Today we’d like to introduce you to Fred Light.
Fred, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I got into photography and video accidentally. I was intrigued with the internet back in the early days and decided to teach myself to design websites. A friend was a Realtor, and I basically just got hooked up with many Realtors, and quickly became known as a web designer for real estate agents and brokers.
In an effort to try and make my clients stand out from everyone else online, I thought it would be fun to actually walk through a house with a video camera and show the home online from that angle. I was one of the first in the country to do this, and it was a long haul as I had ZERO knowledge of video, and at the time, video was truly in its infancy online. Most of my clients didn’t even own a computer at the time, so it was a bit of an uphill battle selling this concept.
I was completely self-taught, and from video I started becoming interested in still photography as well. After much success, my business morphed from web design for Realtors to still photography and video tours, which I still do today.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I actually never really think of anything I do as ‘art’ per se…. Since I mostly shoot houses every day, I try and take extended vacations during my slow time, mostly to those areas less traveled. I particularly enjoy photographing landscapes, wildlife and people, and my travels thus far have taken me to Iceland in the dead of winter, to the Galapagos Islands to Patagonia, Costa Rica, and most recently Antarctica.
I really don’t shoot for other people necessarily, but for myself. Sometimes just to stretch myself to shoot things completely different than I normally do, such as portraits or wildlife.
Antarctica was such a special trip, and I wish there was a way I could have conveyed the stunning, vast white wilderness of the continent. There was an indescribable feeling of being this small speck in this harshly, beautiful, majestic pristine spot on this earth, that has literally been untouched by humans and so much of the chaos that engulfs the world. I experienced and seen things that are now an integral part of me, my mind, my heart… that I will never forget. I only hope I was able to capture some of that in photos and video.
Do you think conditions are generally improving for artists? What more can cities and communities do to improve conditions for artists?
I can’t speak for other people, but I know in photography it’s easier AND harder these days. Easier as social media has given a free platform that allows photographers to put their work out to a worldwide audience. At the same time, with technology advancing at such a rapid pace, one can buy an incredibly good camera these days and learn to take photographs so much more quickly (as opposed to film days where you had to “buy” your photos and wait for hours or days to even “see” your photos after they were developed). Granted, cameras do not take photos, but it is easier for people to learn photography in the digital age than ever before.
Unfortunately, that and the internet have devalued photography in similar ways that it has devalued other industries. Micro stock sites selling pro photography for a few dollars has replaced what professional photographers did for a living merely a decade ago. Newspapers and magazines, if they’re still around, have mostly laid off their photography staff.
It’s tough to make a living being a photographer these days. I’m very grateful for my success in being a full time photographer and videographer with more business than I can handle.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My photography is mostly available to see on my Facebook page, and to some degree, Instagram – although I’ve just started posting there recently.
Facebook.com/FredLight
https://www.instagram.com/nashuavideotours/
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.FredLight.com | http://www.NashuaVideoTours.com
- Phone: 617645-4218
- Email: Fred@NashuaVideoTours.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nashuavideotours/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FredLight
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/videotours
- Other: http://www.YouTube.com/NashuaVideoTours
Image Credit:
©Fred Light 2018
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