Not so long ago I blogged about the concept of finding my 1000 fans (as read and loosely translated from Dane Sander’s book “Fast Track Photographer”). The concept (as I’ve adopted it) is this – somewhere in the world I (and every other entrepreneur perhaps) have fans that I either know or have yet to discover. These are people who completely love and support what I do. These are friends and family, yes, but also friends of friends, or family of friends, all with whom my work resonates. And these fans follow my work…they comment, are interested, are supportive, and sometimes even go that extra mile to say – “you know what? I love your work so much that I want you to photograph me”. Sometimes they fly me to where they are (like last May when my friend Kelli flew me to Ojai, CA to photograph her daughter), sometimes I travel back to a place I’ve lived and they book me and then their friends book me the next time I visit, and sometimes I meet them at some agreed upon location, both of us going the distance to connect. However we find each other, the result is always the same – a stranger who becomes a fan who becomes a friend. I am not afraid to say that I am not the right photographer for everyone – we can never be everything to every one. Instead I strive to be authentic to who I am, what I love, and do so with creativity, enthusiasm and just a slightly off center approach. And when that speaks to people -when I can speak my language to others and know they understand – I know I’ve met one of my 1000 fans. And life is good. And someday, when I know all my 1000 fans, and they continue to follow me and use and refer my services, I will have accomplished so much.
Sara is perhaps one of those 1000 – she found me through a friend of mine, but that person was someone she didn’t really know. And she began following my blog. And then she decided to contact me about helping her set up her blog. So for several weeks we worked together to get her started (if you’re interested, visit www.saramerrick.com). In the course of conversations (3000 miles and 3 hours apart) she mentioned she would be flying from CA to visit her daughter in Savannah this month. And she also mentioned that she would love to have me spend some time photographing them, but also photographing the city that is the setting for her novel Miss Eugenia’s Ghost Tours of Savannah. Of course I agreed! And so this weekend I met a stranger who became a friend, and had a wonderful time. And, oh right, also managed to get some amazing photos of them (see below) and the city (see my Journey Blog).
