Check Out Kyle Brown’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle Brown

Kyle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I have always wanted to be a photographer. I remember being in first grade, and my Spanish teacher had us write down what we wanted to be when we grew up. I always had a camera around my neck, so naturally I always said a photographer. I found it to be a lot of fun and thought it would make a fun career. The Spanish teacher had a son who at the time was a videographer for the Philadelphia Eagles, so she always pushed me to go for that dream.
Fast forward to after graduation, and I decided to move out from New Jersey to Toledo, Ohio to pursue a degree in photography. After graduating in 2017 with my photography degree, I knew my two passions were sports and concerts. Those were the two areas of photography I found to be more “me” as I didn’t enjoy taking photos of still subjects, and preferred things that I couldn’t control. Things with a lot of movement, lighting I had to adapt to, and were fun and different each time I shot something. By learning, and networking through clients in and out of college, I was able to get my foot in both doors and start my photography career in a successful manner immediately.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Photography never is a smooth road. There are so many worries that can cross one’s mind. Equipment and equipment failures. You need to make sure all your equipment is up to date and functioning. The last thing you want or need, is to be at a shoot and have dead batteries, a broken lens, or worse.
Clients are also hard to come by. There are so many photographers in every city, so you need to know how to make yourself stand out. Advertising is huge.
Learning how to keep up with the times, and not be stuck is also critical. You have to be willing to always learn and advance your craft, as trends come as quickly as the last one ended.
There will never be a smooth, easy road to navigate. It’s just the nature of the beast in the photo world.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in the music photography industry primarily, with sports photography as my close second. I do dabble in studio things, but concerts and sports are were most of my work is done.
I am most proud of my ability to overcome and adapt in a grueling and hard to get into industry. So many people go to college, get their degree, and then do nothing with it. So many friends I met in college, reverted back to jobs their degree has nothing to do with. I am proud I kept my foot down and made myself go through the hard times to reach a point where I am constantly shooting concerts in a company I love to work for. The competitiveness of the market, made it hard to get into. Once Covid hit, bands and artists made it ten times harder to get into shows. At that time, I was just starting out with a company that was taking on smaller named bands, that has now grown into a company that is able to get some of the biggest names in the industry, to accept and approve us to photograph them and write a show review.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Keep on pushing to make your dreams come true. Do not expect to make it shooting high end things, bands, sports immediately. You will need to prove yourself, and that takes time. It took me three years to get past the “prove it” stage and have a portfolio worth sharing.
You will need to start low, and local. Build the connections, and improve from there. Find outlets that can get you into sports events or concerts. Do your research, and be patient. This is a slow moving industry, it will take years to move up. Once you do however, it is worth the wait.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Kylethomasbrown.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/photokyle4