November Newsletter - Yuri's Corner

Pursuing Perfection!

It is no secret that I am known as the photographer with the many checklists, and yes, this is true. At Peopleimages.com we go through many procedures to ensure that the images that are put online are of the highest quality. In being so pedantic, other industry professionals have labeled us as 'the ones with the checklists' and frankly, as the founder of Peopleimages.com, it is something I am proud of. As a company we are perfectionists and we take pride in perfection, even if it sometimes pushes the budget. Perfection is bliss and bliss is the reason why we shoot images in the first place!

I once shot in an art gallery. It was beautiful. It was on the top floor of a historical building with a stunning view, even the restrooms were nice! I immediately loved the space. The curator of the gallery, who is an artist himself, notified us that he would be working on a few of his pieces while we were shooting. When he arrived, he spent an hour simply organizing his tools, cleaning his workspace and then proceeded to simply observing and meditating on his piece before getting started. He was particular and perfectionistic in a way that I could relate to on a personal level.   

 Although highly unprofessional of me, throughout the shoot I found myself sneaking a peak at him in the reflection of the LCD monitor on my camera. I was fascinated and intrigued by how focused and involved the artist was in his craft and how our presence didn't distract or deter him at all - a rare sight to witness these days.

The reason why I am mentioning this story is because I want to share some advice with you: If you are going to spend money on something valuable, whether it's a car or an image for your latest design project, make sure it was made by someone who is passionate about their craft - this ensures that you will obtain a product of perfection. Personally, I like the valuable things that I buy to be made by slightly neurotic individuals who believe that anything less than perfection is a re-do. This is the reason I would buy a Mercedes or BMW, and also why I respected the artist so much - both show dedication and commitment to quality.

Perhaps our photographers (myself included) are a strange breed. One thing we all have in common is that the images we produce are taken seriously. The images are a product of various neurotic photographers that have developed a process of constantly finding creative ways to double-check each other. An image goes through at at least 4 quality checks before it is put online. If the quality is not perfect it is bounced back to be fixed. It might seem a bit over-the-top when you consider that we sell images for as little as 3USD per download, but this is what distinguishes us from our competitors and what makes our buyers extremely happy.