Daily Inspiration: Meet Tracy Boulian and David Ahntholz

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Boulian and David Ahntholz.

Hi Tracy and David, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Once we started picking up cameras in our teens, we couldn’t put them down. There is something about photography that excited us in the beginning – and still excites us. We started out as news photojournalists (Tracy – about 20 years ago while in high school, and David over 25 years ago), and wanted to use photography to inform people, help make a change, and make a difference in the world. We always say that work was the best bootcamp, where we problem-solved all day every day, learned to work quickly and learned to find the moment (and the story) in everything.

We left that work about 10 years ago to focus more on our passions and creating imagery for advertising campaigns, commercial, editorial, and fine art clients.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been a long journey of figuring out what we really love and want to do, but we’ve learned so much along the way. We started out working separately as a one man/woman band, always doing 15 jobs by ourselves as photojournalists, including finding and casting a vast array of stories and subjects, talking our way into everything, learning how to do things by trial and error, taking on all aspects of production and post-production ourselves, juggling stills, video, and editing on tight deadlines. We’ve photographed an enormous cross-section of subjects and people. While the way we work is different now and we’re often working with a team, we aren’t afraid to roll up our sleeves and do whatever we can to make a project a success.

We are always evolving, and it has taken us a long time to understand who we are as photographers and what we want to shoot. Some of this understanding has come from shooting personal work. Whenever we aren’t working for clients, we are always working on another self-assigned project. It’s one of the ways we continue to explore new things and push ourselves to move in new directions.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are a husband and wife photography and directing team. We create a wide variety of lifestyle, active lifestyle, portrait, and outdoor imagery for advertising campaigns, commercial, editorial, and fine art clients. We actually met and started dating while on staff at a newspaper – and that photojournalism background taught us to find the moment and the story in everything. We’ve kept that feeling of authenticity in our work. Working as a team, together bring two sets of eyes with two distinct but complementary points of view and therefore a broader range of vision and perspective to everything we do. We shoot imagery on land, underwater, and in the air with our drones. We use our imagery to move people to get outside, respect the natural world (and each other) be active, and be their best selves.

We feel fortunate that our work has been recognized in numerous national and international competitions and publications – from Communication Arts, one of the advertising industry’s most prestigious publications, to the American Photographic Artists, to being recognized as one of the 200 Best Ad Photographers worldwide by Lürzers Archive.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
There isn’t one thing in particular to pinpoint. Rather, we look at tons of photography work online for inspiration and to see what others are doing. We seek out and talk with interesting people to hear about their experiences and stories, which often gets us going on something new. We get outside in nature and hike and explore. We run and workout, which is meditative and energizing. We go to the beach with our dogs and walk and think.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tracydavid.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyplusdavid/
• Other: www.tracydavid.art

Image Credits
Tracy + David