We all probably have some photos we own on our phones or on our personal camera that mean everything to us, whether it is the best picture you have ever taken or if it is of a family member that has passed. Aaron Siskind, a famed photographer and former head of photography at Chicago’s Institute of Design for 10 years, said, “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever. It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
Photos are history locked forever. The beauty of photography is how everyone can do it and with practice and time, you can become a pro. One of the many pros we have on campus is Joshua Rathbun.
Rathbun is a junior public relations major from Sioux Center. What makes Rathbun stand out from everyone else is that he is currently running a videography and photography business while getting his degree at Northwestern.
He has been taking photos for just under two years, originally beginning with wedding films, family photos and senior photos. Since then, he has grown to work for various companies and businesses like: People’s Bank, Expressions Floral and Home Décor, Vision Realty, Bulters Café, Sioux Center Chamber, Heartland of the Synod, Royal Family Kids Camp, NW and many more.
“Moving forward, I want to keep learning and growing. I have gotten to the point where I feel like I have hit a plateau,” Rathbun said. “My goal for the future is to be an adventure videographer and photographer. Possibly specializing in underwater photography.”
He ends up spending many nights and multiple hours of free time to edit his projects. Right now, he is swamped with numerous video projects and tests that are coming up in the near future, but he enjoys every second of it.
“I like a really good sunset overlooking a landscape, maybe even an ocean. There is so much beauty and adventure out there that I want to explore and document,” Rathbun said.
When it comes to videography, he said he enjoys storytelling.
“There are a lot of people who can make ‘videos’ but not as many who can tell a story. Story is key,” he said.
Rathbun also shared that there is never a week he wouldn’t love to be able to get out for fun and take photos and create new projects for himself, but time never allows that to happen. If, for some reason he is not filming or photographing something, odds are, he is editing his latest project.
Photography and videography take patience and discipline. It may take years upon years to get that one perfect shot, but for Rathbun, it is all worth the wait.
“I am blessed and fortunate to do what I am doing. It is crazy to think that a kid with an iPhone making YouTube videos in his backyard would be making feature films for companies to showcase at their corporate parties or be flown across the nation to film and edit promotional videos,” he said.
Rathbun continues to capture God’s beautiful creation while also juggling the pressures of schoolwork regularly, and he hopes to keep learning and expanding his business in the future.
To check out his work, you can follow Joshua D. Rathbun on YouTube or follow him on Instagram at @joshua_rathbun or @raider_shotz.
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If you’re a student on campus and have a personal business you’d like to promote, contact the features editor at kaitlyn.asmus@nwciowa.edu.
