Cindy O'Brien McCrory

I attribute my success to two main things. First, I'm physically very strong with a lot of stamina. I'm just blessed with it - I'm physically kind of a large person, strong-shouldered, and I think I'm just built strong. Photography is so much more physical than I realized it would be once I turned professional. I'm on my feet for hours and hours. I had three weddings in a row one weekend and got super dehydrated - I had to go get an IV at the ER because I wasn't paying attention to myself. So I work out five out of seven days to stay strong, because if I can't be strong physically, I can't do my job. The second thing is I can talk to a wall, and I'm not afraid to talk to anybody. Other people who want the job but are just afraid to really approach the person - I'll just go talk to them and I'll get the job. I'm fearless, I guess, and that's really something that comes with age and going through a few fires and coming out the other end.

The best career advice I ever received is: don't wait for it to be perfect. Just put it out there, and then over time, you learn what was not quite right about it, and you fix it. Just go ahead and step out in it. Just go ahead and do it. A lot of that comes from age. I used to be so afraid to do anything artistic because you're gonna get judged by everybody. And then I think, so what? It doesn't matter. Somebody's gonna like it, and somebody isn't gonna like it. You've got your gripers that are going to say something, and you have people who really enjoy the picture but never say anything. So you have to put your headphones on and just go out and just do whatever it is, whatever job it is. I remember I had to do that after my divorce when I had been a stay-at-home mom for a long, long time. I had to go into sales, and I was just gulping every time before I went in anywhere. It was very hard for me - especially being a Southern woman, you don't go in and you're not aggressive, but you have to be. I finally just had to be that person. And nobody beat me up. Nothing happens. People really are not focused on you. You're not as big a deal as you think you are.

My advice to young women entering photography is: join PPA (Professional Photographers of America) and do continuing education as much as possible. Also join local marketing groups - go to anything. Go to the chamber after hours, go to their marketing meetings that are free. Social media is good, but I find that maybe 5% of people hire me off of social media. Almost all of my work comes from physical, local, one-on-one, face-to-face contacts from meetings and gatherings. I get jobs when I'm doing a job because I'll talk to some of the guests. I don't go up and ask for business, but I just engage them, and inevitably I'll end up being asked for a card by four or five people. Don't hole up. Get out there and do non-photography things. Basically, I'm saying networking is what you need to do - in person, not online.

I guess AI is the biggest challenge right now. I just saw an example where I did a photo shoot for two doctors who are in practice together - both very handsome cosmetic guys. I took their photograph, they picked the one they wanted for the ad, and I turned it over to my editor. Last month I picked up our competitor's magazine, Mobile Bay Monthly, and my ad was in there - I mean, my photograph had been used for an ad in that magazine, but they had used AI and had changed the clothes on the doctors. It was the exact picture - the eyes, the expressions, everything was absolutely the same photograph. They had just changed the clothes and blurred the background a bit. The doctor's office did it. Normally, the other magazine would have paid me for that photograph or would have asked for my permission at least. So theft of photographs is a big, big problem. But you could say this about a whole lot of different industries - there's just a whole lot of us out here calling ourselves professional photographers, and some really are just starting out. So the answer is being the most visible one, or being one of the top ones, and that gets into your search engine optimization and your website and having to learn so much besides photography to keep your business going.

The values most important to me are responding to everyone who contacts you - always respond and always thank them. If anybody ever gives me a gift, I always write them a thank-you note. I know that's ridiculous and old-fashioned, but people don't do that anymore. When I get something, I'm like, oh, they really took about five minutes here and thought about me and what I gave them and acknowledged it. So thank you notes are important - not a thank you email, although that's helpful to supplement, but a real handwritten thank you note on a beautiful card. When you do something for a client, completing it and giving them a little bit extra is important. Don't turn anything in three-quarters of the way done. If you run out of time, say so and ask for more time. As far as personal values, acknowledging everyone - really seeing them and finding them, really seeing them. As a result, I end up learning all about people. I think it's because I ask these really sincere questions. I'm sincere when I ask them, like 'I love your house, how did you get this house?' Acknowledging people as allowing them to be themselves, even if you maybe aren't the same. Don't diss people. Everybody's got something going on. Care for every person, even the person at the little store. I've learned a lot from people by asking questions about them, asking questions other than 'How you doing?'