Sometime ago Kurt Von with http://kurtvon.com/ reached out to me via Instagram telling me that he admired my work specifically my lighting, and let me tell you I was Astatic. We have been following and liking each other's work for a while. I particularly admired his style, it is very commercial and clean, which is a great contrast to my work where as my style is dramatic and artistic. We conversed about many ventures, one of them pertained to me joining as a contributor on his upcoming project http://lightshapersmag.com/ of course I agreed it only made sense. I honestly despise Photographers who cling on the idea of keeping everything about what they do a secret. Your greatest alias are your photographer counter parts.
Inspiration: We all know that nothing new is under the sun, But inspiration is not copying, You can always look at the work of your buddy to gain inspiration, you may see something in their work that you can take from and make your own rather it be style, coloring, makeup, hairstyle, props, lighting, the list goes on! The point is one little thing is give birth to an entirely new one and that's the beauty of it all. Speaking of inspiration Steve Reid with http://www.steviereid.com/ and I met in an interesting way, a while back he emailed telling me how much he enjoyed and gained inspiration from the videos I post on YouTube. A few emails turned into phone calls and the phone calls turned into us meeting up. Can you believe he came all the way from Detroit out to NJ to hang out with me and man we had a good time not only did we shoot together we had dinner at one of my restaurant, might I add he feel in love with the food lol.
Another thing to note about inspiration, "A grain of inspiration is enough fuel to travel through the universe"
Reference: Asking questions, is probably one of the greatest assets of referring to a buddy photographer. I ask questions all the time and vice versa, I get countless Emails of photographers seeking advice. I may not have the answer to every question, but I try to answer them to the best of my abilities. If I do not know the answer to a particular question I will simply say "I am sorry but I cannot help you with that" and I will try to point them in the direction of someone who can. Interestingly enough I a lot of times I learn a lot from the questions I get asked.
Cross marketing: Another great asset is cross marketing, chances are they are most likely to be exposed to a market or area they you may not be familiar, there is your indirect connection to models, locations, etc. The birth of possibilities are truly endless!
Here is an images shot by Kurt and retouched myself, I love this by the way!
Here is my creative spin on the same image.
This was an awesome shoot Steve an I did together this image was shot and retouched by him!
Here is another awesome image from that shoot that Steve shot! http://www.steviereid.com/