Images from shoot with TNA Professional Wrestler and country music singer, Mickie James, on the farm where she keeps her horses.

The most valuable service I can offer my clients is my personal vision.  I have a certain way of seeing the world so I focus on that, not on giving the client what I think the hot style is in the industry. I would always be a step behind if I was only chasing the transient industry fads.  Find your vision, trust your eye. When I am approached by a possible client, I like to show images I feel would fit within their brand to see if our ideas for the brand are somewhat consistent.  If we work together, rather than providing them with only the one or two images they asked for, I like to provide a photo library of images where each image can work with the others to show an overall consistency, a fluid vision.  Beyond filling their immediate image needs, this hopefully gets their minds racing with greater ideas of how they can incorporate the images in various other campaigns.

Long term working relationships are formed when your vision is adopted by the client and it becomes their vision too.

One of my clients that I have this relationship with is here in Virginia, Bon Secours Health System and their agency, Free Agents Marketing.  We began working together in 2009 and although the work is nothing too exotic or uber-exciting, they believe in my vision for their photography and have given me the freedom to place it directly into their branding.  Brand-Vision Utopia!  Long term working relationships are formed when your vision is adopted by the client and it becomes their vision too.  This makes it harder to use multiple photographers because consistency is lost, and keeps you in business. “The first time we met Casey, he talked about creating a library of images for us, which was something we, too, were hoping to achieve.  You can see how this image library he’s created helps us maintain consistency across the Bon Secours brand,” Suzanne Doran, Art Director at Free Agents Marketing. You can see some of the images from the Bon Secours photo library below.

I met Maggie Ingram on a cold December night for a portrait shoot. We shook hands and went through the normal motions of getting to know each other. I asked her to bring her daughters with her, not only because she regularly sings with them, but because I wanted her to be surrounded by loved ones in hopes that she would be more comfortable. I started setting up a single light and sat Maggie in a chair with a hymnal. I asked if she had a favorite song she could sing for me while I tested the lighting.  She looked at her daughters and started into a beautiful hymn. Slowly Maggie began to clutch her hymnal and her eyes closed, her voice rose and soon, she was lost. To her, nobody else was in the room, nobody could hear her except for her God.  It was a moment in my life I will never forget. At no point have I ever felt more surrounded by the Lord. I could feel him all around me. I couldn’t help but shed a tear and by the time she opened her eyes and sang the last note, I had it. Moments like this help me to forget about all earthly worries that weigh me down as a professional, a man, a husband, a father. Its a beautiful reminder of what life is all about: Living for God.

I used to keep my favorite verse on the front page of my website,  Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Faith seems to be something we don’t talk about in a professional setting.  Often, it is laughed upon and I say nothing to defend it. I am disappointed in myself for not keeping it there when I went through my rebranding, but my hopes are that I do a better job of keeping my faith on the forefront of my business in the new year.

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”

I often find that I get depressed when looking at other photographers amazing work or see what exciting projects they are working on.  In the past this has eaten away at me and made me think less and less of myself. For the past year, I have prayed nightly that I can put my personal, business ambitions aside, and place it entirely in the hands of the Lord.  I want to work for Him.  By recalibrating my standards of success, from appeasing the industry to finding value in my family, friends, and the love of photography, I have found a richness I never anticipated. I may not be as wise or gracious as Maggie, but I long to see my photography as my hymn and may it be glorifying to my Lord.