How photography makes me better at my office job

I’ve been doing paid photography jobs since I was 17, long before I started working in an office. Reflecting on this, realised photography has taught me some incredibly useful transferrable skills and knowledge – I thought I would share the two most impactful for me.

Balancing the big picture and small details

Perhaps the most impactful lesson for me has come from my experience photographing events, where I had to learn very quickly to be aware of what was happening at the event to ensure I covered the main parts – being aware of the big picture. I had to frequently switch to being aware of minute details that impacted the photographs I was taking.

With too much big picture thinking, I was getting photographs of the right happenings, but they lacked impact due to poor composure, focus or exposure, as my mind was not on the details. Focusing overly on the details meant I was capturing some exceptional images, but photos didn’t capture the experience of the event as much as they could.

As an auditor, details matter, but get too sucked into them and it’s easy to miss a larger, overarching point. For example, there may be a particular revenue contract a company has that appears unusual and warrants investigation, which can become very detailed work. If I haven’t first noticed that revenue for a particular income stream has increased 40% since last year in absence of any reasons we are aware of, I’m missing the big picture.

Insights into Human nature

I have worked a lot with amateur models and non-models over the years. Posing whilst having a massive camera thrust in your direction by a ‘professional’ can feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Getting the most out of the people I’m photographing requires breaking down that barrier of discomfort by fostering an environment where self-expression feels natural and vulnerability feels safe.

I’ve worked out the best way to do this is use subtle empathy and humour. This first requires active listening and careful observation of body language (to understand what the model is experiencing) and an awareness of the model’s personality type. I then build rapport and trust by doing and saying things to demonstrate this understanding, without crossing a barrier where the model would feel like they’re under a microscope. Thankfully a barrier I’ve never crossed!

This has proven immensely useful in job as an auditor, where I have to speak to people in the companies we’re auditing that don’t want to be audited and would very much prefer not to speak to me. Pretending I’m on a photoshoot with a model and doing what I would to in that situation was something that helped me get the best from them and diffuse what is often an awkward situation.