Unlock the secret sauce for lasting photo business success, as Pat Miller sits down with creative innovator Rich Johnson. Discover how “creative R&D” can explode both your portfolio and your bottom line, even if you’re burning out or stuck in a rut.

Episode Highlights 🎤💡:

(02:56) - Burnout and the experiment that changed everything

(08:55) - Overcoming fear and taking creative risks

(24:42) - Turning creativity into higher-paying clients

Connect with Pat Miller ⬇

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Connect with Rich Johnson ⬇

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I'm Pat Miller, and this is the Professional Photographer podcast. We're live inside the Sony Cinema Line studios at Imaging USA 2026 in Nashville. It's been a great conference so far, and we're doing an industry trends series where we get a chance to talk about what's happening with the best of the best inside the photography industry. On the show today is Rich Johnson, and he's got something that is so awesome, I can't stop thinking about it, and I'm so excited that we get to share it with you today. You've heard the advice that you should be playing more often, that you should be following your passions. You should be an artist that does commerce. You've heard all of that. I know you've heard all of that, but how does that become money? How does that grow the business? Because, you know, this show is all about making more dollars at the end of the month. Well, Rich has done something amazing. He's made a business case for creativity. He calls it creative R and D. And I cannot stop thinking about it. This is absolute gold. So how can you commit to doing new things, to taking big chances and finding ways to make more money with your camera and your art? Rich has figured it out. We'll talk to him next. Rich, welcome to the show, man. Great to see you.

Thanks for having me.

Here at Imaging 2026 in Nashville. Have you done anything fun yet or just like, photography stuff the whole time?

Both.

Okay.

Photography and fun. Ten minutes into the expo floor opening, I spent my entire budget for the year, so we're doing pretty good, man.

I just am dying to know, was there something in particular that you're like, oh, I want. I need to have that thing?

A lot of those. I told a friend of mine it would be easier for me to tell him what I didn't buy than what I did. I went in the list and kind of stuck to it, but there was some stuff that I was like, oh, that's new. I. I should get that. So that's really what's excited about, exciting about the showroom floor. Is that so awesome?

Well, congrats. That's fun. New gear is fun, right?

New gear is always fun.

If someone hasn't met you yet, tell them who you are and what you do.

So, my name's Rich Johnson. I'm the owner of Spectacle Photo. We're based out of Orlando, Florida, and we do commercial photography and video for, you know, headshots, corporate events, stuff like that, and then also lifestyle and agency stuff, advertising.

So, yeah, we have you on the show to talk about industry trends, but we're not necessarily talking about industry trends in commercial as much as an industry trend that I think you're leading the way on because you shared a concept with me that I have not stopped thinking about since you brought it up. It's how do we handle passion projects and how do we put our creativity and inventiveness into our work? And I just love the way that you describe it. So share this idea with people because I can't stop thinking about it.

Yeah. So I started photography 20 years ago and did it because I needed a job, right? And which is an okay reason to get into something, right. And as I was doing it, I was getting burnt out. I shot weddings non stop, and I just wasn't feeling it right. So about 12 years into shooting weddings, I was shooting every weekend and I was just like, I'm done, I'm done. I'm burnt out. I'm gonna sell all my equipment. I don't want to ever take another photo again. Right? I'm done. And before I did that, I was going through some of my stuff and I found an Evernote account with some ideas that I had written down and just never had the time to do it. And I would always look at other photographers and be like, man, that's a great shot. But it's only a great shot because who's in it? And if I just had an opportunity to photograph that person, my work would take off, right? So always comparing myself to people who had established their work and made it. So before I sold my equipment, I found this shot of an idea that was a kid opening a book, and I had written down a diagram on how to shoot it. So cut a hole in the back of the book, glue or put a light in there, a speed light, have the pages glued open so they look like they were waving and the light would hit the kid in the face and just this dramatic shot. Well, I had a three year old at the time, so I set up his room, I made the prop. I was like, I got time to do it as I'm not doing weddings anymore. So I took the photo. I got about five shots with my three year old because he was just like, I'm done. I don't want to be here.

Three year old.

Yeah, exactly. So I took it into Photoshop and went so much further than I ever went with any of my other client work. Right. I posted it on Facebook in a very, I feel creative, might delete later kind of moment, right? Expecting people to just rip it apart because it was unlike anything I had ever shot before. And then it took off and I got new clients from it. I had a friend of a friend share it. They wrote me and said, hey, I do work for this company. Can you do some Photoshop work for us? And it started to create these other clients. And it dawned on me that up until that point, I was neglecting the only thing that separated me from every other creative, and that was my ideas. They could have the same camera as me, they can have the same opportunities as me, the same gear, everything they could buy, but they. They don't have the same ideas that I had. Right. So I made it a point to integrate that experiment into my business model. So I made it so I had to every quarter do what I was calling at the time, personal projects. And for 15 years, that's what I called it. And it, that term never really sat right with me. So recently, after the PPA had reached out to me and asked me to talk about personal projects, I kind of brainstormed a little bit and I was like, how do other companies do this? How does Apple do it? Right. They're constantly innovating and developing new things. Well, they have R and D departments and they invest in R and D and they make creativity and coming up with new products essential. Well, photographers don't. Right. And what I realized is, so I rebranded it as Creative R D. And that made me justify it on paper. It also made everything that I was purchasing for it a justifiable tax expense.

Absolutely.

And it showed my clients that I was investing in my product, which is my creativity and my vision. So going through that, coming up with a format for that, every time I did one of those creative projects, the outcome wasn't always obvious. Sometimes I would fail, sometimes I would succeed and come up with a new photo. But what I always did was figure out new things that worked or didn't work on my own expense and without the fear of a refund. Because what I started to notice was every time I start disliking my work or feeling, you know, having that, like, what am I doing? I can just look at it and go, I'm neglecting my ideas. I haven't recharged my creative battery. So I tell, I tell creatives all the time. I say, it's a balance. We're photographers, we're a hybrid business, Right? And what that means is we're artists who are mixed with business. And those two things are in direct conflict of each other. Art can be subjective. Business can be subjective, but for the most part, those things don't really go hand in hand, and you have to be careful with that balance. So I say to creatives all the time, if. If all you do is personal and paid projects, you're starving artists. Right. But if all you do is paid work, you're starving your art. And those things affect us equally.

Yeah.

So every time I do that, my portfolio takes leaps and bounds because I'm able to create without the fear of a refund.

Right now, someone's watching this. They've got a notebook, they've got an idea. Go back to that moment where you thought, okay, I'm going to cut a hole in the book and I'm going to do the thing. And I did it, and then I posted it, and then I waited. Like, that moment of I was creative for creativity's sake. And before it took off, how were you feeling at that moment where you got the shot? Like you made it, like it came out. I would assume the way that you dreamed it would come out pretty close. So this is amazing image. I finally made it, but now I'm showing the world. Because that moment seems to be the thing that might be holding somebody else back. That, oh, can I really. I can't really do this, can I?

Yeah. So what you're talking about is the what ifs. Yeah, those what if voices in your head. What if I do this and no one likes it? What if I do this and I'm. I'm completely off about what my subject matter is. Right. And there are ways to combat what ifs. The best thing to do is to ignore them and do it. That's also a balance, because you don't want to just. I've done personal projects or creative R and D projects that are social issues that impact people's lives.

Yeah.

I've had series go viral on those things. And one of them specifically is a project called the Weapon of Choice Project, which was. I was driving home from work one day, heard a news article on the radio about bullying. And I thought, man, this is still happening. So I thought, what if the things we said left the same visuals as physical contact? And then that idea happened, but then the what ifs came in and they were like, well, Rich, that's a complex issue. You don't really know what you're talking about. So I was like, let me reach out to some authors who are coming out with books on this subject. Let me find some experts, counselors, ghosted. No one wrote me. Right. Because it's not their creative R and D project. It's mine. So eventually, after long enough of that idea in my head, I pulled the trigger and just. I said, I'm gonna do it. I reached out to makeup artist friends, had some behind the scenes video cameras. Everyone volunteered. I spent $60 in pizza. Right. Wow. And as we're going through this project, I learned a couple things. One, everyone went into this project thinking they knew something about the subject matter we were talking about. We all couldn't have been more wrong. Right? We all learned that nothing is black and white. There's a lot of gray. The other thing we learned is, and I learned specifically, is that when you're dealing with sensitive subjects like this, it's better to get out of your way, out of the way of the project. For instance, when this series launched, we launched it for free. We gave it to any nonprofit around the world that wanted to use it for anything. They just had to write us, get permission, we would send them a link. And when we started doing this, it was. People started writing me and saying, this is just your opinion about how this situation is. You don't know what you're talking about. This is just a photographer's opinion. And the truth was, it wasn't because I wanted to control every detail of this project. Like a photographer. I wanted to pick the word that the subject was going to have on their face. And every time I was like, this is your word that I'm going to put on your face, that person would say to me, but that's not the word I was called. This is my word. And I'm like, okay, well, fine, you use that one. We'll get a bad word on someone else later. I was trying to shock in awe and be an artist. Right? Eventually I just said, you know what? Let them pick the word. We're going to do this project. And that saved the project. It made the project authentic and it made it defensible. Because when people then attacked me and said, this is just your opinion, I can honestly go, I wanted it to be my opinion.

Guess what?

They wouldn't let me. Yeah. And I'm so glad they did, because it would have ruined that project and it wouldn't have had the impact. So knowing those restraints, that project turned into a client reaching out to me and saying, hey, we've got these clients who need visuals on the situation they're going through. We know you can handle it based on this experience. Can you go do this?

Sure.

Here's my day rate. Okay. Can you start tomorrow? And that's a project that would have never come from weddings or what I was doing day to day.

So I want to talk about how someone watching this can install creative R and D into what they're doing. But before we go there, you've had several projects go viral. Is it safe to say that if you weren't doing this creative R and D, following your creative instincts, taking risks like this, that you would, in an alternate world, be just another commercial photographer? Is this the type of thing that took you from where you were to you're now presenting in imaging? You've got leading projects all around the world. Like, this is the thing, right?

It's not just what if we say that? It is that if. If those viral projects were creative R and D projects and those directly can be linked to work that I've done for clients that have paid me, and if it wasn't for doing those experiments, those projects would have never had the reach they had. I would have never had the exposure. And exposure on my terms, by the way, not to the traditional sense of like, hey, do this project. And that wouldn't have led to this other stuff because it has allowed me to listen more as a creative, look at people's situations and connect more with my clients so when they come to me, I can bring up references. Well, when I did work on this project and I noticed this happened, we need to be aware of that when this happens here. So sensitive subjects with interviewing people for, you know, sensitive topics, all those skills have translated into actual paid work and then also into helping and coaching other photographers into taking those subjects on because the first thing they want to do. I've had creatives come up to me and say, when I really have this really thing that's meaningful to me, it's something I went through in life and how do I do this? Here's my idea. And I look at it and I go, okay, where can I tell that you're injecting your own opinions as opposed to the bigger picture? Do you want to solve the bigger picture or do you just want to talk to people about your personal experience? Both are important, but if you want the larger impact, let's talk about the bigger issue. Right? That Weapon of Choice project was. I was asked to speak about that project at the UNAIDS organization at the U.S. senate. And when I got there, I asked the client or the organization, why am I here? My campaign's about verbal abuse. You're the UNAIDS organization. And they said, well, Rich, we've through our research and years of doing this. We've seen a connection between the transmission of AIDS and domestic violence survivors. So what we're going to do is we're going to start tackling domestic violence because those people turn to these things after being abused and stuff like that, that increased the transmission of aids. And it just dawned on me like the impact was intended for one way and now is making this impact beyond what I could have ever imagined. And again, only there because I took the artist's ego away from it and put the focus on the subject matter and the cause itself.

That's a nuanced take, though. You have to have the instincts to cast the vision, but then the grace and maturity to let go when the project starts finding its own way. Was that hard, or did that come to you naturally?

It was hard. I think part of it is a little bit natural because I like stories, and I understand that the story is important and the cause is important. I think if it was a paid client coming to me with that, if they were to take that risk, which I don't understand why they would have if I never showed them that I was capable of doing this. Right. Like, your portfolio is proof. It's a brochure of your professionalism and your skills. If you don't have anything in there that represents where you want to be as a photographer, why are you expecting people to hire you for that? Right. It's this obvious connection, but it's not obvious. For some reason, we just gunk it up and we're like, I'm going to shoot this. This is paying me. This is feeding me. I like to eat. Meanwhile, your creative side's like, I'm still over here. Yeah. Remember me? I'm the reason why you got involved with this in the first place. And when you just start to pay attention to both of those and have that balance, it's leaps and bounds. Your portfolio will move ahead and you'll start to create the clients that you really want to be working for. And it just gets cooler from there.

Well, let's talk about that, because I want everyone watching this to have a cooler business and do more of what they dream of. So when it comes to creative R and D, how often, how much, what frequency? Like, is this one day a week, five days a month? How frequently do you want people to play or have creative R and D and challenge their vision?

Yeah. So my rule that I do in my studio is I do one creative R and D project per. Per quarter. Okay. Right. And I do that for anyone that works with Me. So my business partner has the same exact requirements. And we hold each other accountable for that. Creative R and D should never get in the way of paid clients. They need to pay the bills. They keep the doors open. They keep your budget for the showroom floor flowing. Right. But what we do is we have a rule. One creative R D project per month. You could be planning future ones. You should always be taking notes, writing things down, coming up with ideas. The beauty about creative R and D too, is it creates an opportunity to create good content. Content is king. It's all about posting. Social media is a thirsty, thirsty beast. Right? This is all good stuff. People want to see this. The other rule that I have is document everything for the content. And then creative R and D has to be something that you haven't done before. It can't be something that you have done. So if you shoot headshots, a proper creative R and D would not be. Project would not be, I'm going to shoot some headshots, but maybe it's. I want to shoot some headshots, but with only one light. Let me start there. Right? The other rule too is. Or the other. The guide is that creative R and D doesn't have to be a finished product. It also doesn't have to be photography.

Oh.

One of my creative R and D projects was to revamp my website to teach myself WordPress to work through that and then to get my website to where I wanted it to be. That counts as creative R and D. It could be. I'm going to paint a new backdrop. I want to learn how to pose newborns. Those are all creative R D projects. And it doesn't always have to result in a finished product. And it doesn't always have to be successful because the failed creative R and D projects are just as helpful as the successful ones. Multiple times I've failed at creative R and D projects. And I was like, okay, we will never do that with a client because that will be embarrassing. Yeah. And then. And then there's just like. It's like, okay, yeah, that was a lot of work. But now we know. We know not to do that. Or while I'm in a meeting with that client, I can say, hey, I know you guys really want this shot. Through my experience, here's what's happened, here's what happens. And I can do it this way better.

Yeah.

Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah, let's do it. So there's that trust thing there too. It creates that.

Do you ever find that the creative R and D is Transferable, meaning you do a creative R and D project that doesn't really go well, but you learn something about it that then you apply in a different part of your business and it all of a sudden works. Or a client that you did something for, but you use it in a different industry or a different scope and all of a sudden it clicks.

Has that happened all the time? Yeah, you can. That's the beauty of it is you may not know the lesson that you learned at the moment. Right. But it's all part of that process. So again, you may learn, I know not to do this in front of a client. This could be dangerous. Which could happen depending on the creative R and D project. Right. There's been some wild ones, but. Or this could. I could bring this to the next level, right. And it could just be a launching point. And then you could go to your client and say, honesty is the best policy with this. You can go to them and say, hey, look, I spent three hours practicing this technique. I don't know what's going to happen right now because of the nature of this technique. Let's give it a whirl. Could give you a good, you know, a good outcome, but you could also look at it and go, you know what, that didn't work for you either, right? And there are ways that you can squeeze Creative R D. So Creative R D Quarterly, that's your workout, right? Then you could start implementing that with confidence into your client work. So you could say you can. If you have a 30 minute headshot session and you know it's going to take you 20 minutes, you could say to your client, hey listen, I know you need these clean head shots right now at the end, I think you'll look really cool with this lighting. Do you mind if we give that a try real fast? And then you set it up and you could be producing something for them they didn't even know they wanted at the moment. Right? And I've had, I've had friends that are very established in their careers and they're under the impression that you should be creative all the time, no matter what. And that is a thought, right?

It's a thought.

And it's easier said than done because when you are just starting out and you're lacking the confidence to take those extra steps, I know from my experience when a client says, I want this clean headshot, I saw it on your website, I'm going to give them that clean headshot what they have on the website. And I'm not going to try to risk giving them a refund. When you start to grow, it's easier to forget about this creative projects and creative R D. But it still is important, right? Because then your creativity becomes more confident and you're more. You're more able to put yourself out there. I think there's nothing more dangerous than a confident creative, right? And I learned that for myself. When I first started off, I didn't like talking to strangers, especially directing strangers, especially looking like an idiot in front of strangers, trying to fiddle with my light, right? So one of my projects was, I'm gonna go to downtown Orlando at this time and I'm gonna take five headshots of strangers. Here are the rules. I'm not allowed to pre light it and I'm not allowed to shoot in the same location. So I couldn't just shoot one and then move on or shoot another one. I had to introduce myself, ask them if I can work with them, give me a second to set up the light, keep a conversation, that awkward conversation and then move on, right? Get the shot and go. And that's translated into how I like to photograph people all the time, is it gives you an opportunity to connect with them. It's not this transactional thing, this situation. And it's allowed me the confidence to go up to strangers. And when I work with strangers on cruises or through my gigs that are high profile clients, that's a whole 'nother level of fear, right? Because not only are there people that I've watched or know, but then they're also strangers, right? So if I can get this gear stuff down and the confidence of directing them, then we can work on the other stuff in person, right? So that kind of growth helps with the creative R and D. And it just, it transcends everything you do. Everything from accounting to website stuff to doing your own content on video. It's a muscle that you need to flex and work on. We just tend to not focus on it because it's not always associated directly with a dollar sign.

But when we do it and we expand our range, that's what helps drive big bucks. I mean, these projects that are truly unique, truly creative to us, in your experience, those are the talents that the big clients like, go, wow, I need that correct.

Yeah. And every other company in the world does it, right? Like Apple is investing in three phones beyond the one you have in your pocket, right? And I guarantee you they're failing at materials. Oh, we want to make this out of some nano cocoa bean chocolate, right? And that doesn't exist yet. So that's completely made up. But the point is, is like, they are investing in trial and error research and development on phones that don't even exist yet. And yet, as creatives, we only flex our creative muscle when we're hired to do it. That's wrong. It's just. It's a wrong business model. And I guarantee you, every time someone in this industry has had a breakthrough, it's because they were like, what if I try this? And then they do that and then it works, and then. But they've never assigned it or keep it or kept it as a. An exercise that they continuously do and a muscle that they. They work out and flex.

The introduction for every big breakthrough that I've had is something like, this might be stupid, but, like, saying something like, when I hear myself saying that, it's like, I know I'm going someplace that is unproven.

Yes.

But we're following it for creativity. And as a side, if someone made a chocolate iPhone, can you imagine how many they would sell? Like, there'd be a zillion a billion chocolate iPhones.

Maybe we'll get royalties for that. If they do. We should.

Did you get that? Get that down. Chocolate iPhones right here. We get the commission. Apple. All right, before we run out of time, I want to ask one question that you brought up when we talked before. You have a very unique take on people asking you for free work. And I love the way that you handle this because we. We or photographers always get asked for free work. And you mentioned this, and I just wanted to make sure we get it in the episode because everyone needs to hear it. So how do you handle free work?

So I'm not opposed to free work. My opinion is that free work helps your portfolio. Right. I just did a really big project that started off as free work and then turned into a paid client. Because when we produced the project bigger, people saw it and said, we want to pay for that. And then the dynamics change. But my approach to it is one thing. It needs to be on your terms. If someone comes to me and says, this is going to help you, I don't believe you. That has to be my choice. Right. So exposure. This is good for you. That has to be your decision. If that becomes your decision and you choose to do this at a discounted rate or for free, my recommendation is to always invoice the client or the person you're working with and show them the value of what you're doing and then zero it out or discount it to the agreed amount. I will never do something for free and not show what that service was worth out the gate. What that does is it establishes a future value so they can't be shocked when all of a sudden free turns into paid. And it also instantly makes you a hero in that project situation because you're bringing to the table of value. If someone were to donate a physical product to a non profit, they will get a tax write off for that and they will be thanked for that physical product. We don't look, we don't look at that way with service. Right. Or in kind. Sometimes it's referred to for nonprofits. So I always say, if I'm going to do it at this rate, I'm going to invoice you for my full amount. So you know the value that you're getting. And that's helped me save relationships with nonprofits or people that I want to do work for. And then it helps me establish that the next time they ask me to do a favor for them, they know the value of what that favor is worth. Right. And it helps you because then you're like free never turns to paid easily. Yeah. Unless you help guide it into that direction.

The invoicing tip is really practical. But you, you said something quickly that I'll make sure we call out someone asks you to do something for free. It's with your creative vision. You're not doing free work for someone that says, I want it exactly this way. You're saying, yeah, I can help you, but maybe you blend some creative R and D into that work.

Yeah, I mean I would always, I would always get. You have to get something out of it.

Right, right.

And that could, that could vary. That could be, I'm going to get an experience from it, I am going to get better portfolio work from it. But it also, it could be a situation where someone says, this is the exact same thing I want to do. That may limit your willingness to do it. But again, the key there is that it's your choice and not theirs. So if you want to give up creative freedom and do something for no cost, then that's up to you. But ultimately it's your choice and you are establishing your value right out the gate.

Awesome conversation. The concept of creative R and D, I'm telling you, is absolute gold. I'm so glad that you shared this with that tell us, if someone wants to continue to learn from you now and in the future, how can we stay connected?

So I'm on Instagram, I'm on almost every social media platform when they launch, I create the tag so it's spectaclephoto and then also I just created a photo vision class for the website so that'll be launching this year and that's really where I'm going to focus. A lot of my stuff is through PPA and through Photovision. As long as they keep asking me.

Oh, so they will keep asking you.

Trust me.

Great conversation. Rich, thanks for coming on the show.

Awesome. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Professional Photographer Podcast. Live from Imaging USA inside the Sony Cinema Line Studios. A big thanks to Sony for doing all the hard work to make us look good. Now, if you're still watching the episode, that means you enjoyed the show, which means you should be a subscriber of the show. So click subscribe on whatever platform you're on. Also, leave us a like and a comment so we know what the guest said that really resonated with you. The other thing is, if you're not yet a member of Professional Photographers of America, what's going on here? Because PPA offers terrific benefits like incredible equipment, insurance, top notch education and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. Join now@ppa.com. That's ppa.com. I'm Pat Miller, host of the show and the founder of the Small Business Owners Community. I appreciate you tuning in. We'll see you right here next time. Take care.