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

Hi Shaun, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The idea behind my brand name was meant to convey how people have such great ideas and creativity and how I wanted to help through my photography and video work to bring their ideas to life.

The word “creations” was meant to be a stand in for people’s imaginings and creativity.

Because my trade is imaging, I also wanted to incorporate a photo aspect in the name. I chose the word “development” because when working with film after you expose it, it still needs to be developed. Until that point, the picture you took is still in a fragile state and if mishandled, could be lost. I likened this much to the same way an idea is formed. It’s really not real until you create it. In that sense, that is really what I hoped to convey when I chose the word “development”.

So in short, I hoped that my brand name would encapsulate how I wanted to help “develop” peoples ideas and creations.

Shaun, 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 creative journey stated all because of my wife, Little MS Cosplay.

When she would finish making a costume, she’d usually get me to take some photos for her on our cell phones so that she could share them online. As she continued to get better and better, I realized her talent was outgrowing the quality of the equipment we were using and decided to take up learning photography as well as purchase some dedicated gear as a way to better show off her hard work.

Fast forward just a bit and my wife started to guest at conventions more and so she started traveling more frequently. Through all of our relationship, we have always found a way to enjoy each others hobbies together so that we can spend time together and so I started looking at how I could enjoy life on the road with a cosplayer. I felt like video wouldn’t be too big of a stretch from photography and decided to try my hand at videoing cosplay music videos at the conventions we were now attending. I might have been just a little wrong with that assumption lol but I’ve enjoyed the challenge and hope to continue on my path learning more about each trade!

I enjoy working with my local cosplay community as well as the people I meet at conventions. I always like to hear people’s ideas and thoughts on what they might like to do. People are really imaginative and each person’s creative vision can be wildly different from the next person’s. Given that opportunity, I always try to lean into their creativity and don’t try to change it as I feel it goes back into my core purpose and vision which is to help people realize their dreams and make them real.

Whether I am working with someone to take photos or create a video, my goal is to always try to make the process fun and un-intimidating. I often have people at conventions say, “I don’t really know what to do for video”. I try to take the pressure off in those moments and just tell them to strike the pose they would for a photo and I’ll do the rest! You can really feel their relief in those moments.

I want people’s experience with taking photo and video to be a fun and relaxing experience, to really just enjoy the process of creating. And of course, I hope to leave them with the wow factor once the product is delivered.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

A good majority of my following has come from what I call “boots on the ground” or more plainly in person networking. There has undoubtably been some growth via the usual social media postings, but where I have seen my most consistent and reliable growth has been from in person conversations. I always take business cards with my social media information on them with me to conventions. After I video someone, I usually try and talk with them for a moment and thank them for their time and at the end of our visit, I offer them a card so that they can more easily find the video clip later that we worked on together. I think this has been a great help because people are out enjoying their day and meeting so many other people and other photographers that at the end of the day, if they did not have that card, they would probably forget who took that video clip of them.

I also try to follow the people I work with on the spot. It may seem inconsequential in the social media world we live in to follow someone, but as a creative, having someone follow you often means the world and I think when you follow other creatives, they often thank you in kind by following you back.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding aspect of my hobby is the unexpected moments of joy I have come by in videoing and snapping photos.

I’ll share a story with you that is a really good example. I was at a comic convention not too long ago and I spotted someone clearly enjoying their day. Their energy was contagious and they were in costume so I proceeded to ask them if they would be interested in being in the video I was filming at the event. They said yes and we filmed a short clip. I often like to play the clip back for the talent, just so they can make sure every hair was in its place and they feel good about the clip before we part ways. After showing this person the clip, they began to cry. An emotion I certainly was not expecting. Thankfully, they were tears of joy. The person started to tell me of some personal struggles they had been going through and that they decided to come to their first convention on a whim. They were having so much fun at the event already and now, at their first show, someone wanted to film them. You would have thought I was giving out a million bucks judging by their reaction! It’s in moments like these that I realize that your actions, no matter how big or small, can have a big impact on others lives.

As a creative, I think a big part of what I am doing is trying to capture the joy I witness at conventions and share that emotion with my audience. I think a lot of creators hope to share experiences through different means and have them resonate with someone else. In the story I shared, I had hoped to capture the fun this person was having and share that joy with others. I never imagined the response I got that day, but that person sharing their struggles and then how their convention visit and filming a video brought them such great joy was really inspiring and is a big part of what has kept me going.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creationsindevelopment
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/CreationsInDevelopment
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/creationsindevelopment

Image Credits
Gojo by sourcelocked Ahri by LittleMSCosplay Villain Eri by LittleMSCosplay Sasuke and Sakura by Kizuna Cosplay Eddie Munson by LittleMSCosplay Hawks by Taycosplay Tamara and Larissa by Taycosplay and LittleMSCosplay Ochaco by LittleMSCosplay