Taking Portraits with Purpose w/ Fran Monks

Taking Portraits with Purpose w/ Fran Monks

Fran is a British portrait photographer who aims to celebrate the undercelebrated. Her work has been featured in national and international magazines and newspapers and has worked with the likes of BBC, Oxford College, and The Financial Times. One of her most notable recent projects has been documenting the lives of those around the world and how they’ve been experiencing COVID through Zoom photoshoots, from some of the first vaccine trialists to US Scientists, to what lockdown looks like in Europe. We talk to Fran about what it means to be a portrait photographer, beyond just the camera and the photo itself, but how to tell the story of your subjects, and how to incorporate ever-changing technology into your art.

Turning Adventure into a Lifestyle w/ Josh & Care Willink (Third Coast Tribe)

Josh & Care, along with their two little girls, share their love for discovering everything the great outdoors has to offer through photos and videos they share on their social media and Pexels, documenting their travels and adventures in hopes to inspire others to also become lovers and protectors of our beautiful home we call earth. In this episode, we talk about the ups, downs, and amazing journey of raising a traveling family, and how photography has taken them all over the world. Their work has been featured in Today's Parent, Forbes, Yahoo, and Huffington Post working with world-class brands such as Teva, Escape Campervans, Reima, and Schwinn bikes.

How A Street Photographer Finds Inspiration in New York City w/ Zeeshaan Shabbir

Today, we are talking to one of our Pexels photographers, Zeeshan Shabbir, who is a photographer/ videographer residing in New York City. Zeeshan picked up a point-and-shoot camera for the first time growing up, like most photographers, and dabbled in various forms of photography from fashion to film, but it wasn’t until he moved to New York City where he really found a passion for street photography. We talk about what the creative landscape looks like there, where he draws inspiration from to create moody, cinematic shots of the city, and how to navigate the current social media landscape as an artist - being able to balance patience and purpose when it comes to creating photographs that are truly meaningful. This episode gives you an inside look at how a street photographer finds inspiration in his surroundings.

The Importance of Community for Photographers w/ Amanda Soriano

Today I am joined by Amanda Soriano, who is a Toronto-based wedding photographer and host of the Legit Photography Podcast. In 2019, she booked 23 weddings with little to no portfolio and has since created her own communities on her podcast and Facebook group to share what she’s learned in hopes to help aspiring photographers looking to book dream clients and work on projects that they are passionate about. We talk about what it takes to be a dedicated, creative entrepreneur while also balancing personal life and well-being and the importance of building community as a way to grow your business. Amanda is such a sweetheart and so generous with her knowledge and expertise so I’m sure you guys will be able to take away some useful nuggets in this episode.

Lessons from the Ocean w/ Surf Photographer Kammeran Keola

Kammeran is a 22 year old photographer, born and raised in the Hawaiian Islands. He found his passion in the ocean at an early age and soon combined his passion of the ocean and photography at the age of 16 and has been photographing and sharing images of the raw power and beauty of the ocean ever since. He’s one of our own Pexels Heroes who’s become quite a household name in the community - winning several challenges from Pexelspalooza to the Ocean Life Challenge. This episode gives us an intimate look inside the day in the life of a surf photographer - the high risks and high rewards when it comes to working with natural elements. Kammeran’s lessons of humbleness and resilience that he’s learned through being around the ocean can be applied to any photographer - no matter where you are and what you shoot.