We recently connected with Ant Pruitt and have shared our conversation below.
Ant, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I learned the craft via trial and error in my own time. I practiced a lot of photographs of various subjects, landscapes, cityscapes and so forth. I also spent a lot of time trying out what “felt” right in post-processing.
Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have done anything to speed up the process. I wasn’t rushing. I was enjoying the process. Patience is the most essential key. That and persistence. The only obstacle I had, and many of us have is time. When can you practice? When SHOULD we practice?
Ant, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m a freelance content creator. Most people that know me, know me as a photographer. But I feel that label is limiting, in my opinion. I also shoot video. And in addition to those items, I also write for tech blogs such as TechRepublic and ZDNET. And in addition to that, I’m also a podcaster having had a couple of shows for a podcast network as well as my very on show under my own brand that I’m running and producing. And when I’m not doing any of that, I’m a model.
What I’m most proud of far as my content creator life is the fact that people have been able to take information I’ve shared and applied it to their own practice and created beautiful art. When I decided to get back into photography as an adult, I didn’t have a camera body. I only had a phone. And the local photography community at that time were a bunch of jackasses to me and quite rude because I didn’t have a “real” camera and didn’t care to share any knowledge about the craft. I decided that if I ever had the opportunity to share what I’ve learned in the creator space as an effort to help others, I’ll always, openly share what I’ve learned to those getting started in the photography community. I used to run a smartphone photographers community years ago. My previous show on TWiT.TV was a photography showed aimed squarely at photographers just getting started, or intermediate photographers looking to sharpen their skills. The show was called Hands-On Photography (https://twit.tv/hop )
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I hope that society sees the true value in a creative artist’s work. Today, particularly in photography, the creative works are cheapened. Society doesn’t see the value a photographer with true experience can bring to the table for their portraits as they only assume that their cousin can “shoot it for free with their phone” or shoot it for a lot cheaper.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I selfishly say “Create and DOMINATE.” I say this as an homage to myself where I personally want my name and brand to be a household name around the globe. Therefore, I must “create” in order to “dominate.” But also, I wish the same sentiment for ALL creators.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://antpruitt.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/ant_pruitt
- Twitter: https://x.com/ant_pruitt
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/antpruitt
- Other: https://antpruitt.com/podcast for the podcast
