My team and I just wrapped a multi-day photo shoot for a jewelry company. The first day was product work, a lot of flat lays. The second day was lifestyle, with models. I think it went really well. The photos look incredible, the video is going to look great, and it was a fun gig.
What stuck with me came at the end. The makeup artist, someone we've worked with before but not often, and not for a long time, left the set and said, "Thank you for the experience. For reminding me why I do this."
I'm not sure there's a better compliment you can get on a shoot.
If it's not fun, it's not worth doing
That line points straight at how I think about projects. My rule, more or less, is that if it's not fun, it's not worth doing.
I know how that sounds, and I'll be honest about it. I'm lucky to be in a position where I can think this way. I haven't always been. Freelancing for years means there were stretches where the choice wasn't mine. If there was money to be had, I took it, because otherwise I wasn't going to survive. Anyone who has freelanced knows that math.
But I've also been the person who said "I'll put up with it" because I was in a jam and needed the money. I've done that more than once. And every time, without fail, I regretted it. Dealing with a bad client is a real drain on your mental well-being, and the money doesn't make up for it.
Now I have a little more control and a little more confidence in the business, and I try not to carry that toxic, grind-it-out business mentality into the work. Something shifted when I stopped carrying it. Better clients started coming my way. Better projects came with them.
A team that feels the same way
The part I didn't expect is what it does to the people on set. A team that feels the same way I do makes the shoot better in ways you can't schedule or budget for. Plenty of people in creative work are grinding it out for a living. A lot of what I do doesn't feel like work to me. I like doing it, and I think that matters more than I used to give it credit for.
You can see it in the work. That's what I believe, anyway, and it's something I try to stick to every time we shoot a project.
When I think about what the makeup artist said on her way out, that's the part I hold onto. It's not a rule I can follow perfectly, and I'd be lying if I said I never had to take the job I'd rather not. But it's a filter I'm using more and more, and the results have been hard to argue with.
If you've got your own version of this, a client you said no to, or one you wish you had, reply and tell me about it. I read all of them.