This is Part 1 in our ongoing series, “Capturing the Moment,” where we dive in with your favorite artists‘ tour photographers and videographers, talk in–depth about their craft, and learn more about the unsung heroes of dance music.
Zach Villafana. Does that name sound familiar to you? If not, take out your phone and open Instagram. Go to Herobust’s profile and click on a couple of pictures and see who’s tagged. Yup. @steadyprime. That’s right, we tracked down the man behind the camera.
Photo Credit: @leandrojusten, Even when Zach is in front of the camera, he is still behind the camera
Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, Zach was a typical teenage boy who loved skateboarding. With skateboarding, he collaborated this love with another passion of his: photography. While he was skateboarding, he would simply hold up a camera to record videos of his friends.
When Zach was in high school, one of his most influential teachers who taught video technology (Mr. Randolph), opened his eyes to the creative world. Who knew this would lead to Zach being the creative guru he is today?
Right out of high school, he landed a job working for the San Antonio Spurs and moved to Boerne, Texas. After moving out to Boerne, Zach met Chris Marshall, many of you might know him as Crizzly. After shooting for Crizzly and working at more shows, Zach had the opportunity to attend festivals and meet DJs and photographers all while making a name for himself and becoming a familiar face in the music industry.
With a load of long nights, hard work and determination, Zach is now the tour photographer for the Atlanta DJ, Herobust. He has created a brand name for himself through his individual work as well as his popular work with Steadyprime through social media. We recently had the opportunity to chat with Zach about his work, touring, and life.
DMNW: Artists always post recap videos and pictures from shows. How do you try and capture the ambiance of the whole show through one picture or a 30-second recap video?
ZV: “You have to tell a story. I’ve been trying to show more behind the scene action to establish the environment. But you really just have to film the most hyped parts. I could be shooting all night and only use 30 seconds. Our job is to make it look sick. I find the sickest parts and mash it into one video. I try and make it look as fun and cool as possible, make people jealous and remind everyone at the show how much fun they had!”
DMNW: You are currently on tour right now and visited a couple of awesome countries. Where were you most excited to visit on the tour?
ZV: “India and China. Australia was very cool too, the music scene is developed similar in some ways compared to the U.S. China and India was just completely different and we had no idea what to expect. The EDM scene is also relatively new and rapidly growing there so it was incredible to see that!”
(continued on Page 2)
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