Work closely with brand managers and product development people. Make friends. You’ll see that if you listen to them you get a lot of special insight and perhaps some of those things play a part in the creation of the project you’re working on. It’s not always that I worked in my favorite color, sometimes it’s the right color for the project. Remember that you’re creating a brand not for yourself but for the product and company. Let the product speak to you, it will tell you what it needs to come alive and for people to resonate with it.

When shooting and preparing product for a photo shoot, I always tried to lace the shoes the same way every time. I tested a few things and found what worked best for showing off the show and the laces to look their best for the shot. Sometimes spending hours in photoshop or having the retouching people do it isn’t time or cost effective so the least amount of work that goes into fixing a shot the better. Prep product like if photoshop didn’t exist.

Don’t ever think there isn’t a solution. It’s literally why you’re hired, to solve problems. If you work through it, you’ll get to the right answer. Also know when to cut your losses, if something isn’t working right change direction. If you don’t have the perfect photo like I didn’t for the tennis ad of the Bryan Brothers, then construct it out of what you do have. I knew I had a few images of them that had 1 good thing about them, so I composited the ad with 5 different shots. Arms from one photo a leg from another and created the ideal chest bump the boys were known for. I wasn’t on the shoot so what the marketing team brought me back is all I had to work with. So always go forward with a positive attitude and know you have the ability to solve anything if you look at from the right direction.

Problems are opportunities.

Remember that there are no problems, only opportunities. See things this way and you’ll start to identify how to help instead of bringing negative attitude that brings others down and just has people seeing you as someone who can’t bring a good vibe.

Solve the clients biggest problem and you’ll work the rest of your life.