We were lucky to catch up with Jake Coughlin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jake, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

Well, photography has always been a passion of mine since a young age. I’ve told this story before but when I was a young kid, about 3 years old, my mom told me I’d always steal her camera and run around the house with it. I guess it’s safe to say I’ve always had a passion for cameras and photography. When I was about 10 years old or so, my Nana got me my first point and shoot camera from a pharmacy and that is really where it all began. I would just run around the backyard taking photos of whatever I could find. Fast forward to about 18 years old, I purchased my first proper DSLR camera and I was fascinated with it. I was doing little photoshoots for my friends, photographing my cat lol and really just getting as much practice as I could while out and about. I even got the chance to photograph one of my good buddy’s band at his church, which is where the love of music photography really began.

I can remember just wanting to get better and rank myself with some of the top photographers in the world and it really became an obsession honestly. I’d reach out to some more experienced photographers and most wouldn’t give me the time of day so I knew I had to figure this thing out on my own. I networked with a local concert promoter and started photographing local bands every week and was even working my way up to small level touring bands, gaining experience each and every show. I was doing everything that I could to get better and get my name out there and had this vision of what I needed to do and learn to get there.

Come to about late 2014, I started battling with severe depression and gave up photography completely, which really put a halt to my learning and career progress. Fast forward to 2016, I relocated to Florida to start fresh and eventually purchased another camera in 2017. I got a job with a small publication and began covering larger concerts in Florida, while still constantly learning and meanwhile, that burning passion to get better and be among the best was back. I worked for various publications, working more and more events, while most importantly, still learning. I went to school and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Photography, which really helped to expand my horizons and my view of taking photos. I then began working for Ryze-Up Magazine and worked my way up to the Head of Photography role, all while you guessed it, still learning. To this day, even with a few hundred events under my belt, I’m still learning. That is one piece of advice that I constantly share with new photographers is, always learn, you will never know everything. Everyone always says they wish they had my camera. This is one statement that will always irk me because of how much time and effort I’ve put into honing my craft, learning to take a proper photo and how to edit it to be something great. A person that is given good cookware won’t make a good meal without having the knowledge and skill to a good chef. The same thing applies to photography

I’d say that the biggest hurdle and obstacle to my learning was when I sold my camera in 2014 and went on a hiatus. It basically halted all of my progress that I had made and when I did finally purchase a new camera, it was almost like starting fresh.

The most essential skill to learning photography is persistence and not thinking you know everything. I see so many photographers these days, go out to the store, buy a camera and immediately think they’re a professional. That still makes me chuckle. Put in the time, have the will to learn, practice and accept criticism from those who are more experienced and that will get you far, really far honestly. There are so many great lessons on the internet, both free and paid, that you can utilize to learn quite a bit but the biggest key to getting better is practice. Use what you learned, tweak it to work for you and just go with it.

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

My name is Jake Coughlin, I’m 30 years old and currently reside in Clearwater, FL. I’m a professional photographer, with a little over a decade of experience, that specializes in live concert and real estate photography. Of course, I love other types of photography too but concert and real estate are where I make a living. I also provide aerial photography services for my clients, via drone and even teach photography courses to newer photographers wanting to hone their craft.

Outside of photography, I’m a complete fun loving goofball that loves to make people smile. I also love going on adventures to see new places, playing video games and just relaxing whenever I can outside of working.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is a crazy powerful tool, that many fail to utilize correctly. My best advice to people just starting out with their social media audience is be yourself. Your audience will be able to pick up on someone being authentic versus someone being fake. If someone comments on one of my posts, I do my best to comment back to them. This not only boosts your media engagement, it also shows your fans that you genuine care about them. Also be consistent in your posting. Make sure that you are posting at least a few times a week, if not daily., to give your audience something to look forward to and a reason to follow your page.

Let’s face it, as a creative, you are nothing without your fans and audience. I’ve met so many of my best friends from Facebook. We met on there first and eventually got to meet up in person by either them being down here in Florida or me being in their home city with my travels. It is an amazing thing how powerful these social media platforms are.

O, before I forget…I see so many people go out there and buy likes or followers and its quite apparent. You’ll see a page that has 25k likes for example but each of their posts are only getting an average of 5-10 likes, with little to no comments. Don’t do that, it looks awful and is painfully obvious that the likes/followers were bought.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love being able to share my art with the world and have people get just as much enjoyment out of it as I do. I have been told that I have inspired people before and that, in and of itself, is extremely humbling. I don’t think there is a greater compliment and purpose than to have inspired others to keep going and achieve their goals.

I also recently got to go on tour with the band, Lydia Can’t Breathe, thanks to a referral from a good friend, which was also incredible. I got to handle their photos and social media content for the 2 weeks that we were traveling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ryze-up.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jakecoughlinphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jakecoughlinphotography