Many in today’s iGeneration have had a childhood of T-ball, soccer, and dance classes expect a trophy if they just participated. I assume most people know there is more to life than showing up on time – but you’d be surprised how often meeting minimum standards will put you ahead of the competition.
I just handed in the grades for a class I taught in photojournalism at Reinhardt College. Real-world projects are what I assigned to the students. They had three assignments: an environmental portrait, covering an event, and a photo story.
I ask the students to turn in their assignments as if submitting them to an editor. First, they needed a cover letter to tell me about their proposal. Next, they required a folder with their selects and another with all the images they shot. The selects needed to have a caption embedded in the IPTC fields. Most editors enjoy being able to send a photo to the designer who already has the caption in the picture.
Some students forgot the captions; some forgot the cover letter, and some were late handing them in. So, while most had everything done correctly, we still had somewhere the captions lacked the essential five Ws.
I continue to hear horror stories from clients about photographers who didn’t meet their minimum expectations. I even know photographers who did the work and never handed in an invoice! It is incredible how excitement will be received by ensuring all the elements are done for a project and turning them in on time (or early!).
One of my favorite creative directors is Tony Messano. He gives sage advice. I can understand why he was judging advertising work all over the world.
Tony expects a photographer to shoot the assignment the way Tony conceives it – but his favorite photographers not only give him what he wants; they go beyond his concept and shoot it their way. Often, they will shoot it just as he says and push the idea further with lighting composition or another element. They bring something extra to the table.
If you are meeting the expectations of your clients, you are doing better than most others in the industry. But, to rise to the top, go a little beyond the expectations.
Don’t be satisfied with the trophy everyone gets for just showing up. Instead, be the person singled out for going beyond the call of duty. Never stop looking for a unique approach or something different. The stretching will keep you youthful and agile in today’s ever-changing marketplace.