Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Winston.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My mother used to take all of my baseball and football pictures up through my Junior year of high school. I was always curious as to how it all worked, there was so much to know and learn. It was intimidating to be honest but I could never satisfy my curiosity. I saw how happy it made people and my football teammates would bug me every week asking if my mom had any new pictures of them from our last game. Knowing how impactful a picture could be for someone is what made me gravitate to photography. I think beyond the artistry and creative expression of it all there’s something special about seeing someone genuinely happy with a picture of themselves. I can’t imagine not being a photographer now but it wasn’t until much later that I realized how much I loved it.
Eight years ago, my mother gifted me my first camera, a Canon Rebel T3i. I assume it was just her finally getting tired of me asking questions about her equipment and what certain things meant with cameras. For years, I went back and forth between using that camera constantly and letting it collect dust. I always told myself I was too busy, I got my Master’s Degree right out of undergrad at Kennesaw State University in Integrated Global Communication so for two years I did nothing but focus on school.
Right out of grad school I worked as an Intern with Atlanta United and the Atlanta Falcons where I was lucky enough to convince them to let me work across different departments. I was initially in Sales as an Account Executive with ATLUTD and then finessed my way on to the Falcons GameDay Marketing Team before I left to pursue a career in digital advertising as an Account manager which is what I do now as my day job. That took me to South Florida in 2019 where I slowly got back into photography because how could I possibly pass up taking pictures of palm trees and beautiful beaches! It wasn’t until the pandemic that I really started to commit to getting better.
Being isolated for weeks and months was an eye-opening experience for me as I’m sure it was for a lot of people. When there’s nothing for you to do and nowhere you can be, it forces you to be present. For me, I kept staring at that Canon Rebel T3i in my room, my curiosity kept growing with each picture I saw online that I loved. What were initially thoughts of “There’s no way I could do that” shifted to hours of Youtube videos and tutorials telling myself it can’t be that hard (It was). I had nowhere else to be so it was the perfect storm.
In November 2020, I moved back to Atlanta for a new job opportunity in digital advertising. Over time, as restrictions lifted and It became safer to meet with people in person, I started taking everything I had been learning and put it to practice. What was initially a curiosity turned into passion. Over the last two years is where I’ve seen the most improvement in my photography. I still pour over photography videos and tutorials, there’s always a different way to edit or take a picture. I love going back through recent photoshoots I’ve done and thinking about how I could’ve done something better whether it be positioning a model, changing an angle or tweaking a setting.
Right now, I’m pushing myself to go outside of my comfort zone with portraits and still images. I’m learning to incorporate clearer concepts in my shoots, be adaptable and tell stories with my photo and video content. With the change to Instagram’s algorithm and pushing reels photographers have had to adapt so I’m doing my best to be someone who doesn’t stop learning.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely not a smooth road. There’s a lot of self-doubts that routinely creeps in with photography or anything creative really. For me, it was finding my own lane in my editing, Because we’re so connected through social media, it’s easy to fall into a trend or editing style. You’re seeing thousands of images a day that look incredible while also trying not to copy someone else’s editing style when you get inspired. For a lot of beginner photographers, you’ll probably hear them talk about “finding my style” a lot. There’s all these trends like Dark and moody or light and airy and after a while, I just realized that finding your style is really just doing what feels right for that photo mixed with putting in the time to fully understanding how to compose and edit the image you take to create consistency. It all comes back to being curious, learning how light, colors and your composition affect a photo. Once you get a better grasp on that, you’ll start to see your style come through.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in portrait photography. Truthfully I don’t really think about what separates me apart from other photographers which might be cliche to say or sound disingenuous. I think photographers share a certain level of curiosity, you can’t improve as a photographer without a strong desire to learn. What separates us from each other is just how we apply what we’ve learned to our work. There’s a million different ways to edit a picture or get the right shot and that’s one of the things I love about photography.
I’m proud of a lot but most of it is more personal than any specific accomplishment. I’m proud of how much more willing I am to share my photography, at first I was very hesitant because I knew how much work I had put into learning but my pictures weren’t quite up to the standards that I had in my mind yet so I just wouldn’t share anything but now I love to! I’ve had some cool things happen recently like OneWheel using my pictures for an Instagram post from an impromptu photoshoot I had with my friends Kord and Ivy at Brewery in our hometown. I also shared some pictures I took at a work event in New York recently and our VP of design reached out to me personally to ask to use my photos for the company website. So while those aren’t the typical big accolades It’s nice to see that people enjoy my pictures and it makes excited to go out and see what else I can create!
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
The best way to work or communicate with me is to be passionate about the idea you have because that gets everyone invested! I love collaborating with people and seeing what we can come up with. I know how I feel when I get passionate about a project and that’s when I get the best pictures. As far as support goes for me and I’d say any photographer is to like and share our content and also tell us what you specifically like. That goes a long way in helping us understand what resonates with people. I’d also say keep recommending us for photography work, word of mouth is still one of the best ways you can support a photographer.
Pricing:
- 2 hour Portrait Session – $300
- 1 hour Portrait session – $150
Contact Info:
- Website: jared-winston.pixpa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wifiwinston/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WifiWinstonPhotography
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@wifiwinston?lang=en
Image Credits
Personal photo was taken by Nick Winston (IG: Nick_of_Knox_Photog) https://www.instagram.com/nick_of_knox_photog/ The rest of the photos were taken by me, below are the model credits: – Photo of girl with red hair and teal wall background – Sofia Young (IG: SofiaMYoung) https://www.instagram.com/sofiamyoung/ – Woman in Green Dress on rocks in front of Water Fall – Kay (IG: Imtheonlykay) https://www.instagram.com/imtheonlykay/ – Woman in Gold/Champagne colored dress smiling looking left – Destiney/Somari (IG: Adrop_ofhoney) https://www.instagram.com/adrop_ofhoney/ -Woman in cutoff shirt and black jeans – Imani (IG: _HighHope) https://www.instagram.com/_highhope/ – Male in Pink Hoodie – Kordero Simmons (Kordero_S) https://www.instagram.com/kordero_s/
