We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robby Zacharias a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Robby, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.

One thing that I would personally change about the education system, as it relates to content creation, is the blending of different mediums into one curriculum. Let me elaborate on that a bit further – I went to Hofstra University and majored in Film Studies and Production, yet I have never had any interest in making movies. When I first stepped through the gates of Hofstra as a freshman, I had lofty goals of making wildly popular music videos or other kinds of short form content and becoming the next Cole Bennett. Now schools obviously do not offer classes like a Music Videos 101, so I chose to study film with the hopes that the skills would translate well between the two. I was about half right with that assumption. I found that the studio specific skills like lighting and set design translated well from film classes to music video creation, but unlike with movies, music videos are also commonly shot in “run and gun” scenarios. As I progressed in my schooling, I found myself falling out of love with learning about movies, and instead set my sights on a much less defined creative space – content creation designed for the modern consumer. Essentially, all things you see on social media – from photos and videos to graphics and animation. This was back in 2019 so Tik Tok had not yet made it to the mainstream and Instagram was the premier social media app. I realized quickly that there was no guidebook or class that would help me learn everything I needed to be successful in this space. As the years went on, it became more and more obvious that a class which taught content creation as whole could be incredibly important. A class that does not focus on one type of media, but instead requires students to learn the basics of photography, videography, graphic design, and even animation so they can be better prepared for future opportunities which may ask them to utilize more than one medium. I believe that these days too many jobs require diverse skills sets, yet so many educational institutions only offer courses that specialize in one specific type of media which puts students at a disadvantage, especially the ones that can’t necessarily afford equipment to create on their own outside of class.

Robby, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Robby Zacharias and I am a photographer/creative who goes by the name Ybbor online. I first stepped into the world of content creation as a child where I would borrow my dad’s VHS camera to create silly home videos with my friends (and would almost always accidentally record over precious family moments). As I got older I started to dive into spaces like YouTube and stumbled across a new world of content. Growing up I was a multi-sport athlete, but found a particular affinity for Lacrosse and Snowboarding. These two sports set the ground work for my content today, as I would spend most of my free time watching Lacrosse YouTube videos and Snowboard movies. I received my first GoPro in high school and began making small edits for my friends when we would go out snowboarding or playing lacrosse in my backyard, slowly developing my style while we messed around. Fast forward to college and my interests changed from videos to photos. I found that photos took less time to shoot and edit, which was important for me as I was always on the go at school. During my junior year Covid hit and I made the decision to stay in my off campus house. Due to covid, regular studios were shut down so I created my own in the basement of my college house by stapling backdrop paper to the wall and buying $20 lights off of Amazon. This period taught me a log about lighting and how to properly use it. Following my graduation from college I spent a year looking for a job and finally got one as a Marketing Coordinator for a start up basketball focused clothing brand. This gave me the opportunity to move to Brooklyn and to start taking baby steps into the world of corporate content creation. After about a year and a half at that company I was suddenly laid off and forced to figure out my next steps in the Big Apple. Ironically enough around this time I had been scouting out local NYC street basketball leagues in an effort to find a possible collaboration between the league and my company. About two days after I was laid off I decided to pull up to one of these leagues, specifically the West 4th league, to take some sports photos and get my mind off of the stress of being unemployed. I had never really shot sports before and this league provided me with a good (free) opportunity to practice. It was at one of these games where I met a representative from Nike who was playing and he invited me to shoot Nike’s NYvsNY basketball league. This sparked my love for sports photography and began the journey to where I am now. To date I have shot with/for Nike for various events, including another season of NYvsNy, flying out to Nike World Headquarters in Portland to cover the Nike Cross Nationals, covering Nike Indoor Nationals in NYC, Nike NYC JDI Day, and being invited to take part in Nike’s young photographer program which culminated in a curated art gallery in NYC featuring our work. Also from these opportunities, I’ve been able to leverage my experience to shoot for the Premier Lacrosse League, the NCAA, and most recently with Grand Slam Track. Throughout this journey in the last 2-3 years, my creative style has changed quite a bit. Traditional sports and brand images have become a bit boring to me and I have started investing time and effort into creating a style that not only encompasses the action or product, but also blends in an artistic look that helps the image stand out. A style that is visually captivating, while also giving enough information to capture the energy or tell the intended story.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

The biggest thing that helped build my reputation is not only putting out good work, but also having a good personality. Being a friendly and inviting person has allowed me to make valuable connections within the industry which has led to more opportunities as the years went on.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think one thing that many non-creatives struggle to understand is how much their support can help a creative grow. Many of my friends and family are in non-creative fields, meaning I am unable to rely on their connections to help further my career, unlike many of my counterparts who are often already connected in the industry. But with that being said, if more of them were to like and share my work on social medias, it would help expose my work to a larger audience and in turn get my work in front of someone who could potentially help me. I think this is true for all creatives and it often seems like those not associated with the creative fields do not fully understand how much their support can mean to their creative friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.robbyzacharias.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ybbbor/?hl=en