Today we’d like to introduce you to Lloyd Mackayi.
Hi Lloyd, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I first got interested in photography in middle school. I remember my mom had just purchased an LG phone, this was around the time camera phones just started becoming a thing. I’d often babysit her phone when she got off work just so I could take photos. I’d walk around our yard and take photographs of trees, plants, candids, you name it. If it looked interesting enough to me, I’m shooting it. I’d be so stoked when I took a decent photo and made it my mom’s wallpaper. At the time I had no idea photography would later become a huge part of my life. It was just something fun to do amongst other things such as swimming, cricket, hide and seek, playing piano, and so forth. I was a kid just having fun.
My mom started teaching me how to read music at about 5 or so. She also taught me how to play piano and the cornet. She was the band director at my dad’s church and I played in the church band at some point. My brother played (and still plays) the trombone. Even though my mom’s flip phone spurred my creativity, I naturally get my artistic side from my dad. He’s one of the most creatively talented people I know. It kind of hurts my feelings a little when he doesn’t approve of a photo I’ve taken of him. His eye for art is impeccable. Keeps me humble (because as you may or may not know, artists have huge egos). I looked through his old high school notebooks when I was in high school and back then it was required for students to sketch their own figures, especially in science. I was really impressed by his drawings. They were very detailed and almost true to life. I can draw as well but that’s something I do once every few years. My brother too is a creative in the real estate design realm. We both got our creative brains from dad and our business brains from mom.
Years later, I moved to the US for college and being in a new environment naturally reignited my love for the art form. I was back to the basics, shooting everything I found interesting on my phone. I had a Blackberry that I took all my photos on. As my college career progressed, I needed to take a couple of elective courses to fulfill my degree requirements so I took a film photography class simply because I knew it would be an easy A. I took a film analysis class as well for roughly the same reason. I ended up learning a lot more about the craft through those two classes than I thought I would. Probably one of the best investments I’ve ever made.
A couple of years later, I transferred to another school to continue my undergrad education. I was still shooting heavily on my phone trying to constantly get better with my newfound knowledge. During the winter, most students go home for Christmas but I stayed on campus because it was so expensive to go to Zambia for the holidays at the time. One of my fellow international students forgot a camera in his dorm room so I picked it up and started practicing on an actual camera. It was a Nikon D40. I bought a couple of manual lenses (a 50mm f/1.4 and a 135mm f/2.8) and kept practicing. By the time school was back in session I was the annoying roommate always taking photos of everyone in close proximity. I was trigger-happy. My roommates were my guinea pigs. However, this was short-lived because the owner of that camera wanted it back so this forced me to get my own camera. I saved up for one and bought it a couple of weeks later. My first camera was a Nikon D3300.
Right before graduation, my school had several events and contests honoring soon-to-be graduates. I participated in one of the contests, a scavenger hunt, and found a $300 Bestbuy gift card. I immediately knew what to do with that money and went straight to Best Buy to get a 35mm f/1.8 which had autofocus; compared to the two manual lenses I already had. That lens single-handedly improved my work significantly. I didn’t have to work as hard to get in-focus shots. I loved it so much I was taking photos of all my friends at my own graduation. Those photos will forever mean something to me. Almost as if I got hired for my dream job on graduation day. After graduation, I kept taking photos and started posting them on Instagram. People began to take notice of my work and I started getting commissioned that way. My first gig was for $50 from a friend I used to work with at my first college. He requested family photos after seeing my Instagram posts. I remember being so nervous to submit the edits because I was afraid he and his wife wouldn’t like them but they loved them. I hung out in Cedar Rapids, IA for a couple of months after graduating until I ended up finally moving to Atlanta.
When I moved to Atlanta I didn’t know a single person and had to start rebuilding my network from scratch. It took me a while to finally start getting noticed again but I’m glad I was aggressive about networking from the onset. I’d literally take photos of strangers and hand them my business card. I met one of my most loyal clients that way. He was in a really cool antique car at a red light and I just walked in front of it, took a couple of photos of him and handed him my card. He really liked the images and has been a loyal client since then. Through him, I met more people that introduced me to even more people and now here we are.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It’s never smooth. Rebuilding my network was hard. Transitioning from a hobby that makes money to an actual business was not easy. You’re constantly having to manage people’s expectations when they’re paying you for a service. Growing my arsenal of tools to expand my capabilities was not easy because I wasn’t even sure I was going to make that money back. Getting noticed and constantly booked wasn’t and isn’t easy either because now you have to make tradeoffs between a quick turnaround time and quality. The client doesn’t care what challenges you’re facing, they just want what they want from you and in a timely manner. However, all these challenges are necessary in order to grow. Eventually, you find inefficiencies in how you operate and you must solve them or you get left behind.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a photographer and director/cinematographer.
I specialize in editorial and commercial work.
I’m currently most known for my approach to cinematography. I add elements to my work that most creatives don’t think about. I picked up most of these ideas/skills from the film analysis class I took 10 years ago.
I’m most proud of just simply being able to make a living as a creative. Statistically, only 10% of artists make a living solely from their work so I’m blessed to be among the few.
What sets me apart from others is my attitude towards constantly learning and figuring out ways to improve and it shows in my work. I tend to go off the grid when my work starts becoming redundant and refuse to resurface until I’ve made a huge stride in my creative process. I also watch lots of Old Westerns from the 50’s to study cinematography.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
When I moved to Atlanta I was set on either making it as a music producer or a photographer and one of them worked out. Might I still dive back into music? Who knows.
Contact Info:
- Website: lloydmackayi.myportfolio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloyd_mack/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloydmackayi/
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/lloyd-mackayi
Image Credits
Lloyd Mackayi
