The Bohdan Lee Interview
As creators, we all take different paths in our creative journeys – that is what makes us unique. Although we may have the same goals and aspirations, it’s our own, individual journeys that set us all apart. Sitting down with Bohdan Lee, it is very clear that his passion has always been to help others learn about creative expression.
The 20 year old photographer and filmmaker from Vancouver, British Columbia is compassionate, detail oriented, and focused on being genuine, authentic, and unique. Speaking with Lee has inspired me to look at this idea of creating and sharing from a new perspective – one that emphasizes the self, while simultaneously caring for the consumer. I’m excited to share with you my conversation with Bohdan Lee about his background, his journey with sharing his work on social media, and his goals and motivations.
Bohdan: Throughout my life, I’ve never moved houses. I’m in college now, studying marketing at the University of British Columbia, but I’ve always been at the same house. I’m 20 now, and grew up in Vancouver.
I’ll take if back to the beginning – my first camera was a Nikon d90. I got that when I was 14. It was my very first ‘real’ camera that I could change settings and lenses on. Before that I was taking photos on my iPod and I enjoyed shooting but I wanted more ability to manipulate the photos and control the camera. The iPod wasn’t cutting it so I saved up all my birthday money, Chinese New Year money, whatever it was… I think I bought it for $400 Canadian money and it came with a kit lens or something like that.
The reason I went Nikon is because my uncle shoots Nikon, too. He mentioned that I could borrow his lenses, so I got to try out more than just the kit lens that my camera came with. I shot with that for a bit and then I started to get into video. The d90 was one of the first DSLR’s that also shot video. but it wasn’t really the best since it was a new feature – I think it was 720p, 24fps, and no auto-focus. I started researching video cameras and started looking into Sony cameras and it looked like a really versatile, hybrid system. For example, Canon and Nikon are much more known for their photo capabilities – now it’s a bit different, but when I was looking they were predominantly just known for photo. Brands like Lumix are more known for video, but I wanted to do both so I decided to go with Sony and I got a used a6300 from Facebook Marketplace. I think I got it for $700 with the kit lens so it was a pretty good deal. I started shooting with that and I really liked the video capabilities – it was doing everything I needed, but I fealt like my work isn’t what I envisioned. I would shoot something and it wouldn’t end up looking like I thought it would look like.
I realized the main reason for the look being ‘off’ was my lens. For the longest time, I was just shooting in auto mode and I didn’t know too much about settings so as I experimented more with video, I had to learn and experiment more with shutter speed, ND filters, and stuff like that. I ended up buying new lenses and that really elevated my work. I think it was the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 that was the lens that helped me take photos that I really liked.
I used this camera for awhile and then after that I started doing more client work with video and realized I would probably need a better camera set up again since it was a little outdated in terms of auto focus and no 10-bit color, so I upgraded to the a7iv about a year after it came out and I’m still using that to this day. It does everything I need – amazing photos, really good video… 4K, 60fps, 10-bit color… and I don’t need anything else right now so I’m super happy with how that camera’s working out for me. Even for the future, I’ll probably stick with Sony now that I have lenses and other equipment that works well with Sony.
Matt: I can definitely relate to you on that – it’s funny, getting into photography with an iPod and then finding this mode of expression and then you realize that what you’re working with is good, but it could be better. I think it’s really important to do your research and know what cameras are best for specific tasks. When I first started out, after shooting on my iPod, I got a Nikon camera and used it a lot for video, but quickly realized it’s not the best camera brand on the market for video. It”s awesome to see the trajectory of your cameras – I’m curious to know what made you want to start shooting video? Were you looking to shoot vlogs or for something specific?
Bohdan: Yeah, at first I wanted to shoot vlogs and just document stuff. I knew I enjoyed taking photos and creating – when I was like 6-7 years old, I would use my parents’ VHS camcorder and record anything. I’ve always liked making videos so getting a camera for myself, I sort-of rediscovered that joy of making videos. It started with vlogs and videos with my friends and then I learned that there is a lot more depth to the creative expression that you can do with video compared to photo. Photo, to me, is capturing a moment – a specific time, and it’s still. With video you can do so much more in terms of the creativity side – slow motion, timelapse, whatever it was, I was capturing more of a period of time. I felt like that was really something I wanted to do – I had some videos and projects in mind that I couldn’t really capture with photos. This was also around the time when everyone was making travel vlogs. Seeing Sam Kolder’s videos definitely inspired me to start making videos and when I first started making my videos I would try to copy them and eventually it led me to create my own style of video. For me, the way that I see it, is that video is not better than photo. There is a time and place for both, but video has specific ways you can capture moments that you can’t with photo, and sometimes it’s the other way around.
Matt: I completely agree – I think a lot of times people like to compare the two and put them against each other, but like you said – each is good in its own right. They are very different mediums and what you choose to shoot at specific times signifies what it is that you’re looking to convey and share. I also think it’s interesting how you mentioned copying other filmmakers – you almost said it like it was bad thing. I think that’s funny because I make a lot of paintings and physical art, and from that background, that’s actually how many artists are trained to learn something. For example – in art school you will most likely have some assignments where you are going to museums or using reference images to copy other artist’s works so that you know the way they made it, and then you can put your own spin on it. It’s hard to implement your own style if you don’t know what’s already been done. If you’re not knowledgeable on what’s been done already, you might just be making things that aren’t really ‘new’. It’s interesting because now a lot of people look at this idea of copying as a bad thing, but I believe it’s really beneficial to know what people before us have done so that we can use that as a launchpad. Who else do you think you were inspired by when you were first starting out?
Bohdan: I guess Sam Kolder was a big, big inspiration for me, especially for video. For photo, there was this guy on Instagram who had a lot of work in LA. I recently visited LA and when I went, I remembered this specific guy. He’s since kind of stopped the whole social media thing – I actually messaged him because I was curious to know why he did. He mentioned that he felt like he was ‘creating for the algorithm’. He was actually a big reason why I got into video because he had really cool photos and videos and he had really blown up off of his style at that time around 2017. His name is @Ruusstty. He doesn’t have too many photos on there anymore, but he was always a huge inspiration to me.
Around that time, I feel like if you were getting into video, you were probably watching the same YouTubers that other creators were watching and being inspired by – Sam Kolder, Peter McKinnon, etc… that whole group of people influenced a lot of other creators who wanted to shoot photo and video.
After some time, I really started to question why I wanted to reach this audience – what do I want to do with it? I think that my mission or my goal since then has been to inspire other people to appreciate photography as an art because it’s often not thought of as art like you think of painting, drawing, sculpting, etc…
Bohdan Lee
Matt: I think it’s super interesting that you mention these creators like Kolder and McKinnon because similar to you and your work, they have this sort of duality where they are not only creating good content, but they are also teaching you how to do it. When there’s that mesh of creating impactful content and sharing with your audience how to make that type of content as well – it reminds me a lot of Casey Neistat, too. I think people gravitate towards creators that aren’t gatekeeping any of their ideas – they share the knowledge and insights so that the whole community can progress off of that.
Bohdan: Yeah, for sure. Another name I just thought of – Billy Deee. He’s based in New York – you’ve probably seen his work before. He’s sort of the reason why I got into my street photography style. I don’t know how to explain it but the moments he captures are really unique.
Matt: Wow, yeah, his work reminds me a lot of Monaris (Paola Franqui).
Bohdan: Definitely. I actually met her recently.
Matt: Yeah – their work is very similar in the sense that it’s hard to verbalize what they’re capturing, but they both seem to be interested in people and their expressions and emotions kind of from afar.
Do you feel like you’ve always been a creative person? Have you always been thinking like an artist?
Bohdan: I would say so. Like I mentioned before – even when I was younger I would shoot on my parents’ camcorder , but also one of my first hobbies as a kid was playing with legos. I didn’t really like the sets that they had. I had this massive collection of different pieces and I would make other things out of whatever I had.
I also had a few other phases of hobbies – I was really into rubik’s cubes and I even competed in some competitions. It had something to do with the problem solving, but then it got sort of repetitive so I moved away from it and then I went to yo-yo’s. It felt very creative in the sense that you’re making tricks. Once it felt repetitive, it felt kind of limiting so then I moved onto card tricks. I had a lot of interesting hobbies but they were all creative based. I stopped doing all of them because they were so repetitive, and the reason i moved to photography and video was because there’s so much you can do, so many different places it can take you, so many different techniques. While it’s repetitive in terms of the settings that you might use, or gear that you use – it doesn’t feel as repetitive because you’re shooting in an environment that is constantly changing and it’s never the same. I think that has a lot to do with why I have stuck with photography and why I enjoy traveling so much.
Matt: I can definitely relate to that. I think creators are so often searching for ‘newness’. Creative people always want to be exploring and experimenting and seeing new things. So many people that are not as creative are ok with the same thing over and over again, but for the creatives that I talk to always mention wanting to see new and experiencing new or else it becomes very boring and you start counting down the minutes of everything that you’re doing.
So now you’ve shared how you got into this creative space that you’re in, but I’m curious to know what made you want to start sharing your work?
Bohdan: Initially it was just because I thought what I was making was interesting. I thought that if I liked it, maybe someone else would like it. I feel like at the beginning, everyone always gets wrapped up in the numbers. I was in high school at the time, and I feel like so many things in high school are just a popularity contest. I remember people were doing the whole follow-for-follow thing – I wanted to be different and I knew I wanted to do photography so I thought maybe I’ll post my photos and that it will make me popular. I quickly realized that was the wrong reason to be posting and then as I got older I started just posting for myself and thought that if people liked it then they can look for themselves. Around that time, instagram started to shift towards ads, they got bought out by Facebook, and photos weren’t doing as well on Instagram. That’s why I started to just post whatever I wanted to. I wanted to have a nice grid and started using it as a portfolio sort of – so that I could show people my photography. My friend in grade 12 told me I should start posting on TikTok. This was when TikTok was still new and I started to see a bunch of photography on there. He told me that he thought people would really like my work on there. I was a bit hesitant but it was around covid and I had some extra time on my hands so I thought well why not?
I posted two videos showing my photos just to see if it did well. I left it for a day and didn’t think much of it. When I came back the next day, they had like 5,000 views – which is nothing crazy, but at the time it was a lot. I thought it was sick that people actually looked at my work and they liked it. I started sharing my work on there more because people liked it. It made me proud that my photos actually had some value and after that I kept sharing and then i asked myself – why am I sharing?
People kept reaching out and commenting saying they love my work. I thought it was amazing but after some time, I really started to question why I wanted to reach this audience – what do I want to do with it? I think that my mission or my goal since then has been to inspire other people to appreciate photography as an art because it’s often not thought of as art like you think of painting, drawing, sculpting, etc… because you’re purely creating something out of a blank canvas. With photography – you’re creating things with what you have around you. Some people don’t consider that art , but I think it is. It’s the way you compose it and use your photography techniques lead that to being art. I wanted to share how cool photography is and the beauty of capturing life through a camera. Through all of this, I’ve developed the whole teaching side of how to edit photos.
Matt: Do you feel there is a difference between creating things and sharing things? I want to hear more about your opinion on that – do you think about sharing while you’re creating? And do you think about creating while you’re sharing? Or are they completely separate to you?
Bohdan: I can’t remember who posted it, but I remember seeing this thing that talked about the difficulty of being a creator. It talked about the difficulty of being a creator is wanting to create art but you also have to create content, and that content does not equal art. I would say there’s times where it feels like you can do both, but to me it feels like my photography is art, but posting an editing tutorial isn’t art. Sometimes I will include my art in the tutorials, so then it’s a mix but sometimes I create things that aren’t meant to be shared. Sometimes I know something won’t do well on social media but that’s not a reason to not make something. I think there’s two sides to it, sometimes they cross and sometimes they don’t.
Matt: I know there’s a lot of creators that put a lot of work and content out, but there’s still this sense of anxiety and uncertainty. Do you ever feel nervous about sharing your work?
Bohdan: Yeah, honestly sometimes it can be hard to try something new. When I posted that editing video for the sliders in Lightroom, I almost didn’t post it onto Instagram and I thought if it didn’t do well, I would just take it down because I thought it would be embarrassing to have part one of a series on my page and nothing else and I didn’t want to be posting if no one was benefiting from it. I was definitely nervous about posting, but it did really well.
Matt: It’s that sense of not knowing, but it’s like you mentioned before – if I like it, maybe someone else will, too.
Now that you’ve been creating you the art side of things and the content side, what do you think have been some motivating factors in your work now.
Bohdan: Travel for sure has been a big motivation. I feel like i can see so much and learn a lot about myself through experience. It’s one thing to learn in school, but I feel like learning in real life (even if it’s not something academic) can be more practical. Even just going down to the states – the way people talk and behave is so different, it’s always something to take in. Two other things: in creating content, I’m constantly motivated by my audience – not from a numbers perspective, but sometimes I’ll get a message from someone talking about how I’ve inspired them to start taking photos and to me, that’s always super motivated because that’s always what I wanted to do. Even if I have a large following, it doesn’t mean that everone who’s following me is going to get into photography. To know that just a few people are lets me know that I’m succeeding in my goal and motivates me to keep creating. At the end of the day, people don’t really care about me and my work, they are thinking about what they can do. So if I can inspire people to start creating, it will be more significant to me. The other thing that inspires me is the community around me growing. I always get very excited seeing my friends and other photographers getting better and better. It really pushes me to step up my creations. It’s different to see growth behind a screen, but for my friends that I know in real life, it’s awesome to know that they are getting better. I tend to watch and consume a lot of my friends’ content because it’s really cool to see someone you know personally get better and express themselves online.
Matt: I know exactly what you mean. In high school, I used to play football and my coach used to always mention the importance of being present in the locker room and this idea of constructive competition. And not to say competition in a way where…’oh I’m better than so and so’. More in a motiving way where if you see the person next to you continue lifting more and more weight each week, it motivates you to do the same. And I completely agree it’s way different for real life examples. I can learn about someone in the NFL lifting more weight and gettin better each season, but if I can see it first hand with my friends in the locker room, it feels much more real because I’m seeing the work that they’re putting in to get better and it lets me know that I need to keep going harder.
With creativity, it’s not about who’s better or worse- it’s about about seeing the different means of expression. You can tell when someone is progressing or having breakthroughs. When you see it, it makes you want to do it as well, and then you’re in a sense feeding off of each other’s energy. It helps, because everyone is pulling each other up then. When you’re working by yourself, it’s easier to get complacent and working around others, you realize you need to keep taking leaps, not just continue walking. I think it says a lot about you and your work that you emphasize seeing your friends get better and how they motivate you to keep pushing forward. Can you share some of your goals and dreams with us? I’m interested to know what you want to be doing.
Bohdan: Honestly, at the moment, I’m not 100% sure. I want to be creative and making content and doing freelance work , but in the near future I can only see myself being able to sustain myself through freelance projects. Living in Canada, I don’t have the creator fund or anything like that, which is unfortunate, but it is what it is. In terms of freelance, I mainly do events now but I’m not sure If I want to stay in that, it can get repetitive. I’ve been interested in sports and athletics recently, fashion stuff seems cool… but for now I want to focus on freelance projects to see what I want to dive further into. I want to figure out better ways to monetize my content without seeming scammy or unauthentic. I want to be able to travel, create content through my travels and share my experiences. It’s work, but I would also really enjoy doing that.
Matt: The hardest part about creative entrepreneurship is the financial part of it. I’d love to do these things, but how do I generate an income from these things. I think it’s chicken or the egg situation where you’re questioning which thing will lead to the next. I’m a firm believer of what you are doing currently is what you will become known for or start generating income eventually. With this ideology that I’m going to be doing this, and maybe for awhile, without getting paid for it, but I’ll keep working at it so that it will pay me ten fold one day. Some people are very opposite of that. They believe they will do whatever job they need to to make their income and then in their free time they’ll do what they are passionate about and eventually it will lead them to be doing it full time.
What I’m more so looking to learn about you though – if you didn’t have to worry about the money, what would be an ideal scenario for you?
Bohdan: I think I would want to travel to different places – not necessarily short travels, but instead live somewhere for a month or two months, and if I like it then stay for 6 months or a year or two. After awhile I think I would want to have a place that I can settle down and then after I settle in I can still travel to places that I liked or that I’m curious about. The goal is to experience living in different cities and different countries. For example, I could see myself living in New York or LA but just for 6 months or so, so that I can explore it.
Matt: That’s amazing. For me, similar to you, I am inspired by helping other people and seeing other people succeed, so hopefully with this interview, we can put your dreams out in the air and make them a reality.
Can you tell us about some of the other projects that you’re currently working on?
Bohdan: One of the main ones is the tutorials for what each slider in Lightroom is for. The problem with being in school is not having a ton of time to shoot and edit these videos. I’m hoping to finish those this summer. They take time to make, and i haven’t had the time to dedicate my full attention to them. THey’re helping not only people that follow me, but they’re also helping me to stay creative. I probably won’t make another series after this for awhile, but I want to continue making videos in this format. I’m also working on some passion projects – I just got back from LA so I’m editing a bunch of photos and videos from LA. I’m working on some longer form content and I’m working on a couple vlogs. I like to look back on them like journals. I don’t necessarily create them for anyone, it’s more for me to look back on and remember the travels or experiences. I’m excited to travel to New York soon as well – I’ll be there with friends for a photography trip, nothing crazy but I’m excited to explore the city.
Matt: That’s awesome to hear. I know I’m definitely looking forward to seeing all of the new content you’ll be putting out and I’m excited to see what the future has in store for you. Thanks so much for sitting down with us to share your journey so far!
Bohdan: Thanks so much for having me!
