Meet Dustin Brooks of Dustin Brooks Photo in Santa Clarita

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dustin Brooks.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Dustin. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was raised in the small town of Paso Robles, California where there really isn’t much to do. I grew up a sports fanatic because that’s all there was to do around there. I played every sport from hockey, basketball and baseball. I love anything that is competitive but once I was introduced to skateboarding in 1997 it changed everything in my life. Fast forward a couple years later I ended up breaking my ankle in six places due to skateboarding and I was unable to do anything active for 9 months, I was devastated. For Christmas that year my parents got me polaroid camera and I started photographing my friends skateboarding because I still wanted to be a part of everything that was going on. That’s when I realized I loved something else just as much as I do skateboarding.

During that period, I was hanging with my friends all day just running through film like there was no tomorrow. I had no idea about anything technical with photography, I just loved to do it and at that time it didn’t matter. It was all about having fun. I was hooked on photography and my addiction for it grew when I got my first DSLR camera years later. After many years of shooting skateboarding, I started to get a lot of offers to shoot family photos, new borns and things of that nature but I had no idea what I was doing and felt like I was missing out on doing something I loved and get paid to do it. What more could a person want? I decided that I wanted to go back to school for a change of pace in life and decided that a photography school would be right up my alley, so I went to check out Brooks Institute of Photography in Ventura, CA and took a tour of the school and I was sold the moment I walked on campus and shortly after that I enrolled. Brooks Institute helped me in so many ways and ultimately it was the best decision I ever made in my life going to that school, I met so many creative and talented people there that only influenced me to be better. I was offered an internship with Andrew D. Bernstein who is the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers photographer for the 2016-2017 NBA season. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s actually been the opposite of smooth, but I wouldn’t change that for the world. Being a full-time student and working is not easy to juggle. It can feel like you don’t have time for anything but you have to look at the bigger picture and trust the process when it seems impossible. Life, in general, can just be crazy at times.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Dustin Brooks Photo – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Dustin Brooks Photography specializes in Sports photography, my passions in sports primarily lay within Skateboarding and Hockey. The two things I love most but it is not only limited to those two sports. I will photograph anything from Basketball to Extreme Cheese Rolling (and yes, cheese rolling is considered a sport in the U.K) but I think you get the point. I love to capture action and just document sports in general. It’s always evolving and changing which keeps things interesting.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
The connections you make are my absolute favorite part of Los Angeles. There is always something going on here. Traffic is my least favorite thing about it here, for obvious reasons.

Contact Info:

• Website: dustinbrooksphoto.com
• Phone: (805) 610 5248
• Email: dustin.brooks@dustinbrooksphoto.com
• Instagram: tacdusty
• Facebook: Dustin

Image Credit:
Dustin Brooks

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