Meet Joshua Cain | Photographer | Videographer | Live Streamer | Graphic Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joshua Cain and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joshua, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I am from a small suburban town located near Atlanta, Georgia. I feel as though my background shaped me in a positive way. I grew up in a household with a cultured and supportive family that always cared and sought out opportunities for me, I didn’t live in a bad area, and I enjoyed the teachers and students that I surrounded myself with as I’ve attended public school throughout my life. Because of these things and many other reasons, I feel as though these factors have greatly influenced who I am today. That being my work ethic, my professionalism, my persistence, my resilience, and even my kindness to others. For instance, the foundations of my work ethic originated from my parents. With my mother and father, having good grades in school wasn’t an option… it was mandatory, and at the beginning of my life it was a challenge to prioritize grades, I will admit, but eventually as I progressed on, I’ve grown accustomed to staying on top of things, whether it be in elementary and middle school keeping all “A’s” and being on the principal’s list to now maintaining over a 4.0 GPA in high school with the many other extracurricular activities and gigs\jobs I partake in. With myself and my work ethic becoming better as a result, I am very thankful that my parents held and enforced those high expectations on me. As well as I am very thankful for my background and the people within it, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better than what I received.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I currently do livestreaming, event photography, videography, and sports photography. I feel as though what sets me apart from others is my style of taking photos, my determination, and my motives behind my work. I say this because first of all every photographer or at least the one’s I’ve met have their own style of taking photos and then editing photos. I would say that my style has never compared to another photographer that I’ve either met or encountered at my high school. Another thing that sets me apart from others is that I do videography. I have yet to encounter another serious videographer at my high school, the very few people who’ve done videos are photographers who are exploring new areas of digital visual art and created a video maybe once or they create a video every once in a while, highlighting different sports or events. As well as there are a distinct few people including me who work with Mr. Benjamin (my photography instructor) to externally livestream events, and what sets me apart is that I’ve worked with our district board of education on multiple occasions for different events such as Teacher of the Year, Graduations, etc. I am most proud of probably my photography work. I’ve learned a lot within film and photography since the beginning of middle school to now, and I’ve produced some really good photos in my humble yet accurate opinion. I got to where I am today through my fine arts educators and my friends. Without the skills instilled in me from my fine arts teachers, I would be just some normal kid and I probably wouldn’t have a camera at that point since I wouldn’t know what to do with it and how to procure quality images and video. My friends also helped me get to this point because a lot of them are athletic and going out taking their picture brought attention to my work and spread awareness throughout multiple sports. Getting to this point; I will not lie; it wasn’t the easiest at all. That is because I was obligated to go to every game that I could make for the teams I took photos of and that wasn’t terrible, it was just sometimes draining having to spend so many hours taking the photos, then editing them for hours all for free and that even some players never even used any! The way I overcame that was just by pushing through it and strategically managing my time and completing my assignments. However, I do find it quite enjoyable when I get to see the player’s reactions and see them actually use the photos that I work so diligently on to create for them. One lesson in particular that I learned from taking photos for sports teams is that “a closed mouth doesn’t get fed.” I say this because multiple times last year I missed out on a few opportunities due purely to me not asking the coaches anything because I didn’t want to constantly harass them. I would want the world to know my name and what I do; that being Joshua Cain and that I do many different forms of photography, videography, graphic design, and that I have skills in internal and external livestreaming. I’m located and based in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, and that if you are looking for a quality production for any of those areas then please reach out!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Um to be honest I’m not really sure. If it was during the summer, then we could swim in my pool. I do really enjoy swimming in the morning and in the night (sure the water might be a little cold, but at night we have a light in the pool that practically changes the color of the water and it’s really cool). If it wasn’t summer, then we could probably play some games or hangout and maybe do something that they wanted to do around town. The movies are also a great option, but it would depend on what’s out at the time. I am very indecisive when it comes to “what do you want to do.” So, our trip would most likely consist of things that they wanted to do and I tag along, or the trip would just be laid back and chill. Breakfast is widely known as the most important meal of the day, and I whole-heartedly agree with that statement. Breakfast if my favorite meal and I’d probably get the say on where we’d go for breakfast, but for the other meals throughout the day wouldn’t matter to me and could be their choice. Stone Mountain is an interesting place and it is really beautiful to hike up if you get there early enough. Depending on the month of the year (because of daylight savings time) it would be preferable to get there around 5-5:30am, so you can see the sunrise as you scale the mountain. It is really pretty and great for pictures so that would probably be something that we do.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Yes, there are many people that deserve some credit and recognition in my life story. In fact, to prevent this section of the interview from becoming an essay, I won’t be able to list every single person that has aided me in this journey, but just know I appreciate everyone who supports me, whether that be in regards of schoolwork, business, and/or my personal life. But first I’d like to start with thanking my family. They have been a great help in ensuring my success and being there for me throughout my life, providing opportunities for me from a very young age to discover myself and figure out who Joshua Cain was, and what was he going to do in the future. They are my biggest supporters, and my mother, father, and grandfather are my biggest patrons. I really couldn’t thank them enough for contributing to and allowing me to do the things that I do as a whole. Next, I would like to thank the many important adults that guided me through my education and some with my business. After graduating from elementary school, I decided to audition to a fine arts middle school for photography and film. I got in of course, but I couldn’t be anymore thankful for Mrs. Mitchell-Matthews, she introduced me to the realm of film and photography, and I fell in love with the two subjects. Because of her teachings throughout my three-year middle school career, I was able to get into the fine arts high school that I currently attend for film and photography and as well as getting accepted into my county’s high school career academy for audio, video, technology, and film. For the past two years I couldn’t be anymore grateful for the teachings from my current art-related instructors. Without the knowledge shared with me from my graphic design instructor Mrs. Rojas, I wouldn’t be anywhere near the level I am currently regarding my perception of graphic design and the elements within it as a whole and how to work with Adobe Illustrator. I’m also thankful for Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Logan. Mr. Benjamin is my instructor for media arts and film, and Mr. Logan is my instructor for audio, video, technology, and film. Both have taught me more than an adequate amount of knowledge within the subjects, and both have given me many opportunities to gain real-world experience within those fields. Whether that be livestreaming or recording different events inside and outside of school. Regarding livestreaming, I also am thankful for Mr. Baker allowing me to help him setup our newly created stream for our high school esports teams and showing me the ropes for internal streaming (where there’s no cameras, only capture cards and streaming software). You can find our stream at HHS_Conyers on Twitch.com and show your support (shameless plug… I know)! I’m also very thankful for my SkillsUSA advisor and Robotics instructor Mr. Smith. Although I never had him as a teacher for a class, I have had the privilege to work with him and learn a few things about robotics from him. He has also been a great help in aiding me for my upcoming state SkillsUSA competition. My other teachers like Mr. Wilson, Mr. Price, Mr. Bare, Ms. Davis, Ms. Hull, and Mrs. Stewart have been great role models and mentors to me regarding the respective subjects that they teach and even about my business and what their input or recommendations might be towards that. One counselor in particular at my high school is probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, Mrs. Watts brings so much positivity and you physically can’t leave her office without a smile on your face, and I really do appreciate that about her because she’s nice to talk too during the very little times I get stressed. Finally (regarding adults), I’d like to give a very special thanks to the Administration at my High School. I have had the very special privilege of meeting them of getting to know them very well through photographing, recording, and livestreaming events and spending time with them outside of events and during the school day (for instance I eat lunch with them from time to time) and I’d say that is pretty special and really awesome. They have always clearly shown that they care about me, and they always make sure to include me in events that need coverage most importantly our past Homecoming and our upcoming Prom. They also show that they care about every single student that attends my high school directly and indirectly. I personally believe they deserve more than a “very special thanks.” I also believe that my high school’s soccer and volleyball teams deserve some recognition too. The wonderful coaches of those teams took me under their wings and allowed me to photograph their players in and out of action. Which allowed for me to better learn from experience and do a bit of networking. Through these programs I got to know our athletic trainer Ms. Dee a little more and I really can’t elaborate on how much I appreciate her; at countless soccer games she’s always been considerate of others, and she quite literally prevented me from freezing out in the cold during soccer weather at a couple of our home games. I also got to meet another photographer who’s outside of our high school, Mr. Dennis Geiser. He’s shown me a few different tips and tricks and deserves some credit too. A major motivator in doing sports photography is meeting and getting to know the amazing players on the team. This year I was so glad to get to know some of the players better like Kendal, Mya, Nikki (who is an amazing photographer who also gave me a couple of tips for next year), Zoe, Tripp, Josh, Archie, and Jeremiah. Oh, and I also can’t leave out the lovely parents of some of the soccer players like Mrs. Starks, Ms. Bailey, Mrs. Daniel, and Ms. Solorio that work at the concession stand and even give me food and drinks for free at home games and purchase something for me at away games as a token of appreciation, that of which I appreciate even more in return. Finally (and I mean it), I’d like to say a huge thank you to my friends. I really do appreciate everything that they do whether it is being there for me, helping me with projects, or just dealing with my shyness. My friends like Isaiah, Sydney, Marley, Jess, and my brother Nick have been a great help in sharing ideas and collaborating on various photography and videography goals and projects. I am very grateful for my friends’ toleration of my reserved character those being the people previously listed and my other really good friends like Alyssa, Alexa, Amanda, Angel, Brandon, Bryce, Camryn, Dayrle, Kennedy, Keon, Shane, Sierra, and Tamia, they’ve made these school years a whole lot more fun than I would’ve expected. Although it may not seem like it, I enjoy most of every moment I have with these people. I also wanted to give a special thanks to a particular friend of mine that has always been there for me with great advice and just has always been a really nice person to talk to, that being Isela. She’s probably helped me the most out of all my friends (excluding my brother) whether that being project-related or just being someone that is there for me. Like the admin, she also deserves more than a “special thanks.” However, I digress; all these people and the many others that impact my life in their own way deserve some sort and recognition and I couldn’t be anymore thankful for them.

Instagram: _josh_cain_

Image Credits
Kyden Neal (Photo of Myself)