Today we’d like to introduce you to Amari Leath.
Hi Amari, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’ve had an interesting journey to become a photographer. My mom was a photographer. She used a Minolta film camera during college. When I was a kid, I used to sneak the camera out of her closet and play with it. Just looking through the viewfinder was fun. I remember my first camera being a cheap children’s video camera.
When I took it to my cousin’s wedding, I thought I was Spike Lee. Using my first cellphone, I recorded stop-motion videos. They were very simple, I just animated a car on the ground or an action figure walking. I realized I wanted to be a director in 4th grade, but I thought, “that’s impossible, you’ll never be a director”. From that point on, I didn’t pick up a camera until I was in my senior year of high school.
During my senior year, my family embarked on a vacation to Washington D.C. I remember wanting to photograph the entire trip. I brought a simple point-and-shoot camera with me. During the entire trip, I enjoyed taking pictures of everything. I turned my camera into manual mode one day because I wanted to take it to the next level. It was amazing how I could control the light and change the appearance of an image. My mind began racing with possibilities.
At that point, I knew this was what I wanted to do. After we returned to Jacksonville, I bought my first real DSLR, the Canon T6, and I have never looked back. My early roots in photography began with my friends. We would hang out and do photoshoots. I also was and still am an avid street photographer. During those years, I learned composition from an artistic standpoint and that really helped me develop my own style.
I enrolled at Edward Waters University to earn a degree in Digital Media Production. I would photograph our athletics teams. I learned videography and video editing when I joined the Triple Threat Marching Bands Media Team. One day, I thought of the name “Mari Got The Shot” and the slogan “It’s Gonna Be a Movie” and that’s how my business got started.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Running my business has not been a smooth road at all. My early years were full of rejection and failure. Every gallery I would submit my work to, I got rejected. I also couldn’t book a client to save my life or sell a print to save my life. In this period, I had just graduated from high school and was forced to take a year off due to circumstances beyond my control. I wanted to enlist in the military but when I had to get my medical records I got an eye exam and I was diagnosed with glaucoma.
This prevented me from enlisting. I was working 3 jobs at the time and I would practice just about every day. All of this just drove me to continue to practice my craft because I was determined to be successful in life. Eventually, I was able to enroll in school. My first bookings made me 25 to 70 dollars per shoot and I made this maybe once every two months at the time. Otherwise, I worked for free.
My hard drive fell onto the carpet last year, and I lost a lot of footage. Additionally, I was working on a wedding video, but my SD card was not formatted, so I was able to finish it. This was my very first wedding shoot. Recently, I was scammed out of $3000. On Instagram, I was contacted to create a slideshow for their daughter’s birthday. I assumed they were legitimate since they sent me a “custom song” and all the photographs. A payment of $300 was negotiated.
I received a check for $3000 from the scammer. The scammer said that their account manager had written the check for $3000 by accident and would not be able to write another one for a month. I was asked if I could just return the $2700 change. Due to my young age and inexperience as a business owner, I deposited the mobile deposit check and my bank cleared it. I sent back the $2700 and continued on my way. Later, the scammer told me they had written a duplicate check and asked if I would cash it and send it back. Again, not knowing any better, I cashed the check.
My account had a negative balance of $6000 when I woke up the next morning. Because the check they gave me the first time bounced, I never sent them the remaining $3000. The second $3000 check cleared from my account since I never sent it but I was still stuck with a debt of $3000. I am still working to pay this off to this day. I look at this as an expensive business lesson. Always use the Square app to make your payments or get cash. If they give you a check, take it to the bank first to see if it’s legit.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I consider myself to be a photographer, videographer, and artist. The type of work I specialize in is photography and videography, but I am best known for my work in videography. However, my photography is my most cherished pride. It is what inspired me to begin this journey in the first place.
My unique characteristic is that I have such a wide range of skills. I use a wide range of camera techniques to transform a simple portrait into a work of art. Alternatively, I can be subtle and keep my work tidy and professional, if that’s how you like it. No matter what my client requests, I will do my part to accommodate it. I pride myself on being professional and service-oriented.
Ultimately, it is about giving people experiences they will never forget. I enjoy seeing people’s true personalities through photographs. People may start off shy, but after a few pictures and they see how beautiful they are, they open up and become more confident.
What does success mean to you?
Doing what you love for a living is my definition of success. If you’re still creating and having fun, regardless of whether you’re making money or nothing at all, you are successful.
Contact Info:
- Email: marigottheshot@gmail.com
- Website: https://marigottheshot.squarespace.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/marigottheshot?utm_medium=copy_link
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKEWzwa4KzXPiqcWAwFRJ0A
