Customers Versus Clients

I think such weird things sometimes. I was thinking about the differences and similarities between portrait and commercial photography. While the subject matter can be quite different (product photos compared to, say, high school seniors for example) my general attitude is the same. I view people and companies as clients, not customers. There is a subtle difference between the two. In my mind a customer is someone you sell stuff to. Customer goes to Target and buys a t-shirt.

A client is different. I view my clients as someone I work for and collaborate with. I don’t just shoot a photo and sell it to someone. My client (both commercial and portrait) and I work together to figure out what they are looking for and then we set about creating that image. It works as a partnership.

What makes this job fun is working with different people with different ideas and goals to create unique images.
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Ok this is sorta on topic. I was moving some photos from one drive on the server to another and came across this portrait that I shot a few years ago. This is a high school senior picture and I remember that Allison had some clear ideas of the kind of photos she was looking for. It was the colaboration between us that yielded some really nice photos. I don’t know why I used this photo for an example, it just that I’ve always liked this photo. I think it’s timeless image.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

– Ken