Hello everyone 🙂 , this week I have a very interesting interview with Laura, a Spanish born London based photographer, creative and the mind behind laurabc .com .
For the moment we cannot travel (at least in Italy) but I think it’s really time we meet amazingly creative new people and worry a little bit less about the impending end of the world, which according to the news is practically around the corner or already arrived (optimist or pessimist).
As often happens, IG helped me here. I borrow Laura’s words for an introduction.
So, let’s meet Laura!
Hi!
I’m Laura, a Spanish Photographer and Creative Director based in London.
Photography was just my hobby at the beginning as I studied Graphic and Editorial Design in the first place.
I started in photography taking surf pictures in Basque Country (where I’m from) and then I developed an interest in many other categories including Portrait Photography and Travel Photography which are now my main niches.
When I moved to London, I started to do some freelance work on the side of my other job in the fashion industry. I found myself shooting with international music artists doing their press shots which is what I enjoy the most.
I have been always self-taught and I learned portraiture through self-portraits and experimenting with myself. I’ve got brands buying some of my self-portraiture projects for advertising campaigns which I didn’t even expect it to happen!
My other passion it’s traveling, something I started to do a lot since I moved to London. It’s very hard to follow the rhythm of such a stressful city without wanting to take a break…
I started to contact resorts and hostels around the world to offer my skills as a photographer and this way create their photography content in exchange for accommodation, food, and on some occasions a minimum wage. I was being well received in many of them and I traveled a lot as a Digital Nomad, thing that literally transformed me!
So, sit comfortably, we are going to have a nice chat. But first of all let me tell you that all the photos you are going to see in this post are, of course, Laura’s photos and down here if you can find some of her social media profiles and website.
Instagram : @laurabccom Travel Instagram: @her.nomad.soul
Tik Tok: @laurabccom
Web: laurabc.com
Now we are ready to start!
1 – Laura you live in the UK, in London. After a couple of alarming declarations, the government decided to impose a lock-down similar to Italy. Is it still in place? what have you done during a lockdown? did you manage to find something to do or you felt a bit lost?
Currently, we are still at lockdown even though it’s being more relaxed lately and things will be back to “normal” in a couple of weeks.
In the beginning, I was lost because I lost all my clients and I just had to accept that my revenue would be very little. But afterward, I found myself super positive. I was being forced to be creative and to keep going anyhow so I’m still investing a lot of time doing self-portrait projects. I experiment with new techniques and setups to keep learning and I’m taking more ideas for future shoots whenever this ends.
I love learning new things and as the future is online, I’m taking many courses in marketing, social media and ways to make money with photography which is being tremendously helpful in the growth of my career.
This lockdown ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. I now have the time to focus JUST on myself and improve in every single way so when I come out of this, I will do it way stronger!
2 – The people who follow you on IG probably already know how you decided to become a full time creative and a freelancer. I think it is a really interesting and inspiring story. Can you tell us something about it?
I love the story because I had so many challenges on the way and I still made it! I really love pushing others towards their dreams because even if it’s hard, it is possible!
I moved from Spain to London 7 years ago. My English level was 0 and it was the very first time I put my feet in that city. I decided to go to live there without thinking twice. I arrived in a hostel sharing room with another 14 people. The cheapest option I had since I didn’t know anyone and I needed to find a house later on…
I still remember myself taking notes in a notebook with Google Translator to be able to prepare phone calls and get a bank account and an insurance number. This was the first thing I needed to be able to find a job.
After finding a very small flat sharing with 4 others and even my room with another guy, I found my first job making sandwiches in a big food chain. I was waking up every day at 3 am because my shift started at 5 am on the other side of London. 14 hours shifts… I was literally destroyed.
After that horrible experience (I was sleeping around 2-3 hours per day), I went through 5 other jobs within the luxury fashion industry. I worked in Harrods and Harvey Nichols and even though I was working in sales and as a stylist, I became Assistant Manager and I felt already very achieved with the path in the big city. However, my next step was working in the creative field full-time.
After applying to many companies, I ended up being the Creative Director of a big international fashion company in Chelsea. Here I took massive experience leading photoshoots, casting models, leading the graphic design aspects of the brand, and dealing with HR.
I had a massive burnout as I was working around 60 hours per week. At the beginning, I thought that being a Creative Director was my dream but I wasn’t even taking pictures, I was leading the photographer instead…
It was then when I decided to renounce. I’ve got a lot of experience there but it’s not what I wanted. I preferred to take the massive risk of going full time freelancing. The monthly expenses I had in London were crazy high so I was scared at the beginning. Before starting my full-time freelance adventure, I went for 2 months traveling solo to Ecuador, where I started my journey as a Digital Nomad. This was the best experience of my life!
When I came back, I pushed towards my freelance work and it went really well. There was many up and downs and sometimes was very hard but I was still way happier than working for someone else. Even if I was getting less than half of what I was getting as a Creative Director for that company, I was FREE and working with people who would book me because they love my work.
3 – A lot of people are now talking about becoming a digital nomad and freelancing. It seems all very easy, everybody can become a digital nomad and work from a swimming pool with a cocktail on one hand. I’m not so sure. I still think that for a lot of people it is better to have only a certain amount of freedom. And then there’s also the money part. And then there’s the talent part. Can you tell us something about what are your pros and cons of a freelance creative job?
Being freelance is not easy AT ALL. I go through many ups and downs. Some months you may make a lot of money but others you may do very little. You have to be highly organized, respect your working hours, your breaks, do your tax return every year, have a record of your yearly expenses, etc.
Being a Digital Nomad is also amazing but you have to work hard and be very committed. I love what I do so it doesn’t feel like work but the truth is that when you work this way, you REALLY have to prove your value.
You have to be very self-taught and learn a few ways to make money online if you rely on just one, it’s very risky. You also have to love doing it and you have to be good at it!
Money many times is not good at all depending on your income streams but if you are willing to do it because you love traveling, that’s great! Just make sure you deliver what you have been welcomed for.
It’s hard work but mostly at the beginning. Once you develop the skills and you set up a few income streams, then you can relax a bit more. The beginning is the hardest as there is so much to learn before you jump into it!
4 – Photography is your work but also one of your passion. Another passion is traveling. From a lot of point of view, you can combine the 2 and live happily ever after. But I think that a lot of the work behind the camera is not clear to the average person. I mean, I thought a little bit about being a bit more serious about photography during my trips but you need gear (usually expensive), you have to get up at 5 am or stay up until late, you have to go to a certain place in a certain moment because you need a certain type of light or you have to photograph a certain event. It kind of transform a travel. What can you tell us about it?
Combine both as I did, is the most beautiful experience EVER. But it’s also really hard!
As you mentioned, there is a lot happening behind the camera… So many hours of editing till late, waking up extremely early to catch the good lighting and walking and hiking to places which are far far away.
Sometimes you sacrifice your traveling experience if you don’t really enjoy doing what you doing. Many people who just want that kind of life because it is “cool”, are doing it for the wrong reason. They will burn out pretty quickly. You must love it!
I’m terribly passionate about what I do. I found myself visiting the same waterfall in Ecuador at 5:30 am for 4 days in a row just to get the right picture! Lol But I love hiking, I love photography and I love the satisfaction of getting a good picture.
The picture below is the one I’m talking about and it’s been purchased by Microsoft and published in a Business Insider article (USA Finance magazine). So in the end, that effort was well worth it!
Regarding equipment, It cost me many years to get to have a decent one. I literally sold my car a few months back to be able to upgrade my camera and get a couple of new lenses. However, nowadays with one camera and one lens, you can create beautiful photos for those who are just starting. I started that way and I still managed to get work.
5 – Photography comes from the Greek and means writing with light, that is poetic and romantic. In your opinion do you think that for making a good photograph you need good gear or anyone, in any condition, can make a great photo?
I love the term! It’s so true…
I think that currently everyone can make a great photo but not all of them can have an artistic vision.
Nowadays it is different than when I started. Time ago the phones didn’t even have a camera or they were very bad. The DSLRs were just 8 megapixels so it was really hard to get real good at it.
Now even the lowest of the cameras are still so good! It is true that once you have a lot of experience, you have to upgrade to a better one to improve your work but I really push everyone out there to start with a basic one. If you love it, you will create stunning photos!
6 – Do you have any rules when you photograph people? I still find it very difficult to photograph people. It’s not I think that I’m stealing their soul but more of an intrusion in their private life.
Yes. I need to know the person at least a tiny bit. Their personality and in the case of artists, their kind of music or art. This way I can create their press shots accordingly.
I don’t use the same lighting, posing, or mood to every person. There are introverts and extroverts and as a photographer, I take this very seriously.
For introverts I tend to create more shadows, to hide part of their face, and to pose them more seriously. For extroverts, I like to shoot movement, I use more colors and fun poses.
It’s super important that the person identifies himself with the portrait you created of him. They have to see themselves, no someone dressed up or acting differently because it’s a photoshoot! Many photographers don’t consider this and I had clients coming to me after having a bad experience with other photographers for this reason I just mentioned.
7 – What would be your advice for a person who wants to start using a compact travel camera. Do you have a favorite compact camera?
I did a massive mistake when I started photography. And this was buying a compact camera! I spent money as they are still pricey and the very second I picked my first DSLR, I didn’t want to use anything else. Compact cameras are very limited in terms of focal range and many don’t shoot RAW which for me is a must.
I highly recommend buying a small DSLR instead. I recently purchased the Canon Mirrorless DSLR M50 and it’s soooo tiny! Like a compact camera. It’s super good for traveling. You can choose one kit lens and in the future buy more if you have the budget. It records video at 4K as well. I bought it for Vlogging but for sure I will take some shots with it as well when I don’t want to carry the massive 5D MKIV 😀
8 – What do you think about social media, in particular about IG? My idea is that from one point of view it has kind of democratize (or ruined, it depends on the point of view) the “nice picture”. Now with some app, and easy to use filters, a lot of people are making boring, nice looking photographs. From another point of view, some shots that 20 years ago could be considered great are now a terrible cliche, and boring. What do you think?
Bfff… Instagram is damaging a lot of photographers and creators. People with very simple photography are getting many followers just because they use the same filter and their feed looks cohesive but if they check the pictures, they are very random and simple.
Big artists are not having the attention they deserve just because they don’t have a fair following and many are just becoming influencers for posting pictures of themselves saying they are photographers…
I used to love Instagram but since Facebook bought it, just 10% of your following sees your posts when you post them unless that post has a very high engagement during the first hour. They want to monetize the app and get photographers and creators to pay to show their work!! Are they mad? This makes me terribly upset.
Time ago my posts or other artists’ had full exposure. I used to get like 500 likes with a small following. Now I’m lucky if I get 100 and my following it’s way much bigger than when I started!
I’m still there as unfortunately, it looks like you are nobody if you don’t have a following on Instagram… but I’m so looking forward to people jumping into another similar app. For example “Dayflash”.
Dayflash it’s a photography app created to help content creators and photographers. They don’t play with any algorithm or hashtags so creators get FULL exposure. When they have enough people in the app, they want creators to get paid through adds, as a Youtuber for example. They also will launch the possibility of membership. Followers will be able to pay the creator a little amount per month to support their work and get special offers, tutorials and join private chats with the artist itself.
They also have the collaboration request which is working amazingly! You can post the collaborations you are willing to do and people can like it which means they would be up for it! It’s great to bring artists together.
I was invited by them to their partner program as I joined the app from the beginning. This means that I can invite people to be also part of the partnership which means that they will be able to bring people to the app and get money just for doing so!
If anyone wants to join this app and start getting real exposure, collaborations, and money as soon as we are enough creators, feel free to join and enter this code! It’s obviously FREE and you will become a partner member too:
My unique invite code is: JYJ75H
To join with my invite code, you can sign up on Dayflash, go to your profile, tap Edit Profile, and scroll down to enter invite code JYJ75H
Get the app here:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id965594436&sa=D&ust=1590571265520000&usg=AFQjCNFgJ5sw-Wauwq7a5QlgTzI0QGgHWg
9 – Going back to traveling, is there something that you learned while traveling? something that was a kind of surprise to you.
How much I enjoy traveling alone! I was always terrified by the idea. Mostly because the mainstream media does a good job putting fear into people and more if you are a woman…
They say all the horrible things that could happen out there but the truth is that I met the best human beings outside of Europe! I learned so much about different cultures, history and I have now REAL friends all around the world.
10 – Do you have any project ready to be launched?
Yes! I’m well excited about launching my new Youtube channel soon!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCctePealIpKsTDzeVUEnQWw
I always loved to inspire others and teach people what I learnt through my career. I will be doing photography tutorials, I will share behind the scenes explaining my set ups, I will talk about my travels and how to make money through photography and much more! Mostly, I want to push new photographers to follow their dreams and join this beautiful adventure!
It would make me very happy to build a community who truly love what they do and do my best to help through the progress!
11 – That’s a classic question, three places that you love and you think everyone should see it.
- Baños de Aguasanta in Ecuador! I was amazed by the beauty of this place! The volcano, the stunning waterfalls and the green landscape wherever you look! A must visit!
- Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. Wildlife everywhere. You feel like you are the intruder. These islands are stunning and if you like scuba diving, you can swim with sharks, manta rays, and stunning colorful fishes. The sea life here is just wow!
- Cuba. I’m terribly in love with Cuba! If you are a photographer, you won’t be able to put your camera away even for a second. The old streets, the vintage cars, and the vibe of the streets with people of all ages dancing salsa till late… It’s literally poetry everywhere you look…
Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are at the end of this interview with Laura. But it looks like the end is only another beginning (I know, I know…).
In fact Laura is ready to launch her Youtube channel , we will surely meet her on dayflash (as of this moment the app is only available for iOS, android is being developed) and we can also follow her on IG @her.nomad.soul or @laurabccom on Tik Tok @laurabccom and, of course, there’s her website, laurabc.com.
I have to thank Laura for her time and the honest answers, looking forward to her new projects and to meet on the road!
Follow the link if you are interested in reading about Sarah Griffith, another woman who decided to change her life and travel more.
Or you can find some classic travel destinations like Quito (dangerous or not?), what to see and how to save money in Oslo, Armenia Debed Gorge, Las Tablas carnival, Nicaragua…
