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Matthew Chung
@chunger_shoots
Photographer based in Canada
In my last story with Nomadict, I spoke about my career as an architectural designer and how I discovered my passion for the photographic arts. I also spoke about my love of travel and about the importance of doing what makes you happy. For years my dream has been to travel the world, and get paid to do it.
I created Matt Chung Studios about 2 years ago, and the past few months have been crucial when it comes to personal and professional growth. My business has expanded from being solely product based in selling prints, to being primarily service based. My goal coming into 2022 was to finally start working for myself full time as a photographer and filmmaker.
"After hard work and dedication, I have successfully taken the first step to making that a reality."
I am currently running my own full-time business that focuses on connecting brands with their audiences through inspirational storytelling, captivating videos and engaging photography. This is only the beginning, but I am already beyond blessed with the opportunities that have presented themselves to me. In fact, I recently came back from my first trip abroad in over two years, where I spent two weeks on a business trip to one of my dream destinations – Iceland.
Our Iceland adventure was a product of months of planning, nonstop pitching and a collective desire to make our vision a reality. In the end, our group had the opportunity to work for seven international brands and four local businesses in Iceland. The opportunities that we had in Iceland helped us broaden our portfolios and create work that can be leveraged both individually and collectively in the future. It was an incredible professional accomplishment, however our group trip to Iceland opened our eyes to so much more beyond the realms of business.
"It showed us all the value behind community, and that good things happen when you surround yourself with likeminded, positive people."
Putting six creative minds together for two weeks allowed us all to learn things that would have taken months, if not years, to learn on our own. Iceland also re-sparked our love of exploring foreign culture, and made us feel at home in the unknown once more. Last but certainly not least, we had an absolute blast! It was so much fun to connect and create memories with each other – memories that we’ll be able to hold onto and look back on for years to come!
We had decided on Iceland because it was a place that we all wanted to visit, whether we had been there before and wanted to go again, or hadn’t been at all. One of the other main reasons we decided to visit Iceland was so that we could try to capture the northern lights. March is one of the best months to see the Aurora Borealis in Iceland, so we decided to plan our trip around that time. Unfortunately for us, the skies never cleared up enough for us to see them during our trip.
With or without northern lights, Iceland was an absolute dream destination for me. It was one of those places that I had seen so often on social media and was constantly blown away by. However, after seeing and experiencing it in person, it exceeded all my expectations. It’s crazy how you could dream a place up to be so magical in your head and then see it in person and have it be even more amazing than you ever imagined.
"It’s one of those places that you truly have to see with your own eyes to believe it's real, and I hope all the content I’ve captured and continue to share with the world, only inspires others to create their own memories out there!"
Now that I’ve finally been able to travel again, my desire to keep exploring has only intensified. In fact, I am already in the process of planning a few more trips this year which include destinations such as Costa Rica, the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal, Peru and Jordan in the Middle East. In my previous article with Nomadict, I mentioned that I think travel is one of the best ways to learn about yourself and the world. It’s also one of my most profound sources of inspiration. My recent trip to Iceland affirmed that for me. It was such a pleasure to finally get out and fuel my adventurous side after two long years of dealing with Covid. My travels not only re-inspired me, but I hope they also motivated others to finally get out and see the world again. I was able to document my travels extensively through social media, and it was so amazing to see the overwhelming responses from the online community. It’s incredible to see how many people are so passionate about the same things I am.
"The positive outreach I received through my Instagram stories only makes me more motivated to use my platform to inspire others and showcase the beauty of the world."
I always say that the most powerful thing about social media is the ability you have to inspire change in people’s lives, as well as the ability to connect with similar individuals from around the world. It’s so easy to get caught up in the numbers and the negative aspects of these social platforms, but if you use them with an open mind, some truly amazing things can come out of it. In fact, social media is exactly how our entire Iceland group came together. We all met on Instagram.
We had all been following each other for a little over a year and would constantly engage with each other’s work. It’s crazy how you can develop such deep connections with people through the online world. It can be scary, but it can also be rewarding. When the idea of Iceland presented itself to a small group of us, we decided to make it a bigger project by bringing all six of us on board.
"So, we started a DM group chat, began planning and well, the rest is history!"
Of course, planning a trip with a group our size, also presented its challenges and opportunities for learning. Especially when the main focus of the trip was for business. I think that coordination and planning are of the utmost importance. With so many people doing different things, it’s absolutely crucial to have a plan that everyone understands and is committed to following. This goes for all aspects of traveling though, such as coordinating meals and arranging lodging, but this reaches a different level when working out in the field doing client work. Each shoot day in Iceland started with a plan and ended with a plan. In the mornings our team would meet for breakfast and discuss the roles, tasks and projects that we planned on tackling that day. At the end of the day, our team would meet again to back up footage, recap and prep for the following day. This system helped us stay on track with deliverables and execute different shotlists with ease. We learned how to efficiently divide and conquer tasks as well as focus on and leverage each other’s strengths.
"This trip also welcomed the opportunity to strengthen each other's weaknesses, simply through constructive collaboration."
Partly as a result of the above, this trip taught me so much about my work and my path going forward. It solidified that the goals I have for myself are the right goals to be chasing. I always said I wanted to travel and work with different brands across the world. In Iceland, that became a reality, and I had so much fun doing it. They say that when you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life. For the first time ever, that felt real. My experience traveling with other creators also opened my eyes to some unique perspectives on content creation that I hadn’t really entertained before. For the longest time I viewed myself as just a photographer or a filmmaker. However, collaborating with so many other creators opened up opportunities to exercise my skills as a creative director and a model. What I’ve learned is that sometimes I actually prefer these roles. Although I may not be manually pressing the shutter, I’m still involved with concept curation and directing the vision. I also realized that I really don’t mind being in front of the camera, or being the “face” of a brand or creative idea. I’ve found satisfaction in letting others take control of pressing the buttons, and instead using my expertise to direct a vision. I’ve also learned even more just how powerful a good story is, and was able to practice storytelling in so many different ways on that trip.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Iceland gave me hope and joy for the future. It was a trip that I had dreamt of in so many ways and it was amazing to be able to check it off the bucket list in the way that I did. I hope to use my journey and my experiences to inspire others to chase their dreams, as I constantly work towards mine. This is just the beginning.
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