Get to Know Artist Connor Schmidt!

Connor Schmidt (@ConnorSchmidtt!) is a full-time student at CU Boulder and freelance photographer. Born and raised in Colorado, Connor has grown quite familiar with the mountains and surrounding states. Connor picked up his first camera at the age of 13 and has been taking photos ever since. With a primary focus on landscapes, Connor aims to show off some of the world’s most beautiful places through his unique perspective. 

Tell us a little bit about how you got into photography. How long have you been shooting?

I first became interested in photography a little over 10 years ago – I’m 23 now, and I asked for my first camera for my 13th birthday after I saw what my sister was doing in her photography class in high school. She was doing film, however, and I was more interested in digital. This is likely because I would spend a lot of my free time playing around in Photoshop. I tried to do digital paintings and photo manipulation, but I was pretty awful at it.

Are you self-taught or classically trained, or a little bit of both?

I would say I’m 75% self-taught… I basically just experimented, taking pictures of anything and everything that interested me, for the first several years, and by doing that I basically taught myself how to work a DSLR and what different lenses do, etc. By the time I got to high school, I was near exclusively doing landscapes, and then really taught myself the basics of post processing. I didn’t learn anything new in my class until my teacher, Ms. Taylor, taught me about composition – the rule of thirds, mainly. Before that, I didn’t even know what composition meant in terms of photography. Because composition is the main thing that dictates how I shoot, and is the biggest influence in how I survey an area, I give 25% credit to my teacher Ms. Taylor.

Locations and weather conditions seem to be a crucial aspect to a successful photo. How do you handle these unpredictable factors?

Man, I always have to remind myself that I’m not going to always get the conditions I want when I want them. I think the best way to handle unpredictable conditions is to do everything you can to get rid of tunnel vision. Whenever I do a hike or go to a specific location, I’ll always have that one photo that I want to get. When I first started to take photography seriously, it was tunnel vision 100% of the time for me. I didn’t care about anything else but getting that one banger – and I missed a lot of cool moments because I was always under the assumption that something better was to come. But, over time, I’ve learned to focus less and less on “that one photo” and just let it happen. Often times, it’s a random photo I quickly snap that ends up being my favorite.

What are things you look for when composing your shot?

Light! It’s all about good light and that will forever and always be the main factor for me when I compose a shot. This brings me back to my whole tunnel vision spiel, and how you won’t always get the conditions you want when you want (or even in the direction you want). Depth and scale are always in the back of my mind as well when it comes to composition. Lately, I’ve been putting more focus on my foreground rather than main subject to present some of that depth and scale.

What was your tipping point between having a photography hobby and seriously pursuing the art?

Freshman year of college, for sure. I was kind of in this rut – I was distracted at school and going out to take photos was really difficult with the time constraints. As a result, I basically just partied a lot. Everything kind of bottled up when suddenly I was thrust into this ridiculous “mid-life crisis” state of mind. I didn’t know what to do and nothing was making me happy – so I decided to leave Colorado for a week, by myself, to clear my mind. I went on my first road trip ever, where my ultimate destination was Zion NP. That trip basically opened my eyes to what I enjoy the most – traveling and taking photos.

What’s your favorite lens? Why?

I want to say it’s my wide-angle since I use it the most, but it’s my telephoto lens – the Nikon 70-200mm. I like it because, as a landscape photographer, it’s sort of a weird lens to always carry around, but lets you see familiar (or unfamiliar) places in ways you wouldn’t normally. I love showing depth and scale in my photos, and the telephoto lens does that very well.

Are there any clichés in photography that you actively steer away from in your work?

I see a lot of photographers shooting for instagram nowadays and it drives me insane. What I mean by this, is they’re going to the same places as everyone else, and they’re shooting in ways they wouldn’t if Instagram wasn’t a thing. I know photographers with gear costing in the thousands that blow out their sky in post-processing because people go crazy over it – and they do it to every photo because it looks good on their feed, and they stick with a very specific color scheme on every photo as well. Don’t get me wrong, it looks good as a gallery and as a collection of shots that sort of represent the same mood or feel, but it kills me when some people follow these trends just to get on the explore page. A lot of photographers have changed their style just to appeal to the masses – I guess that’s really the only cliché I’ve been actively avoiding. 

How do you intentionally create photos that stand out from the crowd?

Composition plays a huge part, but post-processing is really where I differentiate. Any image, any location, any moment – they’re all going to be different from each other. So, I do a lot of small things to try and make my images stand out from the crowd, and it truly depends on what type of scene I’m shooting. I’m not a naturalist, but I’m also not a full-blown photo manipulator when it comes to post-processing. I’d like to think I’m right in the middle, most of the time at least. I like to play around with the idea of perception vs. reality. I’ve had a lot of moments where I’ve shown people a photo, and they say “there’s no way this is real.” And that’s exactly the reaction I like to get – my goal is to create images and scenes that challenge what you think of the scene and how you view it. Was this shot really taken at night, or is that shot of a sunset even real? I don’t know, you tell me! ;)

What is your ideal career path and your end goal in this creative community / industry?

To simply make a living doing what I love. If I’m only able to put in $1,000 into my savings each year after all bills and travel expenses are paid for, and I’m able to do that purely off of photography (whether it be selling my own prints or commercial work), then I’d be more than happy doing that for the rest of my life.

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