We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Josh Kline a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Josh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. 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.
Learning Photography has been a lot of trial and error, as well as countless hours watching youtube videos and reading old photography books. I’ve been taking pictures for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I finally got myself an interchangeable lens camera. Up until that point I’d been using point and shoots or just my phone. I absolutely loved taking pictures and capturing serene landscapes and moments. Once I got that camera though it was boots on the ground, shooting as much as I possible could, exploring whatever types of photography I could and seeing what I enjoyed and what resonated with people. I signed up for a year long challenge to get myself more motivated and hold myself accountable. This was huge, because we were given a prompt each week and challenged to create something unique, as well as get in the habit of using your camera a lot more often. This was a great period for my photography as it forced me to really commit to learning to use my gear, and how to shoot for different concepts or styles. I was also fortunate enough to have a few friends who are models. They got me started with shooting TFP (free collaborative shoots). A lot of those shoots really pushed your creativity and collaboration. In those shoots no one person is in control of everything, which was great prep for working with a number of different photo clients that are all looking for different things and are all coming from different levels of understanding about the photographic process. Once I started getting consistent shoots going and building out my portfolio I made the jump into film photography as well, which offered a ton of new creative tools, as well as new challenges. As far as learning photography, I don’t think you ever stop learning; the real hard part is taking the time to reflect and apply everything that you do learn and not get wrapped up in how previous work could have been better, but reflect on it as proof of progress and improvement.
Josh, 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?
A lot of the photographic work that I currently do professionally is focused around event photography, portraits, and weddings. I absolutely love the process, and being involved in this super special moments and being able to capture the mood and emotion at the time. Being a fly on the wall and capturing candid scenes is my favorite way of shooting, and something that I really aim for. At times it is really challenging to get people to ignore you as the photographer, so you have to come up with creative ways to disappear. While most of my business is made up of event assignments, weddings, and portrait and headshots, I make a small amount through the sale of prints of some of my more creative work. This has been super rewarding as it has allowed me to experiment with different mediums, and make something that feels like it has a much different purpose than my more lucrative work. One of the main mediums that I’ve found success with is Infrared Photography. It is essentially taking light that isn’t visible to the human eye, and using a special camera, converting that light into incredible scenes. It gives a lot of creative choices in color and depth of an image, and provides a window into our world that we never see.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Starting a photography business wasn’t that much of an initial investment since I started out with gear that I had purchased just to learn the craft and have as a fun side hobby. I worked for about 2 years at a company and made enough money to feel comfortable spending a decent sum a camera and a few lenses. It wasn’t until some changes at my company that I started to really reconsider what my professional and life goals were, and decided to go full on with photography.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
One thing that I wish I had known about sooner would be local photography groups that I found through facebook and discord. While I had a number of close friends in college who were amazing resources for starting out, as well as great photo walk partners, the amount of diverse background and knowledge that people in the community have is priceless. Getting out to know people and share knowledge and passion more importantly has been the biggest encouragement and motivator for me to continue and pursue photography seriously. Getting to break down your work, your process, and get feedback as well as doing that for others, makes a world of difference. Gaining new perspective on the process, and your work keeps you grounded in what is and isn’t worth pursuing creatively or professionally.
Contact Info:
- Website: kline.photo
- Instagram: @joshkline3298
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoshKlinePhoto/
Image Credits
Alli Zopfi, Gabriella Tirado, They Are Gutting a Body of Water