Meet Dick Patrick of Dick Patrick Studios

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dick Patrick.

Dick, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My father and Grandmother were both photographers and I grew up in and around a photography studio. I began working in my dad’s shop as a young kid making minimum wage. It started with black and white darkroom work and loading sheet film for his view cameras. Later I started running color transparency film in the lab. It all started there and moved into shooting with the view cameras.

After high school, I went to Colorado Mountain College and got my AAS degree in Commercial Photography. After graduating I opened my first studio in Colorado Springs, Colorado and have been shooting ever since.

Has it been a smooth road?
Self-employment is rarely a smooth road. It takes dedication, an insane work ethic and perseverance. If photography were the majority of my responsibilities my job would be much simpler but that is a small percentage of what has be done, daily. The business of photography is nothing like photography itself.

Marketing, taxes, managing people, sales. Those are the things that take up the majority of the day and I never went to school for any of that!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
About 80% of what we shoot these days is for the food industry. We specialize in shooting food for restaurants, food manufacturers, advertising agencies and design firms. Our clients come from all over the country and our images go all over the world.

Many of our regular clients are international brands that use photography heavily in their marketing communications.

One of the things that I am most proud of is the fact that we care. From the moment you walk in the studio until you leave in the evening I try and make sure everyone involved is treated with respect and understands that we care about what we do but also that we care about the people we do it for.

We take our job very seriously but ourselves, not so much. We work hard but play well with others.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Dallas used to be a fantastic city for commercial photography as a whole but the industry has changed dramatically. First with the access to quality digital imaging and now with the consumerism based online. It has changed everything the world of commercial photography.

In regards to food photography specifically, Dallas is still a great place to be, we have a plethora of food based clients and that attracts the talent needed to run those kinds of companies, which is highly specialized. From the best marketers to commercial chefs and food industry management, Dallas is blessed with a deep talent pool.

Contact Info:

• Address: 8301 Sovereign Row
  Dallas, Texas 75247
• Website: dpatrick.com
• Phone: 214 638 8394
• Email: dpatrick@dpatrick.com
• Instagram: @dickpatrickstudios
• Facebook: @dickpatrickstudios

Image Credit:
Dick Patrick Studios

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