The Madi Kay photo journey

This episode's guest is with Madi our left handed, animal loving, empath that you’ll find venturing in the mountains and deserts of Utah with her Australian Shepherd. 

Website: 
https://www.embarkwithember.com/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/madikay.photography/

Transcript

Hey, everyone. I have Maddie here, Maddie Clark. And I just wanted to welcome her onto the podcast, but also, I'm just going to let her introduce herself and tell you how she got into photography and the type of content that she likes to capture.

Awesome. Thanks, Adam. I started when I was little.

I couldn't tell you exactly when that was. I've always had a disposable camera, and I was doing that ever since at least like five or six years old. I got my first little digital camera, like ten or eleven for Christmas.

Started taking classes in high school, film, photography, and kind of just snowballed from there. I did yearbook, all the fun things that you kind of just start out doing, just taking photos of your friends and everything. I started doing senior photos and then family portraits.

I stopped for a bit and went to college for psychology and just kept photography as just like a little hobby. I thought I was going to make a career out of it, but I never really did that right after high school. But it kind of circled back in 2018 when I got a dog who I just loved photographing, and she was just so much fun to follow around, and social media kind of started blowing up from there.

So I was posting her on social media, and it kind of got me back into documenting everything again, and it's kind of just been taken off from there. But, yeah, that kind of summarizes how I got into photography a little bit. Nice.

I like that. I feel like from what I've seen, that you do a lot of wildlife type stuff, or maybe that just happens to be because that's the people that you are surrounding yourself with, or maybe there's a little bit of both. Anyway, yeah.

So the wildlife stuff started. I was taking photos of animals forever. Like, I was at the zoo and the aquarium and the Avery taking photos of animals back then, but I just became a little bit more serious about it in the past year or two.

I mean, I've been taking photos, like I said, of my dog, and I really was kind of more drawn to animals at that point. I was kind of done taking pictures of people and doing the portrait and the wedding kind of style of stuff. And I've been focusing more on wildlife and landscape.

That's kind of come the most natural to me. And I got a camera last year that, I mean, I had the same camera for almost ten years that was just probably $400. And then finally I made the jump and got the Nikon Z nine last year and it's been such a game changer.

And the way that you can photograph animals with those types of cameras now is just taking my hobby to a whole new level with that. Yeah, that's awesome. That is way cool.

That was probably a huge jump then from the camera that you had to the Z Nine. Did you experience any challenges in the learning curve of that or was it just super fun? Slightly, but not really. I mean, I've used a Nikon since day one and going from DSLR to mirrorless was pretty easy.

It was only better. Basically, you don't have to work as hard as trying to figure out he's looking at your screen and making sure all the lighting is right when you're shooting in manual and your camera just kind of shows you exactly what it's going to be taking a photo of. So that's kind of nice.

It's a learning curve, but in the best way possible. I don't think there was really a setback in switching to mirrorless. So, yeah, it was good.

Nice. With that being said, I know we kind of previously talked earlier and I asked you if this was something you were doing full time, which you said you weren't, but that doesn't matter really. I wanted to just kind of ask you about maybe some of the work that you've done that surrounds photography and how you got some of that or how you fell into it or.

So, like I said, I started an Instagram page for my dog. I had one of those going and her account took off on Reddit and it blew up. I think I gained about 6000 followers in one day from this one post that someone randomly stole from my page and took it over to Reddit.

And then dog brands started reaching out to me and saying like, hey, can we give you this free stuff? Will you shoot with it with your dog and everything? And we really like your photography. That was really cool, kind of going right into that, and then it kind of turned into doing a lot of free shoots and exchange for product and everything. But brands would start offering you payment and stuff and that was really cool.

And they'd just be like, hey, can we have four or five photos and licensing and everything with all that stuff? That's like, as far as what I still currently do now is I work with brands and I take basically lifestyle product images for them just kind of either with my dog or I'm trying to kind of pivot out of that. So it's not all based around my dog and just kind of more just make it like a showcasing kind of what I do. And a lot of it is outdoors, a lot of it is travel, a lot of it is camping and anything to kind of be in those categories.

Like, if a brand fits into those categories, I'm more than happy to work with them and do projects for them. And it's a lot of fun. Very cool.

That's cool. That's nice. When you're like, oh, I need dog treats, and then you don't maybe need dog treats.

Yeah. The amount of times I've been offered treats, it's definitely a thing. Yeah, that's awesome.

So you said you kind of started out with like a disposable. How many years ish has it been then since I had a disposable or like a film? Since you kind of grasped a little bit of photography and just hung on to it? Yeah, at least since probably like my sophomore year in high school. So, I mean, that's going on like 15 years.

And like I said, I was taking photos of friends. I did senior photos, went right into family portraits and then just kind of held onto it, but it was more of just like building a personal portfolio, just like little jobs here and there. I was going to school, had a full time job, and just kept photography on the side.

And then, yeah, 2018, it was like taking photos of my dog, posting on Instagram, doing all those things. That was when I took it a lot more serious as far as, like, I want to get paid. I want this as my job.

So, yeah, 2018 is when I really was like, yeah, we're going to start getting paid a lot more money for this. That's cool. What has been probably some of your most recent work or project that you've worked on or favorite project? Yeah, the wildlife is like a big thing for me right now, mainly because it is really pushing me in places I haven't really explored too much.

You're sitting for a long time, you're scouting animals, you're out in nature and I've always done that. But you have to be ready to be disappointed if you don't get the shots that you want and you just kind of have to go in with a whole other expectation. And then also you shoot very differently.

So that's kind of been like, where I've been wanting to really dive deep into learning more about photography is just going into that whole new side of it, doing wildlife, and it's fun. I already do that stuff anyway, so I'm like, might as well take my camera with me. And it's been fun to do.

Yeah, that's awesome. You mentioned recently on an Instagram story about your using photo mechanic, you're like, where are you going with this? Do you want to maybe share how that has maybe been a little bit of a game changer for you, or how that's helped your workflow at all? Because I know there's a few people probably listening that don't use photo mechanic, right? Yeah. So I thought the only program that I needed was to just upload my photos into Lightroom, edit and be done.

Sometimes Photoshop. But I really just thought that would be the fastest way to get all my photos done. And then I started realizing that I was uploading every single photo that I took, not using all of them for a gallery, but all those photos were being stored in Lightroom.

And it was slowing down my lightroom on my desktop so quickly. And I would go through each image and it would have to load for a second, and then I'd be like, I don't want that one. Go to the next one.

And I couldn't tell if things were in focus or not. So I think it was just like a reel on Instagram that I saw. And they just mentioned photo mechanic and how fast and quick it was.

So I downloaded it and I can't remember the price for it, but it's surprisingly cheap for what it does. And it's just like a one time purchase. It's under $100.

I can't remember. Basically, now that I take a lot more photos, like shooting wildlife, you're holding on that shutter and just praying that you're getting something. So when I'm shooting now 1000 to 2000 photos, that gives me a headache thinking that I'm just going to put that all into Lightroom.

That would take me forever. But now that I am going and just opening up photomechanic and then putting in all the photos in there and how fast it is and it's not storing them, it's just like showing them and you can quickly go through, see if the photos are in focus or not, and just select the ones that you actually want to do something with them, select tag them, and then move them all into Lightroom. So then I just have the photos that I know I'm going to edit and use and then put those into lightroom versus keeping my whole entire stack from my memory card.

So that's kind of like the watered down version on why I'm just like, oh, my gosh, photo mechanic, you're amazing. Because I can do so many more photos and get through a whole bunch and not bog up my lightroom. Nice.

I like it a lot. Praise it. Yeah, no, that's awesome.

I haven't heard it been used for a while or heard people talking about it for a while. And I think mainly for myself, just because I haven't been in that sports photographer side of things for a while. But for anyone listening, photo mechanic makes editing so much easier.

And I don't know if you're doing this yet, Maddie, but if you rate the images in camera, then you can turn around and then use photo mechanic to find your selects, the ones that you rated in camera. And then just quickly, like once you put it into photo mechanic, it will load them all within a minute. Like 2000 images within a minute.

And then literally just tell it to select the ones that are rated. You grab those and drag them into the lightroom. That's even quicker.

That's awesome. And the reason I say that is when I was shooting for the university in Alaska, they wanted me to get the 20 best images of the night on the website within five minutes of the game ending. Now, I don't know that I ever made it to that five minute mark, but I was probably within 20 to 30 minutes because of photomechanic.

And I would rate the images between the halftime or between periods, whether depending on if it's hockey or basketball or volleyball, between the periods or the halftime or timeouts, I would like move. If I wasn't trying to still capture a candid moment of the team, like on the sideline, I would try and rate the last bits of the images that I took because I knew I had a banger in there somewhere. That's genius.

I don't want to spend too long on this, but there's also some other really cool things within it. Especially. You hear a lot of sports photographers using photo mechanic, and I think this is just why I haven't really used it a ton since.

But if you have a team that you shoot on, a regular basis, you can make it so that you can change the file name of the photos to be that player's name, and you can go through and select, like, you're like, oh, I know that this jersey number 23. So you can make like a code and do all sorts of crazy things, but basically for men's basketball, UAA, I would make the code UAA, men's basketball, MBB. And then I would put, like, the player's number 21.

And all I would have to do is select those images and I'd put in that code. And it would be easy because I could see, like, I had one image that actually had his jersey number. So I would put UAAMB 23 and then I would hit that and it would basically give me, it would change the file name to his name, whoever that player was, and then it would number those images.

And the day, it was super streamlined, because when it uploaded it to the website, it wanted to have the player's name under it or associated with the image. Yeah, I feel like there's so many things you can do within photomechanic. I feel like it's straightforward, it's so nice as far as, like, you can use it to just tag and export, or like you said, you can have it create files, color code, separate into its own files and rename.

It can do those things, which is really cool. And like I said, I don't remember it being that expensive and definitely worth the investment. I love that.

Yeah. Anyone listening? Photo mechanic is awesome. If you're not organizing your photos without it, try it out.

I think there's a trial version even. Yeah. So you've got a little bit of a taste of the photography industry, would you say? Maybe? Yeah, if there's anything you would change, what would that be then? The photography industry.

Like I said, I went through my rounds of, if you're on social media and someone wants to hire you, you really have to push for your worth as a photographer. And so sometimes that can be a little tricky with being like, hey, this isn't just me going, I've had someone straight up tell me, well, you're out there taking photos anyway. Can you just take a photo for us? And I was just like, no, I'd much rather be hired and get paid to shoot images that you're going to be using for marketing and making money off my photos.

So I've had to explain that to brands a few times. So maybe like that just because it's become a lot more popular with more and more people are becoming photographers, more and more people are being hired out by other people and just really sticking to being like, this is how much I charge. Knowing that you are a professional and you spent money on education, your gear, all those things go into play versus being like, oh, this is really cool that this person wants to showcase whatever photo that I took.

So I think that might be part of it. That'll be my answer for that question. Fair enough.

Fair enough. Yeah, no, I like that. And I completely agree with that because I just agree with that.

There's a lot of people, they're like, oh, you can just take a photo. It didn't take that much work for you. And it's like, well, in the moment, no.

But if you want to take into the factor that the camera was $6,000 and it took me three years to ever find myself making enough money with my older camera to make that purchase or the time that I have invested to know how to take the right picture that you're wanting. Exactly. Yeah, for sure.

Favorite thing to photograph. So I know you've been doing a lot of stuff with wildlife and your dog and stuff, but maybe you have something that you don't show. No, I mean, that's it.

Like I said, I've caught the wildlife bug as of right now. That one's fun within that category. Just like, I don't know.

I like all the Utah animals, so I'm just like, anything I can find, I get so stoked about, honestly, I see a little bird on a perch and I'm like, I want to photograph that thing. It's fun when you've got the right equipment just to take photos of whatever. Also, along with that, I love landscape.

I wouldn't say I am an expert, by no means at being able to set up a tripod and wait for the right lighting and do all the landscape stuff. But I think Utah is so beautiful where I will take just photos of the landscapes, like, anywhere that I go. It's almost a tie between landscape and wildlife right now, but right now I'm on the wildlife kick, so any animals I can find in Utah.

It's been a lot of fun. Nice. Do you have a favorite? Mean, like, to.

Right. Like, last year was the first time I ever saw a bear in the wild, and my photos weren't great, but I still love those images. And so I want to say, like, photographing a bear, that's kind of going to be like, my goal now is just to get some good photos of bears.

Just because I'm obsessed with bears. But it's funny because I've only ever seen them in the zoo or on TV. But seeing one in the wild for the first time was, like, the most magical experience.

And I didn't even care that I didn't get good images. Like, they're my images and I love them. I haven't even shared those ones on social media because I'm like, they're okay.

So that's kind of like my thing right now. I don't even want to say that's not my favorite thing to photograph because I haven't photographed it yet, but that's the thing I'm going for. Nice.

No, I like that. That's cool. I guess this kind of wraps up the episode a bit, but this last question tips for people starting out or wanting to get into photography.

Okay. I get asked this a lot, so I always tell people because Christmas just was a few months ago, and a lot of my friends got cameras for the first time, and they're like, I know nothing about a camera, but they see on social media, and they see all these reels about manual and how to set up your camera on a manual setting. My biggest tip that I tell people is shoot in auto.

Get down. Actually taking a photo and liking what you see before you hop into manual. I tell that to people because I have people also who are like, I don't understand manual.

I don't understand this. This is so frustrating. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure, like I said, I shot in auto and I didn't even think about it because it was just me and my camera and I just liked good images.

So I just shot in auto mode all the time. And then I learned manual later because that's kind of when the creativity comes out. But I think there's, like, this crazy pressure for people to learn manual right off the bat.

And I'm like, why? I don't understand it too much other than you do get awesome images. But that's not the first thing that I would suggest to a new photographer. Watch YouTube videos with your camera in your hand.

Play around with it. I am very much a person who's like, I'm going to go through every single setting and kind of figure out what my camera does. And I do this with my brands, cameras who shoot with different brands, so that I know what's going on, but just like, getting to know your camera so that when you're in the moment, you can just take the photo and be happy about it versus wishing you knew that you knew how your camera worked, so you have to kind of just put in some sit at home by a computer with your camera before you go out and shoot.

You can definitely do it both ways, but sometimes you'll be sad that you didn't take a minute to actually learn what your camera does before going on your next trip. Don't compare yourself to anyone that will suck the joy right out of photography in 2 seconds. Find your own style.

Just start. Like I told people, I just told some of my friends, I'm like, take five images a day. I don't care what you're doing.

Just take five photos, and you'll find very quickly your style and how you like to shoot. You'll start noticing lighting a lot more. Those are my tips for a new beginner photographer.

Oh, I love that. That's great. And I agree with you on the auto thing.

Shoot in auto first. Learn composition, learn framing, get low, get high, change your perspective, and learn that first. I think, and I think even before, like you were saying before going into manual, just something that I was just thinking about.

But a lot of cameras nowadays have, like, I want to call it a micro auto. I don't know. It's not called Micro Auto.

I just made that up just so that everyone is clear. But like your aperture priority mode or shutter priority mode, there's things that let you manipulate the camera. Just one thing that you're focusing on manipulating, and then it basically does everything else automatically for you.

Yeah. Learning what shutter is, what aperture is, all the things that kind of go into manual, like breaking that down first before you just try to manage all three settings. It's a whole.

Yeah. Where can people find your work? And we'll have these in the show notes, but. Perfect.

Okay, so my photography Instagram page is Maddiek photography and my website, which I'm trying to, like I said, I'm trying to merge a few things together, is embarkwithember.com. That's my handle for my dog's account. But that's where my portfolio is.

That's where my work is. And I'm mainly on Instagram when it comes to how people can find. Yeah, perfect.

Thanks for being on here, Maddie. Appreciate it. Yeah, it's been awesome.

Thank you so much, Adam. Yeah, we'll have to get out and shoot sometime. Of course.

Yeah. I'm all about meeting up with photographers and going out and shooting. It's a lot of fun.

It's fun to be around the same people who do the same things as. Yeah, definitely big thank you to everyone. That's made it this far into the episode.

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A megaton. It's the big thing that helps make our channel, this podcast rank and grow. Basically, it helps me to be able to do more of these.

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