We recently connected with Jon Mayer and have shared our conversation below.
Jon, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Experimentation, trying new things, embracing the difficult challenges as they come along. You never know where you could find inspiration from, so being open to changing things up, both in work and personal life, is essential to keeping my creativity going. If I’m just going through the motions, that’s when my mind gets bored, creativity stalls, and getting anything creative done becomes a struggle.
So whether it be experimenting with a new style of photography, or something more mundane like learning to cook up a new recipe for a meal, doing these kinds of things opens up my mind and helps me come up with new approaches in my work.
One specific example from recent memory: I’ve done videography for the Elkhart Jazz Festival for multiple years now, and each year I’ve made it my goal to try something new so that it doesn’t feel like I’m doing the same thing over and over. One year I tried incorporating a lot of wip-pans and crash zooms in my camera work, another year I filmed some of the footage on super 8mm film, and most recently I utilized an anamorphic lens I had acquired earlier in the year to shoot a lot of the footage at this year’s festival. As a result, no two years have ever been the same.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m a freelance filmmaker and photographer specializing in documentary-style work. Whether photo or video, I love capturing genuine moments happening in real-time as well as scenic imagery. It’s great, I get to see and experience things I would probably not be able to otherwise, all while getting to carry around a camera and take photos/video of it all.
I should also add I do have a special passion for film photography. Whenever I can I make sure to incorporate 35mm or medium format film into my work.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I’d say what has made the greatest impact on my journey boils down to these three things:
1. Embrace mistakes and learn from them. Mistakes aren’t fun, but they are the best opportunity to learn how to do things better. If you don’t allow yourself to face the mistake and learn from it then you won’t grow in your career or as a person. And the reality is you’re going to make mistakes whether you like it or not, so make the best from them.
2. Be willing to try new ways of doing things. You’ll never expand your skillset if you keep doing things the same way. And as talked about earlier, if you want to keep your creativity fueled, trying new things and experimenting is the best way to do it.
3. Treat others with kindness. In professional photography and filmmaking, you’re going to have to interact with other people a lot, whether it be working with others on set or networking to get clients. Even if you’re a mediocre conversationalist like me, you and I are at least capable being kind to others. Ultimately if you treat others well, they’ll remember you positively, which can help you find more work in the long run.
As far as advice on developing these traits, I think the best I’ve got is to just go out and try to consistently embrace doing these things, and over time you will get better at them. So I guess in a sense it requires a fourth trait: perseverance. You won’t get everything right overnight, it will take time, and sometimes it will be frustrating, but to keep working at it is the only way I know to get better. Believe me, I still am far from mastering these traits, but I do know I’m headed in the right direction, as younger me would be amazed to see the improvements I’ve made.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
I’ve been lucky to have really good parents who have impacted me in so many ways which I am grateful for. As it relates to the work I do now and being self-employed, I’d say the most impactful thing they’ve done was teaching me about good money management. My mom especially helped me to understand the importance of saving money and avoiding debt wherever possible.
Because of those teachings, I was able to graduate college with minimal debt that I was able to pay off quickly and then start using that freed-up money to save. Having savings built up has almost literally saved me from several instances that would otherwise have been quite financially straining. Savings and avoiding debt where you can is incredibly important when you’re running your own business, where consistent work and income may not always be guaranteed. These things take a lot of the stress away because should your business ever take a hit, you’ll have the benefit of having given yourself a financial safety net which will make it far easier to recover.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jonmayerfilm.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayershootsfilm/
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/jonmayerfilm
Image Credits
All photos taken by Jon Mayer.
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