We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dalton Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dalton, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

June 2021 – I decided to sell my house and move out to Denver, Colorado. It was just a few weeks prior that I had returned from a long weekend in the city and I couldn’t get it off my mind. The housing market was up and when I found out what my home was worth, I told the relator to slap a sign in the yard as soon as possible. Easily the craziest, most impulsive decision of my life but I had been wanting to leave Michigan for years and this was my opportunity.

Fast froward a little over a month and I’d just closed on the sale. The apartment complex in Denver sends over the paperwork for my lease but there is an error that needs to be corrected before I can sign. Two days pass with no updated contract sent to me when I get a call from my boss saying that he really wanted to keep me as an employee and he makes me an offer that I’d be silly to turn down. With only a few weeks left until I hand over the keys to the house, I had to scramble to find a new place in Michigan.

August rolls around as I settle into an apartment in the same city I was desperate to leave. I had spent the last year devoting virtually all of my time to photography and knew that I wanted to pivot into that career wise so I decided to make an investment towards my future self. With some new found money in my pocket I grabbed a new camera, a few lenses, and a MacBook, everything I would need to be productive and self sufficient.

January 2022 – The company I worked for decided to close abruptly, leaving me without a day job; the same one I had canceled my significant life changing plans for just months prior. After taking a few days to decompress I realized this was another opportunity placed before me. Not only did I have the tools and resources I needed to dive deeper into photography but now I had the most crucial element, which was time.

I spent the first few months learning, practicing, networking, and setting up a simple yet impactful portfolio. I took every opportunity that came my way, including several unpaid gigs, which propelled me forward with haste. Summer came around and I found myself working with clients that I’d never dreamed would hire me all thanks to my determination. Each gig lead to the next with a steady uptick in my quality of work along the way, persisting throughout the year.

December 2022 – It’s been a year and a half of risk taking (as I write this) that has paid off immensely. There was a lot of questioning as to whether or not I was making the right choices along the way but I believed in myself to make the best of every situation, which mostly worked in my favor. While I’m definitely not where I thought I’d be when I chose to sell my house, I’m so happy I took that first major risk that got me here because I’ve never been happier.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’ve always had an interest in photography and picked up my first camera in 2013 for a short lived stint. It wasn’t until 2020 when I found myself with a lot of free time that I revisited and truly fell in love with the photo world. Since then it’s been something of an obsession as I make up for lost time to get where I want to be both professionally and artistically.

Throughout the past year I’ve started to make a name for myself as a concert photographer, specializing in live portraits. Inspired over the years by artists like Ashley Osborn and Carlos Navarro in addition to attending hundreds of shows, it was a natural fit. My work is heavily edited to give off a larger than life vibe making the artists look as cool on stage as they do in my head. Practical effects in the way of prism filters are also a staple of my work as they help create unique perspectives in camera to spice things up.

In my first full year shooting concerts I’ve been fortunate enough to shoot a couple of festivals and had an artist I grew up listening to request prints.

Additionally, I do band promos, behind the scenes work, studio photos, you name it. I love working with artists and I’m here to help them bring their brand to life.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I get to bring people joy doing something that I love. Making money is great but having overjoyed clients is endlessly rewarding, it’s what drives me to continue taking photos.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

They’re a low effort grift that artists clung to trying to make a quick buck. I watched the onset of NFTs destroy photo communities as people stopped sharing art and started pushing pixel dust… I understand wanting or even needing to make money through your art but selling pixel dust to people is morally bankrupt. Hard pass.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dapertures.com
• Instagram: @dapertures