I’m not one to brag on myself, but I do feel compelled to share this small accomplishment with my clients/family/friends.
There are many milestones in someone’s career, no matter what the career is. For my photography business, the first step was someone paying me actual money to take pictures of them or for them. After you’ve done that a few times, it’s a great feeling, but you likely realize it’s probably friends or someone you already know that maybe just wanted a photographer and you were cheap enough to try out. Regardless, it’s a great feeling as an artist to make money doing something you just love doing anyways!
After you’ve made your first paychecks at it, your next milestone is when a complete stranger finds you, likes your artwork and style and wants to hire you for a job. This is a big deal, because you aren’t relying on the fact that you already know each other and that if something gets messed up they’ll probably take it easy on you. Now you’re responsible for making a complete stranger happy and hoping that they are happy with what you can provide them when you’re done. So at this point it’s a real business, you’re charging people money and they’re expecting a service in return that will meet or exceed their expectations. It’s a stressful milestone, but a major one and an important one in how you develop your career from this point.
For me, from there it continued into the next levels of everything. So bigger weddings at high-end venues, and more unique photo shoots where timing and location are everything. And even just the simple fact that you can stop advertising because your clients spread your name enough on their own that you keep growing without any help. These are all important milestones that are very memorable to me along the way.
But one that came into our hands recently was unexpected and some, if not most artists, may never even get the opportunity to reach. I get asked all the time if my artwork is for sale, and of course it is! And I do sell some prints and framed prints throughout the year. But taking that to a whole other level, last Fall I was commissioned to provide a number of pieces of artwork to be used to decorate an office building in Houston, Texas. I was shocked, and excited all at once! I personally love my own work and have it covering every inch of our home, so I get to see it every day. But to get the opportunity to place it in a public building where an endless number of new people will get to enjoy it is a great feeling! So when Seaward Properties reached out last Fall looking for a collection of 13 photos to fill 3 spaces in their office building I was ecstatic.
Although very exciting news, it’s not as easy as you might think to come up with 13 gallery worthy images in your collection that would match up to 3 different themes, with the only real direction being that native to Texas would be nice, and if it’s recognizable to local Houstonians that would be nice too. So the hunt began, with about 300,000 usable images in my catalogs of photos, it’s hard to narrow it down to just 13, and try to make themes or matching styles out of them. But after a few months time, all of the pictures were chosen, printed, framed and hung. So now I have some of my favorite creations hanging in a building 300 miles away that others can view and hopefully enjoy as they pass through the lobby/hallways.
My next goal, get some of my work into other public spaces near or far! If there are any Colorado natives out there that have a need for some artwork, I’ve got a lot of great work I’ve done up in the mountains!!
Impressive – congrats!
Congratulations Ronnie! Beautiful work!