Citykillerz Interview - @Tylersjourney
LINK TO @TYLERSJOURYNEY PRESETS
What is your name, IG, birthplace, and current home?
Hey guys! My name is Tyler AKA @Tylersjourney on Instagram. I am a street/lifestyle/timelapse photographer from Toronto, Ontario Canada.
What gear do you currently use and why?
I shoot with the Sony A7Riii, I love the small form factor of the camera and how easy it is to carry around. I also shoot tons of timelapses of Toronto and the 42MP sensor is perfect for that. My go-to lens is the Sony 24-70mm 2.8 G-master for its incredible sharpness. For all my cityscape/rooftop lookdowns or lookups I use a Rokinon 14mm F2.8 AF lens which is amazing for capturing the entire scene.
If you could only use one lens for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
That would easily be my Sony 24-70mm F2.8 G-Master Lens. I almost entirely shoot my night street photos at 24mm and for cityscape also having the ability to zoom to 70mm is so convenient. It’s like the best of both worlds.
Are there any editing/shooting tips you would give to our community?
The biggest shooting tip I can give is to take photos every single day. Shooting every day is the only way to learn and grow as a photographer. Don’t worry about comparing yourself to others we all started somewhere and growing as a photographer is a forever process. If you want to see night and day differences in your photos always try to search for interesting weather conditions like Sunset/Sunrise or Snow/Rain, light and weather will completely transform your photography. For editing in Lightroom, the best thing would be to watch as many tutorials as you can, it’s what helped me in the beginning, the most.
What Are Your Biggest Inspirations? (Could be IG, Person, Painting, Food, WHATEVER)
- This may sound slightly weird but my biggest inspiration to help inspire me is to walk from one end of the city to the other zig-zagging around streets without my camera, it takes the stress away and lets you naturally come up with ideas as you go and you can cover a lot more ground. Also, try to make a habit of coming back during the most favorable weather conditions like Sunset/Sunrise or Snow/Rain.
- Film/documentaries are a big inspiration to me, I watch at least one a day as I find it helps me stay inspired to create.
- Instagram is a great source of inspiration as well, I love when I see other photographers grow and create inspiring content. It always gets me in a good mood to see others succeed.
- Being around my partner @SnackswithJacks one of the most hardworking people I know really helps me stay motivated to keep working and to do better.
- The biggest inspiration out of all for me is people, I love people going about their day and capturing those moments that are gone in an instant. Seeing all the beautiful interesting people walking the streets always inspires me.
Do you have any tips to help our audience grow their Instagrams?
- Test different posting times throughout the day to find when your audience is most active, you can also check your analytics which will have all that information if you have a business Instagram profile.
- Search your favorite photographers/feature pages hashtags and compile your own list of relevant to your niche hashtags in a notepad app in your phone. I’d recommend using as many small feature page hashtags as possible with a couple of the most relevant medium-large feature page hashtags.
- One huge one we forget about is to focus on the quality of our content over quantity. But just get out there practice and have fun it’s the best way to grow as a photographer/Instagrammer while enjoying yourself.
- Color coordinate your entire Instagram feed whether it be tones or shooting different times of the day to be the most visually appealing. I know this isn’t the most practical so another option so you can still keep yourself creative and diverse in what you photograph is to upload similar images in pairs of 3 in the grid whether it be time of day or tones.
How do you make money with photography?
Not many people know this but I’m actually mainly a Timelapse photographer, I shoot B-Roll timelapse for film and advertisements, that is my main source of income. I also do photo shoots for lifestyle brands which doesn’t really fit my feed but I love doing it.
What is your dream photo job?
In 10 years I want to be doing the exact same thing I am doing now which is being a Timelapse and street/lifestyle photographer but instead of mostly being stuck in one city I want to be doing it while traveling the world. I am currently living my dream job as a photographer, I am so in love with creating images and sharing them with the world. :)