Meet Nick Spanos of Spanos Photo in West Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Spanos.

Nick, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When I was about 10 years old, I started to listen to music and pay more attention to pop culture. My love of music grew and made me more aware of the visuals that represented it… music videos and photography. I would watch music videos for hours and I was mesmerized! I would especially pay close attention to the editing and the lighting. This definitely had a big effect on my choice to go to Emerson College, a film school in Boston. After college I moved to LA to pursue my dream of being a video director.

Since my priority was to pay my rent, I worked as an assistant at a music video production company in Hollywood called Nitrate Films. Nitrate was co-owned by renowned video director Julien Temple so you can image how thrilled I was to work there. I got to see first hand the entire process of how music videos were made… something I couldn’t learn in college. During the three years that I worked there, I had the chance to direct a bunch small video projects and loved every minute of it. Unfortunately the company moved it’s operation to London and I needed to make a decision on what to do next.

I wasn’t ready to live the life of a freelance director so I pursued a job at a record company thinking that I would work in the video department. I figured that if I needed to get a 9 to 5 job, it should help me with my career goals. I ended up working at MCA Records in the finance department. This was definitely not where I thought I’d be but again… rent! Since my day-to-day responsibilities didn’t involve anything creative (and since I couldn’t be directing videos at that time) I decided that the next best thing would be to buy a camera and teach myself photography.

I needed to have that creative outlet that I could experiment with on the weekends so I started taking pictures of anyone who’d let me. I worked at MCA for 4 years and then got an opportunity to work at Madonna’s Maverick Records where I stayed for almost 8 years.

Even though my job at Maverick wasn’t creative initially, I started taking pictures at our live shows and things grew from there. I took more and more photos at work and started shooting videos with our artists. After a couple of years, my job grew into this unique hybrid position where I got to do all the things I loved while still keeping my non-creative responsibilities. I was the one man “content department” before that was an actual thing at record labels.

When Maverick closed in 2006 I finally decided that I was ready to be a freelance photographer and video director… and I never looked back since.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
When I moved to LA I had this idea of what my path would be to reach my goals.

Needless to say, it didn’t go as planned but I wouldn’t change the experience at all. I am lucky to say that I’ve had several dream jobs which led me to this place now. I always tell people that sometimes you have to be creative about how you achieve your goals and that the road isn’t always a direct route.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Spanos Photo – what should we know?
I specialize in music photography. I take portraits of singers for their album packaging and publicity needs. I also direct music videos and acoustic performances. I want my clients to walk away feeling like I captured who they are and made them look great! I also take a lot of pride in creating an easy going atmosphere on set.

I am careful about who I hire to work with me. I seek out people who are not only excellent at what they do but who also take pride in their work and are easy/fun to work with. I think that photo shoots are meant to be fun… nothing kills creativity more than stress.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.spanosphoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spanosphoto/

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