The other day I posted a question on Facebook group for food and beverage photographers. I asked what companies other photographers are using for printing marketing materials, post cards and brochures and the like. Within a couple of minutes I got some great answers which got me looking at a few great companies. But sure enough, one person decided not to answer the question at all, but provide me with an unsolicited opinion that sending marketing materials now was dumb, as he believed no one was working in an office and the ROI on the marketing materials would be quite low. Whenever I come across someone providing their “opinions”, I look at their social media profiles, to see what they do and what they create. 99 times out of 100, there is nothing to see. They don’t have anything that they have shared. No work to be found. Nothing to see that they have created. It seems to me that more often than not, the only thing they produce are those opinions. As someone who consistently searches out informed critiques of my work, I always look for creative people whose work I admire to get their input on my work. When I get input from people with no visible work, I give their options, either good or bad, very little weight. My point for all this is, ignore the trolls. Ignore those that don’t seem to create but want to do everything they can to knock the creators down. I guess it makes them feel better. Take input from people who know what it means to do the work and make good work. Ignore those that are doing nothing but trolling around social media ready to knock someone down.
Lean in to it
I’ve been making a real push to push the limits of my beverage photography lately. I’ve always had the approach that I can always do better. My goal is not just to make photographs of beverages, but to elevate my beverage photographs so they are viewed as art. I’m not sure I will ever reach that point in my own mind, but I do enjoy the process of working toward that.