We were lucky to catch up with Dallas McNeal recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dallas , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
This is such a good question. The answer is not necessarily what someone would say, “Sign me up! I want to learn!” The process takes the hard days to build resilience. Having my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior helps me get through those hard days because those days will come and continue to ebb and flow into my life whether it’s personal or professional. It takes the hard days sometimes more than what you think you can bear, but it leads to an outcome that builds a foundation for the next time there’s a hard day. Building resilience takes time, courage, willing to sacrifice what you think is fair to do the right thing to accomplish something better than what you started with. As I heard one of my daughters say, “It takes all the days to get where we are today.” I think of those words often and that encourages me to keep going.
Thanks, so before we move on, could you tell our readers more about what you do and what you feel is most exciting or special about it?
Just as I get to share my story with words right now, I get to share other people’s stories with my camera. I love to sit down and meet new people and find out what they want to share with their close friends and family or to share with the whole world. But you’re probably thinking, don’t you take photos of people and that’s it? Not really, I enjoy getting to know a person beforehand even with a simple headshot. I like to know more about their business to know what style of headshot they need or if there should be more of a branding session for their website and social media. If I get to photograph a High School Senior, we get to have a pre-session get together at either a local coffee shop or over the phone. I ask simple questions to know what they have in mind for their future after high school or what special accomplishments they have achieved to incorporate it into their photo session. Finding out these things about an individual allows a connection that I believe is vital in photography to capture them in a genuine way.
To me what is more important than “getting” their story with photographs, but it is how you share their story with others. This is so important than just having a digital image, there’s something about holding something that is tangible or displaying who they are when they have family or guests come into their home. Their photographs are artwork that should be properly displayed. Once we have our session, I sit down with them to help choose what photographs captured them best and incorporate those images into an album, folio box, wall art or cards for them to share with others.
Once their products are ordered, the special moment to experience is the reveal of their beautiful photographs in their hands. To see the mom open the album of her loved ones and feel the emotions with her is so special and cherishing. Or the High School Senior hold their graduation cards knowing that they are one day closer to walking the stage is exciting to see their joy that they will share with their friends.
There’s so much more to photographing a client in my opinion than grabbing a camera, clicking a button and sending a virtual gallery. I know that there is a place for that (which I’ll cover in a moment), but when it comes to portraits for individuals and families there’s more that can be savored that clients will remember. They’re investing in me to create an investment that they will cherish for years to come.
However, there is a genre that I capture that isn’t as detailed with the whole reveal and creating tangible products with every session and that is Real Estate photography. There are some components that I ask clients before hand to know what area they want showcased best, but as they become a repeat client, we flow so well with what they want in a short amount of time and we move on quickly to the next location. One request that was made was regarding aerial photographs from a drone. That led to my husband acquiring his FAA Part 107 Certification to fly drones commercially. In fact he is working on a website (www.iflyadrone4u.com) for his new adventure as a drone pilot. This is definitely a new adventure that we are enjoying to do together and plan to incorporate drone footage with outdoor portrait sessions as well for fun.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
This is such an insightful question that I hope my answer will help others along the way in whatever they desire to accomplish. One of three qualities to have is know your “Why”. It is important know what that is (regardless if it’s personal or professional), especially when things are not going as planned, you have that foundation of your “Why”. For me, why I do what I do is to be able to help others see how amazing they are and they are a beautiful person through photography. Even with photographing a swimming pool, the builder gets to share their work for others to see and gain more clients and the homeowners get to share with their friends their awesome swimming pool. Those opportunities through a photograph help someone feel and enjoy a success, which is special and important. The second most important quality to have is know “Who” is in your corner. I am blessed to have a husband that is incredibly supportive and has personally sacrificed of himself to set me up for success. If you are not married, find that friend or family member that cheers you on when the struggle is real. Have that shoulder to cry on or have the hand raised for the victorious high-five. If there’s not one that you find yourself knowing, then find a coach to help you get to your “Why”. Having a business or working for someone else is comparable to being in sports (whether a team or individual sport) there is always a coach and others cheering you along the way. The third quality to have is “Discipline”. Discipline can be attributed in many different ways, but learning to say no to a big purchase that will not make the ship go faster, or as simple as the discipline to sit down and answer emails, discipline is key for success to achieve your “Why”.
My advice to those who are early on is to look at these 3 qualities and determine what changes need or should be made to make a clear way to stay focused and take those steps in that direction. Don’t be discouraged when mistakes are made, they will be (trust me), it’s what you do with those mistakes and how you redirect your focus. If I stayed stuck on one of my first mistakes early on, I would not have continued to pick up the camera and take those steps of faith to move forward where I am today. I am still on this journey learning through mistakes and searching the answers of how to overcome. The results are rewarding when you look back to see how far you have come and to know there is still more to learn on your journey.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Wow! My husband, Tim, has been so incredibly helpful in so many ways to help me overcome challenges, finding and executing essential skills and how to find the knowledge to be successful. He has been such a strong support from the beginning from saving some money to buy me a camera to setting up my website/computer networking needs. He has been so encouraging when I was in tears in the beginning trying to learn how to edit, how to get out of “Auto” function in the camera to hugging me and celebrating with me when one of my photographs was published. Tim has a gift of confidence and a security in his faith in Christ Jesus as his Lord and Savior that it weathers the storms that we go through professionally and personally. Now that he is a drone pilot we get to work together as a team that is so special to me. He will take the arial photographs and videos and we will edit together to create great videos for our client. Through this opportunity I now get to encourage him with some of the technical aspect with photographing with a drone and we have a respect for each other that will carry this new endeavor to the next level.
With all that said, for those individuals or companies that are needing both still photography and drone footage, we are a team to fulfill those needs. Let’s connect!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dallasmcnealphotography.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/dallasmcnealphotography
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/dallasmcnealphotography
