Welcome to 5 Questions for Creators! This is going to be a regular feature on the blog where I ask the same 5 questions to different types of creators to get their tips and ideas on the business part of being creative. The stuff that maybe we don’t want to talk about, but we need too.
This week we will look into the mind of Photographer Amy Short. Amy is the owner of Charlestown, RI-based Amy Kristin Photography, a full-service photography studio specializing in child and family portraiture. Amy enjoys surfing when she’s not taking photos and has two furry critters: Lionel the cat and Lemmy the dog.
You can find her at www.amykristin.com, facebook.com/AmyKristinPhotography or on Instagram at @amykristinphoto.
5 Questions for Creators: Amy Short
JL Metcalf: What is your number one tip to creators (new and old) on how to best market themselves in today’s world?
Amy Short: KNOW. YOUR. TARGET. MARKET. You have to know WHO your target client/dream client is or else you’re essentially throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping it sticks. This is something I’m super passionate about from the photograph side of things and always coach other photographers on.
JLM: Why is marketing yourself, aka the business of creating, so important for creators to learn and embrace?
AS: Because if you do not, nobody will know you exist. You can have a website or a book or even a storefront or whatever but if people don’t know it is there, that you exist, they cannot partake of your creations. Creating is not an “if you build it, they will come” thing. People won’t know you’re there if you don’t TELL them.
JLM: What do you like best about being a creator?
AS: The high of creating images that make me and other people happy and also the calmness that comes with it at the same time; it’s one of the only times my mind is still.
JLM: What do you like least about being a creator?
AS: People who don’t value my work (or any other type of creator). People who you have to explain your value too. Not your client…but still frustrating. And I do hate the whole administrative side of things a lot of the time but it comes with the territory, at least until I can get Lionel to be my personal assistant.
JLM: Who (or what type of art) inspires you most and why?
AS: Claude Monet for his colors across his whole lifetime, from the pastels of his early/middle work to the reds when he was losing his vision, as well as the impressionism that gave everything a blurred and surrealistic look. This has played so much into my choices of colors, backgrounds, and locations.
Many Dutch old masters painters like Rembrandt and Vermeer because their use of light is wonderful and amazing and inspirational especially in my studio work and the fact that they could PAINT that is mind blowing. I also have an appreciation for movies in general and pay attention to the lighting and colors and so much else because I know it’s hard enough to do from a photography standpoint; to do that with movies is amazing.
Thank you Amy for answering my questions and I hope to have MANY more of these 5 Questions for Creators in the upcoming weeks!
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