Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dylan Pellerin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dylan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

I think the thing the current educational system gets wrong is that kids are told they need to have one goal, or one dream, and devote all of their studies to that end goal at the cost of everything else. Maybe that’s more of a critique on American society in general, and not fully a critique of the educational system.

We’re told we have to have a dream from an early age, and if you don’t know what you want to do, you’re stuck spending money and resources spinning your wheels in order to figure it out. Once you choose a direction and devote enough time into it, you feel stuck if you want to alter your course. That’s why so few people actually feel fulfilled in what they’re doing with their lives. They’re just stuck in a direction their younger selves chose and are suffering the consequences of not being able to see the future.

I am someone who never really had a dream as a kid, aside from being a professional skateboarder. Now I’m a decent skater, but I realized early on that wasn’t the most realistic (or sustainable) dream aside from a select few people who have figured out a way to live comfortable lives earning a living skating. Then, I thought being a skate photographer would be awesome. I grew up looking at amazing shots from Atiba Jefferson and other iconic skate photographers on the cover of Thrasher and Transworld magazine. But hey, society has a habit of telling us to be more realistic.

So i went to college. I switched majors three times because I didn’t know what to do. I was an education major, realized that I cant stand teaching and don’t have the patience for it. I switched to Accounting, because I’m good at math and hey, that sounds like they make money right? Turns out Accounting is just organizing numbers, so I skipped class and never took it seriously. I switched to Marketing and stuck with it because it was the creative side of business.

While I like my career and don’t hate work like most people, it still didn’t fulfill me, it just pays the bills. So I picked up a camera and fell back in love with photography. I absorbed myself in everything I could find online to learn about the exposure triangle, aperture, color grading, editing, posing, etc. and I never felt better. So here I am, finding my way back into a field I let society and the educational system talk me out of… and I’ve never felt better.

Dylan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Dylan Pellerin, a photographer in South Louisiana. I primarily do portrait photography, as well as photographing small weddings, families and pets. I’ll do real estate and commercial photography as well because hey, it helps pays the bills.

I have the same story as a lot of photographers I know. I grew up skateboarding and being immersed in skate culture. That’s one lifestyle that forces someone to have a camera in their hands, because you want to document everything and share it with friends.

Fast forward to today and I am a full time marketing director, who does photography as a passion project on the side. Photography helps me feel fulfilled, and also helps me take care of my family. I am grateful I found my way back to this art form and that I get to share it with others.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Perfectionism. I can’t remember who said it first, but one quote that has stuck with me is, “Perfectionism can be used as a form of procrastination.”

I would let my anxieties hold me back and tell myself it’s because everything had to be perfect before I put it out. But the truth is, we get better by doing the thing. Do the thing, do it often, and learn from your mistakes. No one that is where you want to be will laugh at you for putting out effort, it’s only the people who don’t put themselves out there that will be judgmental. And who cares what they think.

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

Creating is such a rewarding and vulnerable experience. I spend all this time creating something that we feel is the best thing ever, only to look back on it and sometimes cringe because I’ve evolved. That doesn’t mean the work was bad by any means, it just means I’ve grown. The most rewarding part of being a creative is that our work is more than just work, there’s a piece of us in everything we do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dylanpellerin.com
• Instagram: dpellerinphotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DPellerinPhotography

Image Credits

All photos taken by Dylan Pellerin