Today we’d like to introduce you to Caden Browning
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I bought a cellphone (the Google Pixel 2xl) because for whatever reason, I wanted to use the camera on it. Up to that point, I’ve never touched a camera or even knew what one was. I started taking photos with the Google Pixel because it was fun, and the photos looked good. Then I became roommates with a cousin of mine who studied photography at Brigham Young University and he taught me everything he knew about cameras, Adobe programs, etc.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The thing that I learned really quickly is no one cares about photography unless you have a following behind you. Learning that was really hard because I was taking some cool photos and no one cared about them at all. I had to keep learning, keep improving, and most of all, I had to keep sending out cold emails and cold DMs to people who I thought would give me a chance at either taking photos of them or taking photos of their product.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a photographer who specializes in candid photography as well as skateboarding photography. Photography is a large and broad subject, there are so many things you can do with it beyond taking photos of models or landscapes. I started off with taking photos of nature, but it bored me kind of fast so I started sneaking my camera to skateparks, I’d try to sneakily take photos of my friends while they were skateboarding, but those didn’t turn out for any good photos. Then one of my friends just called me out and said, “Get that camera out, and let’s snap some photos.” And that’s where it all started.
I was hooked with the idea of capturing a good skateboarding photo. Now when I first started, even though I am a skateboarder myself, I had no idea what a skate photo looked like, how to frame it or capture it, nor did I know of any actual skateboard photographers. I just learned how to frame photos from YouTube videos and I learned how to use Adobe from my cousin so slowly but surely, I started to figure things out. Then one day, a friend of mine has a big backyard skate ramp called a bowl, and he told me that there were going to be a ton of pro skateboarders going to his home to skate his bowl. I canceled all of my plans and quickly went over there. And that’s when I met my first ever pro skateboard photographer. Well, I didn’t meet him that night, I saw him from a distance, took notes on how he was taking photos, where he was standing, and what kind of lens he was using. The next morning, I discovered who that photographer was and I looked up his contact information and I emailed him all these questions I had. He was kind enough to answer me back and answered most of my questions then he pointed me toward some YouTube videos that talked about skateboarding photos specifically. I devoured those videos, watched them over and over again and everything I took from those videos, I adapted to my style of shooting photos and I’ve continued to learn and improve.
What am I most proud of? Well, I had an audacious idea: take photos of Tony Hawk. I spent a year trying to contact him and got nowhere. Then in 2022, I was able to get a hold of him and he invited me to his warehouse to take photos of him. That is to this day the coolest moment of my life. I was there with Tony Hawk and his friends and they were skateboarding, cracking jokes, doing tricks for me, even yelling at me to get the photo and not mess up. It was amazing. I still think about that day because I’m not famous or well known in the skateboading community, but I was able to do the thing that so many people dream about and that’s photograph the literal face of skateboarding.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Perseverance and never being afraid to ask questions. Cold emails and cold DMs (even cold calls if you’re brave enough) will get you a long way in life. I want to take photos and explore and capture moments that will be people’s memories for a lifetime and I found that the only way to do that is to be brave and go out and ask people. There are a lot of gatekeepers in any field, a harsh reality and those gatekeepers don’t want new people coming into their territory. I have found that some people who could be considered gatekeepers are actually pretty nice and if you approach them with sincerity and a hunger, they just might surprise you with helping you out.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cadensbrowning.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cadencaptures/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cadenbrowning
