Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Montgomery.
Christian, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I moved back home to Smithville, Texas from Conroe the summer of 2017 to take a break from school since I had just graduated. While I was there, I became severely depressed and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I would often sit and play video games all day and not wake up until the evening. Late 2017, I looked at my grandpa’s old Olympus camera that I have had in my possession for a while and decided that I wanted to learn to take pictures. I bought an online course, learned the basics of photography, stopped using the course after learning the basics and I went out shooting flowers, my pets, and all the stuff beginners do. I realized that going out and taking photos made me feel a sense of purpose and my family helped me get a better camera, a Sony a6000 and after that jump, I took a deep dive into photography to get better. I initially wanted to do music photography since I was super inspired by photographers such as Adam Elmakias and Houston’s own Jawn Rocha.
But I began doing portraits when I moved back to Conroe last year and fell in love with it and decided that even if there are a ton of portrait photographers, I wanted to try to do it better. So, basically all of 2018, I had been getting better at portraits and thanks to my close friend Hunter Jones (owner of Perception Movement), he provided me with multiple opportunities to shoot more advanced situations. He brought me along to shoot for the Vault, a streetwear store in Houston, a few times, and on these shoots, I was learning more and more and producing better images. I owe a lot to my man Hunter. Since I have been back in Conroe, I have been pushing myself to do more and get better faster to try to develop a dope portfolio. I’ve worked with Perception and Dim Life thus far as original clothing brands based out of Conroe. They are owned by my good friends and they are the ones that have given me the chances to work and grow and now I am trying to help all of them do the same with my camera and a vision.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I struggle a lot with thinking my work is good. After editing a session sometimes, I want to just wipe the whole thing. But I have a lot of friends who reassure me and let me know that I am doing a good job. The hardest thing about being a photographer, to me, is knowing your worth. You compare your work and your prices to others and you think that you are not doing well because your photos don’t look like theirs, or that you think you aren’t charging enough but don’t want to scare away potential clients. But you need to separate yourself from that and realize every artist is different. Do what YOU think looks cool and charge what YOU think your work is worth. Self-worth is the biggest struggle, but with a good support system of friends and other artists, it gets a little easier.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I am just a freelance portrait photographer, I say freelance lightly since I still work and am in school, so I don’t have as much time as I’d like to be shooting. I specialize in portraits and love to do conceptual shoots. I would love to do music photography still but I am still on the fence about it. I am getting into video as well, I have a couple of music video shoots on the horizon and will be learning how to shoot and edit those so I can help out some local artists. I am fairly proud in my growth as a photographer, it makes me sound like an elitist or that I think I just so better than other photographers, but I have only been doing portraits for a year and photography for about a year and a half. In that year and a half, I have grown and done so much more than some photographers do in 3. It’s about the drive and passion of the person. Some people go to school for photography or buy a camera for the sake of learning with the sole purpose of making money. You won’t be a good photographer unless it comes from a place of joy and passion when you use it as a hobby before a job you will put so much more of yourself into growth. I have certain ideas and styles that separate me from others, many photographers around me, I would say are vanilla and they do not put themselves into their work.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was a pretty distant kid. I lost my mother when I was seven and it took a huge toll on me as a kid having to go through it. I liked to be by myself, but I always was a creative kid in my alone time. I loved to draw so much and as I went through school, I played a lot of video games and I took animation in high school and I was pretty sure I wanted to be an animator for video games but I have since then dropped that dream. But as a kid, I’ve always been creative and my family knew I was going to do something with art and they’re pretty supportive of it.
Pricing:
- $100/hr
- As many photos and outfits that can be done in the scheduled time
- Additional $10 for every extra location
Contact Info:
- Website: www.christianmont.com
- Phone: 9369009462
- Email: Christianrmont@outlook.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mesmer.s/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ChristianMontPhotography
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