 In this episode Will talking to his friend and fellow photographer from college Erich Chen. Erich and Will met in college as photographer for their school newspaper, Erich then went on to be a professional photographer working in mostly weddings and editorial photography. In the interview Erich talks about becoming a wedding photographer, the business of it, and his advice for starting out as a wedding photopgrapher, as well as some of the base gear he uses for different parts of the wedding. 

Close Focus Photography Podcast

Lifestyle Wedding Photographer Erich Chen

 In this episode we talk to Tamar Levine about becoming a professional commercial and free lance photographer. She takes us through her education, her first couple jobs, and why you shouldn’t be a freelance artist unless you can't be happy doing anything else. Tamar Levine is an LA-based filmmaker, photographer, and creative producer. After receiving a BFA with honors from Art Center College of Design, Tamar went on to create commercials, videos, and photo campaigns for a wide range of fashion, music, and commercial clients including Victoria's Secret PINK, Urban Decay, Lexus, Warner Bros Records, Flaunt Magazine, The American Red Cross, Save the Children, Nylon Magazine, Lincoln Motors, and many more. Her work has won numerous awards including ADC Young Guns, New Exposure by Vogue, Redx & Bottega Veneta, and Communication Arts, and has been shown at festivals, galleries, and museums throughout the world, including LACMA and Bergamot Station. Visit PhotographyandFriends.com to listen to other episodes, learn how to become a better photographer and take a photography course. Follow Tamar on Instgram @tamarlevine 

Freelance Commercial Photographer Tamar Levine

In the first episode of Close Focus, Will sits down with Sam Shimizu-Jones. Sam talks about how he first got into photography, his first job, and why he leaned into video for work and photography as a hobby. Sam tells the story of shooting Llamas in South America, traveling around the world with a famous band, and why he switched from a Nikon camera system to a mirrorless Sony system. He also goes into detail about one of his more recent instagram posts and what his artistic thoughts were behind it. No bags of rice were discussed. Visit PhotographyandFriends.com to listen to other episodes, learn how to become a better photographer and take a photography course. Check out the Nikon Photography course Will mentioned in this episode. Follow Sam on Instgram @shimizujones

Travel Photographer and Teacher Sam Shimizu-Jones

Close Focus is a podcast for all photographers featuring in-depth interviews with photographers covering everything from how they got started to camera gear talk and beyond. The Close Focus podcast is produced by William Carnahan from the Photography & Friends team in collaboration with Phil Ebiner from Video School Online. Read the show notes, start learning how to become a better photographer, and enroll in a photography course at PhotographyandFriends.com.