All About Colors: Q&A With Photographer And Digital Artist Nathan Bennett
It’s natural for us to crave change. As humans, as creative people, as photographers–too much of one thing can be…too much. If you feel like you’re not making the work you were meant to create, then it’s okay to make those changes for yourself. For Nathan Bennett – a Kansas City-raised, now-LA-based Portrait Photographer and Digital Artist – that’s what he had to do. He took his “dark, moody” photos and editing techniques and transformed them into something so much brighter.
Interview with Portrait Photographer and Digital Artist Nathan Bennett
When did you start taking photos?
I started taking photos on my phone around 2013-ish but actually got a camera and started actually shooting and making money in 2014.
What was your first camera? What do you use now?
My very first camera was a Nikon D3300, and then I had a Nikon D5500. Now my favorite camera/setup ever is the Nikon D750 with a 35mm Sigma Art.
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As a portrait photographer and digital artist, your creative style is very bold and colorful. What made you want to start that? Did anything inspire you to go in that direction, creatively?
Honestly I just wanted a change of what I was originally doing, which was dark moody vibes. I wanted something that would catch people’s eyes and I knew bright vibrant colors would do just that. So I just started making all the colors pop in my photos, or even completely changing the color of a wall or piece of clothing just to make the photo that much better and appealing to the eye.
I can’t say if anything inspired me right at the moment I decided to switch my editing style but I know Jimmy Marble’s (@JimmyMarble) work inspires me and is one of my favorite photographers today. Another photographer that inspires me is Paige Margulies (@drelladarko) her work has lots of color included and I just love everything she puts out!
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What do you use to edit?
I use an iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil to edit my photos! The applications I use on that are Affinity Photo and Lightroom. I have been editing on an iPad for about 1.5 years now and I love it! Being able to edit on the iPad is perfect for on the go workflow. It’s also super helpful when it comes to changing colors and editing the way I do, just because with the Apple Pencil you can zoom in and get all the places you want to change easily.
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Tell us: what is @thekccreatives? When and why did you create this?
The KC Creatives is an Instagram feature account that I started a little over 2 years ago. I wanted to start something that brought creatives in the Kansas City area together to be able to create with each other. We try to hold meet ups as much as we can and they are typically a great place to network and find new artist to collaborate with.
When I first started it, I would have a bunch of creatives take over the account and post about themselves because we never really know much about our favorite artist – we just know what their profile picture is and a few things we have learned from their Instagram stories. I also made it an outlet to introduce yourself, explain what all you do, what gear you use and fun stuff like that. It grew pretty quickly and I now have team members that run it back home in KC since I’m out here in LA. I made it to bring people together to create art and connect with each other and we have done just that with the meet ups we have hosted!
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Do you have any advice for your fellow photographers or anyone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Advice for any photographers starting out I’d say just shoot as much as you possibly can. Even if it’s just going in your backyard and taking photos of your mom’s tomatoes, just practice and learn your camera settings.
Shoot for yourself. Don’t worry about constantly having to shoot just so you can post onto Instagram.
For anyone wanting to follow in my footsteps as a photographer, all I can say is: if you’re going to do colorful edits, be sure that you have a lot of time and patience. The end result typically looks super fun and cool but it takes time!
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