Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Kavanaugh.
Hi Dan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
From a young age, I remember picking up my father’s 1980s heavy, bulky, and impractical camcorder (the kind that had the large camera on one shoulder and then the full-size VCR deck on the other shoulder that’s connected via a wire) and figuring out what I could do with it. I also had a small 110-film camera with which I’d take photos on family vacations. Not thinking much about it at the time, my interest in photography and video naturally grew while I was in high school.
I would shoot short videos with my high school buddies and photograph my friends and nature subjects. I enjoyed the immediacy of how these two formats captured reality. From there, I was self-taught, learning by trial and error and not having formal education until my college years at SCAD. One summer in college, I got an internship on the independent feature Wet Hot American Summer. That led to another job on Super Troopers and another on a small local independent feature in New Jersey. After college, reuniting with one of my high school buddies with whom I shot the shorts, we started a production company, Forward Features. We shot dozens of shorts and made it into a few festivals. That lasted for two years until I moved to Los Angeles and started working on TV shows, small independent features, documentaries, photo shoots for media and industry companies, and personal clients. I created a unique niche for myself, being able to capture fantastic B-roll for clients as well, something that I take pride in as it brings my love of still photography into play.
Through the years and all of these projects, I have been fortunate to travel the world and meet people from all walks of life and backgrounds that remind me every day how grateful and blessed I am to do what I do for a living. The perspective gained in experiencing the lives of people living in cultures I could never dream of is indescribable but part of what I try to convey in the images I shoot.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
As with anyone’s story, I have had plenty of ups and downs over the years. Being a freelancer in a creative industry, you ride these constantly changing waves regarding work, value, and inspiration. If only I were better at surfing!
But seriously, I’ve had days where a piece of gear malfunctions and we are off the coast in South Africa on a small boat and have no way to fix it, leaving us to get creative with an in-the-moment solution. There have been days of having guns drawn on me, getting searched and questioned by a city’s bomb squad unit, being chased in Africa by a local government who didn’t want us in the country exposing an illegal seal slaughter that happens every year, and our film crew being branded terrorists.
I’ve been passed up for jobs and dealt with the ugly politics of the film and photo worlds while fighting for better rates for the crew. I’ve lost time with family and friends due to 14-hour work days or being gone for weeks and months at a time. For myself and fellow crew members, this is always the most challenging part of the job, trying to make relationships work when you are not in a traditional Monday through Friday 9-5 position.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My company is called DKP. It stands for Daniel K Pictures, specializing in high-quality still and motion pictures. I work in all aspects of capturing images while telling intimate and relatable stories to the target audience. I value working anywhere in the world on small sets with quality people in environments that help tell the story.
As a Director of Photography and a B-roll Unit for TV shows, corporate clients, social media, I have professional experience in being a ‘one-man band’ as well as being able to scale up productions to an entire crew and gear rental for Networks, Companies, to NGOs. Whether it’s motion time-lapses, sliders, aerials with drones and in helicopters, car rigs, and long lens capture, DKP has got you covered. I also offer still photography services, and I love shooting editorial, environmental portraiture, and landscapes worldwide.
What sets DKP apart? I have the skill set and ability to deliver photo and video formats in a creative, intimate, and cinematic way, which is a massive plus for my clients. Having traveled around the world to small remote villages and islands, distant African wildlife savannahs, jungles of South America, and cities such as New Delhi, NY, Paris, Israel, Palestine (and many more), I can adapt and fit into any culture I go to for a job. What I value the most is to going into areas of the world and making connections with locals through their culture, where I find myself sitting down and sharing dinner with them in their homes, learning who they are and about their dreams. Connecting on that human level makes the long travel days with it.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I have learned along the way is to be humble and open to the experience I share with others, from the professional to the personal.
Creating new connections with people and understanding how they live within their unique culture shows me that it’s a big world. But the common thread is that we all want the same things in life: happiness, family, love, food, financial stability, and meaningful experiences. We all are more similar than we realize. And, no matter where we are from, a genuine smile to a stranger in a distant land can start a new human connection you can have for life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.danielkpictures.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielkpictures/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danielkpictures
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/danielkpictures
Image Credits
@danielkpictures
