Everyone Thinks I Just Pick Up a Camera
What Really Happens Before a Company Hands Me a Bag of Money There’s a persistent myth about professional photographers—especially in commercial work. It goes something like this: I show up. I take a few pictures. I smile politely. The company hands me a bag of money. I leave. And look… I get it. From the outside, that’s exactly what it looks like. You see the shoot day. You see the final images. You see the invoice. What you don’t see is everything that happens before the shutter ever clicks—or why those images actually work for a business. So let’s pull the curtain back. Because yes, in the end, they do give me a bag of money—but only after a whole lot of thinking, planning, refining, testing, problem-solving, and decision-making happens first. This is what really goes into a commercial photography campaign. The Part Everyone Sees (About 5%) Most people encounter professional photography at the most visible point of the process: the shoot. They see lights. The...
