The following article is a guest post by Drexelle Park, a photographer with her high school sweetheart and other half, David Park, from Orange County, CA.   More of their work can be found at www.dparkphotography.com

There he was.   On stage with his arms full of giveaways, he stood with a smirk as he prepared to throw over 50 mouse-pads into the audience.   As people began standing up, jumping to grab one, he pelted these giveaways and even saved a special last one to rub against his chest as an extra bonus to the lucky winner.   The mouse-pad flew all the way to the back.   By then, he definitely had everyone’s attention.

Named one of the Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the world by American Photo Magazine, named Nikon’s Å“Legend Behind the Lens , and awarded as a PPA Photographic Craftsmen, Kevin Kubota is an icon in the wedding photography world.

After 20 years of being a professional photographer, Kevin Kubota confessed he would still wake up in the morning and ask himself, œWhy am I here?   What is this all about? 

In this special WPPI 2011 Platform Class, he spoke on his secrets to finding creativity: You Can’t Create in a Vaccuum Unless You Want to Suck

You can view more of Kevin Kubota’s work here.

One of Kevin’s greatest talents is his ability to engage and make others laugh.   This was one of the most fun classes to sit through as Kevin spoke on finding creativity.

So here’s the Path to Creativity according to Kevin Kubota:

• Find inspiration: Learn what inspires you everyday.   Find something in photography about which you’re passionate so that you can feel like you’re changing the world.
• Allow for self-allowance: Let yourself be OK with being special, with being an artist.
• We all need support: Acknowledge it.   Whether you’re starting out or have been in business 20 years, you need it.
• Learn how to ask for help: Be specific.   Don’t overwhelm people.   Ask what YOU can do to help.   Be persistent.   No answer is not a NO answer.
• Create accountability: One of the most powerful ways to reach a goal is to write it down.   What is even more powerful than that is to write it down and share it with somebody.   2x more likely to achieve that goal.
• Actively seek feedback: Ask people what they think and shut your mouth.   Don’t justify or defend. Take it all in.   This is the only way to get better.
• Understand the power of validation: Everybody needs it.   Accept it.   Love it.
• Counter-balance: Schedule time for yourself to get completely out of work and into another creative space.   Allow yourself to play.   Get exercise.   Take a class and feel okay about it.   It doesn’t mean you’re a slacker.
• Face your fear: Adrenaline creates the right combination of chemicals in your brain to perform the perfect bed for creativity.   If you’re feeling low on creativity, scare the S#^! out of yourself.

Kevin had to show an example of how this works.   He asked for two volunteers after this little speech. And he promised, Å“This won’t hurt ¦per se. 

Naturally, not many raised their hand.   The two volunteers that did came up nervously. As the two got on stage, he covered up their clothes with trash bags, gave them peanut butter, and a big gallon of milk.

He said to open the card in front of them that would share the instructions of what to do next.

As they opened the card, they jumped up and down for joy.   They both were awarded $1000 in prizes just for volunteering for this exercise.

Then, Kevin went into the topic of business.

1) Help people help you: The most powerful form of selling is recommendations. Give clients the tools to help you. Write down 5 things you can do to help clients/vendors sell you.   They’re 8-10x more effective than advertising.

2) Be a resource.   Share: You NEED to be an authority to your clients, not just a good photographer, but an authority on photography.

3) Be a little selfless with your gifts.   Give: On one survey, 90% said they would prefer to work with companies that are charitable.   Do it from your heart.

4) Use the element of surprise: Give handwritten notes, cards, gifts.   What can you do to surprise the heck out of your clients?

5) Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun.

6) People love stories.   Engage.

7) Outsource what you can. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, of course): There is no reason to do everything yourself.

8) 80% of success is showing up.   Be there: Are you meeting all the creative people that you can?   Are you putting yourself out there?   Put yourself in a place to be successful. You don’t have to be the best, but you DO have to be remembered.

9) Don’t fight change.   Profit from it.   Profit comes when you solve problems.

10) Work with people you like.

11) Create something quirky

12) Why solo create, when you can collaborate?: Work with another photographer or vendor!

Give back.   Serve.   Share.   Kevin shared great practical ways to do all that to make your business so much better, making those my favorite takeaways from his talk.

Collaboration has definitely been a key to helping grow our business.   Why do you think we teamed up with SLR Lounge in the first place?   This is a great place for any photographer to start in promoting and growing the skills of their business.

Article and Images by Drexelle Park of D. Park Photography

We’re David + Drexelle – high school sweethearts, complete opposites but God amazingly brought us together, 2 kids who were scared of marriage but now passionate about a lifetime committed to love, the good, the bad, the crazy, the lovely.

Our desire is to inspire a generation of people like ourselves who were jaded about love through incredible imagery that celebrates marriage: love – lifelong, lasting, and lovely.

We’re D. Park Photography.   Modern classic wedding photographers for the truly original, authentic and timeless love stories.