We were lucky to catch up with Wick Beavers recently and have shared our conversation below.
Wick, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
My Youth offered many easy street luxuries. But I had eyes. I rebelled and hopped freight trains, played a mean Kay electric guitar and began the first photography class my school offered.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Nowhere has any working published portrait photographer worked harder. I began as a product photographer in a studio where even if I had 30 minutes free, I’d pull out a bottle of random product, light it, swap lenses and tubes and shoot it in a vast multiplicity of angles and light intensities. TMany buy gear that is far too cheap- the “lighting tents” you see for less than $60 are garbage and of course, you will never get anything but a generic garbage unemotional picture. Which is fine for eBay posters, but your aspirations should never be to be a good eBay photographer- you are hunting to pick off every luxury brand product photographer out there. Master the art of small luxury product and you are very close to becoming a Master of Lighting a human being, but I digress… The Secret is:
EMOTION EMOTION EMOTION
Screaming in fear or especially anger is the easiest emotion to convey. Emoting love, peace, unity are the harder. And if you know (which you should) that marketers always connect with wider sales using emotional attributes in their subjects of love, peace, harmony and unity, then this emotions are often the best- and frequently the most difficult- to convey.
So, it’s TECHNIQUE, which has never been easier than today, then EMOTION.
Go by these understandings and I recommend you never choose to be a professional photographer today.
Why?
It’s all AI and Social Networking. Be a Programmer.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Technique to evoke emotion. Know your gear so well so it disappears.
Emotion- bring that to every photograph.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
Collaborators are always the First and Most critical element of any photograph. Build a base through the various available sites where models, hair and make up folks, digital artists hang and you are well on your way to pulling off a great photograph nearly the instant it materializes. NOT having resources of Collaborators will only cause so many great instantaneous ideas/concepts to vaporize out the bottom of your cerebellum.
COLLABORATE Picasso did. Modigliani did. Crewdson does. Caravaggio did. Michelangelo did. Van Gogh did.
DIG DEEP into your art history resources, too!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wickbeavers.com
- Instagram: WickBeavers
- SoundCloud: Wick Beavers
Image Credits
With gratitude towards helping make a great portrait, Wick
