The summer before I started college, I published a photo book. The 137-page creation illustrates Westport, my hometown, through the camera lens of some of Westport’s own residents. Nine months of my life were dedicated to laying out the photographs in Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud, editing and fine-tuning the textual descriptions, and coordinating with the photographs and my co-author to finalize the project. While I’m extremely grateful for the technical skills I picked up through the process, the communication and problem-solving experience I received is invaluable.
One of my very first tasks was emailing photographers to get their permission to print their photographs in the book. I learned to craft formal but personal emails as I reached out to over 150 professional and amateur photographers. While the majority of the photographers were more than willing to have their photos in the book, I also had to navigate convincing the photographers who were skeptical. In one notable case, a photographer was hesitant to publish his photos because he was in the process of printing his own photo book. I worked to persuade the photographer that his exposure in our book would only advertise his photo book. While I wasn’t able to convince every single photographer, I developed critical communication skills. I learned to compose effective, persuasive emails and respond appropriately to pushback.
In addition, throughout the process, I improved my problem-solving skills. Since many of the photos we wanted to use were taken by amateur photographers (on their phones), the quality and resolution of those photographs were low. While initially this issue seemed like an all-encompassing roadblock, we persevered. I spoke with a family friend with experience in publishing and photography, and my co-author contacted a graphic designer. My family friend encouraged me to reach back out to the photographers to see if they had higher-resolution photographs taken on cameras, and the graphic designer was able to edit the quality of the other photo on Adobe InDesign. Speaking with my family friend and graphic designer motivated me to find a solution and look at the problem from a different perspective. Ultimately, my experience working on the photo book refined my problem-solving and communication skills, helping my confidence in each of these fields grow.
