Do It Your Damn Self: The Mentality of a Self-Taught Photographer

Do It Your Damn Self is about educating yourself about things that you are passionate about. We waste time relying on others because we fear the unknown. I am not saying that relying on others is bad just understand that productivity is based on their time or lack of time.

Life is awesome because of the potential for continuous learning. There is always someone out there with more knowledge and more wisdom than you. With that being said I decided to interview UK based videography/photographer Mr. X.

I contacted Mr. X because of his Do It Yourself mentality and awesome tutorials on YouTube. Check out the awesome interview below.

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I recently subscribed to you on YouTube and I was amazed at your Do It Yourself attitude. What motivated you to start doing instead of just sitting back and watching?

Mr X.: First of all let me take the time to say thanks for reaching out to me to do this interview.

Since I started in the business of photography and video I began to get asked by many people how I got into the game or where did I learn my art, or how do I use the iris on the camera etc. After the umpteenth time of answering questions, I decided to put together a text blog with photos describing how to do tutorials. But that quickly turned into video tutorials, as I preferred to see on video how things are done. Now I can send people to my website rather than having to explain.

Would you mind explaining the DIYDSU mentality?

Mr X.: For those that don’t know, DIYDSU stands for Do It Your Damn Self University! It simply means; if you want anything done, try and do it yourself. Depending on, or waiting on others can be tedious and can waste a lot of your time.

Also society teaches us that the only way you can become professional in any industry is to go through their learning system, which most of the time is out of reach for a lot of people. The DIYDSU mentality is simply to teach yourself and put your work out there. We have social networking now with a wealth of information on how you can get started in a vast selection of industries. So now there’s no excuse to not go out and get started by yourself. The great thing about starting from the bottom is... the only way is up!


In one of your tutorials you talk extensively about taking advantage of the window of opportunity. Why do so many people miss out on this opportunity?

Mr X.: Opportunities are those unpredictable things that come along during our lives no matter who or where you are in the world. Some people are aware of this phenomenon and put a lot of enthusiasm into preparing for such events and situations. Many successful people are fully aware of this as I am too and this means that as much as possible, you will take every meeting, every call, reply to every email observe every possible information with the understanding that one of these opportunities may lead to something great.

Now many people don't do this, whether they don’t have the time, or their work ethic is low, or they believe that opportunities are predictable, meaning they turn down opportunity because they believe that many are just a waste of time.

What caused you to focus on videography and photography?

Mr X.: I use to be in the music business, and making music, I always had the visuals in my head of how I thought the video would be. I also got involved with artist creativity in their style as well as their image. When we did photo shoots I also envisioned in my head what the final product would look like.

This obviously paved the way for me to pick up the camera and start experimenting with some of the artist I was working with and then the next thing you know I left the music industry and began a career in video and photography.

I know that you are pretty busy with your video/photo empire but do you ever find time to crank out beats?

Mr X.: I still enjoy music and I still make beats, but not anymore for artists. A lot of the background music you hear on my videos is my own beats that I make in my home studio. It is good because a lot of my more high end clients require background music, but don’t want the problem of copyright infringement or the effort to source or pay separately for the music. So I have my own library of various styles of background music that I can offer my clients as part of the deal.

How did you deal with rejection when you first started out as a videographer/photographer?

Mr X.: When you are open to possible opportunities and you go in with all your heart, you already know that not all will end up positive. For every ten tries, one may come up positive. So you are able to deal with rejection. It’s those that have no understanding and think that with every other step, it must lead to a positive. I always give this example: How many people do you know could stomach working with no income for 3 years straight?

If they were honest, most would say no they wouldn’t, as they could not survive without income.

But, go back and ask this. Would you be prepared to work with no income for three years with the guarantee of one million pound payment at the end of that period?

Now all of a sudden the possibilities start turning in their head, and I can bet their answer would change and they would be prepared to slaughter it out for three years and get creative on how they could survive during that period.

This is the difference between those that see that million pound future to those that don’t. Rejection is simply a part of that hurdle.


I find that I am most creative at around 2 am in the morning. When are you the most creative?

Mr X.: I get most creative when I’m relaxing during the day or mostly in the bath or shower which can be annoying as I have to jump out my bath and start writing my ideas down as I tend to forget.

I notice that you always give praises to the most high during a tutorial. Would you mind sharing the correlation between your faith and creativity?

Mr X.: The Most High and Yashayah (Jesus) are the two most important things in my life, nothing comes close. It’s not just me being "spiritual" with no substance. I have real life experiences that have just propelled my faith.

It is all about truth, faith and obedience. There is so much to learn on how to follow the true ways of The Most High in the Bible. I study, I read and I take The Most High by his word and put it into my life based on the word of the scriptures. And, as he promised, The Most High gives back, and through Yashayah he has shown me wisdom and knowledge on how to deal with the times of today.

It is all trade, you give to him in regards to how you live your life in truth, faith and obedience and The Most High will reward you in what ever you ask for. All you have to do is go out and get it. And once I get my reward, I never forget The Most High Or Yashayah, in fact I glorify them even more. That’s how to correlate between faith and creativity. I have turned down paid work that doesn’t sit well with me spiritually. It's all a constant give and take as well as a constant learning and passing it on to the next generation.

What are you currently working on?

Mr X.: Oh wow, I’ve learnt through past experiences never to mention the names of the brands I'm currently working with until the job becomes past tense. It is good practice. There are no good people out there that will take it upon themselves to contact these companies and drop your name. But I'm working on quite a few projects at this time.

I do a lot of work for fashion and clothing brands and I'm currently working with a few brands doing videos and photography for their lookbooks, catalogues and lifestyle shots.

I'm also working with a few big YouTube bloggers who have come to me to do their YouTube intros and some of their lookbook videos. I got hired to produce a promo video by a well-known football academy to do a video on the process of applying to their brand. Also working doing a few seminars, capturing their events on video for clients, which is a lot more demanding, as your capturing live audio and video with a 2 or 3 camera set up and sometimes it is linked to a TV or screens around the venue so people in far away seats can see what is happening.

A good job that just came in for me to shoot behind the scenes at one of the UK's biggest music award ceremonies on behalf of their sponsor. So my job is to capture the action, vibe and interviews of celebs and crew backstage and on the red carpet.

How can the masses get in contact with you?

Mr X.: Well, you can either connect with me on my YouTube
My Facebook
My Twitter
My Instagram

But the best place with the biggest resources all in one place is through my personal website or through my service website

Who are your five favorite videographers?

Mr X.: Derek Blanks
Philip Bloom
Freddie Wong
Vincent Laforet
Andrew Kramer

Thank you...