Hey Wicked Hunters,
Excited to announce this week guest for The Art of Photography Podcast with John Weatherby.
John Weatherby, a skilled photographer from Tampa, embarked on his photographic journey while juggling waitering duties during his college years. His initial foray into photography began with managing social media accounts, which sparked an interest in enhancing his photographic skills. This newfound passion led Weatherby to invest in professional gear, including a DSLR camera and lighting equipment.
Breaking away from the hospitality sector, Weatherby turned his lens towards the scenic vistas of Tampa Bay. His unique captures of the city quickly garnered local admiration and underscored his potential to transform his hobby into a thriving career. In 2015, Weatherby established Weatherby Photography, a venture that has since collaborated with prominent names like Uber, the University of Tampa, and the Home Depot.
Renowned for his vibrant and innovative depictions of Tampa, Weatherby excels in presenting the city through a creative lens. His portfolio, however, is not limited to fine art; it also encompasses commercial and architectural photography. Weatherby’s philosophy revolves around the gratification of turning a beloved hobby into a sustainable livelihood. He finds immense joy and fulfillment in not only pursuing his passion but also in adding value to the lives and businesses of others through his artistic talent.
You can connect and browse through more of John’s work below:
https://linktr.ee/whereisweatherby
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whereisweatherby/
Website and prints: https://johnweatherby.com/
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Transcription
John Weatherby 0:00
It gets really confusing really fast. But having guidance from somebody who has experienced and who is like working professionally will help a lot. At the end of the day, you can price your art or your work at whatever you want.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 0:25
Hey, wicked hunters Welcome back to The Art of Photography podcast, where we share artists journey and show how we can give hope, purpose and happy and today we have someone special, someone who’s been in the photography, travel and landscape photography scene for a long, long time, someone who’s been very respected in this place. And today, I want to introduce John Weatherby. John, welcome to the podcast, very excited to have you here. How things on your end, I know you’re in New York, and at the moment, what’s going on? Not much. i Yeah, I’m in New York right now, I taking a break from Van life, I’m usually travelling in my Sprinter van, for the most part, but I like to take a break now and then and rent a place in a big city like New York, because it’s just the opposite of Van life. You know, like, you know, Van life can be very remote and inconvenient sometimes, which can be good. But if you’re, you know, trying to check out from the busy world, but yeah, New York is like the opposite of that. So just striking a balance, and usually take this time to get caught up on work and filming and stuff like that, where I need like a consistent space. And that’s awesome. I know you got I know, you have a really nice backdrop there. And Ben van life is awesome. It’s something that is in my bucket list. You know, before COVID I was a wanted to drive down to South America as actually it was literally a week before everything closed down. You know, before I was gonna go out, so yeah, man, I’m, I’m gonna make it, make it back there one day, but that’s awesome. So before we get into, you know,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 2:16
depth into, you know, what are your journey, some of the things that you have been doing in the photography space, share with us a little bit about you? What got you into photography? Like, how do you fall in love with photography? And what make you stay? Yeah.
John Weatherby 2:32
Okay. So when I was finishing school, I was working as a waiter. And I,
John Weatherby 2:40
I’ve always been kind of entrepreneurial. So I made an arrangement with the restaurant that I worked at, to basically manage their social media, or not manage it, but posts on it periodically, and I would take photos of the food for the Instagram, basically. So I was taking photos of sushi at this restaurant. And then I worked out the tray basically, to where I could take photos of the food and then eat for free, basically. So
John Weatherby 3:09
a professional photographer came into the restaurant one day, and he took photos for the menu. And he had this whole elaborate setup. He had, you know, professional gear, Nikon prime lenses. He had the flash with the umbrellas and all this stuff. So when I saw the photos that he took, compared to my iPhone photos, I was like, blown away. So that was my first I guess, like exposure to photography. And then when I realised that like, I wanted to step my own game up, I reached out to him and got advice on what kind of camera to buy. So I started taking photos at the restaurant first with, you know, a DSLR. And then I started getting curious, and I started going out and taking photos of the skyline around Tampa. I’m from Tampa, Florida. And then people started noticing the photos that I was sharing of this Tampa skyline and asking to buy prints of them. So that you know, set up a light bulb like oh, well I can money from this. And then people started reaching out to me asking me to do photo shoots. So I would get asked to do like headshots for people or take, you know, real estate photos, family photos and stuff like that. So I started doing that as like a side hustle. And through the advice of a mentor. He told me basically if you really like photography, you know continue to work at the restaurant, post graduation and just take on more and more clients until you get so busy that you could leave the restaurant and do photography for work. So that’s what I did. And I started doing commercial photography around Tampa Bay and you know, I realised I can make pretty good money with that. So I had a little studio space for a while, and I was doing work with clients like commercial stuff and lifestyle stuff. And then I started using those funds to travel. And, you know, through travelling, I fell in love with travel and landscape photography. So, you know, one, the commercial stuff became a means to the end, I was, you know, flying home to Tampa, you know, booking multiple shoots back to back within a week or two so that I can make money, and then travel, as long as I could on that money, go back and repeat the cycle, until I eventually realised how I can make money through landscape and travel photography, right. So I started doing workshops, I started booking shoots, in different places for commercial clients, to where I can, you know, go to Iceland and take some photos, you know, for example, of a product or work with a company to use their product to take photos or, you know, create content for their marketing and stuff like that in different places. And then, eventually, I started teaching photography more doing workshops and creating courses and created a plugin for Photoshop. And that’s kind of where I’m at today.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 6:24
Yeah, that’s amazing. What What a journey it started with the Shushi you must have liked the shoe shoe there. Hey, started
John Weatherby 6:31
off sushi. Now. We’re here and
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 6:34
fantastic. That is awesome. Honestly, I’ve heard a lot of stories how people started photography. Never ever I heard it started with a sushi. And that’s just incredible how, you know, you go from taking photo with an iPhone at a sushi place to where you are today. Yeah, so
John Weatherby 6:51
that’s where things will lead. It’s, it’s, it’s crazy looking back all the dots connected, you know? But yeah,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 7:00
and that’s awesome. Because, you know, I think a lot of people are very impatient. And you know, when they’re looking at, oh, man, I’m not there. And, you know, they just like, oh, I don’t think I’m gonna make it or, you know, what’s what’s wrong with me? Or why? Why can I make it. But as you say, you know, looking back, connecting the dots and seeing how it all transpired to where it bring you today. I think that’s a really powerful message. Now you say you were your post grad, you know, and you’re working at the restaurant, and you are doing this as a side hustle. What, what were you studying back then?
John Weatherby 7:35
I was studying advertising and public relations. So my original plan was to become like, an account manager for like an ad agency. So that was kind of my idea. I actually did an internship while I was in school, and then, you know, I realised through that it was at a marketing agency. And I realised that’s not really what I was interested in, you know, like, sitting in a desk nine to five every day was pretty dreadful. So I, yeah, I’m, I love, you know, the change of scenery, I love, you know, taking on different projects, and, you know, switching things up and not necessarily having a routine. So photography definitely provide that for me versus, you know, sitting at a desk and doing the same stuff every single day. I gotta came in imagine, yeah, that’s awesome. And so, you know, advertising and photography and all that stuff. Content Creation. Yeah.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 8:32
And so, you know, when, when it comes to you shared earlier that, you know, you were you’re going through a different phase in photography, and started from just, I guess, you were kind of leaning in from that ad and, and PR side of it, doing it for someone else for that sushi restaurant, and then you kind of transition across, what are what were some of the biggest challenges that you have to making making this full time as a photographer?
John Weatherby 9:03
Yeah, so Well, first and foremost, you know, getting clients, right, which I luckily crack that piece kind of by accident, because, you know, realise I found out the power of social media. So when people started seeing me share my photos with Tampa, that gained exposure in my community, and made people in Tampa aware of my services, right. So luckily, I figured that out early on is that you know, social media is really powerful for getting in front of people organically and, you know, if you do it correctly, you can, you know, target people that are interested in your services specifically, right. So that’s one piece to it. Another piece was just figuring out like business right? Like I’m a creative so learning the ins and outs of business, you know, being organised and learning price during negotiation, communication, all this stuff is something that doesn’t come naturally to creatives, I feel like so, you know, you, you really do have to learn that stuff. But luckily, there’s lots of resources online, you can take on mentor, I reached out to a lot of different photographers, when I was just starting out to get advice on pricing, and working with clients. So I had a service background, right, like, I worked in the service industry, I was a waiter. So luckily, I did have a lot of experience working with people, you know, talking to strangers, interacting and giving good customer service, you know, providing a good experience. So that was, that was something that came a little more natural, but even when I started actually working as a waiter, you know, I had no experience with that. And that was a very awkward and uncomfortable start. So I think if somebody who is getting into the industry and working with clients, you know, is just starting up, that can be a challenge as well. So, yeah, I think the biggest challenge really is figuring out how to make money, how to monetize your passions, and then how to price those, right, and also establishing the value, right, like believing in your value, how much you’re worth, and what you can charge and all that stuff. That’s all mindset. So I think mindset is a big piece to it, you know, your, your belief about what is possible, you know, needs to be huge. And you can work on that you can grow that and gain competence and charging and your, your abilities through practice and through reaching out to people who have experienced that can share their experience, right? Yeah, that’s,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 11:47
that’s a really eye opener there. I know that it took me a long time to realise that the the entrepreneur mindset or a photo printer mindset, a lot of us like to call it versus the artistic mindset is direct opposite one of them is idealistic. One of them is trial and error, right? minimum viable product. And a lot of the whole mindset is is basically direct opposite of, you know, and this is probably one of the reasons why it’s very difficult for artists to make it without having that business background. Now. I love what you say there. I think there’s a couple of things that you say that really is three things actually, that that’s really important, which is first you say believing in your value, the second, the mindset, and third, the confidence behind your product right behind what you’re going to charge. Now. I could we, I guess everyone would argue that those three thing is probably one of the hardest thing that we need to do. You know, especially as a photographer, as a creator, as an artist, there’s a lot of impostor syndrome, you know, a lot of yeah, just like this internal stuff going on. What would be? Let’s, let’s first talk about confidence, right? Because I think like, you know, value goes back to confidence, how do you gain that confidence? When you first start it? Right? How do you gain that confidence so that when you put yourself out there, when you put your value out there, people can actually see and believe the
John Weatherby 13:32
value, you gain competence through experience and knowledge, right? So like, the more that you do something, the better you’re gonna get at it, the more comfortable you’re gonna feel doing it and the more confident you’re going to be right. So at first, you’re going to need to fake it basically, right? I mean, you can you can learn so what I what I used to do is when somebody would reach out to me for service that I didn’t have any experience with, I would find a tutorial, I would go on YouTube find videos, I would find somebody who’s selling a course on architecture, photography, on headshot photography, on food photography, product photography, right? I would learn everything that I could, so that I could basically do that job as best as I could. But there is an element of like faking it till you make it as well, right? So you, you kind of have to just, you have to feel uncomfortable, you have to try and do the best you can. And then keep practising and as you learn more, and you practice what you learn, you’re going to become better and as you become better, you’re going to be more confident, right? So yeah, in my opinion, the confidence comes from the experience and the knowledge and the more that you can learn and the more you can implement what you learn, the more confident you’re going to be. But yeah, there is kind of like a I honestly, like, felt so uncomfortable when people reach out to me for, you know, a service that I hadn’t really learned or, or like become good at yet. But I would just have to be like, yeah, sure, I can do that, you know, and then I would just be freaking out in my mind. Well, I like learning everything I could and then, yeah, eventually, it just becomes comfortable.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 15:25
Yeah, that’s awesome. You know, I think that’s the scariest thing for us to do is just to go out there put expose ourselves be uncomfortable and grow from actually taking action. Right. That’s incredible. I love hearing that. Now, going back to the value side of things, right? So pricing, and valuing your service valuing your art, you know, whether it’s brands, whether it’s commercial service, how do you go about that? Because we see this a lot in the space where people are either undercutting their own price, because, you know, they don’t, they either don’t value their own product or their own self. Or sometimes they just even give it for free, right, with no strategy on how to monetize that. And for that reason, most creatives feel like, well, I can’t make it in this industry, like what’s going on? Like, you know, I don’t know, this is not for me, etc, etc. So what are some of your take on, on value on building a value behind your product and services so that you can get paid for the value that you actually give?
John Weatherby 16:41
Yeah, well, okay, so going back to, like the experience and becoming better and better, the better that you get, the more you’re going to increase your belief and how valuable you are. But something you have to remember, as well as is that, you know, you’re creating value for for people, whether that’s art on their walls, or photos for their business for marketing, you’re creating value. And, yeah, I think you’d increase your value by becoming better, you know, through experience, but it’s tough, because you’re gonna look at other people in the industry and compare, and you’re gonna think, oh, wow, they’re way better than me, you know, I need to charge less than them. That’s kind of how I looked at it. At first, I would look for people who were offering the same services as me, and see what they were charging and kind of like gauge myself, compared to them, and then charge accordingly, right? I don’t think that’s really the healthiest way, especially because your perception of your work is going to be different from other people’s perception. I used to reach out to photographers in different fields and get advice, right. Like, when I first started doing commercial photography, I reached out to commercial photographers and asked about day rates, and you know, what to include in those, whether it was just the shooting, how many hours was like, include editing, if I was going to not include editing, how much was like charging for that how much was charging for licencing for different, you know, things and it gets really confusing really fast. But having guidance from somebody who has experienced and who is like working professionally will help a lot. At the end of the day, you can price your art or your work at whatever you want, whatever your you know, value think and I mean, people, people will pay you according to your own belief as well, like, you know, you can establish value through a lot of different ways you can demonstrate it right. You know, whether your services are in demand, who you’ve worked with, you know, your experience, the quality, that’s subjective, but you know, everybody’s gonna have a different perception of that. And honestly, I think that photographers have a higher perception of what quality is compared to the clients, right? Because I see a lot of bad work that’s getting paid a lot of money for sometimes, you know, but I think that the value goes back to the self belief. What you believe your work is worth, is what you’re gonna get and if you really truly believe and you can increase that that belief and that increase in your your value, you can warrant high prices for your art and your work. And people will gladly pay that. So there’s no concrete you know, answer for that. There’s licencing models, you know, there’s like rates like standard rates and If you can tell people $400 for that parent behind you right now, and one person’s gonna say, that’s way too much and outside of my budget, and another person’s gonna say, Great, I’ll take five of them, you know, so it’s just, there’s no rhyme or reason. That
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 20:18
is awesome. And that is awesome. I mean, there’s this couple of things that you say I was just like, busy typing here, you know, make sure I make note of this. But there’s a couple of things that I really love what you say there that you can charge whatever you want for your art, I think a lot of a lot of people really benchmark themselves with other other, the benchmark in this in this space, and that kind of limit them to what is possible. And yeah, that’s, that’s just awesome. That’s a really eye opener. And, you know, you say how, what you believe become your reality, how what you believe, and you’re confident to put out there is basically what you can charge. And I really hope, you know, the audience really take note right here, because this is just incredible, man, that’s awesome. And
John Weatherby 21:12
clarify something so are you’d made me think of something, I mean, you’re you can increase your value in a lot of different ways, outside of the quality of your work, just like you can provide value in so many different ways, whether it’s good customer experience, good, you know, customer service, maybe you’re throwing in something extra that wasn’t included in the quote, you know, maybe you know, you’re sending a handwritten thank you note, after somebody buys a print, I mean, the more value you provide, the more you can charge, right. So like, I think it’s creating a great experience for our client as well, whether that’s art or photo shoot or anything, you can increase your value, and a lot of different ways. So sorry for that, because you can compare yourself to somebody else, but you might not be doing what somebody else is doing right, you could be providing a better service, you could, you know, be mixing your own personality and your own, like gifts and talents that this other person doesn’t have into your services. And for that reason, you don’t charge what other people charge, you know what I mean? Yes, look, don’t
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 22:28
don’t apologise, please, because these are golden nuggets right here. It’s very, very important. You know, I, I always say to my students that what, who you are become what is your unique value proposition? And you really explained that very well. You know, and I think a lot of us as creators think that the value is always in the service and the photography, but what you say there is incredibly eye opening for many artists is that you can literally just by giving a better customer service than other artists, you can put your value a little bit higher, a little bit out there. So, man, I’m glad that you thought of that, because that was a great little advice right there. Now, I wanted to talk about the impostor syndrome a little bit. I know that, you know, we, as an artist, we’re very perfectionist, and just like you say, you know, I had my own experience myself where I was, I thought I could never make money from my photography until I get every little pixel. Right? Yeah, and then and then you start looking at what people are selling and you’re surprised how those artwork can sell how those services can sell. And it become an eye opener now what would you say to people that have that sort of doubts where and I don’t know if I’m good enough to put my work out there and be able to charge for it?
John Weatherby 24:07
I would say that that it’s um, that’s a mindset thing. So for me, okay, so I did a deep dive into personal development when I first started working as a photographer. So some some books that come to mind are like thinking grow rich, you know, the, the Science of Getting Rich Wallace Wattles. You know, Tony Robbins, trying to think of some other off the top of my head Bob Proctor has been huge for me. I have every single book by Bob Proctor. I’ve done coaching through Bob Proctor and you know, if you go on YouTube and look up Bob Proctor just go down the rabbit hole of his videos and you’re going to you’re going to really develop your mind set, right. So, impostor syndrome, it’s again, it’s a lack of confidence. And I mean, it’s, it’s just, it’s just building that confidence building that experience, and your, your belief and like, you know, the value you provide, and the quality. So, I saw something the other day, actually, that I really liked. And it had to do with imposter syndrome. Somebody posted a quote in their Instagram story. And it was like, whenever you’re dealing with impostor syndrome, and like, your lack of belief of like, your value, just think somebody out there is doing something that’s less quality than what you’re doing and charging more. And they have no idea what they’re doing. But they’re, they’re faking it, you know, they’re failing their way through it successfully. So I don’t think that was the exact quote, but yeah, basically, like, you kind of just have to fake it till you make it. So you really do make it and believe, right, like, going back to the waiting tables thing. I realised very quickly that when I was interacting with the table when I was a waiter, and I was nervous, that there was like, an uncomfortable feeling. And like, you know, the whole interaction was very awkward and uncomfortable. So I realised that I just had to just act comfortable, confident. And then it was reciprocated, like there was a comfortable feeling, right? So I really do believe it’s just a matter of, you know, when those thoughts come up, you say, you know, cancel this thought, I choose not to believe this, I choose to believe that I am capable and valuable. And my work is amazing. And I know what I’m doing right. Like, you, you almost brainwash yourself through, you know, building the belief that, you know, you can do whatever you want that you eventually can, right.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 27:03
Yeah, that’s awesome. I’m glad that you mentioned that. Not that’s great. I’m glad that you mentioned that, because I experienced that myself, where self development is really the cornerstone of success that most of the time is not our work is not our gear is not, it’s not even the quality of our work is just who we are, and how our self limiting belief and, you know, all that names that you mentioned there, I came across all of them. And I studied them, I went to Tony Robbins, Unleash the Power Within as well. So I totally can relate with that. So 100% I’m glad that you mentioned that and share with that. Now, one of the thing that I’d like to to get your perspective from your, you know, how important it is, actually, before I go there, I want to ask, you know, you, you, you teach as well, right, there’s your you, you have courses, you teach other photographers. Now, how is that, you know, I think back when you first started, it’s, it’s a lot more difficult to find people who teach photography, especially, you know, that structure course, there’s a lot less option there, it’s kind of like you go to university or you know, something like that, or learning on your own. Now, you have taken a lot of mentor and you you not worried about investing in yourself and upskilling your education, whether it is self development, whether it’s business, whether it’s photography, as just you mentioned, how important it is to have a mentor for your success journey.
John Weatherby 28:51
Oh, I think is huge. Because a mentor can help you in so many different ways. You know, like not only can you learn from them, you know, their experiences, right? Their successes, their failures, you know, they can also hold you accountable, you know, they can inspire you they can motivate you so a mentor doesn’t necessarily even have to be somebody that you work with one on one like I consider Bob Proctor a mentor to me even though I’ve never met him or you know attended like a seminar by him or anything I’ve just experienced his his teachings through audiobooks and you know, physical books and YouTube and stuff like that. So a mentor is huge. And I do believe you get back what you invest, especially with like courses or something because it increases your value and increases your belief in yourself. Right, which then warrants you to charge more because you’re providing more value, more quality. So yeah, mentors huge and they can shave off, you know, a lot of time in your journey. Because you, you know, you’re not necessarily figuring things out on your own. Right? Like you’re, you’re learning from their experiences, what’s worked, what hasn’t, you know? I mean, you can, you can experience something just by reading a book, you know, like, you don’t have to experience some trials and trial and error yourself, you know, waste of time, you can just read somebody else’s and learn from it. You know,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 30:34
that’s awesome. Yeah, I totally agree with you. And that’s a really good point that you have there. Now, if you were to pick one mentor, right, whether it’s through a book through a master class, or even a one on one, is there a one mentor that really become the turning point of your career or become the linchpin of your career? Yeah,
John Weatherby 30:59
well, so going back to the waiting tables thing, I actually met a guy named Ryan Skinner, through a group at my school that I was going to so this guy, Ryan is the one who introduced me to think and grow rich. And that kind of started my whole, like, personal development journey. So you know, he told me to read power of positive thinking from Norman Vincent Peale, he told me to read the magic of thinking big, told me to read thinking grow rich. The Science of Getting Rich some other books as well. But yeah, I would say that he was like my first, you know, like, real mentor. And if I had to pick one that had the most impact on my life, I would say it’s Bob Proctor, just because Bob Proctor got me to think in a different way, and realise that I could provide so much more value than I was providing, and multiply it through, you know, online courses, or basically multiply the value that I put out into the world through different ways and create multiple sources of income and do different things. And it really, Bob Proctor did have the most impact on my, my belief, like, and the person about personal development space, I think,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 32:26
yeah, that’s amazing. I mean, Bob, Proctor is really good at breaking the paradigm that we have, right, the thinking, just challenging the way our our thinking and really reshaping that. So that’s incredible. Now, you know, I absolutely, I totally can see, and this is really incredible. I’m glad that I have you here today, because it really shows that you have work, not only in your photography, part of it, but also in yourself as well as the business bar. And that’s, that’s really show in your success in this industry. So I just want to say, first of all, congratulation for for making that happen, you know, it’s incredible. Going forward to that, right. It’s really cool that we talk about the business side of things, I know that people are a lot of people wanting to pursue their passion in photography, and be able to turn that into something that do full time. I’m going to kind of go back to the creativity side and your adventure side. Right. You are, you spend a lot of time on your Sprinter van, and you have this really cool Sprinter van as well. I know I’ve seen it and you know, it’s literally my one of my dream is to be it to have something like that. What, what makes you what got you into the fan living, what makes you want to just explore in your sprinter, explore different places and just live from it. I know that there are a lot of challenges that comes with the fan living so it’s not always comfortable. So yeah, I’d love to hear what is your inspiration and why you love to do that. Yeah,
John Weatherby 34:16
so this is actually funny because this is actually going back to kind of like mentors again. So gentleman reached out to me through Instagram actually, probably in like 2017 2018 His name was Josh the Burj. So he reached out and said he was doing VMI full time, and he’s an entrepreneur. So this guy has a very interesting background, built a big real estate development company in Miami, a property management company and then sold it and you know, he had Maserati at the condo, he got everything, but he wasn’t happy. So he sold all this things built a van And then started travelling the world. And you know, had a different philosophy of like his, his thing is The Boondock. Or you can look them up on Instagram. And his tagline is collect memories, not things. So he reached out to me and said he was passing through Tampa. And we met up, and he was a photography hobbyist. So we met up, and he talked about how he wanted our photography. So he offered to, you know, have me come out and travel with him, and teach him photography. So I did that a couple times. And when I travelled with him and his van, like, I realised the freedom that that offered, and you know, the ability to like, go somewhere, spend a week somewhere in one location, instead of the way that I was doing things, I would fly somewhere and then have one day at this location that I have to move to the next location. And like, if I didn’t get the conditions that I wanted, you know, it was like tough luck, I gotta maybe come back another trip or something, right. So he introduced me to the van life and realised like, all the benefits of, you know, the travelling in the van and being able to go where you want on a whim, based off the weather, the conditions, the seasons, and all these things, right. So it was an eye opener for me. And it’s, it started that, that, you know, goal in the back of my mind to like buy, build a van and travel on one. So he actually started a company building bands. And when I bought my sprinter band, I had his company build it out down in South Florida. So yeah, that’s what got me into it. It’s just all the, you know, the flexibility and the freedom for photography and like, going to different places that I wanted to, instead of having to, you know, buy plane tickets all the time and rent cars and all this stuff. So, but it comes to, you know, its perks and its cons for sure. challengers, like you said,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 37:08
yeah, that’s, that’s cool, I might need his his contact when I’m ready to build one. It’s interesting that you mentioned that, you know, the freedom is absolutely beautiful living in a car and just be able to stay wherever you want to. And you say that it does come with, you know, both the products as well as the challenges. What are some of the biggest challenges that you come across living in a van?
John Weatherby 37:35
Yeah, so Well, first off, you need to find a place to sleep every night. There’s an app called I Overlander that you can use to find different campsites people are blowed, you know different places in different cities, it’s like a it’s like penned on a map, basically, you can see where to find a place to sleep, where to find showers, you know, where to find fresh water to refill your tanks and all that stuff. So those are the challenges. You know, basically, finding some places to sleep shower or finding water, right. You know, sometimes when you’re in a remote area, there’s not very many restaurants, grocery stores, and all that stuff, too. But another challenge that I faced is just having a routine, and a consistent workspace as well. So, you know, finding coffee shop and a different place, all the time to work at finding Wi Fi. That’s challenging, also, just not having a routine, like, I, I like to go back and forth and like, you know, experience kind of this complete free freedom to where I can go do whatever I want, and I have routine, but I also like to you know, rent a place like an apartment to settle down for a little bit and get some work done and do have a consistent routine, you know, a consistent place to go, you know, to the gym and go to work and have a shower and all this stuff to like, yeah, it’s van life is it’s not for everybody. It’s, it’s, you know, it is definitely challenging. And I salute anybody that can actually do it full time. I did it full time. Probably for like a year. But this is probably my least productive.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 39:33
I betcha it’s the funnest year you had the Yeah, no, it’s uh, yeah.
John Weatherby 39:40
You’re gonna have a lot of places and experience a lot of things. I meet a lot of people you know, that’s one of the pros. Yeah, and
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 39:48
I remember when I used to, I mean, I was like living in like a just a pathfinder, just you know, like put a bed on the back of it sort of thing, just like a small kid behind it, but our I remember I started to appreciate, you know fast food a lot more when you’re in a band life because and you go to the all these remote places because yeah, it’s just like reminds you of the CDN and all that. And yeah, that’s awesome. So going back to your photography, you know, you captured man, like so many incredible photos from so many different places. What are some of your most memorable shot? From your journey so far?
John Weatherby 40:34
Um, yeah. So, I want to say Iceland. So, I mean, you’re well aware that Iceland is like my second home. I’ve been there 17 times currently. And I teach workshops there. So I’ve had a lot of like, very, like, magical moments in Iceland, where, you know, I’ve like just had my mind completely blown, you know. So those are the first that come to mind. Lots of lots of spots around the US as well. But, you know, my first instinct is to say Iceland, you know, I’ve had some crazy auroras, I’ve had some very rare conditions, as well there.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 41:17
Yeah, man, Iceland is such a beautiful place. I’ve never been myself, but it is on my bucket list. And it’s just incredible. You know, I love seeing your aura photos, and all of this incredible shot from Iceland. It’s just absolutely stunning.
John Weatherby 41:34
They’re, you know, insane. I’ve gotten to see two eruptions there, and be there for the eruption. And, you know, the progression of the volcanoes changing as well. And, you know, they they morph into different landscapes and composition opportunities throughout their lifecycle. It’s really cool. Yeah,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 41:59
the, the volcano eruption is absolutely stunning. I mean, it’s, it’s insane. I love I love seeing your shots of it. And it’s just, it’s just breathtaking. You know, it’s out of this world, man, it’s been really great chat, I love you know, chatting to you about your photography or adventure, as well as the business side of things, you know, how people, what sort of thing that people need to do to if they want to pursue this for for a full time. Now, one thing that I would like to know from your end is that what are some of the most memorable moments from this journey as a photographer, and if you ever, like, if you ever, like thought to, you know, if you ever thought that there could have been another life for you, not being a photographer? Has that ever come through your mind? Yeah.
John Weatherby 42:56
So I mean, like, you know, just the journey, starting from taking photos of sushi with my phone to, you know, taking landscape shots and teaching photography and working with some amazing clients that like I can only dream of, you know, like, that’s, that was never the plan. But it worked out. Amazingly, right. I did have a passion for music when I was younger, I’ve always been very entrepreneurial. Like, I have a real big passion now for just entrepreneurialism, like, just you know, like, solving problems, creating value, you know, creating freedom. Like, that’s the biggest thing that I have, from my photography businesses is freedom. Like, I can just live my life on my terms like that is just priceless. You know, regardless of how much you’re making, or you know, your successes or anything like that, if you can live life on your terms, and do what you want, when you want. That is success, in my opinion. So I like this, that we got to talk about the business because when I’m usually teaching photography and teaching, you know, through a conference or something, I’m always talking about the art part, right, like creating and, like technical stuff, but like the business is, is something that I’m super passionate about. I’m thinking of maybe actually starting to do Coaching for Business or coaching into personal development. Personal Development is also something I’m super passionate about to write, but they’re tied together, you know, like, like, the personal development will lead to your success in business. I believe it’s instrumental So yeah, if I could see myself in another life I would be teaching you People How to create business and freedom in their life probably,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 45:04
yeah, that’s incredible. I, I totally can see that how it’s very difficult to succeed in business if you don’t develop yourself as a person. And, you know, it goes back to what you said earlier, if you don’t, if you can’t build confidence for yourself and be able to value who you are, then you can’t put the value out there big because people won’t believe you. Right. And business is a lot about trust. So I love hearing that, you know, personal development is, I think, one of the most important thing to work on in our life. Well, Joy has been a really good conversation and really enjoy chatting with you about the entrepreneurial side of things as well. And I didn’t know that you have that much passion for the entre. You know, being an entrepreneur. I mean, I know that you have the the pro panel, sort of plugin for, for Photoshop, to do luminosity masking, which is fantastic man, like, you know, it’s it’s just great. Now, do you want to talk a little bit about how do you get into to that, like, what makes you inspired, what inspires you to build this plugin to do to be able to edit faster and easier in Photoshop through luminosity masking? Yeah, so
John Weatherby 46:32
that that was actually a byproduct of the courses. So when I first was introduced to Luminosity masks and plugins, probably like 2017 2018, I started using a plugin called riot Pro. So I started creating courses and 2020 Actually, during in the shutdown, lock downs, and everything, all of a sudden, had all this free time, my partner in the courses had free time as well, he had no more workbooks, all this stuff was cancelled. So we created courses, I was teaching people in my workshops, and in the courses how to use, you know, Riot Pro. And I realised, like, you know, there’s no reason that I should be promoting somebody else’s product and my product. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that, obviously. And even better if you can get a kickback and, you know, get a commission or something that’s a win win, obviously, but I realised that I could create a plug in myself, a better version of it, in fact, and sell that along with my courses. So I created my plugin based off my experience with Riot Pro, but also my experience with other plugins. And basically, I wanted to correct what I thought was flawed with these other plugins, and what was flawed based off of other people’s feedback on these other plugins, I wanted to create a better version. Myself. So that’s, that’s what sparked the, you know, the idea. And then, yeah, I mean, it was just a matter of working with a developer or hiring him, and then we’re working with him for about six months, it took to, you know, design everything and create all the functions and code it and everything like that, right. So, and that’s been a trial and error process ever since. But the plugin, wound up being like, a huge hit for me, you know, like, that actually wound up doing a lot better than the courses and workshops and stuff like that, too. So you never know, like, how one idea can lead to another and, you know, like, create a ripple effect, you know?
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 49:04
Yeah, that’s incredible. I really enjoy the plugin. It’s really I love the interface I love you know, what are the different functions that the presets function that you’ve put in there? I myself never, never do when I first got into luminosity masking, you know, somebody told me it’s like, oh, yeah, you gotta do luminosity mask and I was like, looking at that and just like, Whoa, I definitely know.
John Weatherby 49:31
And then yeah, on luminosity masks this week, because it’s such a confusing topic you know, it’s it’s a it’s really challenging but once you get a grasp on it and you practice just like Photoshop is super intimidating, you know to which is another reason why we developed the plugin is because, you know, to help people to use it easy to use Photoshop easier, but once you understand the luminosity masks and you start to learn and implement them. It’s like a game changer, you know?
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 50:05
100%. I mean, I guess like, it’s just the steps, right? There’s so many steps to get there. And your plugin kind of just cut all of that into just like one or two clicks. So that’s the big thing. And behind that, I feel like you know, so that’s incredible. Really love. Thanks for sharing that, John. Thanks for building that. You know that that luminosity masking, it’s, it’s a game changer. Now, we’re coming to the end of the podcast here. And one thing that I always ask my guests is, if there is one advice that you would give, either to your younger self or audience out there, what would that what would that advice be,
John Weatherby 50:46
if there was one advice, I would advise people to figure out what they want in life, and what they’re passionate about. And then focus only on that, and building a life around your passion that is working towards what you want. Because I think a lot of people settle and you know, work a job they hate, or don’t really have clearly defined goals. And then as a result, they kind of just drift and wander, and they don’t really have a purpose in life. So I think, if you can find your passion and create businesses around that solve problems for people related to your passion, and have some type of purpose, some type of goal and vision of how you want to live, I think that you’re gonna just continue to have success and be happy and fulfilled.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 51:55
Amen to that. That is a great advice. I mean, one of the biggest advice, which was similar to what you said there that I got from my old boss was that he said, think about what sort of lifestyle you want and design what you do around that. And you basically summarise that very well. And that was just what a great advice, John, that is one thing that I feel like most people are missing in this life day, they start with the money, right? They needed the money, and then they looking for more money. But what they didn’t realise is that money doesn’t solve all the problem. You know, so So, yeah, amazing. That is great. Well, John, thank you very much for being in it’s been a really good, it’s been a pleasure having you here, having all of this advice for photographers, as well as for those photographers who want to become photo printer? And how will they be able to reach out to you how, what is the best way for them to find you?
John Weatherby 53:04
Yeah, so Instagram, I spend way too much time on there. My Instagram is where is whether it be so you can find me on Instagram. My website is John, whether it be.com. And that has links to courses, workshops, prints, pro panel, everything. So yeah, between those two, you can get in touch and you can find out anything you need. Fantastic.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 53:32
Well, I’ll make sure that I put that on the description below. So yeah, don’t worry, just go to checkout on the description below if you do, if you want to get in touch with him. John, thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much for being generous, not only with your time but also with your knowledge and sharing the knowledge that you have accumulated over this past years. Right? Some of these things are the stuff that many Creatives or artists haven’t even think about, you know, when they want to pursue their passion for the so thank you. Thank you very much for for sharing that and opening
John Weatherby 54:13
people’s eyes. No problem. It’s my pleasure. Well
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 54:17
we can do is there’s a lot of golden nuggets there. Hopefully, you’re taking a lot of notes and make sure to check out John’s profile on Instagram as well as you know, check out his courses check out this pro panel plugin because they are incredible. I’ve used them myself, I really enjoy them. But with that being said, you know, I love what John shared on that last advice because that really go hand in hand with this. The theme of the podcast which is given people hope, purpose and happiness through photography. Well, with that being said, hopefully you enjoyed this episode, and I’ll catch you guys next week.
