alexdpx: The Interview Aftermath

There was an article written some time ago in a popular job-search website about career advancement. According to the article, there are two types of people who gets promoted or simply gets the job he wants. The first type are those who are ACTUALLY capable of doing the job. The second type are those who are REPUTEDLY capable of doing the job. I will not elaborate on that because this is not a career advancement course or something.

I do not consider myself as the best there is but I certainly believe that I am as capable of the doing a particular job just as well as the next Joe. There are definitely those who can do it better but that does not mean that I am any less qualified for the kind of job I pursue. So then - I believe that I belong to the second type. In other words, capable by reputation.

The FPC Blog interview published here last October 28 seem to have reinforced my reputation as a photographer. When it was published, I announced it to everyone I know - friend, relatives and our entire office of about 230 employees. All of them with access to the internet. While not everyone took the time to read the interview, there are those who did who must have thought that I have now become . . . are you ready for this? . . . some kind of a "celebrity photographer" (hihihi . . . yeah right . . . in my dreams, maybe).

Before the interview, most of the people around me simply believe that I'm a guy who takes nice pictures but none would be willing to pay a penny for my pictures. But now, just within the week after the my interview was published, some interesting things have happened and I now find myself busier than ever with photo shoot offers. Here are some of the offers I got so far:

1. Architectural Photoshoot. Our office's marketing department has asked me to photograph 3 of our recently completed projects. (This is not the same as the corporate photoshoot I did last July.) The resulting pictures will be used primarily for our 2007 calendar but will also be used for other publications such as brochures, capability statements and other marketing purposes. Other than my hourly rate and reimbursements, our marketing department offered to pay me extra. It's not much but hey - at least I'm getting paid for doing what I would otherwise be willing to do for free. Also, I have now become our offices official photographer. Hmmm . . . I wish they'd send me to our other offices worldwide to shoot our projects there - hehehe. (Wishful thinking.) I'll be writing a separate article about this experience in the weeks to come.

2. Basic Photography Lessons. A Christian Church, whose majority of members are Filipinos, requested me to do a series of basic photography lessons. This church has been conducting various tutorial lessons for its members for two reasons. The first is to help them learn something new that they can use for their jobs or business plans when they return to the Philippines for good. "Enrollees" are asked for "pledges", a minimal fee. And so the second purpose is to raise funds in order to purchase the equipments and supplies needed to run the church's operations. I agreed to this without discussing about payment although I do believe that they will arrange for some kind of a "love gift" at the end of the lessons. I will also be writing on this sometime in the future.

3. Family Photoshoot. A colleague, (not the same as the first family shoot I did in September.) asked me to do a photoshoot of her family, but the shoot will focus more on her darling daughter. We haven't finalized this but she said she'll be paying for the charges. This is potentially going to be another interesting experience so hopefully, another article for the blog will come out of this.

4. Inspiration. A young colleague from India sent me an email to say that my photos, and later on the interview, have inspired him to take on photography as a serious hobby. He has recently bought an Olympus E-500 DSLR with a kit lens plus a telephoto lens and has started taking pictures more creatively. We planned on going out some time for coffee just to talk about cameras and photography. [Sobs & smiles . . .] 'So flattering . . . I've got me an apprentice :)

5. Advise. And then there are the people who would call me to seek advise on what's a good digital camera to buy.

Two other colleagues have indicated their interests for a photoshoot but we haven't discussed any details yet.

It feels great to receive this kind of attention for something that I love doing. I have no idea where these things would lead to but I have you guys and FPC Blog to thank for having me featured in that interview.

Cheers,

alexdpx