The Importance of Impartial Input to your Business.

We all know how it goes…you’ve created something. Whether it’s an image, a piece of art, a campaign or even a recipe it’s something you spent your time and energy creating. The creation of anything, whether creative or not is an emotional event. It’s exciting, exhilarating and wonderful. You have experienced a range of emotions surrounding this amazing thing you’ve created. The downside is you’ve experienced this range of emotions and now you are emotionally connected to this creation. So when it comes time to decide how to edit it, share it, ditch it, promote it or sell it you can’t separate yourself from the emotions you now feel for it. And the emotions aren’t always good ones. Let’s face it not all projects go as smoothly as you want them to. Some projects take more out of you than you anticipated. Some projects weren’t as exciting as others.

Does that make the work any less impactful? Not to the end viewer, but sometimes you have trouble seeing past the emotion and experience of the creation to be impartial. It’s these times when you need to engage and rely on the input of someone you trust to be impartial and help you select the best of your work to represent your talents and skills.

We trust our portfolio to the talents of Amanda Sosa Stone. She takes a years worth of images and culls them down to the few we need to showcase on our website and in our printed portfolio. She has the amazing knack of looking at an image for what it is, not how it was created, what the experience was like shooting it or GASP how much money we made or didn’t make creating it. We benefit in more ways than we can count by having someone like Amanda as part of our team.

Check out her work on our latest website update.

Credits:
Amanda Sosa Stone

Here’s the rub….Part 2

Part two of our mailer campaign recently went out and again, thanks for the ongoing feedback. On this one we opted for a postcard mailer so we could show off the artwork a little larger. This time we opted to use the rub as a hair tonic with my good friend (and fellow photographer) Phil Peterson stepping in to model for us. Also, that’s Kate’s hands are doing the rubbing. On the food - Trina prepped a beautiful tied pork roast and this was one of those occasions where we got to eat the props - we finished shooting this one just before lunch and without any obscure adulteration to the food Trina finished it off and we just sat down to reflect on a great shoot. Thanks to Sarah Thompson Lift who styled the head rub shot and made sure Phil left with his eyesight in tact - safety first. 

Part three is coming up next. I hope you are enjoying the images.

Credits:
Food Stylist - Trina Kahl
Stylist - Sarah Thompson Lift
Assistant - Adam Caselman

Here’s the rub…

So it’s been a while since we last did a physical mailer, so we knew we had to come up with something that would stand out, amuse people and show off some really nice images. We were coming into Spring and Valentines Day was just around the corner, so we figured we’d make it a gift, with a twist. Kate, our resident genius, came up with the double entendre of a meat rub - so we could show some portraiture and some food imagery with a twist - in this case we went for “Give your meat a little rub…THIS MEAT” as the copy and went with a good old fashioned Kansas City strip for the meat. Thanks as always to Trina Kahl and Sarah Thompson for their fabulous styling skills as well as Chris Galloway our perfect “find” from Kate’s morning workout at the gym. We heard some great feedback on the mailer and apparently there was a lot of use of the included BBQ rub. This is part one of a three part series - so get ready to see some more wonderful imagery soon.

Credits:
Food Stylist - Trina Kahl
Stylist - Sarah Thompson Lift
Assistant - Adam Caselman

I Got Mad Skills. Now What Do I Do With Them?

Having made it past my 90 day probationary period with Alistair I thought I would lay out where I have come from and where the experience I have brought with me will hopefully take me.

My career has been spent working in marketing & communications roles in a variety of industries. I’ve worked in restaurants, publishing, radio, construction, and motherhood just to name a few. I have found that each industry and each job has taught me something valuable that I can take with me to my next vocational destination. Here’s the main skill from each industry and how I can apply it today at Alistair Tutton Photography.


Industry: Restaurants

Position: Waitress

Skills Learned & How They Apply Today:

Humility - I am not above any job that needs to get done. Whether it’s making cold calls, scheduling travel, producing invoices, building decks or handling pet-related issues. I don’t mind pitching in to see that it all gets done and gets done well.

Diplomatic Customer Service - I can smile and try and see a difficult situation from the other person’s perspective and work a solution from that vantage point.

Industry: Publishing

Positions: Marketing Director & Some Sort of New Age Social Media Title

Skills Learned & How They Apply Today:

Pick Your Battles - Don’t waste valuable debating energy and time on an idea or a point that isn’t worth the time you are putting into it, instead save that time and energy for the big battles that need it.

New Doesn’t Mean Necessary - Just because everyone is doing it and the media tells you that something is “hot” doesn’t mean it’s right for you, your business or your goals. Do what works even if it’s not the cool new thing, if it’s successful that alone makes it cool.

Industry: Radio

Position: Promotions Director

Skills Learned & How They Apply Today:

Flexibility - Changes are inevitable and last minute ones are inescapable. Learning to think on the fly and not be afraid to reach out and ask someone for their help allows you to land on your feet no matter how many times you flip in the air.

Courage - Ask for something -whether it’s a sale, a donation, a giveaway, whatever - the worst someone will do is say no, and 9 times out of 10 they will even do that nicely and apologize to you that they can’t help.

Industry: Construction

Position: General Manager & Marketing Director

Skills Learned & How They Apply Today:

This is Business & You Get What You Pay For - It’s ok to let a job go. If it’s not right and the amount someone is willing to pay is only going to hurt the end result leaving neither you nor the client happy, it’s ok to walk away. Business is business and if it were charity we’d call it that. If you don’t set parameters or limits no one knows your expectations so no one will ever meet them - leaving everyone disappointed.

Industry: Motherhood

Position: The list is too long for this space

Skills Learned & How They Apply Today:

They are numerous but the most important one, juggling - Through motherhood I have learned to do numerous things at once. Listening all the while to make sure I get the information I need to deliver on what’s expected. I also learned I have to write stuff down…because having children kills more brain cells than drugs.

These are just a few of the skills I have learned over the years that I plan to use to help me be successful here.