Paid for his passion: Selmshots explores professional photography

Last November, sophomore Ethan Chang climbed the last story of a San Francisco skyscraper, his breath caught in his throat. Standing on the roof of the 47-story building, he looked out at the city at sunset with a feeling of surreality and wonder.

After getting his desired shot with his Canon 7D, Chang returned home to spend six hours editing with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. 

Since realizing his interest in photography freshman year when he went out to shoot with 2019 alumnus Nick Burry, who is now shooting for the popular YouTuber, ZHC, Chang has continued to pursue his passion by joining Bay Shooters, a community that hosts photography meets around San Francisco to showcase up-and-coming shooters. Although he isn’t directly employed by them, the group boosts his platform and he manages to get most of his individual gigs from other photographers there.

“Once my friends invited me to shoot with them, I found that I really liked the people and environment so I just stuck with them,” Chang said.

Although he started photography as a hobby, he quickly spread his name by interacting with different creators from Bay Shooters and forming connections, beginning to earn a steady income. 

Chang makes most of his money from shooting products for different brands, including the skateboard company, Boosted Boards, and from photographing different dances like Lynbrook’s winter prom. He gets some of his photography gigs from Saint Francis sophomore and fellow Bay Shooter Alex Hadig, as well as  people who reach out to him through his Instagram photography account @selmshots.

Chang has continued to grow his photography and pursues it because it lets him view the world as a different place.

“I’m equally proud of every shot, but once I get my perfect picture and finish editing it, flipping between the before and after picture makes me feel complete,” Chang said. 

The trip and experience make spending so much time on photography worth it. He finds his job of working on individual gigs more enjoyable than any other due to the freedom it gives him to express himself through creative photos and edits.

Because of his passion for his Bay Shooters job, Chang finds it hard to manage time between school and shoots; he gets distracted when doing school work, and switches between editing past photos and his homework. Therefore, he keeps a schedule to keep himself on track.
“It gets irritating sometimes to have to balance photography and school work, but photography gives me something to look forward to and motivates me to finish the week,” Chang said.

However, he says that getting up at 3 a.m. to drive up to San Francisco almost every weekend, and the large time commitment are worth it because of the results he gets, the new people he’s met and the ability to travel more and explore the world outside Saratoga.

“He wants to learn photography to the best of his ability,” Burry said. “He’s the type of guy that will learn something as soon as he finds out he doesn’t know how to do it. As a result, his growth is really uncapped as his motivation and passion is so strong. The sky’s the limit for him.”