We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maxwell Kade. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maxwell below.

Maxwell, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I would say one of the bigger types of risks I’ve taken is emailing colleges around me to see if I could come shoot football and basketball games. The biggest cause of nerves for me was that I was just a high school kid (and I’m still young and newer to the profession) who had just started photography, with no real portfolio photos, no real experience. I would just Email CMU or Northwoods and say basically “Hello, I’m a senior at Freeland high school looking to build my portfolio. I was just wondering if I could possibly get a pass to shoot (insert sport) game?” It definitely took a few tries and figuring out who to email, but I eventually started being able to get into games and really started falling in love with photography.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

It’s actually kind of funny how I started. I originally started because I decided to take the Graphic Arts class at the Saginaw Career Center thinking it would be an easy A. But, as I started the class and we began to get into photography, I was really enjoying it. And, with a lot of encouragement from my teacher Karly Schmidt, I realized that I had a real skill that could eventually take me places. From that point on, probably late October 2022, I just started shooting anything and everything I could. Whether it was friends’ senior photos, sports, my truck, random birds, random cornfields, it even looked cool in the lighting. Towards the end of the year, my teacher asked me “Are you free this Saturday?” and I said “yeah, what’s up”. She then proceeded to tell me “I have a wedding I’m shooting. You want to attend? My boss said you will be paid” and so I did it. After doing it and getting paid for my photography for the first time, it really set in that this is something I love to do and can truly earn money from doing it. After that point, over the summer, things started picking up a lot. A few weddings, lots of sports, and when I turned 18 I started taking pictures at the bars in the area and met some amazing artists and friends through these ventures. Now, I do a little bit of everything. I do a lot of weddings with Ruthless Media Group. I also do a lot of sports (Mainly football, Baseball, and Basketball), Boudoir, and Portrait.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There are a few things that are truly rewarding. But the 2 biggest ones are people’s reaction to photos. It always feels nice to see that someone is happy with their photos and see them smile while looking at them. The other is for me personally having something tangible to see and accomplish. There’s definitely times when I’ll be looking at my pictures and just think “Dang, you really did that”. Overall, it’s a huge confidence booster, not only for my clients but me as well.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I will talk and chat with anyone and everyone, and I’m not always super focused on money. I have no problem, and frequently do, go to shows, send pictures to people for free and just say that if they want to send me anything, here’s my cash app. Then, I feel like they get to see your work, you might get a few bucks, and they might think of you if they’re ever looking for anyone to hire. I feel like overall, less focus on purely how much money I’m making, and more focus on just having human interaction and getting to know people makes everything significantly more enjoyable.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxkade.photography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068912521438