hi i'm tamara lackey and on this episodeof redefine show for adoramatv i sit down with amy vitale, not only aphotojournalist known around the world national geographic magazinephotographer and a fellow nikon ambassador, but she's also someone who'sbuilt a career out of doing exactly what she wants to do and doing the things sheloves. she shares some amazing tips about how you can do that too including onebrand new tip i've never heard before. check it out! so you have this ridiculously enviablecareer to a lot of people outside who don't know how hard you worked for it and howhard you work in it but it looks amazing
and glamorous and beautiful and you'vebeen doing 90 countries plus? yes it's so glamorous. i know right like "your flight is delayed again" but no. i get it. for people who love to do especially who havea passion for conservation and to be able to make the kind of photographsthat effect the kind of change that you have made what would you suggest them toget into this? well i think a lot of people think it'sabout making pretty pictures and they forget it's not just one pretty picture.it's really about story and going deep like finding something that hasn'talready been said on a particular subject. right. i find that journalists,photographers, filmmakers all sort of
copy each other. they all like watchwhat everybody else is doing and tell, they say the same thing yeah and there's always a differentangle. if we dig a little bit more and i think that, that just really takes timeand i guess my advice is for everybody to have a personal project. justsomething that is truly your passion and do some soul-searching and figure outlike what do you really care about in your life, because that is going to give youthat unique access that you need. you'll have that drive and overcome obstacles. it's going to be genuine, you know, and i just think that we're all watching each other too muchand looking at what we should be doing,
like should needs to be out of ourvocabulary. just do it from the heart and i meanin and, yeah, and it, a lot of times it really is just sheer hard work. and for you what came first? was it like i find the work i want to do. i shoot it andthen i show it to the places that i want to do the work for, or how exactlyexactly did that work for you? the truth is most of the time i invest in myprojects first, so i will spend my own money, my own time, building a bit of abody of work because nobody can imagine what you're going to do. right and i'vehad that happen where i've made a pitch and i've been rejected by everybody
and then they say well it's not going tobe a visual story. i'm like; no, no, no it is, it is but then i realize i have to go out and showthem the vision. yeah i'm so glad you say that by the way because, i know a lot of peopleget stuck on how do i get hired by these organizations and yeah and it is this.yeah the reverse. most of my work honestly from the last 20 years has been, you know,developing it first and then you figure out ways to make it pay off laterbut the other thing is embrace all the new technology. i was terrified of you know when thedslr cameras shot video i wanted nothing of it and. it's all movie
it is so scary and thenthe same thing now with the 360, the keymission 360, like embrace it becausewe don't know where it's going and now is the time to be on the front end ofthe wave and everything, i actually think the best thing is to get into thatzone of discomfort because you're going to fall on your face a lot, but that's ofcourse, you know, it's so cliche, but it really is true that's when you learn the most so.yeah and i think that taps into something that is a bigundercurrent of fear in this photography industry, which is they keep coming upwith new things and i just learned that one, you know, and then so there's thisconcern that when they, when new stuff
comes out, other people are going to be better at it, and i'm going to become a dinosaur. i am overwhelmed, i think we're alloverwhelmed, let's be honest here. it is terrifying and over every day i'm likeoh my god what? it is, but i mean it's fine just, you know, it's fine.dive in, learn it, practice it. just to realize that everybody,even if they're the experts. you know they're learning too.yeah there's that, what is that called? impostor syndrome? oh i don't know maybe? it sounds good.it's a thing like, unless i'm making that up too, but i think,
that is, the idea that you feel likeeverybody around you has it all together and yet you're just playing the part ofsomebody who's trying to get it all together and yet many people share that, if not everywhere, in certain capacities and especially when it comes to learningnew things alright so any last tips for anybody? i just heard from a friend of mine who's an editor and she said don't bothersending all the mail or isn't she said i find all myphotographers through instagram, which blew my mind. an editor of a major publication i'm assuming? a major publication, she said that's where i find out,
and where people are,and she also uses an app called blink. because she's like; i don't havebudget to fly people anywhere yeah, so i need to know wherephotographers are. so send emails to your editors if you're going somewhere andlet them know where you're going to be. brilliant tip, all right.there you go. where can people go to find out more about you? my website ami a, m, i, v, i, t, a, l, e dot com and instagram @amivitale yes, where your massive following is. thank you so much. thank you so much, really appreciate it.
thank you so much ami, so appreciate yourtime and incredible advice. check us out here next time on adoramatv and do not forget to subscribe there's so much information on the internet butspecifically on adoramatv.
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