Meet Highlands Photographer & Cinematographer: Clayton Brannon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Clayton Brannon.

Clayton, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
This is a little comical, I grew up with very rural activities, hunting, fishing, etc. I graduated high school in 2005, My best friend got a scholarship for basketball to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, so I figure that I would give it a try and see where it takes me. I had dreams of owning a tree farm or doing some type of farming, my major was agriculture. After about a year I felt like I was just going through the motions and was not truly interested in being a farmer. I signed up for an art class and we had a photography assignment, I plead with my parents to buy me a camera, they agreed and I got an Olympus E-420 kit, this was the beginning.

I dropped out of agricultural school shortly after and moved back to North Georgia. One night my buddy was having some people over at his parent’s house, I started talking with his mom about my interest in photography, she happens to be an art school grad and told me to bring over my work one day next week. We met up the next week and I showed her some of my work, at that point, she decided to take me under her wing and started to mentor me. Over the next 5 weeks, we started to set up for an art show. This was in November and I decided to have a charity show so that the proceeds could go to some families in the area who could not afford Christmas gifts for their family. I sold all but two pieces out of 25 and we raised a little under $1000. I try to donate my time as a photographer too as many charities as possible. After the art show, I enrolled in Art school in Atlanta, graduated in 2011 and that’s when I started my business. Not having any schooling or business experience, it has definitely been a journey but I am steadily getting busier and busier every year.

Has it been a smooth road?
No, I started with zero experience in the business. Even from something that might appear to be simple like pricing, can set you back a whole year if done incorrectly. One year, I raised my prices substantially and booked substantially less weddings, I could have lowered my prices by $3-400 and booked twice as many, though, this is the hardest mistake I have made so far. Another struggle I have had is confidence, when I was first starting out, I would get so nervous about messing something up and it consumed me throughout the whole shoot, one of the only ways to overcome this is by experience, you have to have the hours, after 2-300 weddings, it all starts to become natural.

Any predictions for the industry over the next few years?
As boring as it sounds, I don’t foresee many changes in the wedding photography industry if you look at the industry 20 years ago, one of the only differences is that it was shot on film instead of digital. Commercial photography is a different subject though with stock photography creating less demand for local commercial photographers and many print publications seem to be on there last leg. but just like anything in the world, we must evolve or die.

Let’s change gears – is there any advice you’d like to give?
It’s an extremely saturated market so you have to do things to stand out from everyone else. Don’t be afraid to try new things and shake shit up a bit.

Pricing:

• Our wedding packages start at $2300

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brannonphotography.com
• Phone: 7063447785
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cbrannonphoto/