Today we’d like to introduce you to JD Waldron.
Thanks for sharing your story with us JD. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I got started taking pictures when I was 11 years old. My parents gave two of my siblings and me a disposable camera on a family road trip. Two hours in a shot filled up my disposable as well as my siblings. My parents then bought me my first point and shot digital camera. It went off from there. When I was 16 I quit my job and decided I was going to instead sell my services as a photographer to the seniors at my high school getting ready to graduate.
By the time I was 17 I graduated high school and was already working with my close comrades within the creative industry. We all had calling at a young age as a photographer, graphic designer, web designer, and videographer/ animator. We began working in Deep Ellum in late 2015. A year later that same group and I created a branding agency that we still run in Deep Ellum. The corporate gigs pay the bills but my passion within fashion photography and portraiture keeps me moving toward my goals and aspirations.
Today I’m constantly being pushed just by working side by side with these guys and the brilliant creatives we now get to work with. These years of work has now lead to me to owning my own photography business, running my own studio (The Silo Deep Ellum), and as a co-owner of a fashion/ apparel brand “Bad Hats”
Has it been a smooth road?
The struggles of this industry can be explained by most people working in Dallas today. It is an unsaturated market and yet is very competitive. There have been several people we have worked with that had nothing but concealed malintent. When we began these select people took advantage of me and my comrades as young ambitious creatives yearning for our chance to create something big. Those days are over but now there are different struggles always changing as we grow.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the JD 5643 Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
Since I started I never turned down a job, whether or not I knew exactly what I was doing or if it was a type of photography that was hallow and boring. Taking real estate photos sucks, but it paid for the gas I used to get to the gigs I enjoyed doing.
Now a days a corporate client of mine has me flying across the country and something abroad working on event documentation. On the creative side of things I specialize in portraiture, fashion photography, and what I’d consider to be creative editorial-esque shoots (though I have not been published I shoot as if I were)
One thing I am most proud of in my work is the team I get to work with. I have been working with some of these guys since we were in high school and now that we are able to create brilliant content and all have crucial roles to play in each shoot is incredibly rewarding.
One other venture I am working on with my business partner Cody Ballert is called Bad Hats. We use quotes from movies/ TV shows/ music/ pop culture / or things said regular lives and with simple legible text put them on high quality dad hats. We are still very fresh only having been operating since early July but we have plans in place for expanding our lines and outreach.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
In the last 10 years the fashion industry has shifted from highly retouched images of models with unnaturally good looks to photographers going analog using discontinued medium format film cameras and hardly retouching their images. This shift to more natural photography seems to be picking up steam from titans like vogue to the underground photographers trying to make a name for themselves.
The internet has been a huge source of this shift. People are tracking down the men and women who turned the industry into what it is today. As people learn how these photographers worked with film and trusting their eye for composition and lighting more humans are putting that method practice for themselves.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3800 Main Street Suite C Dallas Texas 75226
- Website: jd5643.com
- Phone: 2144069064
- Email: photo@jd5643.com
- Instagram: jd_5643
Image Credit:
Models : Kevin Laroy, Cassie M, Brooklynne, Darian, Segun O, Whitney B
MUA : Marina Girgis
Studio : The Silo Deep Ellum
Art Director : Cody Ballert
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