THE ONE WHERE MILES SHARES EMBARRASSING STUFF : episode38
If you're a photographer in 2022 you're likely living a bit of a double life. The one on social media where you're a refined playful sudo-influencer with a cool big brimmed hat and the cutest latte's and then the one where you've got stacks of past due bills and tax statements you don't quite understand along side memory cards you think are backed up on your desk at home. Sound familiar? Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating both ends a bit but you get the idea. In this day and age being an active photographer for some reasons makes us want to hide the mistakes that make us the most human and yet, if you'll listen to this story you might just hear about a mistake that I made recently and how it actually brought me closer to the people on the other end of my camera. Being a wedding photographer or portrait photographer doesn't have to mean we live perfect lives, nor does it mean that our goal for our work should be perfection. I'm Miles Witt Boyer, I'm just a normal dad and husband living in middle America. I get to go to a few really cool places with a few really awesome people and in the middle of all of that stuff, I also make mistakes, get tired, eat chips and queso instead of chicken and asparagus, and forget to call my friends back. So how about we do this thing : 23 minutes of me just being... me. Bored yet? That's ok too - maybe behind it all I'm a little boring. You'll have to listen to find out.
The Photographic Collective Podcast is a production of PHOTOCO Productions hosted by Miles Witt Boyer with production and audio by Jared Mark Fincher. Along side the Cutting on Action Podcast with Brandon Buccheri PHOTOCO is an online community for photographers and videographers from around the world who come together for positive, intentional community. The best part? It's FREE to join. Click here for more information on PHOTOCO or to see more of Miles' work.
TRANSCRIPT: THE ONE WHERE MILES SHARES EMBARRASSING STUFF: PCP38
00:00
Hey everybody! Miles Witt Boyer here. Yo guys! It's a solo episode today. But I want to first take time to just welcome you guys to the Photographic Collective Podcast. This is going to be sort of a different episode. It's just going to be me sort of sharing some thoughts, actually a story, if I'm honest about something that happened to me just yesterday, and a lesson that was learned... Something I feel like as an industry and really as business owners, entrepreneurs, just creatives in general, we don't talk enough about it.
00:38
So let me say this first and foremost, you guys, we all make mistakes, right? Like, we all have errors, just lapses, memory lapses, or brain farts, or whatever you want to call them. Like, we all have those moments where we forget something, or we line something up wrong, or we miss a meeting. And yet most of us build our brands around hiding those moments. And I want to just sort of challenge you as you listen to this, like, think through this story that happened to me yesterday and a few little anecdotes along the way. And I want you to relate to it and see how many times you've been in similar situations where you can just relate with me and what I what I did yesterday, the mistake that I made yesterday, because I'd be willing to bet that for most of us... Most of the people that listen to this podcast, we're a lot more flawed than we lead on, whether in our social media, or just our marketing, or our friendships or relationships, maybe even to our spouse, you know, I think we have a tendency to try and cover up the parts of ourselves that are imperfect. And often I think what ends up happening is then we're left just having reality checks when we look at ourselves in the mirror. And we feel like we're just constantly lying to everybody. And there's a mask on. And so I'm going to ask you guys, as you listen today.
02:02
First off, give me a little bit of grace, I haven't practiced this episode, I haven't written really any notes out, haven't even truly thought through everything that I want to say today. And so it may feel a little bit less polished, or a little bit less produced than a lot of our episodes. Truth be told it. That's a little bit on purpose. I want you guys to just sort of hear me for a chance to change maybe. But let me before I digress too much. Let me tell you about what happened a time in my career after 15 years of doing this full time where I made the most simple of mistakes. And then the resolution to it. And I think that's probably the important part here, right? As entrepreneurs, as business owners, often what our jobs really revolve around is how good we are at problem solving. You know, as photographers that's probably the like prime element of our job, right? How creative can you get in solving the problem? And so sometimes I think it's really important to point out that we create the problems.
03:10
So I'm going to paint the picture for you a little bit. Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful afternoon. It's hot here in Arkansas, it's definitely summer. And it's human.
03:21
There's some just sort of random pop up showers that sort of show up sometimes in the afternoon. Little quick rain showers that show up and yesterday I was really hoping because the top and the doors are off of my Jeep that one of those wouldn't show up as I put my camera gear. Just my Fujifilm GFX 100 and a couple of lenses and a bag in the front seat of my car and grabbed my oldest son and told him that it was time to head out for soccer practice and the plan was really simple. I was going to take him to soccer practice and hang out and watch for about 10 or 15 minutes and then drive up the road a couple of miles where I was meeting for the very first time this couple to do their engagement shoot.
04:05
I should probably explain really quickly that I'd never met this couple before, I hadn't planned on shooting their wedding and actually wasn't fully aware that they were engaged. They had just booked me for a couple session. And because of the time of the year and also because of our personal lives and our schedules, I was able to line it up to where we were going to meet at 7 o'clock and sunset was at 08:37 and I don't always shoot in the golden hour time zone or timeframe. Usually just family life stuff gets in the way of that and I tried to make it a really clear point to spend time with my with my kids and my wife in the evenings but yesterday afternoon I sort of made an exception for that and I decided to really chase down great light with this couple.
04:52
Okay, so I get my boys or... I get my son to soccer practice and everything is right on schedule. In fact at 06:55. I am already pulling in to the little grocery store where I told the couple to meet me. And where we were going to head out to our first location from there. And guys, I've got music on, it's a beautiful afternoon, the air conditioner is cranked up on the Jeep because like I said, the doors are off, and I'm just enjoying the chance to just have like a minute to myself. And I text the bride, my client really quickly and just say like, "Hey, I just pulled in. I mean, the Jeep you know, off to the right when you get here. No rush, just can't wait excited to meet you guys spend some time with you all. Hey, I hope you're not stressed. I hope you are ready to just be present and enjoy this. It's going to be great. And she writes back this sort of funny message that says something like, you know, oh my gosh, can you just smell the stress? Actually, it's been a little bit of a rough afternoon. I'm running a few minutes late, but I'll be there in 07 minutes. Okay, no big deal. So at about 7:07 she pulls in, and I realize something a little odd right off the bat. She's alone.
06:05
So, sunset is in exactly 90 minutes. And I've got one of my two clients there. And she pulls up and steps out and we hug and I say, "Yeah, it's so nice to meet you and can't wait to get to know you guys better. I'm so excited for the shoot. Hey, where is your fiancé?" And she said, "Well, we had sort of a snafu with wardrobe. He forgot his belt. And so I sent him back to get that he should be right behind me." Okay, no big deal. So it supposed to be about a 90 minute long shoot. And we're about 90 minutes until the sun sets right now. But I know that I can do a shoot like this in much less time if I need to. And honestly, this error was sort of their fault. So I'm just trying to handle it with as much grace as I can and understand that. You know what, maybe in this situation, what she really needs is just a calm voice that can say like, Hey, don't panic, it's okay, as long as he shows up, and he's confident and excited, it's going to be great.
07:05
Well, about 20 minutes later, he arrives.
And guys, it would have been great. He is a great dude with a huge smile and a big laugh. And she is immediately at ease and is excited to be there. They're kind of oddly flirty with each other, which is super cute. And we're about 5 minutes away from our first location. And I am in my head, of course, already doing the math that we have just over an hour before the sun is down. And I kind of need to rush this along a little bit. But I want to make sure that the tone of my voice and my body language doesn't put them on edge. And so really calm. I just sort of say hey, let's go ahead and head out. Let's get after this, it's going to be a great evening, and we'll chat when we get there. Okay? And as I step in the car, the groom is kind of talking to me from behind, and I reach over and for no particular reason, I just flipped the on switch on my camera on and looked down and the screen on the back of the camera lights up with the most odd.... Oh, with the worst thing possible. It says, "No memory card on my screen." And I have this immediate heart sinking moment.
08:30
Now you guys! I want to paint that picture for you. Because if you're just sort of laughing here, and realizing that this has been like a large build up for that. Think this through with me. How many times do we make stupid decisions just like a quick error, right? And even though we have our workflow down, right that we backup the car and so we backup to the other hard drive and we backup to the other hard drive and then we backup to the cloud or you know we shoot duplicate cards or whatever name it right we have so many workflows for cleaning our gear and loading our gear, and you know popping batteries in and charging correctly. But all it takes is just one little thing to derail you. And if you can't admit that, like if you can't agree with me to that maybe this is the wrong podcast for you not to tell you that you need to go away. But this is a podcast filled so far, 36 or 37 episodes and it's a podcast filled with real people having experienced real things in their careers. And some of those things have been extreme highs but some of the things have been really stupid lows.
09:34
Okay, so back to my story. I flipped down... I looked down. And I realized that I don't have a memory card and I immediately start digging through my glove box in the center console thinking maybe, maybe, maybe there's a spare memory card somewhere. And I already know the answer. I keep my car pretty clean, especially when the doors and top are off the Jeep because it's impossible to keep anything safe. And I'm looking through my bag thinking maybe my shoulder bag has an old card in it, and I can't find anything.
10:04
Now, like I said, we're at this little grocery store. So I pop in and just say really quick, "Hey guys! I got to run in and check something." And I go in, and ask the girl behind the counter if they have any SD cards. And she says she doesn't think so. But you know, maybe over there by the batteries, and one quick look at that shelf. And I know that they don't have what I need. And I come back out and now's the time where I have to apologize, I have to make the initial first admission of a mistake, right? And that sounds like this big dramatic moment. But here we are chasing down Sunset, we don't have a lot of grace period here. They've driven both of them about an hour and a half to get to the shoot. I don't have a lot of evenings or I can do this type of thing. Everything hinges on this being done tonight. It works best tonight. And here I am on the problem. Given I get it if you're thinking like I am you remembering that they were 35 minutes late. And imagine how much time we could have had to fix this problem had I figured it out sooner. However, their mistake doesn't justify mine.
11:12
And so I'm kind of chatting with the groom, and we're trying to make a quick decision. And he just happens to say the funniest sentence to me, you know, and I keep in mind, I'm kind of a city boy at heart. And though I live in the Ozarks, in Arkansas, I still live kind of right in the middle of this sort of bustling, cool metropolitan area. And so we're on the outskirts of all that. And he says, I think Dollar General has those cards.
11:40
Now, I try not to be overly bougie with my professional life. But you guys, the truth of the matter is I'm endorsed by the coolest camera company on Earth, I shoot the highest end digital cameras on the market.
11:57
I have all the cool gear, all the cool swag. I travel all over the place, I get to do some really cool things in my career. And I immediately am faced with the reality that I sure hope what's going to save the day is going to be if Dollar General sells an SD card. And so I get in the car and Google it turns out there's... I think at any given place in the continental United States, there's $1 General, less than 6 minutes away from you. And so I had $1 General about 06 minutes away, I couldn't believe it. And so I peel out I'm driving as fast as I can to get there. Thank goodness I didn't get pulled over that, would have been the icing on the cake. Right? And I run in, I've got my camera with me because again, I'm in the jeep and so I'm getting some odd looks as I like run and sweaty and clearly a little frazzled. And I asked the guy at the counter if they have any SD cards.
12:56
And again his answer just I die laughing. He says, "Aren't those memory cards that you put inside a game camera like for deer?" I said, "You know, to be honest with you. I'm not totally sure. I think so. Why don't you show me those and then I'll let you know." So he takes me over to this wall where there is a bunch of empty slots and there is one. Guys 132 Gig SD card. It's one of those SD minis like what goes inside a drone. Only it is a UHS1 card. Now if you don't know your memory card speeds, let's just put it like this. This thing is the slowest memory card in the history of technology. It's like putting gasoline inside a 1998 Toyota Corolla that's half watered down with water. We're going to have to push this thing down the road and I already know it. And so I'm googling... Right there in line I'm googling before I spend $15 on this memory card. Will it even work? Am I going to pop this thing in the camera? Is the camera just going to spit it back out and laugh at me? Or I don't know, is it going to start smoking or something like what is the worst thing that can happen by me putting this card inside this camera. And I'm able to find pretty quickly a Reddit forum that says, "Don't expect speeds like this is going to take a long time to shoot with this card but it actually will work."
14:31
Okay, fantastic! Problem solved. I buy the card. I pop it inside the camera while I'm still $1 General just because I want to make sure that it actually works before I text this couple and tell him I'm on my way back and I take a picture and about 4 seconds later, it shows up on the back of the screen. Because it actually takes that long I'm not kidding. And then I text a couple I'm on my way and I check the time.
14:53
Now if you'll remember I said that sunset is at 08:37 and, guys it is 08:04, and I'm flying back down to meet them. And I'm expecting to have a couple waiting for me that's like a little frazzled, maybe a little frustrated. And I step out of the car to grace, to absolute grace to two people who are in love with each other and excited for an opportunity to take pictures with me, and perfectly willing to immediately forgive and move on and make the best out of every minute that we have left. And so we got right at it, we sort of expedited a few things, they maybe didn't get the full experience that I would have loved to give them. Maybe not as much small talk, maybe slightly more moving into and out of poses than I would like. But you guys, we did it.
15:44
In about 35 minutes, we shot two outfits at about 4 or 5 different locations, with beautiful back light all the way into blue hour to where it was just moody. And the lake behind them was just glowing. As the water mirrored over, there was a slight breeze and her hair was blowing. And they were just happy. As they held hands and kind of walked up the rock line by the lake, I realized something. Actually, I'll put it this way, maybe I realized a couple of things.
16:20
Number one, this isn't a story about a mistake. This is a story about pulling it off. And I think the critical element here that we have to remember as professionals and as creatives is that, it's okay to ask for some grace. You know, the important thing that I did quickly, in hindsight, and I can't give myself a lot of credit here, because I just did it instinctually. But in hindsight, the thing that I did quickly, was to just simply admit the error as quickly as I could to just tell the couple, Hey, I've made a quick mistake. I don't know how I'm going to solve it yet. But I need to spend some energy into solving this problem. And then just working on how to get it, how to take care of it, right.
17:06
The hard part, often I think, for most of us is just in admitting the error. Just saying like, Hey, guys, I'm imperfect, telling our clients that we want them to have perfect moments taken by an imperfect photographer, and it's okay for us to admit to them. And actually, you know, what it does is, it humanizes our clients. I go as far as to say this, when you're willing to admit that you are imperfect, that you made a mistake or that you make mistakes to your clients, it actually adds value to your brand. Like let that sink for just a hot minute.
17:40
What if by being imperfect, what if just by being human, it actually makes you more valuable. And when you make mistakes, and then you solve those problems. It shows how flexible and how capable and how creative you are. I mean, think about that.
17:59
So, that's what this was, it was a story about pulling it off. And it reminds me briefly of another quick story from 2 weeks ago shooting a wedding where it started raining. And everything was unexpected. It was a rainstorm that shouldn't have been there. And it's just sort of popped up and flooded out. The quickly I use flooded as an exaggeration, but it really did it sort of drenched on the reception while we were at the Chapel. And the wedding planner was just a little frazzled. Everybody had to pull all the plates off, all the napkins off and basically start from scratch. Reset this beautiful centerpiece for a long farm table for about 75 guests. And it all had to be what it initially taken hours to set up. It all had to be reset up in about 15 minutes. And I got there and had this little pep talk with the wedding planner.
18:09
When I got there, I said, Hey, listen, I realize that this is not up to the standard you're used to working at. But this is why they hire us. Like this is why we are the answer to the problem. This is why we're sought after the reason why people pay a lot of money for us to do our job. Because when everything goes right, we make it look easy. But when things go wrong, we pull it off. And you guys, I just want to encourage you all as you listen to this, to think through those things to have some moments of grace for yourself to understand that we forget to reply to an email or a text when you drop the ball on depositing a check or calling somebody back. When you get behind on taxes or you realize that your gear is in bad shape.
19:44
When you simply forget a memory card and your camera after hundreds and hundreds of shoots where everything has always been perfect and then you make the error. It's not all the things that you've done right that define you. It's going to be a how you solve the problems when things go wrong.
20:04
And you know what ended up happening last night, as a sun dropped down, and the water got still and the breeze died. And everybody that was alongside that sleepy little lake disappeared. And we just stood and talked in the dark, and kind of got to know each other and laughed about how I can't even believe we pulled that off. And the sweet bride looks at me, and she goes, Hey, I was a little hesitant to ask this early on, I just wasn't sure how this whole thing was going to feel. I didn't know if we'd be able to afford you as our wedding photographer. And also just didn't know if we were looking to hire you yet as a wedding photographer. But we'd really love to have you at our wedding. And I sat back you guys I kind of sat back like holy cow. In the midst of this dumb error. That took a 90 minute photoshoot and forced me to do it in about 35 minutes. And by the way, made me look kind of stupid along the way.
21:06
I booked a great client, I actually pulled it off. And I didn't pull it off based on the fact that I like smoke and mirrors. I didn't pull it off based on gimmicks. I pull it off on humility and honesty and hard work. And I just want to encourage y'all with that. That's sort of the whole point of this episode. No advertisers on this one. No powerful speaker, no big questions or big interviews. Nothing to distract from the simple truth that sometimes we need to hear it. Our clients hire us, not for when everything goes right, but how we react when something goes wrong. And it's really time as an industry as individuals as brands to come alongside each other and empower humanity. Right? Just empower people to be humanized. And say, authenticity is okay, imperfection is okay. It's all right when you make a mistake, as long as you know how to fix it.
22:11
All right guys, get back out there and pull it off this week. I'm so grateful for your time. Quick little 25 minute episode all about me just being a normal person. I'm going to get back to editing this shoot that I just told you guys about. Now that I've pulled the photos off of this silly little memory card and I can promise you I will probably never shoot it again. But I'm going to keep it as just a memory of that one time that I pulled it off. Have a great day guys.
