We’re looking forward to introducing you to Winston Zhou. Check out our conversation below.
Winston, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
The single biggest thing I think took me a long, long time to learn is that not every client is a good client. It’s true that money is money, but sometimes the most valuable clients have the most paper thin budget, and vice versa. The time you spend on a client in emails and phone calls has a cost too. I’ve had some clients that have resulted in years long friendships, and thousands of dollars in work that began with a project that had the budget of 3 shekels and a dream (which they knew, and were transparent about it). At the time, I was fully thinking of just passing them to a less experienced friend but something in my head told me to take the chance on them. As endlessly thankful I am for this relationship, I understand that this is rare and not the norm.
On the flip side of this kind of story, there was a first time client that reached out to me for a small project. The project budget was a little smaller than my normal rate but the company seemed interesting, and the product was right up my alley. But when we were going back and forth about details, and rates, there came a point where they just abruptly said “Why don’t we just call the working rate [X] amount, and call it a win for both of us?” after I had already made it clear that this rate was 40% lower than my normal rate. Readers: this is what we call a red flag.
There are two potential options here: the first is to offer a reduced deliverable in exchange for a reduced budget. The second would be to respectfully decline the project. I’m not going to spill more tea on this situation, but the lesson here is that sometimes you’re better off just spending the day at home working on a blog post, catching up on editing, doing file management. Taking photos is just a small part of the job. For every bad client, there are at least 5 other things you could be doing for your business by yourself, at home.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hej, hi, hello! I’m Winston, a professional food and still life photographer based out of the Lehigh Valley, and Baltimore. The two main things I focus on are commercial food photography, and commercial still life photography. Professional food photography encapsulates most everything you might see in food-centric advertisements, including things like restaurant photography, hospitality photography, on-location food photography (taking the photos in a restaurant), studio food photography (photographing the food in a more tightly controlled studio environment), as well as any lifestyle photos that include food. Still life photography is simultaneously more niche, and more vague. A professional still life photographer would photograph things in a controlled scene, often in a studio setting. Sometimes the work is along the lines of e-commerce photography, where a product is placed upon a seamless background, and sometimes it will be a beautifully styled scene of a product complete with props, and models. The goal of still life photography is to present products, food and otherwise, in beautiful vignettes that encapsulate the emotions and aesthetics of the product.
I think the most interesting aspect of this work is the way it pushes me to think about the items I interact with every day and what kind of situation would help bring a spotlight to them. There are so many mundane objects and “ugly” foods in our daily life that have endless potential to be part of something beautiful. My job as a professional still life photographer is to solve that puzzle with my client and make these objects look desirable.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
Haha these questions took a turn REAL fast. As a child I was raised with the mindset that if I wasn’t performing well, gaining accolades, awards, and achievements, I wasn’t doing worthwhile work. Obviously as toxic as this mindset is, it has guided me into developing a pretty killer work. Nowadays I think it’s more important to be active in the process of your own growth. As an artist, that means taking the time to go back and review past works by way of an annual photo review. This review is an opportunity to get critical with my work, and see the areas I’ve been growing, and the areas that I think could use more attention. In this same vein, I’ve learned that oftentimes the sense of accomplishment you feel internally about work you’re doing is infinitely more important than the praises that come from external sources.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
The single fear that has held me back the most has to be the fear of inviting myself into interactions. Part of this fear is cultural, part of it is general social anxiety, part of it is just some social vampire rules I’ve set upon myself. But learning that people are generally happy to say hello has been such a game changer for me both personally, and professionally. Perhaps it’s delusion, but just operating on the rules that people don’t hate you as a baseline frees you up to say hi to the cutie at the coffee shop, say hi to the client you saw in public that you want to work with more, to send the DM to the business you really want to work with.
My favorite example of this is when I once had to take on an unpaid internship for college but loathed the idea of being in an office doing menial tasks for 10 hours a week (while being unpaid, at that). I ended up reaching out to the host of my local CreativeMornings chapter and asked if there was something I could help with at their events. He had no idea who I was, and I had no idea of what this organization was outside of the bits that I could see online. 8 years, and so many friends later, volunteering here has been the single most influential cold call of my life.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
The single thing that I’m most strict with offering up is my attention. The parasitic nature of cell phones and social media are the bane of my existence.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What will you regret not doing?
There are two things I regret, and both of them I missed because I mistakenly chose to make the financially responsible decision. The first is missing attending the Pokemon World Championships when it was basically in my backyard (and when attendee passes were a literal 10% of the price they were in 2025). I think I was second shooting a wedding that weekend with some friends. Obviously I was correct to be responsible and follow through with the commitment but even still I sometimes wonder….
The second thing is not going to see one of my favorite bands, Mashrou Leila, when they were on their final tour in the US because I had a job early the next morning.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://winstonzhou.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/winstonqzhou/
- Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/winstonzhou.com
Image Credits
Photos by Winston Zhou / winstonzhou.com
