We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful William Wood. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with William below.
William, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
Like most people in my industry, I started out taking photos for fun and just to explore. I would mainly shoot with my iPhone and I remember being asked to take product photos and showing up for a shoot with an iPhone and I’m sure I looked like an idiot. I think my first paid gig was $50 second shooting a wedding in someone’s backyard and I don’t even know if any of those photos were usable. Shortly after that I remember realizing I needed to buy a professional or semi-professional camera and I was broke so me and my best friend went halfsies on a Canon 7D and we would just split our time with it and shoot different projects. Over the years I’ve learned so much about quoting and invoicing and content rights so it’s fun to look back and think about the first year of shooting and feeling weird quoting someone $250 for photography.
William, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is William Wood. I grew up thinking I would be a professional musician and even went to college to study music until I realized that the odds of becoming a rockstar were slim and I would likely be teaching music after college. I switched my major to Finance only to realize that I hate sitting at a desk. I began to fantasize about what I wanted my life to look like as I was entering numbers into excel spreadsheets in a fluorescent-lit basement. I finally built up enough of a portfolio where I could transition from Finance to full-time photography and now I am a communications Director for a nonprofit and a photographer, videographer and I wear many other creative hats. The last several years I have been exploring more video than photo and have been the Director of Photography for several commercials and editorial pieces. My most recent Videography work has been for TopoChico, SkinCeuticals, AARP, Time and Lone Star Beer.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I always function on a drive to create things that I am proud of and that spark my creative interests. I have found that if I let that goal lead my actions all of the other things come with it. My goal is to put myself in situations where creative magic can happen and most of the time that is me just putting in the work and showing up and letting the moment or the components of a project work together and something new comes out every time.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I started on instagram in a different creative climate than what we are seeing now but I think the same principles apply then as they do now. I just became obsessed with taking photos of things that inspired me, moments, places and people. And I did it ALL THE TIME. Any new creative that is starting out should be getting so many reps in and if it feels taxing then it may not be the right application or career for that person. I never felt tired or burdened to go out and shoot even for free for maybe the first 2-3 years that I was capturing content. It was purely for fun so maybe that’s the most applicable piece of information for building relationships on a social media platform, if you are having fun and you’re passionate about what you do then it will come through to the people who want to connect with you. I also remember reaching out to people constantly to ask questions about composition, equipment, editing software, color grading etc… a big piece is removing any sense of entitlement in the space, even as you become more accomplished there will always be innovation and people who are exploring different areas of creativity that you can be inspired by and learn from.
Contact Info:
- Website: williamgeoffrey.com
- Instagram: @williamgeoffrey
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-wood-b7026b40/