We recently connected with Cole Pates and have shared our conversation below.

Cole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I believe we all have a specific calling in life. I want to give people a reason to dream, be inspired, and find a way to open their minds to something they might have thought was impossible. My craft of Follow Cam Operating started as a hobby filming my brother on the slopes and slowly developed into a career I would have never even thought about. It is a niche business to be in and has its ups and downs, but my ups and downs are in the air! I credit my childhood heroes like Colby James West and Pep Fujas, who first took a camera off a jump. Seeing that for the first time made me realize anything with a camera, and a good skier or snowboarder is possible.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As a kid, I competed in the World Cups worldwide as a competitive freestyle skier. As time went on, I realized that the industry, as an athlete, was out of the question based on my commitment to the craft, and over time, I realized that I didn’t have to give up the dream of being on the slopes to make myself happy. I could pick up a camera and hang out with my friends to create powerful, moving pictures. As a follow camera operator, my skills include hitting jumps and following athletes on snow with cinema-grade cameras to make incredible shots. For me, when it comes to shooting on Large productions, it’s all about trying to provide the client with exactly what they hoped. Sometimes that might mean holding a $150,000 camera and hitting a 100-foot jump. For others, it might be as simple as shooting photos in the air. My goal is to help bring others’ ideas and concepts to life through the skill set I’ve developed my whole life. What setting apart from the competition is that I am willing to do everything it takes to make the athlete and the shot happen to leave the client undeniably stoked. Regarding my social media, I love to post new clips of athletes and projects I experience through a creative grid that tells the story not through one post but through all connecting. When it comes to work, I’m most proud of it. I like to look at the people and brands I worked with because the only thing that matters is whether you were having fun and the people you were with are happy.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Because what I do is so dangerous for me coming out every day unharmed is extremely rewarding. But the one thing that is the most rewarding is after doing a follow cam, and you see up close a skier, or a snowboarder try a trick that they didn’t know if they could land, and once you guys right away together after they stomp the landing, the look, they give you is indescribable. That feeling of sharing a first experience with somebody else that’s so intimate and personal is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Yes, as cheesy as it sounds, it’s brought me to tears.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I think that as a creator, there are so many resources that I wish I had known about earlier in my career. Still, I think the primary one is asking for help and providing questions and curiosity to the people around you and that you look up to. Many people today are scared to ask people around them and hold back because they might not know the answer; we live in a time where if you need help, its as easy as sending someone a DM on Instagram or call a friend. In reality, as creatives, we need to be there for each other and provide each other with opportunities to help and grow so that we all can be successful together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://colepates.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colepates/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colepates/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@colepates