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Zachary Salter
@zachary.salter
Photographer based in the US
The feeling you get when you see something new for the first time never gets old – the fascination, the excitement, the awe. That feeling is enhanced 100x for me when I’m outdoors. Seeing a massive waterfall or hiking across mountains never gets boring and invigorates me every time.
My parents have always been the adventurous type and took us on all sorts of adventures when I was little. That gene was passed down to me and has led me with a sense of wanderlust ever since I could remember. My passion for photography didn’t come until I was a bit older. My father has been doing real estate photography for almost eight years and I always just looked at it like a job. It was only a few years ago when I quit college that I decided to pick up a camera. It was mind changing and I haven’t been able to put one down since.
"Being able to capture a moment in time the way you see it and share that with the world is just like that feeling of discovering something new - I never get enough of it."
Before picking up that camera, a period that feels like nearly my entire life, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I spent almost all of my high school career doing nothing but playing video games and sleeping in class. The change came in my 2nd year of college. A realization. I didn’t know what I wanted to do but knew something had to happen. I remember asking my dad to borrow his camera and going down to the local park, simply shooting everything, losing myself in a pleasant flow with a feeling of focus and purpose. Looking back at the photos now they’re really bad but it was a great immersion into this new world of photography.
Through photography, I could also do more justice to the beauty I witnessed around me. I wish for people to see the beautiful landscapes this world has to offer and to go out and contemplate them. I think travel is super important for people to do. If you’re always with the same people everyday, going to the same workplace, living in the same town, and never venturing out, you’ll look at things in the same light – and never grow. I think especially today, people need to see more of the world, in real life, to understand more of it. Experience different cultures. Become aware of what one values the most and what is needed the most to feel fulfilled. I think the world would be a better and happier place.
I always thought the richer you were the happier I would be. But I’ve realized that money isn’t the end all be all and I shouldn’t take time away from other things that truly do matter. Costa Rica played an important role in changing my thoughts and approach in this sense. We had gone to a small village and met up with almost the entire town to play a game of soccer. These people had almost nothing to their names but were some of the happiest people I had ever met. It really shone a light on how to spend my time and energy – on what I value the most, that being health, friends and family.
I’m somebody who loves change but is also deathly afraid of it. I’m scared of new things all the time but it’s exciting and I become a better person and a better creative because of them. That’s why I try to go at them head on. Traveling somehow also provokes that same fear; the newness you’re confronted with is huge.
In that sense, an unforgettable trip was when I went to explore Europe. The amount of culture I was exposed to was incredible. Seeing how other people lived and the places they lived in showed me how different I grew up from a lot of these people, yet we could still share similar passions and ideas. While I was in Athens, Greece, I was able to wander around the city and experience all of the rich culture. It amazed me just how old the city was and how much history was embedded in its streets, it’s buildings and its inhabitants. The people are aware of it, respect it and are proud of it; those that I met loved living there and being an Athenian. It is very different from here in America where we seem more divided than together.
"Thinking back, I am still astonished by how it broadened my worldview, and with every other trip abroad, I will still be surprised by things I'd never thought about."
For instance, my recent month-long road trip really helped me define my style and find out what I wanted to aim for with my work. We went to a lot of different states on our road trip and really just kind of went with the flow! We hit up Zion National Park, Sequoia National Park, The Redwoods, Big Sur, and a lot of other smaller places. We took my mother’s highlander since my car couldn’t make it and we had no problems with it, which was a blessing. We even slept in the car some nights, but most of the time we stayed with other photographers I knew or Dm’d randomly asking if we could stay with them. All of them were super kind, I learned from them and I’m very thankful to be a part of such an awesome community.
We were super excited to find like minded people and our little group chat became a place where we could ask questions, make camera jokes, and just have a good time. We decided to all meet up in Washington and it was one of the greatest learning experiences I could have asked for. We decided that we needed to make it an every year occurrence and have been inviting more photographers to join us at each one!
And during this one month road trip, we met a few people from Camp Create as well.
Some of the moments when I really learned about lighting were in Oregon. The lighting is so different in the forests and beaches that I had to adjust my mindset of what to shoot and experiment with what I’ve never shot before. Where I live in South Carolina, it’s pretty much always sunny so going to a place where it rains all the time is quite a change and I had to adapt my style. I really like how my new style looks and can’t wait to shoot some more with this mindset.
To be honest, I think that editing is one of the most time grueling things – but when it all comes together, it’s worth it. I’ve gotten a lot faster at editing since I’ve been at it for longer. I’ve learned to get it right in camera, which makes it easier to edit, rather than relying heavily on the editing process. By shooting the shot as close as I think the final image should be, a lot of the work is already done. Whether by having the settings a certain way, getting the composition as close as possible, or adding in things in real life. It makes editing a lot easier and makes it feel more real than when these things are added or adjusted in post-production.
I edit all my photos in Lightroom classic and use some Photoshop, and sometimes it takes a few minutes, sometimes a few hours. After all, however I achieve it, I want a person to feel a sense of awe or get a spark of wanderlust. That is one of my favorite things about shooting landscapes.
I do shoot other genres besides landscapes too, and all inspire me in a different manner. I find an interest in everything and personally I believe that’s a con. For instance, shooting portraits and products has helped me look at travel/landscape photography in a new light. After a portrait shoot, I’ll have new ideas on better ways I can shoot a landscape with a subject and so on. It’s always good to keep trying new forms or creativity so you don’t become stagnant in what you usually shoot. It sometimes feels awkward shooting things you’re not used to but it’s just another thing you can master and learn from! It can help you grow as an artist and a professional.
Looking at where I started, I remember being super excited when I got my first paid gig. I got it by Dm’ing them on Instagram; I didn’t expect them to answer but they responded and said they loved the look of my work and wanted to do a shoot. Of course, I wanted to do my very best with it, despite the compensation was almost nothing. I was just happy to be able to make any kind of money from something that I loved doing.
I worked for hours trying to get the perfect shot and ended up over providing – it was some of my best work and I never stopped giving less than a 110% for any gig. However, I also learned that I should be asking more for my photos and develop more of a personal bond with the company to then be able to do more work for them in the future. I applied this to my next gig and the contract was more than triple of what I made on the first gig.
Labeling ignorance or mistakes as failure or stupidity are useless constructs that affect our happiness and potential – rather, they serve your future and are but opportunities to improve.
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