Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Osborn.
Hi Scott, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Back in 2010, I had the opportunity to assist a professional photographer at the Red Bull Rampage mountain bike event down in Virgin, Utah. An event where mountain bikers compete to get down a steep mountain with the most style and perform the biggest tricks off of massive drops and jumps. I really enjoyed being able to capture amazing photos with a camera even though at the time he was adjusting most of the settings for me.
Shortly after this competition, I bought my own camera, a Nikon D7000. Right off the bat, I had this burning desire to teach myself everything there was to know about photography and that’s exactly what I did. I used Youtube, Books, and online articles to acquire everything now. I wish I could have shared some of this same passion for learning back when I was in school, because never in my life had I felt so passionate about knowing everything about a subject.
As I continued to polish my photography skills, I kind of stumbled into paid work. My initial focus was solely on landscapes but the paid work at the beginning was coming from portraits, weddings, engagements, and family photos. Funny enough, even though assisting a photographer at a mountain bike event was what got me into photography, I didn’t get into sports photography seriously until about 4 years ago, and that’s where I feel I took a really big leap in my skills and understanding my value. I got paid to travel to places like the Sunshine Coast BC, Bellingham Washington, Colorado, and Moab to photograph professional mountain bikers, doing work for multiple different brands.
It was never my intention to become a professional photographer, I feel like I stumbled into it honestly. And I kind of love that, even though I am making money with it the passion is still strong as ever, and what matters more to me than making money from photography (since I do have a full-time sales job) is having amazing life experiences, and photography has provided exactly that. I’m still excited to see what new opportunities and experiences photography can provide me!
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?
As with anything, there have been ups and downs, sure. But overall, I feel like the road has been smooth. I’ve been fortunate to have full-time jobs along the way which have provided the funding to purchase the necessary equipment to perform at high levels and allow me to do my own travels to photograph some amazing places.
I think one of my biggest frustrations is when you’ve spent thousands of dollars and equipment, thousands of hours to learn and practice your craft, and you have people who want to do a bunch of free work for them. Their reasoning is always that it will help build your portfolio but after shooting for 11-12 years, that’s not much of a concern anymore haha.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Most photographers, in the beginning, told me I had to focus on one genre in order to do well, but I completely ignored that advice and am very happy I did. I love to shoot Landscapes (travel, adventure, lifestyle), Sports, and Portraits. I love each of the genres for different reasons and they each provide their own challenges, and I appreciate how well-rounded I am rather than being a one-trick pony.
My Instagram page is primarily filled with Landscapes and adventure photos, so I think that’s mostly what I am known for along with my aerial photos. A couple of years ago, I connected with a Paramotor pilot (Dom Clark) which has given me the opportunity to go on multiple flights to capture these incredible aerial landscape photos.
Being able to fly yourself rather than flying a drone gives you so much more freedom, drones have a ton of restrictions. Paramotoring flights with Dom, we are able to fly 10-6500′ above the earth whereas a drone is legally limited to fly at 400′ and the quality doesn’t compare to a DSLR or Mirrorless handheld camera!
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
My focus the last year or two has been marketing myself to more brands because I feel working with these brands will lead to some of the most epic life experiences.
If I continue to focus my marketing efforts on outdoors-type brands, I’ll get to continuously be shooting the things I love to photograph, get more paid travel opportunities, and work with some awesome professionals in a bunch of different industries.
One of the best things about photography is all the people you’re able to meet and network with along the way, all sharing an interest in photography and the outdoors.
Pricing:
- 2 Hour Shoot $350
- Half-Day Rate $800
- Day Rate $1200
- Sponsored IG Feed Post $300
Contact Info:
- Email: scottosborn89@gmail.com
- Website: https://scottosborn.smugmug.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottosbornphoto/
Image Credits
@ScottOsbornPhoto
