Honestly, this is one of the most asked questions that I get. I’m a full-time firefighter on a 24/48 shift- which is quite different than the typical photographer/videographer/creative. The two careers are worlds that are pretty far apart in similarity.
To answer the question:
My earliest memories of a camera were using my parent's roll-up cameras at bonfires and summer camp. I remember going to Walmart or some other big box store to get the film developed from a family vacation, and getting the chance to look at the photos in those paper envelopes that they gave us. Late elementary/middle school I remember my parents having a digital camera (I recall dropping one and breaking it). I guess from there it became filming skate videos on pocket zoom cameras and flip-phones. The footage really never got edited because none of us had a computer or a way of editing the footage. I guess around that time I got a flip phone (without texting) to replace a walkie-talkie for squirrel hunts and skate days with the neighborhood kids. I took an insane amount of photos on those flip phones and I guess that’s where I got my start with photos. In high school I made soccer cleat reviews with a webcam and that transitioned into airgun reviews and everyday-carry videos with my parent's digital camera. The youtube thing sort of came and went seasonally and after I graduated high school I made videos on basic training (for the air force) and tech school. The same videos were on and off, lots of photos were taken up until today. I remember being on a deployment in 2017 and being “that guy” that ended up taking a ton of photos and editing a basic video. Fast forward to my return to my city fire department.
There was a guy who was retiring with 35 years on the job- he had done fashion photography and real estate with his Mavic Air. He brought the drone in one day and let me fly it, it was like a mind bomb. I decided to get a drone and start doing real estate photography/video with it. After buying a Mavic 2 Pro I realized that just having the drone didn’t get you very far. After that, I bought a Lumix G7 and it was off… commercials, Lumix G9… A7iii… and now for 2022 it’s an A7siii. So here we are- that’s how I got into photography/videography.
