Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick Chin.
Hi Patrick, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
In 2005 I was working as a barista my freshman year of college and I mentioned to a friend that I’d been interested in learning photography. Not more than a week later he showed up while I was working and gifted me an old 1960’s Canon 35mm film camera. For the next decade, I was constantly taking photos but never thought I was building towards a future career. I was just having fun taking photos of my friends and travels.
Years later I was working in Orlando as a sales rep at a screen-printing shop and my boss saw on my Instagram that I had an interest in photography. One day he asked if I wanted to transition into a marketing and photography role instead. I jumped at the chance even though I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never used a “real” camera before but they bought me a Canon 6D, my first DSLR camera, and then I spent a few months with a more experienced photographer training me in the studio. I left there in 2014 to test the freelance waters and within two months of leaving my job Apple reached out to me and bought some images off of me for their first “Shot on iPhone” campaign back in 2014/2015. It was just the affirmation I needed and I kept at it, slowly building a clientele, and a style and here we are now over eight years later. It’s been a wild ride, but I’ve had a blast finding a niche. After some years of thinking I needed to be a photographer that only shoots one kind of thing I learned that rather than sticking to one subject matter, I found a lane photographing what I think of as elevated and idealized moments with a through-line of warmth and light across many different subjects. I get bored doing just one thing. I now work a lot in hospitality photographing boutique and luxury hotels, bars and restaurants, lifestyle brand work, portraits and headshots, cars and travel imagery, as well as whatever else captures my interest in the moment. It sounds like a mess, but I think when people see my work it all makes sense together. It all has the same feeling.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Honestly, I think I’ve been really lucky. I don’t think going freelance or pursuing your dream is ever easy, and I know I’ve worked hard, but I do think I’ve caught a lot of lucky breaks and I had a lot of “right place, right time” kind of things going on that I’m very grateful for. In my early years, I was constantly cold emailing companies I wanted to work with and I knew the clients and budgets I wanted to work with were not in Orlando (sorry, Orlando) so I spent a lot of my own money traveling to get in front of those clients. Covid was obviously a bit of a speed bump, being that I work so much in hospitality, but we got through it fine and I was able to work in studio a lot for that time. Things have bounced back just fine and while I know that’s not the story that many people have in this industry, I’m holding my breath for when I may ever have a big hiccup. I continue to do the majority of my work out of town, so when I’m here it is usually just editing and admin work that I’m doing. It’s nice to really be able to “turn off” a bit when I’m home in Orlando.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m obsessed with process. I think it’s what sets my work apart. After a few years working freelance, I could feel that I needed to “up my game” and I bought my first set of lights and started incorporating strobes into my workflow. I was tired of not being fully in control of the color and the dynamics of a scene. I had used lighting a good bit at the screen-printing shop but had never really figured out how to use them in a natural light setting. In my mind, strobes were too strong and the only way a strobe could look is that terrible high-key look from things like AP Magazine in the mid 2000s. Now walking into a shoot, my favorite part is deciding how I want the images to feel – what time of day should it look like, how warm/cool should it be, how dynamic or flat should it be, etc. I nerd out on it. I don’t like for people to be able to tell I used any lighting, but I’d say 95% of my portfolio is using anywhere from 1-4 strobe lights. It’s so fun. In my best moments, I work hard to make things feel like it’s the perfect time of day for whatever the scene is.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My wife, Kimberly, is my biggest supporter and cheerleader. She helps me assisting or just speaking into what I do creatively whenever she can, but she’s been on board with my journey from day one and is so helpful and encouraging. I also owe my old friend, Hunter Pittman, a lot of credit for being so kind and gifting me that camera so long ago. I’m grateful to Real Thread for putting me in that photography role and believing in me to try new things. They got me so many tangible resources and gave me a lot of time to cut my teeth. I learned everything I could while I was there and they first the first step in my journey to this point. The LINE Hotel in LA was my first big break in the boutique hotel world and I’m so thankful that the client there trusted me to do a good job. I continue to work with those people to this day even though many of them are in new roles at new places. Also, I’m grateful to Brian Soderlind, another local photog, who came into Real Thread and coached me through my early days in the studio on what gear we needed and how to work things.
And then most importantly I think I’ve had really good creative community through the years. These days it’s mostly group chats with fellow photographer friends where we can share work or ask questions or even work together. It’s been such a good resource and encouragement to me.
Contact Info:
- Email: hi@patrickmichaelchin.com
- Website: http://patrickmichaelchin.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/iampatrickchin
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/iampatrickchin
- Other: http://sumstudios.co
