Recently, I had the absolute pleasure of working with Phillip, a 40-something guy from Melbourne with a great physique.

It’s not often you find a guy in Phillip’s tip-top physical condition, even at a much younger age.  He obviously works very hard at the gym to maintain his great physique, and wanted some professional photography to preserve the memory of how good he looks right now.  The way he figures it “I’m not getting any younger, and I reckon I look as good now as I’ve ever looked.  It’s kind of like my personal photographic time-capsule, I guess”.

One of the great things about working as a photographer is getting to meet really interesting and creative people.  As we talked, Phillip really impressed me with his broad background.  He’s worked in Dairy Farming, Entertainment, and now works in Finance.  He’s done a lot of travel, both locally and internationally, but also loves the comfort and familiarity of life in Melbourne.

You might guess that a guy who works in Finance would be well organised and methodical.  You’d be right.

Phillip is probably the most-prepared client I’ve had the pleasure of working with.  He researched the type and style of images he was looking to create, and even provided lots of examples.  It was clear to me from our very first conversations he was going to be great to work with, because he’d put some thought into the creative process.

At the shoot, Phillip was relaxed and patient.  He had some fairly strong creative ideas, but also let me suggest and co-create images with him.  This is my favourite way to work, because it becomes a team-effort.  I really believe that putting two creative people together gives you four times the creative results.

I was really impressed with the results we got by working together, and Phillip was too.  Being the friendly, sociable guy he is, he’d told quite a few friends and family about his photo shoot, most of whom begged him to see the images as soon as they were available – especially one particular lady friend, who Phillip tells me was suitably impressed.  “The photographs definitely had the desired effect”, he said.

The real question for me is always whether a customer would recommend us to their friends.  So, I asked Phillip to give me his feedback via email, and here’s what he had to say:

“I found the whole experience very enjoyable and the results exceeded my expectations.  Hot Chilli Photography is very professional and much focused on customer service.  They made what was a very personal and important experience well worth the time and money”.

I think that speaks for itself.

Thanks Phillip for the opportunity to work with you, and for the great feedback!