Today we’d like to introduce you to David Burns.
David, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My journey started around 12 years ago now when I started hanging out with some friends in New Smyrna Beach who were professional surfers and involved in other types of action sports like skating and motocross. My goal was to start filming and making edits of short videos to put on youtube since youtube was so new. Quickly I realized how much I just loved to take pictures and film pretty much anything and make my own edits.
From there, I started touring with a local band anytime they would play shows. I would pretty much film everything and make these pretty insignificant edits on youtube. But people seemed to like them. So I stuck with that for around three years and then had this idea to start a documentary series on youtube that showed the in’s and out’s of touring with different bands. But after releasing the first episode of that, I realized that lifestyle wasnt sustainable for me. So I just kept taking photos and filming local shows of bands I liked. That helped me gain a ton of experience and learn a lot about photography/videography. Im completely self-taught. So all my years spent just bringing my camera along with me everywhere I have went, really made me have to adapt and learn on the fly. Within the last four years, however, is where I have started to take things a bit more serious and pursuing work as a freelancer.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The road has been anything but smooth for me. I spent about two years riding around with a band, in which (no joke) we were gone for almost every weekend. I remember tracking the amount of shows they played the last year, and I remember that October-December, we were gone every single weekend and for 2-3 weeks. The band never made any money, so I wasnt being paid. Once I began building a resume in the freelance world, I’ve had some luck working alongside some incredibly talented creatives on really cool projects but also have been struggling to maintain a solid schedule of projects. But in the meantime, I stay trying to help local business’s or just create content on my own time to help out friends because I just love to create and sharpen my skills.
What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of? What sets you apart from others?
I’m a freelance photographer/videographer. My experience in both mediums spans of 12 years, and recently within the last four years, I have been operating in the freelance production world. I have worked on productions in a variety of positions from second assistant director, Digital Imaging Technician, camera operator, director of photography, producer and production assistant. When it comes to my style as a photographer, I like to prioritize natural lighting and focusing on my in-camera settings to produce high-quality images. This style stems from my love of movies and cinematographers like Greg Frasier, Roger Deakins, Linus Sandgren, and Masanobu Takayanagi.
Growing up in the digital boom and era of photoshop made me think that being a photographer or videographer was more about the editing you did. So for a long time, I struggled with Imposter Syndrome thinking that I wasnt as good as I thought because I didnt want to spend a lot of time editing. So I ended up just exploiting my own skills and time I spent shooting shows in venues with little to no lighting and then researching cinematographers of movies I loved to learn more about lighting and composition. I’m very prideful in my style and workflow because I feel like it sets me apart and gives me a unique signature to my work.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Honestly, the best piece of advice I can give is to buy a camera and take it with you everywhere you go. Get yourself a prime lens, and just walk around, travel. Shoot anything and everything. Then, ask your friends to take photos of their stuff or help their business. Walk into a store and ask them if you can make them a cool video for social media. Just go out and find what you love and learn how to do it. The networking will come from finding people who also love to create.
Contact Info:
- Email: dburns202@gmail.com
- Website: www.burns.work
- Instagram: @daveyxburns
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy_SrbN_RD6niLOfNXKbD9g
