January 20, 2017

Meet Jeff Drongowski of Drongo Photo in San Fernando Valley

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Drongowski.

Jeff, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was always going to be a creative. I started out as an oil painter and a writer in Michigan. I sold some paintings and published some poetry. I also worked as a bartender, a restaurant manager and became a certified sommelier. There were only five of us in the state at the time. I got into wine sales and started writing screenplays. I met an agent online and moved to Los Angeles on her advice. My family was sad but supportive as always. I wrote a bunch of screenplays in my free time, got an agent and then a manager. I optioned a few scripts but nothing moved. For work, I sold everything from storage to copiers and eventually pharmaceuticals in Beverly Hills, winning sales awards at every step. That’s a long way from being a poet/painter/wino in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I got tired of waiting for people to produce my writing and started shooting things. Personal projects and passion pieces. I would still be working in sales, living a comfortable if unhappy, existence if I hadn’t lost two friends in a six month period. They were alive one day and gone the next. Losing them was a punch in the gut unlike anything else I have ever experienced. I took a long, hard look at how I was living. Life can be over in a blink, and I was spending a large portion of my life doing something I didn’t have any passion for that paid really well and made me miserable. That’s no way to live. I quit my job two weeks later with no plan. I decided to jump and build a parachute on the way down.

Photography happened on accident. I have always been an enthusiast but I never considered it as a career option. An actor friend of mine asked if I would shoot some headshots for him. I told him to bring some friends, vaguely thinking that I could build a portfolio. He took one of the photos and posted it on Facebook where an agent saw it and wanted to send me a client. I did a bunch of Googling to figure out what my prices should be and launched Drongo Photo. Every pro photographer on the planet told me to specialize but as you can probably guess from my story, specialization isn’t my style. I take on any job that interests me and has gotten into all kinds of media projects because of it. Producing, directing, editing, cinematography, podcasting, and a startup company or two. I pretty much always have a new business on my mind. Now I specialize in saying yes to new experiences and challenges and it has led me into some really fulfilling adventures. It is not the most stable way to go, but it is the only way I know.

I think life needs a little distance to make sense. From far enough away, my story is that of a creative kid from a small town who needed to learn about writing, painting, food, wine, sales, filmmaking, photography, love, and loss to find his way in the world. I’m still finding my way forward but now I’m doing it with purpose. Let’s go together.

Has it been a smooth road?
For me, freelance work is a peaks and valleys kind of life. It can be the happiest years of your life or some of the lowest. When the phone rings and emails roll in, you feel like the king of the world. When a few days go by without any calls or messages things can get pretty bleak pretty fast. I have those struggles the same as anyone else but I always find a way to keep going. One big way for me was to add a business partner. He is a big-hearted, hyper-intelligent electrical engineer named Rob and without him, I would’ve closed shop in the early years. That isn’t an option for everyone but it saved me from going back into sales more than once. The smart play would’ve been to do photography on the side while working my pharma sales job, but I wanted a new life immediately so I went the messy route. Risky move, to say the least.

People will often tell you that work leads to more work, and I have found that to be true. Whenever I struggle it’s because I’ve become too bogged down in administrative or marketing tasks and I need to pick up a camera and shoot something, anything, because creativity will save me. There is no more powerful force in the universe than creating something from nothing.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Drongo Photo – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Drongo Photo is an ever evolving media company focused on helping people with their marketing or passion projects. We help people celebrate the important moments in their lives, launch products, tell the authentic story of their businesses, and manage just about any creative project from backyard weddings to huge block parties and multi-city film shoots.

We specialize in saying yes to fun and interesting projects. We are probably best known for corporate event photography and video capture but we do a lot of things. My corporate sales background combined with my artistic training makes this industry a great fit for me. It translates to marketing departments, public relations companies, event planners and nonprofits asking us to cover their luxury and lifestyle events and make sure all the sponsors have the images and video they require. These events range from red carpet premieres to fundraisers, trade expos, and food festivals. If I do it right my client will be able to use my work to sell more tickets to their next event. It’s a challenging line of work which requires the ability to cover a shot list with precision and still be flexible enough to allow for both happy accidents and planned events on a timeline. This skill set works equally well for weddings and family events where the story I’m telling is love and the pursuit of happiness.

Beyond that, I am known for being a friendly collaborator who wants everyone around me to succeed.

I take great pride in making people feel comfortable and confident. This applies to my clients as well as the endless list of talented people I have had on my team. This also applies to portraiture and my ability to help people relax in front of the camera when they feel like their whole future could depend on a headshot or executive portrait. That’s a lot riding on one photo. I’m also proud of my ability to make an event planner’s day better by taking over the media requirements and letting them worry about something else. I am often told my team and I were the easiest part of their day and that means a lot to me. When a bride tells me that with tears in her eyes it keeps me going for months.

My crazy background sets me apart from most photographers. Studying literature and painting informs my sensibilities, expands my creative vision and influences the way I light and compose everything. My entire creative journey inspires every photo I take as I filter the day through my lens. My sales experience taught me how to talk to anyone about anything, allowing me to make quick connections and capture real emotions. I can diffuse conflict and get to the heart of a problem. At my core, I am a storyteller. I can do that with words, with images, with movement and with an eye for business goals. I’m an adaptable creative problem solver and I love every step of it. The back of my business card says, “I can help you.” That is both a promise and my mission statement in life.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Los Angeles was a foggy dreamland on another planet when I lived in Kalamazoo. It seemed like the product of focus groups and snake oil salesmen. Now that I live here, I know it to be a city of endless opportunities and possibilities. Sure, we have the film industry adding a dash of glamour to what we do but we also have a never ending list of cultural activities, entrepreneurs, new restaurants, commerce and diversity in every direction. I can go from the ocean to Beverly Hills to the missions on Skid Row to Big Bear and Joshua Tree in the same day if I want. For somebody who wakes up every day looking for variety, it’s a fantastic place to be. LA is always alive and on the move. Whatever you are looking for can probably be found here. And yes, the weather is a significant improvement over Michigan.

My least favorite part about Los Angeles is what I call success fatigue. If you look around it feels like everyone else is a famous millionaire sometimes, leaving you in the dust by the minute, and that can be pretty discouraging. You have to get your head right and work to keep it there. I read a lot of self-improvement books and recommend them to others. The other problem you may have heard of is traffic. But those cars are full of people trying to get through the day and build a better life just like me, so I try to remember that while I sit and listen to podcasts on the way to my next gig.

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