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Dylan Calluy
@dylancalluy
Photographer based in Belgium
The inner photographer in me was triggered by some great creators such as Jack Harding, Giulia Gartner, Tom Kahler, and several more. They were creating the most amazing images and content with a camera, a few lenses, and a lot of experience. I’m still looking up to them and I try to learn in every aspect.
During the past few years, I developed my skills and a lot of other photographers and brands were telling me that I was going the right way and that my work was improving a lot. Those words had a significant impact on my passion and my photography because they helped me to push further and to develop every day. I’m an ambitious person and always see room for improvement. As my main job, I work as a financial real estate analyst, and photography offers a good balance to my 9-5 job.
When I first started with my photography, I did a lot of free and spec work to build a portfolio that I could send over to potential clients and brands. After a well-built portfolio, I was reaching out to different brands and companies to see if they would be interested in working with me, as a photographer. In the beginning, I got rejected a lot because of the minor amount of experience that I had but once in a while, I was able to convince a brand to work with me, and then it kept going. I always try to build long-term relationships with brands and clients. At this moment, I can say that photography is a large part of my professional life.
As a creator, I specialize in automotive, commercial, and outdoor/travel-related photography. Nevertheless, I do like to keep my commercial work apart from my other work and that’s why I also created a new profile on Instagram (@projectsbydc). On this page, I will be sharing my commercial work for/with companies and brands. In that way, I can keep the focus of my original page (@dylancalluy) on outdoor/travel and lifestyle photography.
"I worked with brands like Auto Natie Group, About Vintage, Mercedes Hedin Automotive, PolarPro, The Macallan, and a few other brands over the past years."
When shooting different genres, I always try to find a connection between them which I think helps to create my personal and unique style. For example, when I’m shooting a car model for a certain brand or I am working on a commercial project, I try to capture those images in a setting that is complementary to my work as an outdoor/travel photographer.
Before the pandemic, I had a project/shooting with Mercedes Hedin Automotive in Belgium to shoot content for the Mercedes AMG series. This is one of the projects that I enjoyed a lot because it was all about fast cars and we had a full day of shooting outdoors. Every minute of the project was planned and it all went really smooth when it came to photography and videography work. From that project, I learned that you need to prepare everything and do enough research in order to deliver high-quality content. During big projects like this, you don’t have the time to hesitate and wait. So my advice with projects, big or small, is that you do your research and continue a little more at the moment you think that you are prepared.
As a creator, I do think that I’m very persistent and this results in the fact that I don’t take ‘no’ for an answer sometimes. So every week, I try to send out emails and pitches in order to connect with brands and potential clients and discuss the possibility of working with them on future projects. I often do get a ‘no’ but that does not hold me back from trying again with the same brand or other brands. I also do a lot of research when it comes to shooting and I always try to ask for feedback during the shoot when I show the client the RAW images. In that way, they can tell me if they do like the composition or the feeling of the images already before editing them at home.
I still have some potential brands and clients in mind whom I really would like to partner up and work with, such as Sony, DJI, automotive brands, travel agencies and tourism boards, and several more. To achieve this, I need to keep pushing myself and work hard on my skills as a photographer. So, often I follow some courses and videos in order to continuously improve my work and projects. As a photographer, you need to stand out to get seen by brands and clients and there are several ways (combined) to accomplish this, with research, shooting, editing, service, and personality.
"As for editing, I will always try to create a natural look and feel. I really want to drag people into the scenery when they are looking at my images."
During the process, I’m focusing on every aspect of the image in order to create an image of the highest quality possible. As an example, I will pick my favorite image of the Dolomites trip which was created during a very moody scene at Val di Funes. So at first, I always start with the basics in Lightroom: adapting the exposure, changing the blacks/whites, and working on the highlights/shadows. Furthermore, I start by adapting the colors in the image. As a photographer, I like to work with the moodier side of colors and I’m really a fan of darker green vibes. When I agree on all these factors, I start to work on bringing the highest quality to the image by enhancing the sharpness and the noise reduction on the image. As a final step in Lightroom, I take a look at the masking options in order to darken or lighten certain areas of the image. When I’m happy with the final result in Lightroom, I take the image to Photoshop in order to get rid of the final distractions. For example, in this photograph, I removed all traffic signs and electricity cables. I also enhanced the road a bit and got rid of the damaged areas in the road.
This image is also part of my NFT collection which I sell on Opensea. It consists of 15 images that were taken during my trip to the Dolomites in the summer of 2021. Next to that collection, I’m also selling 1/1 NFTs on Foundation. Selling my images as NFTs is part of my business as an income. The images that I sell as NFTs, consist of the highest quality and are my favorite ones. And for that reason, I’m selling them because I want other people to enjoy them as much as I do and they can co-own them but can’t use them for commercial uses and I think that’s just perfect.
On one side of the NFT market, you have the PFP projects. PFP is a profile picture NFT that can be used to express yourself and showcase the NFT you own. Every NFT project has a community, a roadmap, and a team behind it and when owning that specific NFT, you are part of everything within that NFT. Those profile picture NFTs aren’t just JPEGs, it is everything behind the project. On the other side, you have the artists/creators/photographers who are sharing and selling their work. Many photographers already sold their artwork as NFTs and it helped them to improve and develop their skills/work and their way of living.
"When people are buying an image of a photographer, they are co-owning the image and they are investing in the art of the photographer and in the photographer as a person."
Co-owning an image from a creator has the same feeling as owning like a Picasso except for the fact that it’s all digital. There are images and NFTs of photographers that massively increased in value because of the high quality of the image. Certain NFT artists also include advantages in owning their NFTs like advising people in photography, going on certain photography trips with the creator, 1-to-1 interviews, etc.
When I mint and list an NFT, I always try to create the highest quality possible since I want my collector to be satisfied when owning the NFT. I also only sell the images of which I’m most fond because those are the NFTs that will impress people and collectors. The gear that I use as a photographer to get the highest quality before post-processing, is the Sony A7IV. I use this camera in combination with the Sony 24- 70mm GM and the Sony 70-200mm GM. I’m a huge fan of Sony because of the user-friendliness and the quality of the images and gear. I already used my camera in a lot of extreme conditions and it still functions as it should. When I’m shooting, I also work a lot with my DJI Air 2S.
Although I am doing photography as a side job currently, it’s already a big part of my professional life and becoming a photographer full-time would be great. However, I also know that this is hard when you’re living in Belgium. So I would like to expand the business that I have right now and try to partner up with bigger, international brands as I mentioned in the beginning. Another goal that I have is to start my own company at a certain point, not necessarily as a photographer but more like a marketing agency with different kinds of creators in it. In that way, we, as a team, can help to do the videography, marketing, photography, social media, and website parts for a certain brand or client.
I’m 27 at this moment, and I believe there will be many chances for me toward the future as long as I keep putting positive energy into the craft and my goals. And even though I will encounter disappointments and setbacks, the trust that exactly these will help me to get where I want is key. Just like in my trip to Iceland where we lost four hours because we got something wrong about a location… I was upset and very annoyed, until exactly this setback presented us with a herd of deer crossing the road, leading to one of the most special moments of the trip.
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