or not. There are many times when doing a photo shoot on location. The wind might be blowing and I will take the extra time to fix somebody’s hair or wait for the wind to die down to get the perfect shot.
The way I do my photo sessions. I try to get the lighting and poses and expressions down as best as possible. I do not rely on Photoshop to make my images look better. I try to make it as best as possible and do my best to have as a little Photoshop as possible
Anytime I do a photo shoot I get the images to my client within 7 to 10 business days. Depending on the photo shoot and timing there are days I can do a two day turnaround.
Once the photo shoot is over, my clients will then receive high resolution files that I get cleaned up with a lab to make sure everything looks perfect.
Anytime anyone gets their photos back I make sure they happy with the product. If anything needs to be dark and delighted I make sure to fix that for them.
Prior to any photo shoot I go over all the details with my clients so we are all on the same page and there is no confusion. I am a person who likes you go over everything and I like to communicate verbally to allow my clients to ask questions
Anytime anyone does a photo shoot with me. I always do my best to make sure they get as much out of the photo shoot as possible. I often promote these clients on social media. Whether it is a real estate agent, a high school, senior or a model. I always Like to write a little bit about these people and expose them to other people in hopes of them getting noticed.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think the biggest thing that helped build my business in this market was to always do goodbye people. I always am very sensitive to anyone that hires me. I know they are using their hard earned money to pay to have photos done for particular reasons. Every client is different And I try to cater to whatever it is they need.
Before I do a photo shoot with anyone, I ask a lot of questions. I have people send me images that inspired them to give me an idea of the types of images they want to create.
A take my time with each client and get back to them quickly with the images. Having a quick turnaround, always makes people happy.
Posting my clients images on social media along with any type of information I can provide others with in hopes of getting my clients noticed or booking them. Jobs is always appreciated. As I have said before. I go above and beyond the call of duty. I love to promote people. I love to uplift people. I love to make people happy and feel good about themselves and make them feel good about the investment they made with working with me.

One last thing is the way I communicate with my clients. I want them to always feel like doing the photo shoot with me that they did not get burned. The way I treat my clients I do believe is what kept me in business over all these years. I never claimed to be the best or most talented photographer but the way that I treat people has definitely kept me in the game for so long.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I come from a small Mill town in Maine. I was raised in Rumford Maine. Pretty much we grow up in our taught to work in the mill. It was good money and it was just something a lot of people did once they graduated. For me. I was a dreamer. I was a lot different than most kids in my school. I was always doing something creative And always taking pictures.
After high school I did a bunch of miserable jobs. I worked at a big Apple convenience store, I did carpentry for three years and also did mill shutdowns . A mill shut down is when the mill closes in different companies go in and clean up a bunch of messes. This was definitely one of the worst jobs I’ve ever had to do in my life. Backbreaking work. I have stories upon stories during this time of my life. It totally inspired me to save my money to go to college and to learn the techniques of being a professional photographer.
After I graduated from Photography school, I had to go on my own. I worked at a Camera store as a lab technician. My job was overseeing the Photo Lab, mixing chemicals and making sure orders were done on time.
I left that job to become a photography assistant. The photographer that I worked with was much older than me and was in the business for many years. Unfortunately, he was a bitter old man. I hate to say that, but it’s true. What I learned from him was if and when the time came for me in my career where I started grudging jobs or my heart wasn’t in it. I learned it would be time to stop. Thank goodness I love what I do and I have no interest in stopping.
While working for this photographer, I embarked on a journey of photographing minor league, baseball and minor league hockey, and the town of Portland, Maine.
Within a short time, I became the official team photographer for the Portland Seadogs, and for the Portland Pirates. On the side I was starting to photograph Models. I set my sites on the New England Patriots cheerleaders. I wanted to photograph their swimsuit calendar. For four years, I submitted my work to them in for four years they rejected me. On the fifth year, I sent them a stack of images and I told them they needed me as a photographer. I told them to look at my images and then to look at the other images that they were using. On that fifth year, I got the phone call and they asked me to be there for Photographer.I was young and hungry and I wanted to make something of myself. I learned no matter how many times the door closes. If you I was young and hungry and I wanted to make something of myself. I learned no matter how many times a door closes. If you are persistent enough that door will open. You just have to be dedicated and determined. I photographed the New England Patriots swimsuit calendar in 2005. I would definitely say that was one of the highlights of my career and I got a lot of attention for it. I was on Different TV and radio stations being interviewed and a lot of newspaper coverage. It was a big deal for a guy from Maine to do these kind of things. It definitely brought me and my career up a bunch of levels.

Contact Info:

• Website: HTTP:://stewartsmithphotography.com
• Instagram: HTTP://instagram.com/stewartsmithphotography
• Facebook: Http://facebook.com/stewartsmithphoto