Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Robinson.
Brandon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My journey to be a professional photographer has been long and still ongoing. Some say that you reach your mastery level after ten years of practice and hard work, and although I am coming close to ten years, I still feel as though I have such a long way to go. This passion for photography all started when I was around 11-12 years old. My grandmother Lela was the one in the family that always planned major events, get-together’s, and holidays. She was also the one who would take photos and videos of each event so that she could keep them in a scrapbook to show the family for the years to come. Her love for memories got so big that she even has voicemails I recorded as a kid so I can literally listen to myself grow up. That was probably the weirdest thing to hear but it made me happy to be able to reminisce on the good times and listen to what I was doing when I was around that age.
After realizing how much joy I got out of not only the voicemails but also seeing my family’s expressions when they look at pictures from old events/holidays, it made me ponder getting into photography. I started out using those super old Polaroid cameras, the ones where you have to take it out and shake it so it develops faster! Then I transitioned into the Kodak cameras. Definitely better than the previous I used, but still the memories of having to go to Walmart to get the photos developed while not being able to review what you had gives me such a feeling of nostalgia. A couple of years later when I turned about 16, my mother bought me my first DSLR and it was a Nikon D3300 with the classic 18-55mm lens. The camera itself was pretty good, but using it made me realize how much I was not a “real” photographer per say. Since I upgraded to a digital camera, there were way more options and settings to choose from and I didn’t understand any of it. ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture, White Balance, Exposure, they were all things that just made me say “Whoa, what??”.
Unfortunately, my first few photos were absolutely terrible, sometimes they weren’t in focus, the exposure was either too bright or too dark, photo might not have been straight, it was chaos! I was also in highschool during this time and had my first gig as a photographer for the school’s tennis team. The photos were ok, but it just felt like I was missing something but I didn’t know what it was, so I decided to start looking more into photography and watching tutorials. That was when I found out that in order to get some of the shots like these other professionals, I needed a new lens, so I ended up getting my first prime lens “The Nifty Fifty”. I must say it was a major difference in quality, but my photos were still not that good. At last, I discovered the editing side of photos. This may seem obvious to most but I was one of those people expecting a photo to come out looking perfect when in reality there is A TON of editing that goes into producing the perfect shot. With this in mind, one day I went to Atlantic Station and just roamed around looking for different perspectives and places to shoot in order to test out my new editing skills (those photos are the first ones on my IG). This was when I also came to the realization that I needed to find a certain aspect of photography that I liked and being that I did not like dealing with people and their complaints at the time, I decided that I wanted to be a landscape photographer and work for National Geographic.
Soon after, graduation had passed by like lightning so decided to attend Georgia State University for two years and then transferred to Full Sail University to finish out my Bachelor’s Degree in Film. During my time in Florida, it struck me that although I wanted to be a landscape photographer, it wasn’t really making me any money so I decided that I needed to at least add portraits if I wanted to make a living. I started doing portraits and got decent at it, but when I sat back and thought about it, I didn’t have all these extraordinary landscapes and “amazing” portrait skills. So I thought, “You know what, I’m just going to take photos of everything as long as it looks good”. At that point, I classified myself as a generalist photographer and continued to pursue my dream. I have now started my own business “br_visualz” and worked with many notable figures such as: Ayo & Teo, King Imprint, Lavaado, Kangfvr, TheFutureKingz, Shelovesmeechie, and more.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The journey to get to where I am now was definitely not smooth. I admit I had a very good life, amazing parents, loving family, good opportunities, but I definitely had some slip-ups. One major struggle that I had in the beginning was learning how to get a properly exposed image. Like I said before, shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and exposure were all foreign concepts that took me a long time to get right. Shooting in manual for the first time was somewhat difficult too, I wanted to be a “real” photographer but that learning curve was ridiculous! Then there was my family, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a struggle for myself but at the time when I wanted to make this a career, they were somewhat hesitant because they weren’t sure if I could actually make a living. This is definitely understandable because of the fact that this was a freelance type of job and they all work 9-5’s, but nonetheless they stuck by me and now see that there is definitely a market for film and photography. There was also this one time where I got booked for a photoshoot downtown which is like 30-35 minutes from me not including traffic.
We shoot a little bit, get some ok photos, but then my cameras stops working. It’s not taking any photos or anything and I’m desperately trying to figure out what’s happening. Only for me to find out that my memory card was full, but it wasn’t actually full. Basically, when I delete photos off of the folder in my computer, the SD card thinks they haven’t been deleted UNLESS I format the card from the camera itself. With this in mind, I had no other memory card and since they paid I had to drive all the way back home and there again to finish the shoot. Another time while I was on one of my Real Estate properties, I was shooting a fairly nice apartment complex and everything was going well! Then we get to the end of the shoot and I have to photograph a clubhouse as part of the package. I hear the guy on the phone and he’s saying how he is waiting on the photographer to finish so that he could leave and continue about his day. I took this as a sign that he was rushing to get me out of there and I don’t like the feeling of having people wait on me so I begin to move a little faster.
Well to my surprise as I’m setting up the next shot, when I placed my camera down, I didn’t make sure it was stable. Next thing I know, I look over and see that my camera is basically parallel to the floor and SMACK, right on the ground with the lens facing forward. Luckily I had my lens hood on so there wasn’t any damage to the lens itself. Another example I could say is when one day I was headed to another real estate shoot and failed to double-check my gear. I got to the first site (I have multiple houses in a day) and noticed that my battery was almost completely dead. I did NOT have a backup so I thought I was screwed. I lucked out when I panicked and looked up places that sold camera batteries and thankfully there was a Best Buy down the road with ONE in stock. I admit I cried as I thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish out the day and figured they might fire me and I’d be stuck with no job.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Br_Visualz – what should we know?
My company name is “Br_Visualz”, the BR is just my first and last name. I decided to add the “z” instead of the “s” to give it a little flair (pretty sure the other way was taken anyway). The main focus right now is photos but I also shoot vlogs, behind-the-scenes, dances, and sometimes music videos. I would say that my specialties are landscape photography and portraits and for the videography side dance videos and vlogs. When I first created br_visualz, I wanted to stick only with photography but do pretty much all aspects of it. This includes product, clothing, cars, landscape, etc. At this point, I would say that I am heavily known for my photos but surprisingly my dance videos as well. I have worked with a good amount of Instagram famous teens and some big time celebrities! If someone were to ask me if I would shoot dance videos earlier in my career, I honestly don’t think I would have, but here I am!
The thing that I am most proud of right now is the fact that so many people like my work and the celebrities that I got to meet over time. I admit it has been a long road and I definitely have much more to learn, but the fact that I am taking the time out to really pursue my passion is something that I’m proud of as well. I believe what sets me apart from others is my personality and my quality of work. My motto has always been “simple and clean” and that’s what I prefer when it comes to anything I do. I’m a very laid back person and easy to work with so that may help! One other thing I feel sets me apart is that I can relate to everybody in some way, shape, or form. This could be anything from music, movies, hobbies, books, etc.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
The quality that I feel has been essential to my success is personality. I always try to make sure that I keep a level head and a cool composure when it comes to business and even life. I think that it is needed in today’s society when it comes to creativity because of the standards we have nowadays. In today’s age technology has gotten 100x better and in turn this is what people want. If it not what they envision idea-wise or quality-wise there can sometimes be major issues. With that being said, having a calm and collected personality helps when clients have changes they want to their product or times when they are just hard to work with. I have had some instances like this already but for the most part, the people that I met have been amazing even though it can sometimes be rough going back and forth to change items, which is completely understandable since they paid with their hard earned money!
Contact Info:
- Email: robinson.brandon6146@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/br_visualz/
Image Credit:
Matty Rich, Millo Young, Regis White, Hasani
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