Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Concepcion.
Hi Nathan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I started like many people taking photos and videos as a hobby back in the summer of 2017 using my mom’s old Canon PowerShot SX 30IS. I asked a couple friends to teach me when I saw them taking photos, and I was really intrigued with how you could manipulate photos in Lightroom. At the time, I was hanging out at The Korean Rose in Convoy a lot and happened to mention to the owners that I was getting into photography and offered my services if they were interested. After a few months, they took me up on my offer and became my first client and are still one of my regular clients to this day. I borrowed my younger brother’s Nikon D3200 and got to work. Eventually, I got connected with the stylist, Lady Maximo, and she invited me and another photographer friend to shoot some editorial work for fun and that was my first taste of fashion photography with a legitimate model, stylist, and make-up artist. From that moment I was hooked and to this day, that shoot is still one of my favorites. I bought my first camera, the Sony a6000, and eventually graduated to the a7II, and I currently shoot on the Sony a9. At this point in my career, I’ve shot anything and everything from food and product, to fashion, weddings, maternity, family, and even newborn photos. I’ve had the opportunity to shoot a mini-documentary series on a para-cyclist and gotten to work with the likes of Chef Phillip Esteban and Creative Director Erwin Hines, people who I probably would have never been able to work with and even become friends with had I not picked up a camera.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t always been easy. I don’t think anything that’s worth doing is quick and easy. I’ve gotten to points where I lost big contracts and struggled financially which forced me into taking on full-time roles that I eventually began to despise because I really had a passion for telling stories through photo and video and I didn’t get that fulfillment at a full-time job. So, a couple times, I told myself I wouldn’t make a living out of freelance and took on full-time jobs only to quit because of a desire to go shoot what I wanted and tell the stories that I felt needed to be told. And I think that’s a struggle that every creative person has to face because it’s expensive to live in San Diego and sometimes we want to compromise our gift or passion or desires and all the work it took to get good because we need a paycheck. The dream is that someone sees our talent and hard work and gives us enough of a chance where we get to use that talent and still get what we need to live while challenging us enough to where we don’t become complacent in our art.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I think connecting my faith to my art and passion have changed the way that I create photos and videos and tell stories. I used to think that my faith had nothing to do with my art, but when I began to look at people through the lens of how God looks at people with love and grace, it opened me up to a brand-new perspective. My goal when I capture photos and videos of people, whether we explicitly talk about it or not, is to be able to show them a glimpse of how God sees them; that they are loved, that they matter, that there is grace no matter what they’ve been through and what mistakes they’ve made and it’s amazing that a photo can have that kind of impact on a person.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
My favorite thing to do outside of shooting is probably eating so I love that we have such a wide variety of foods to choose from. You can do a night of fine dining downtown or stop by a yakitori spot later at night in Convoy. You drive south closer to the border and there’s literally too many taco shops to choose from. And of course, we can’t forget about the array of boba shops in the city. I think the thing that I like least is the cost of living. America’s finest city is as expensive as it is beautiful and you can argue that it’s not worth it, but when you’ve really gotten to experience life here and everything the city has to offer from the South Bay up to North County, you’ll begin to understand why people have a hard time leaving despite the cost.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nathanconcepcion.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanconcepcion/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanconcepcion/
Image Credits
Darwin Avalos
