We were lucky to catch up with Erik Dillard recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Erik, appreciate you sitting with us today. Maybe we can start with a topic that we care deeply about because it’s something we’ve found really sets folks apart and can make all the difference in whether someone reaches their goals. Self discipline seems to have an outsized impact on how someone’s life plays out and so we’d love to hear about how you developed yours?
In my industry, any level of success and skill can be acquired no matter the age of the person. With this in mind, it became abundantly clear to me that it is completely up to me to put in the work to make any level of success happen. So it’s hard for me to ever get into the mindset that I’ve done enough or should wait to do something because there are no real bounds to what I can accomplish right now. This gave me the motivation and discipline mentally to never really stop pursuing this type of work because I see others out there who do accomplish a lot in this industry and they are very young as well. So right now I am thankfully getting my name out there more than ever and putting better work out there more than ever, which seems to be working out pretty well.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a photographer based primarily out of San Antonio, Texas, who has specialized in automotive photography around for the past 5 years. I have a passion for cars that push the limits of what’s possible in their own way and I love capturing that in my work. I have worked with a lot of clients over the past years and some have been with my favorite people/brands I never thought I would get the chance to in the first place. I have also started pursuing portrait photography in these past few months and have very much enjoyed capturing the unique personalities of each and every one of my subjects. I am always looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow as a photographer, this new jump in genre has definitely given me the ability to do so. Over these past five or so years, I have become more confident in my skills as a photographer which allow me to create my own style of work. I am committed to providing my clients with the highest quality in every aspect of my services and believe that each one matters just as much as the others.
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?
I think that the most important area of knowledge that photographers or other creatives usually don’t spend as much time learning as they should is the business side of their work. It’s almost never the fun part learning how to run different types of small business activities such as accounting and learning to sell your services to whoever your client may be but it will be what allows you to at the end of the day be able to even do your passion and call it work. One thing I have noticed in photography is that it’s not always who takes the best pictures that gets the job but it’s the photographer who has the best business skills who can sell their work and allow easy transactions between both them and their client.
One skill that I think you need to be able to also have is the ability to have thick skin when it comes to criticism about either you or your work. My photographers see their work as the best they’ve ever seen because usually, they don’t stop working on one until they believe that it’s amazing, of course, these are by your standards alone. You will have to come to the grips that especially at the beginning of your time doing photography, other people will be much more ahead of you in the learning curve and plenty of them will give you constructive criticism and non-constructive criticism. It usually won’t be your choice to determine which they will give you but I think the ability to take both did help me accelerate more than my own criticism because while I didn’t always use what they said, the parts that I did end up using became major improvements in my work that led me to the quality I’m able to produce today. So while some people do mean to put you down when they criticize your work, it’s up to you whether or not you let it affect you to a point that makes you quit or be discouraged from pursuing your passion.
The last thing I think is very important for someone who is starting out or still early in their time being creative is developing the ability to not care about other work people are doing. While you still can be inspired by what other creatives are doing, you don’t want to be comparing your work all the time because most of the time you’re going to be comparing the work of someone who has been doing it professionally for years at this point, while you have only been working at this for a few months. So choose who you compare your work to very carefully, for myself I tried to stay away from this until I had a lot of confidence in the quality of work I was producing. One of the first pictures I took was at the local Ferrari dealership here in San Antonio back in 2015. I will include the picture in this article because I liked it at the time and as I look at it right now, it’s one of the worst pictures I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ll make sure to also include one of the pictures I recently did with Ferrari of San Antonio to show you just how much progress I’ve made over the years when it comes to constructing a picture in general. If I was constantly comparing my work to others during that time, I might have just quit right then and there because theirs was amazing compared to mine but thankfully I didn’t. I have to also give a shout-out to people out there who take chances on kids like me that were super early in their time as a creative and still give them opportunities to see these types of things and give them respect that at the time most other kids weren’t given. This was especially the case over at Ferrari of San Antonio with such staff members as Robert Cardona and Blake Riesz. They’re part of an amazing team over there and have developed an amazing supercar-based passion that emulates throughout the creative and Automotive community of San Antonio. Being given the opportunity to take some pictures of a Ferrari, which will always be my favorite brand of all time, as a young teenager just starting out will always be a blessing I will count and hope that others around me get similar experiences to inspire them.
How would you describe your ideal client?
For me, it’s important to have clients who trust my skills and are willing to work with me to create something truly special that will make them stand out from the rest. Whenever I find a client like that, it’s a great feeling because so much more creativity usually shows in the final product when that happens. I love being able to work with many clients who are looking for a photographer who can bring their vision to life while also adding their own unique style. These clients of course are ideal but I have successfully worked with a wide range of clients who deal with this type of work in their own ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: Erikdillardmedia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Erik.Pics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErikDillardPhotography
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikdillard/
Image Credits
Pic of me – Blake Riesz @sz.media Black wings model – Julia Martinez @Venxsinfluer Arcade Model – Madison Starr @Iammaddiewhoa White outfit Model – Veronica Alvarado @alvacaado
