Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Anderson.
Hi Aaron, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I discovered photography later in life; I tried photography in High School and hated it. I tell this story a lot, but I bought my wife a camera for her birthday and stole it. It intrigued me, and I started diving into how it all works. My friend Zak Shelhamer (@zakshelhamer), an incredible photographer, took me out one day, and I remember he said, “Always shoot in raw and on manual.” I had no idea what he was talking about then, but I took his advice. After that, I started diving into lighting, beginning with a reflector and moving into speed lights. I struggled to create exactly what I saw, so we decided art school would be an excellent place to learn more. We moved to San Francisco (from Colorado), and I started attending the Academy of Art. It was awesome, not only what I learned but the ability to be in that city and walk through it daily; it is still one of my favorite places. During school, I focused intensely on lighting and retouching, landing a job for Sugar Digital in the city. I worked there for almost a year, but retouching full-time was different from what I wanted to do. It taught me so much and gave me new insight into the commercial photography industry but also burned me out. I needed to get outside again, so I took a position in Colorado managing a scuba store and being a scuba instructor; I know this sounds out of left field, but it’s what I was doing before I went to school. I continued to shoot and retouch on the side, and eventually, I was working so much that I couldn’t handle both jobs anymore.
During this transition, we also had kiddos, so my time was more precious than ever, and I decided to quit my job at the scuba shop to become a full-time freelancer. It’s crazy to think that was over 10 years ago, and it’s been an insane experience. Freelancing has its ups and downs, to be sure; it takes a few years to get used to the ebb and flow of its shoot, and there are days when I still don’t feel used to it. Even with all its crazy twists and turns, I’ve been blessed to do some incredible things, from hanging out of cars in the Salt Flats to shooting big productions on Hollywood backlots. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Our latest adventure on this journey has been selling our house and traveling full-time as a family of 5 in an RV. We’ve been doing this full-time for over 3 years and are hanging out in Texas. We’ve been meeting so many people and working with awesome humans from Austin to Dallas and in between. It’s been so rad to show our kids the beauty and culture this country has to offer, one week we’ll be grabbing tacos at Venice Beach, and the next, we’ll be camping in the desert; all the while, I’m still taking pictures for a living it’s not so bad.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth? Not at all. Anyone who tells you being a full-time freelancer is a smooth road is lying. It’s like an insanity test; only people who can hang with insanity for long will make it out. I’m constantly telling people to refrain from doing it, especially if you’re not fully committed to it. I don’t know a creative who’s worth their salt that doesn’t think about quitting, getting a day job, or not having to grind to get work and find clients. We all act like it’s no big deal and post all the cool things we do on social media, but most creatives run on a critical amount of fear. At the end of the day, though, if you’re called to be creative, it doesn’t matter because you can’t stop.
Some of the most important struggles are the learning curve of building a team and estimating big jobs. These are things you can only do with experience, which is a nice way to say you can only learn by failing at them a lot. You’ll lose the money you didn’t know was available, bring people on the set that suck (hopefully only once), and then slowly but surely, you’ll make enough mistakes to stop making those anymore. Because the industry is so fluid and volatile, we’re all learning constantly; we’re all taking strikes; it’s about getting more at-bats. To quote one of my favorite movies (Moneyball), “This is a war of attrition; there’s no clock on this thing.”
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I call myself a commercial photographer, mainly because many people don’t know what that means, so I don’t have to talk about it. I would be known for lighting, and I like lighting a lot. I also love lighting people more than I like lighting things. People are my favorite. I’m just another dude with a camera; the only thing that sets us apart is what we bring to the table as a person and how we’ve grown to see the world. I use the same stuff as everyone else, but I’m the only one that uses it like me 🙂
What’s next?
I wouldn’t say we have any crazy plans at the moment. Still trying to take pictures and hang out with the fam one never knows on this journey, though; if big changes come, I’m game!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.andersonvisuals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaronandersonvisuals
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AaronAndersonVisuals
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronandersonvisuals/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/a2foto
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AaronAndersonVisuals
