New Facebook Timeline Covers
Working on some new promotional Timeline covers for my Facebook.
Testimonials are always an effective tool in promotion, but when paired with images of the actual clients (as opposed to simply words on a page alone), the effect is magnified — especially if you share any of the same friends or the people featured in the photos forward a link to the image produced so it goes on their walls for everyone they know to see.
My goal here was to show that I’m THE photographer for people to want to hire. Also, that they don’t have to be professional models to sit in front of my lens. Did I succeed?
I wouldn’t be shocked if you see a lot of photographers start doing this… 🙂
I can help your company do something similar, using your customers’ words and photos to illustrate concepts. Let me know if you’d like some assistance with your social media or graphics needs.
The dream is still alive
Garden Couture Fashion Shoot in Atlanta, Georgia. © Steven Stiefel Creative Images. All Rights Reserved.
The dream is still alive: The dream of being a full-time photographer working with a team of highly skilled stylists to create beautiful and inspiring images for newspapers and magazines, advertising billboards, on TV and the Internet.
In other words, shooting content worthy of highly-popular magazines such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition or the Holy Grail of glamour photography, Playboy magazine.
Inspiration is easy to come by. I wake up in the morning craving assignments that challenge me like puzzles to bring all of the pieces together into a coherent vision. I simply love photography, especially when it comes to capturing the likeness of people expressing moods, shapes and lines. The prospect of capturing something extraordinary is what energizes me.
Being a fashion photographer is a dream of a highly collaborative nature, full of professional relationships, some of which have developed into friendships I will treasure for the rest of my days. Photography brought me out of my shell and gave my life a purpose.
It’s never been as simple or as crass as wanting to be around beautiful women, although that is unquestionably a perk I enjoy. Who doesn’t want to spend their day looking at the walking equivalent of an office with a great view of a beautiful skyline? But I don’t pursue this dream out of some ulterior motive to date models, as I suspect many guys who pick up a camera and start barking orders do. I simply find beauty and style to be noble, inspiring things. Perhaps spiritual things.
You can choose to believe me or not. Your cynicism doesn’t concern me. Some people will never grasp what I am about to describe in the paragraphs below. I know in my own heart what drives me onward and upward to take my work to the next level. I crave far more than to simply place someone in front of my studio lights and push a button to record an accurate and flattering rendition of their likeness. That’s why owning my own small-town portrait studio was a great experience but left me feeling lacking. I thrive on taking it a step beyond to something more sophisticated, starting with ideas and concepts built around personalities, places and props.
I’m inspired by the likes of Ellen von Unwerth, Antoine Verglas, Mario Testino, Richard Avedon, Patrick Demarchlier, Marco Glaviano, Sante D’Orazio, Mark Daughn, Arny Freytag, Jarmo Pohjaniemi, David Rams, Bruce Smith, Ian Scott, Laurens Antoine, Jerry Avenaim, Robert Voltaire, Richard Reinsdorf, Brie Childers, Dixie Dixon, and other great talents in the business of photographing style and beauty.
Our collective work, at the most satisfying level, is about fantasy. We create visual representations of moments and moods, transforming ordinary people into the tangible embodiments of hipness, happiness and luxury.
My images evoke desire that’s expressed in action, inspiring the viewer to achieve these states of being that we all crave — to be admired, to be loved, to experience the best possible versions of ourselves — by going into a store and investing in the same pretty/sexy/cute shirt, jeans, dress, T-shirt, etc. that the model was seen wearing. People emulate models they see in magazine ads and storefront displays the same as they copy the style of celebrities they obsess over in movies or that pretty girl or cool guy at their school.
I find it fascinating to peel back the layers and peek beneath and behind the fantasy I’m orchestrating. Just as my dream is to be the guy behind the camera creating something of beauty and significance, what I really create is a longing in the viewer’s mind — that spark of desire to fires the engine of commerce.
The greatest satisfaction comes from eliciting an emotional reaction from someone looking at one of my images — a smile, a laugh, a gasp of envy to be that person in that moment pictured. Anyone who’s ever picked up a camera and discovered they love photography knows exactly what I am talking about.
I have the greatest respect for my colleagues, the stylists and make-up/hair artists, who set the stage for us to transform ordinary people into the tangible embodiments of a better lifestyle.
Photographing models is a profession both satisfying as Hell and competitive as Hell. At times, I’ve seemed poorly situated to ever achieve that dream, born to a working class family in a tiny rural town in Alabama. I was so far removed from the fashion world that it took me years just to get a firm sense in my own mind of what this thing was that I wanted to be doing. The lines often blur, requiring a periodic clarification. Not everyone understands what I am trying to do.
Full realization of my dream has always been at least a couple of hours away in a larger city and captured at the end of expensive lenses I couldn’t afford to buy on my own, all while competing against people who had wealthy parents or the fortune of being born in places where editorial photo markets already existed.
The pool of photographers competing for paid assignments in a smaller market has left us feeling like a bunch of fish gasping in shallow waters, and it doesn’t help that newbies are constantly jumping into the marketplace practically giving their work away. Perhaps my greatest disadvantage has been a lack of enough sufficiently stunning models within 50 miles of my zip code with whom to collaborate.
Not ideal conditions to prosper, but I’ve had weapons of my own: a good eye, hard work, determination, intuition, creativity, a car with which to travel, a handful of excellent models willing to collaborate regularly, and a talent for expressing myself. Simply being reliable, behaving professionally and being able to produce on deadline and under budget puts me in a decent position to compete.
The Internet has put my work in front of models, art directors, editors, and clients. It has been a great tool for leveling the playing field, giving me a chance to compete in a way that would have been impossible 20 years ago unless I said goodbye to my family and moved into the heart of some urban photo district, which I nearly did.
I’ve often wondered how my life would be different today if I had ignored the concerns of my ultra-conservative parents or my own practical doubts about the feasibility of relocating. I’ve always taken calculated career risks designed to keep me moving ahead at a modest pace.
My greatest leap came when I made the scary choice of giving up a secure corporate job in a small town to go work for a small start-up from California that fortunately grew into a globally recognized brand enjoyed by millions of readers — the third most popular men’s online publication in the world at the time. As the editor-in-chief and art director for Savvy.com, I coordinated photo shoots and gained camera time of my own with some of the most beautiful women on the planet, international models like Asdis Ran of Iceland and Candace Rae of Winnipeg.
That was a stepping stone to work for a men’s television network, and now I am trying to utilize those connections I’ve made to pursue the next step. Onward and upward!
I’ve had many brushes with greatness when I met, interviewed and sometimes even hired or collaborated alongside photographers I greatly admire, people like Ian Scott, Brie Childers, Bruce Smith, Mark Daughn, Barry Smith, Eddie Baute, J. Stephen Hicks, Don Bersano, Johnny Crosslin, Rich Cutrone, Timothy Dolph, Norm Edwards, Andy Lesauvage, Dan Stankey, Rich Markese, and Serge Yurovsky.
A watered-down version of my life’s pursuit is easily enough attained, but while I’ve greatly enjoyed using a camera to earn something resembling a living, I’ve never lost sight of the dream of becoming a fashion photographer. I’ve pursued my goal with bursts of relentless determination. I’ve experienced moments while standing on photo sets in Atlanta or Los Angeles when I paused and took it all in to relish the satisfaction of arriving at that place I imagined in my head. And like everyone, I’ve also known how desperate it feels to sense your dream is collapsing, is too far of a journey, too divergent from who you are or life’s circumstances. I imagine every photographer who gives a damn about personal excellence is plagued by moments of self-doubt and discouragement.
I’ve dipped my toes in the water more times than I can remember. I want to dive in with every last ounce of my heart and soul.
So yes, the dream is still alive. And like a captain setting a course to sail, I am narrowing my goals. I’m determined to achieve my desire, even if I must fight like Hell to get there. I can’t think of anything sadder than going through life without a dream in one’s heart to charge the soul and illuminate the way.
When I’m a very old man sitting on a porch and looking back on my life, I want to have a head full of memories, an address book full of friends and the best possible portfolio of work that I was able to produce. I want to be able to smile with no regrets.
My Sweet Oasis 
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