Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shawn Archibald . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shawn, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I was a young kid in a refinery town and little direction, I feel like photography gave me that focus. The story of my mission is to try things and really explore whether you like things, and don’t let High School counselors choose your destiny.

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?

In the beginning I just started with what was around me. A few of my friends and I had just started driving so a lot of my first few shoots were centered around cars and cars meets. The more I shot, the more I wanted to grow with it. I started off using my phone as my primary camera/ editor. From there I went to a MacBook and a free photo editing program called GIMP where I learned most of the basics in my photo editing journey. After shooting for a while I landed a small segment in a car magazine with a few of my photos from a friend’s recent shoot. I couldn’t believe it, my work was posted! I still remember that time.It felt real. Moving on I would shoot on and off. Some paid gigs, mostly free. I just liked shooting, so I would take any job that I could. I shot headshots,weddings, products and quinces. Every booking made the dream seem more clear, living off of creative work. Not being locked in at a job just because I lived next to it.. There’s more to it than that.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal on this journey is to become a first generation “do – what- I – wanter” the goal might shift a little bit later down the road, but for now I want to make a living doing something I actually enjoy. I don’t want to waste away at a job mad at my manager and other co workers, and I don’t think I have to be the richest in that chosen field. I just would like to be able to travel, put a roof over my head and gas in my car strictly off of the living I make doing something I enjoy.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

My favorite story to tell when talking about close calls is my Poetry Slam Story.

To condense the story down, I basically booked a 4 hours poetry slam event fresh off of a week long vacation. Like we came home from the vacation at 3pm the shoot was at 6pm.

I thought I lucked out because I had my gear in my car…. From a previous shoot, so none of batts were charged and all of my SD cards were half full. Oh and I was filming video so my cards were filling just as fast as my batteries were dying.

As I was down to my last battery, LUCKILY the photographer there had extra batteries and a charger that worked with my current camera! She was nice enough to help me out and totally saved MY shoot!

The only advice she gave me was “you gotta keep extras”. I took the money from that shoot and immediately bought backups to EVERYTHING!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wzdmmedia.myportfolio.com/work
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/shawn.wzdm?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Youtube: WzdmTv