interview

An Interview With : ThatOneBlondKid

3/03/2017Jake Ryan

If you are not yet following ThatOneBlondKid on Instagram, you might want to change that now. 

ThatOneBlondKid is Jeremiah Davis, a 23 year old filmmaker from California who is doing big things. I recently asked Jeremiah a few questions to get to know a bit more about him, his photos and his films.

See what Jeremiah had to say below. 




First of all, tell us a little about yourself. 
My name is Jeremiah Davis, I’m 23 years old. I live in Venice Beach, California and I graduated school from Azusa Pacific University which is about an hour and a half away from Venice Beach and I grew up 15 minutes away from where I went to college so I have kind of been on the outskirts of the LA area most of my life but never actually ventured into the LA area. So moving to Venice beach was kind of a knarly venture for me especially floating myself directly out of college, I’d never done that before. My parents kind of helped me out during college, so being in Venice is a huge stepping stone into being an adult and the real world I guess. 


You take incredible photos, when did you first get into photography?
I first got into photography in high school, I knew nothing about photography but my brother was into video and I knew that photo would supplement his video skills, and he was making a lot of money and I wanted to make money so I decided I’m going to learn photo and start hopping on projects with him. But at the same time I valued his talent and didn’t want to bug him so I went to the best photographer in the school and just introduced myself and said “hey I want to learn photography” so I bought a Canon 20D which is what I could afford and kind of what he suggested I should get, and I just hopped right into it. Every single day I would take a photo and post it on Facebook, something I was proud of. I basically learnt photography and the essentials in about 3 months and it all started from there. 

Did you study photography or teach yourself?
I was kind of self taught but with a mentor for sure, to say I learned everything myself or from YouTube would be a lie. I had a friend kind of help me but, that was about a crash course for about 3 or 4 months or like a year relationship and then I graduated high school and moved on, started in college and then got into video after college. But definitely self taught, I didn’t go through any formal education for that. 


What equipment do you use? 
I currently have a lot of equipment that I am trying to get rid of, just because I have upgraded everything. But right now, I edit on a 13” Macbook Pro, I have no external monitors. 

I shoot on a Sony A7S2 and I use a 16-17mm F4. It’s kind of embarrassing that it’s an F4, but for a lot of what I do I don’t need a crazy depth of field. 

And I just got a Canon 5D mark III with a 16-35mm 2.8 specifically for photo as the Sony just doesn’t take photos unless you want a cell phone looking photo. 

Also, I have a Phantom 3 and a Phantom 4 and I just got a Mavic. But most of my drone stuff, around 90% of it had been shot on the Phantom 3 and I just got the 4 a couple of months ago but I’m going to be shooting on the Mavic and the Pro 4 in the future. But most of the stuff I have been shooting on was the Phantom 3 and 4. 


Do you have any top tips for anyone starting out in photography?
I feel like a lot of people get into photography because they become inspired online by very, very talented people and they create that benchmark for themselves and they don’t release work or don’t get into or start taking a lot of photos or showing people their photos because they’re putting themselves up against this creative standard that they have seen set before them and I think that is the worst thing for a creative anybody. 

My tip would be to go out and take photos every single day and publish at least one of them every single day that you’re proud of showing the world and that will force you to invest in that photo each day, it’ll be hard work but you’ll learn so much every day and you’ll learn photography in about 3 months. 

You’ve been on some crazy adventures, what’s the craziest thing you’ve done so far?
I’d say one of the craziest was that I walked the entire country of Spain by foot, no taxis, trains or anything just a backpack. It’s called the Camino de Santiago and it’s over 600 miles and it took me 33 days to walk and I walked it with a couple of buddies. 

And that was before I started taking really good photos or video, that was like my entry into video, that was my first video project I was going to do and after that I ended up loving it. 

And another crazy adventure I have been on is that I lived in Fiji for 5 months, I did a study abroad there and we had our own apartment in this tiny town and walked to school, but I learned the bus system and I learned the local fishermen with the boats so that they could take me out surfing and I kind of learned this culture, and while everyone thinks of Fiji as what Google images would show you, the reality is that Fiji is a third world country. So to live in a third world country for 5 months when you’re 21 by yourself is a pretty knarly experience for sure. 

While there I would do shark diving with no cages, we fed sharks and would surf some of the best waves in the world and we were just super young and could do whatever we wanted essentially. 


It appears you’ve visited some of the worlds most amazing places, do you have a favourite place?
I would say one of my favourite places is South Africa, I did 4 months there and specifically Camps Bay, it’s a beautiful place. I had an epic night there, it’s so beautiful and relaxing. Not even for photos, just a nice place to chill. 

I guess for photo and video, I would say Sri Lanka. I have visited for a couple days but Sri Lanka is the place you stay for a month and just shoot the crap out of it and do every adventure. 

I think Sri Lanka is the new Bali. 

This is half a secret and half I love giving it to you, because I love what you’re doing and if people are reading this it’s an amazing place and an amazing find beyond this article, Sri Lanka is the next Bali. You heard it here first!! 

What do you hope to achieve this year that you haven’t yet done?
I would like to be featured a lot in my own videos, I would like to make more appearances and I think a lot of that comes with being an influencer and in 2017 being able to travel and do really cool adventures is dope, but I want to be in them, I love shooting as well but I just also want to be in them. 

In 2017 I would also like the luxury of bringing along close friends or my girlfriend to these trips, because when you get big jobs and projects you’re typically with a group of people where you’re invited or with a company and because I don’t have this massive following I can’t demand a lot, and when things hopefully grow in 2017 I can have that pull where I can be like “hey my girlfriend is coming by the way” or “my best friend is coming to help me produce this thing” and the company will just make it work because of who I am. 


Where do you find your inspiration?
I would say I find it by being around other creative people who’re hustling. It doesn’t even have to be creative people, just people who’re grinding and just on the day to day hustling and trying to make big moves. People who are hungry after what their craft is I guess, if I’m just in a room with them or just spend a weekend with them, it fires me up to do what I do best and I find that I start developing new cool trends or new ways to edit or new ways to expand my style and thats just by being around other creative people and I think thats where I find my inspiration. 

What else makes you happy? 
I’d say quality relationships make me happy if were going to get serious. I was raised with a family that all cared for each other and were all super supportive so now by being in Los Angeles I really love having quality friends. I’ll travel the world with random people but at the end of the day I want to be friends with them. It’s not because I want the exposure from them or to gain their following, obviously I want to learn more from them, but at the end of the day I want to travel with famous people because I want to be friends with them, or I want to travel with a certain photographer because I want to be homies with them, I think that’s what I’ve learned is that quality relationships are what make me happy. 

And finally, what are your plans for the future? 
I think I have done so well not having any plans and just getting after what I have in front of me and establishing myself to the best I can, as young as I can I think this is going to help me have as many avenues as possible when I’m older and the day comes that I have to plan, but for right now I am just going with what is placed in front of me, but in the future I would just love to live with a bunch of creatives where we all have very distinct styles and basically just create amazing content that kind of shapes and defines new trends on social media and kind of raises the bar for video and photo content. 





Thanks to Jeremiah for answering my questions. 

Make sure you follow Jeremiah on Instagram HERE

All photos in this post belong to ThatOneBlondKid.

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3 comments

  1. This is soooooo sick! Those photos r insane

    ReplyDelete
  2. Damn. What a talent

    ReplyDelete
  3. does he have a yotube do you know?

    ReplyDelete

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