As any photo editor and any photographer will tell you, each editing experience is completely unique. When Kansas City (by way of England) photographer Alistair Tutton reached out with some rough edits for several new print portfolios he was planning, while also letting us know he was on a tight time crunch, we embarked on some speedy editing. With a deadline of a few days, we worked on edits for his portraiture, animals, and product print portfolios. We agreed that his image selections were good, but the sequencing could be stronger, so we worked mostly from Alistair’s original pulls but tightened up the sequencing. After some jam-packed days and a few late-night emails and phone calls, Alistair and ourselves were happy with all three books and soon they were ready for printing.
After completing these projects, Alistair decided he wanted to revisit the edit for his food book as well. This was some of our favorite work of Alistair’s, so we were very excited to help him refine the edit. Because he sent over all the images he had originally chosen plus a small selection of additional images, it was just a matter of creating strong pairs and sequencing everything in a logical way. We opted to sequence them in a chronological way, starting with fruits and vegetables and breakfast food, transitioning into lunch, then dinner, and finally ending with his liquids work.
After completing the edit, Alistair shot some new food work that he was very excited about, so we revised it to incorporate some of those images. Afterward, Alistair was happy with how it had turned out, and we thought it was a great collection of strong work that really showed off his talents. This is what Alistair had to say about the process:
Typically we do a portfolio refresh every couple of years (let’s be honest, it’s more like three years… ugh), but just recently we went through that experience that all photographers live for – those few beautiful weeks where you produce the best images you’ve ever shot and you simply have to put them in the portfolio. We’ve worked with some amazing portfolio consultants, but I really wanted to work with Wonderful Machine, and specifically Morgan on this refresh. After chatting with her we determined that I didn’t need to overhaul the entire portfolio, but rather find a way to introduce some new imagery AND take a second look at a few of the classics. The results are awesome (and I’m not just saying that because it’s my work). I really feel like this is a totally fresh look at my work and in the few showings I’ve been able to take it to so far it’s been really well received. Morgan was a blast to work with and really took time to look through everything and chat with me on some of the more tricky choices.
Based on this experience, we then worked with Morgan to review a couple of other genres of photography that needed a fresh book and that was equally awesome. In short, when we get to the end of the next lifespan on the current marketing I’m really looking forward to a long discussion with Morgan and more members of the Wonderful Machine team on how to continue to build my business.
Check a video of Alistair’s completed food print portfolio below:
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