We love to catch up with our graduates, seeing their job titles change on Linked in gives us an enormous sense of pride! One such graduate who recently caught our attention was Jack Boothby. Jack’s photography skills stood out when he was a student on Extended Diploma in Photography at CCAD Middlesbrough, so we were excited to see what he would achieve when he graduated with his photography degree! We caught up with Jack in March 2018, just short of three years after graduation and what a packed three years they have been! Check out our interview below:

You graduated in 2015, can you summarise what you’ve done career and travel wise since you graduated?

Since graduating in 2015 I focused my time on improving my personal portfolio of photography and videography. This consisted of shooting whenever I could around working part time at GoOutdoors. Whilst still working at GoOutdoors I was contacted by GoPro and invited into their “family”, being a part of the GoPro family meant I would have opportunities to go away with GoPro and other family members to some fantastic events. Since accepting their invitation I’ve been to; Italy, Majorca, Northern Ireland and even recorded a 2 part GoPro official documentary in Scotland based around me and my camper van. The connection with GoPro came from one of their UK contacts finding my Instagram and loved my photography, style and general adventures. One of my highlights of working with GoPro has been a trip to Northern Ireland where I was working alongside the Lonely Planet crew to create content for their “Best in Travel 2018”.

Check out Jack’s 2017 in video!

I’ve also been on multiple adventures since graduating to build my portfolio further and even just for pleasure to enjoy what the world has to offer, places like Iceland, Poland, The Jurassic Coast and many places in Scotland. All of the above helped me in more ways than one, my communication skills improved, my confidence has improved, my overall knowledge of photography and videography improved immensely. Focusing on my Social Media presence whilst on these adventures I managed to accumulate a following which is now siting at just above 19k on Instagram, this then led me to applying for my first job at Visualsoft as a Social Media Executive. After I managed to successfully get the role at Visualsoft I kept my head down and worked hard both on personal work and Visualsoft related. I didn’t want to give up on my photography and videography and my new role was mainly looking after clients Social Accounts, Visualsoft allowed me to work on personal projects outside of work which meant I could grow my knowledge even more alongside my job. All of this came together and recently we have created a new department called Creative Media which focuses on photography and videography projects for clients. I’ve now changed roles to Creative Media Producer and work with clients to produce videos and take photographs for their website, social media, advertisements and all things ecommerce.

You’ve set yourself apart with your social media influence, your personal instagram is a thing of beauty! Has your content creation on platforms such as instagram offered you any opportunities?

The content I post on social media has created some fantastic opportunities for me including working with companies; Gopro, Lonely Planet, Daniel Wellington, Timex, Regatta, Craghopper, Fatboy and many more. I mostly get contacted through my Instagram account where I post regular pictures from my trips but I’ve also had some luck with Youtube where I post my videos, after posting drone videos to the platform I have been contacted by the BBC and ITV where my work was used in big nationalist TV shows like, Gunpowder on BBC and Countrywise on ITV.

Was the growth of your instagram a conscious decision or did it come out of your love of photography?

I find that the growth of my Instagram account has been a mixture of both, my underlining goal has always been to share my images of the places I visit. I take photographs not only to capture the moment I’m living in but to share it with others that may never see these places ever! I’ve spoken to so many people who can’t get to these locations for different reasons and they love the fact they can see them in some form, even if that’s just on their laptops or smartphones.

The cabinfolk instagram that you curate is a phenomenal success – how did you get involved?

Cabin Folk was started July 2016 and has grew incredibly fast and is currently sitting at 184k followers. I created this account as a side project to my personal photography account, I wanted to create a page full of other peoples images from around the world. It took me about a week to think of different page ideas and themes, I wanted something I could use as a “mood board” where I could go for inspiration. Originally Cabin Folk was going to be based on Camper vans but after some research into the platform there was already many accounts about vans out there succeeding and I felt there was no need for another van account. Shortly after this I had noticed I’d been liking more and more cabin photographs on Instagram, something I’ve always loved and stayed in a few times before but not something I’d ever really looked into in detail. After doing a bit of research I discovered the lack of Cabin related pages on Instagram and I wanted to change that, I decided to start up Cabin Folk with the soul purpose of reposting other peoples images of cabins that I enjoyed, simple as that! The account started to pick up traction quick and within the first few months I was already up to 30k followers. After putting a lot of time and effort into the account I’ve managed to accumulate a community of over 184k from all around the world!

Now, you’re obviously combining your digital knowledge along with your exceptional photography and videography skills as a Creative media producer for Visualsoft, one of the highest regarded digital media businesses in the UK. Please tell us what your typical day involves?

We are currently hard at work building the Creative Media department which will include producing a variety of videos to benefit clients including; aerial videography, company trailers, in store videos, hospitality showcase videos, events documentary videos, adventure videos and much more. A typical project will have a 4 step procedure; Planning, Production, Final Video and Execution Strategy.

What sector do your clients tend to be in, e-commerce retail etc. Do you have any examples of work that you’re exceptionally proud of completing for a client at Visualsoft?

Our clients are all e-commerce retailers and tend to be fashion related brands. I created a video for one of our clients, JulesB, at the end of last year which I am particularly proud of. We used their Newcastle store as the set and created a “look book” style video relating to an advertisement piece we created for their website “Time Capsule 2010’s”. This consisted of a model walking through their store and with clever transitions she changed clothes which resembled a different fashion trend from the 2010’s.

Did you have a digital presence when you were a student or has this evolved since you were a graduate?

I used to have a digital presence as a student but no-where near what it is now. I used to have more followers on my Facebook page than Instagram until I decided to turn my personal Instagram page into a professional one. I done this via deleting a load of old pictures from the account and started to post only landscapes that i took from trips. Looking back now I wish I’d started a fresh account all together but i had already started a mixture of personal photos and landscape photos before I decided to make Instagram fully professional landscape images.

Reflecting on your time as a student, if you were to offer advice to a current student, what would that be?

My top advice for a student would be to work hard at what you want and never give up on your goals. Set yourself yearly goals and start small, concentrate on what you love and what makes you happy and you’ll never work a day in your life. Once you leave College or University don’t stop working on your own personal projects, those small unpaid projects could eventually lead to something bigger and better! The BEST advice I could give anyone is not to be afraid to post your work online because “It might get stole” I went through most of college keeping my landscape images hidden or on my website with big watermarks. I quickly realised that posting your images online for the world to see is the best thing you could ever do to be recognised, images that you take and post now may not make you any money but may be the reason you get your next big job. Don’t be shy!

You are one of the privileged few who can call themselves a Go Pro Ambassador, please could you tell us what that entails?

As a GoPro Ambassador or “family member” I get invited to events with GoPro to try out new equipment, take part in amazing activities and get to meet some fantastic people. Some of the past events I’ve been to are; the Hero 5 launch event in Majorca where we set sail on a pirate ship and spent the evenings at an incredible villa eating amazing food; Nine Knights in Italy, where we skied and ski-dooed during the day and went to the Nine Knights after party on the night. GoPro also recorded a documentary 2 part video series based on myself and my camper van trips in Scotland called “The Weekend Warrior”

Part 1

Part 2