Meet Paul Bivens | Photographer

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

Hi Paul, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I am a strong believer in taking risks, I believe no real change or improvements will occur while hiding in our comfort zones. Not attending college and moving from North Carolina to California after high school was a huge risk I took. People who doubted me back then or discouraged my move now congratulate my “success” and the lifestyle that I created for myself and lived for many years. The risk opened my eyes tremendously, I learned a lot about myself, my industry and even the world around me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I consider myself a lifestyle photographer because I shoot fashion, products and organic content for clients. With that being said my most passionate photography are my travel and nature prints. I have an online shop called Mountain Coast Collective dedicated to wall art with an adventurous spirit. I am proud of that fact that my prints on hanging in countries all over the world including England, Australia, Egypt, Germany, France, Japan, Israel, Mexico and even Kuwait. I recently printed and framed 3 prints as a set for a new friend Josh, seeing the excitement and true stoke from him when I delivered the pieces was everything. Learning SEO and online marketing has been a new challenge for me I have been overcoming, I am still not where I want to be but I am a life long student. With my brand I promote adventure and the love for nature. With that I pick up one gallon of trash for every item I sell so buy my prints! lol.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well I live in one of the most desirable places in this country, Southern California. So of course tacos and burritos will be on the menu, I am a fan of taco Tuesday outings. Bear Flag Co, Great Mex, Catalina Fish Kitchen and Santa Ana food trucks are all great options I would take my friend. I live 25 minutes north of laguna beach, one of my favorite towns here in so-cal. Exploring the tide pools on the beaches cliffs and hiking up the laguna hills would be one of the first things I would do with them. Being not far from LA/Hollywood it would also be a sin to not take them to explore the concrete jungle that is Los Angeles. I like live music and enjoy going to art/photo exhibits, those are always good ways to meet cool folks in the area and beyond.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I guess I could indirectly recognize my father. He was a hobbyist photographer his whole life, I grew up watching him take photos of birds, piers and other landscapes on our family beach trips. Prints of his photos were framed and hanging on the walls of the home we lived in. My sisters and I would spend hours going through his 4×6 developed film photos. The reason I say indirectly is because he didn’t teach me how the technical aspect of photography or how to compose an image, nor did he encourage me to pursue the art but seeing his passion drew me to photography class in high school before social media and before it was “cool” to shoot.

Website: https://paulbivensimagery.com

Instagram: @paulbivens

Other: https://Etsy.com/shop/mountaincoastco