Interview

I interviewed a fellow student in my Social Media class named Sankith, who, like myself, is in his second semester of the Digital Video Production program at Durham College. Although he is in the Video Program he is interested in both Videography and Photography. Sankith said he is inspired by other photographers such as Peter McKinon, who has a YouTube channel where he discusses ways to get unique shots and how to shoot interesting photo and video. Another photographer/videographer Sankith is inspired by is Casey Neistat who does a lot of unique styles of shooting including travel photography and videography. In most of his online videos he uses a lot of footage from drones to get shots from places you wouldn’t normally be able to go with standard handheld DSLR cameras as well as crazy drone stunts. Discussing these photographers/videographers led Sankith to mention his passion for photography involving shapes as well as for photography in the automotive industry.

The automotive industry has a huge need for photographers and videographers, since they film many commercials and take photos for their car advertisements. There are many ways to shoot cars and automotive vehicles, such as getting shots from the right angles, different settings where you shoot, getting stop action shots and making sure you are shooting at the right time of day to get the optimal amount of light. Many of the photographers who shoot cars for film and photo say one of the most important aspects during a shoot is the setting and time of day, since these set the mood of the image or video. Shooting at the golden hour at sundown, is the best time of day to shoot portraits or dramatic shots of the car. At night you can get even more unique shots of cars as their headlights and interior lighting tend to pop out more. Although the photographer/videographer needs to remember when shooting cars or other vehicles at night you need to have the right equipment to draw out the long exposure and capture the different light sources. To get into the automotive film and photography industry is a difficult task, since according to many of the different photographers who shoot cars, you need to have a full portfolio of high quality shots and somewhat of a reputation for this type of photographer/videography on your social media, as well as within the industry itself, to be noticed and hired to photograph for automotive businesses. Automotive photography and videography is a highly competitive field and requires the utmost time and dedication to succeed.