Meet Grant Smith | Director of Photography and cameraman

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

Hi Grant, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I started my own business because it is much more lucrative and profitable in my industry having the flexibility of schedule and also being involved in the creative process creating a clients video idea come to life. When you are a cameraman working for a large company, you usually do not have as much creative input, and just need to follow instructions and complete your assignment.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a sports and documentary DP. I grew up in Maui, Hawaii and moved to Los Angels in 2006 to attend the Los Angeles film school. Shortly after graduating, I landed a job at Digital Kitchen where our client was AT&T and we provided 30 min sports documentaries to their network every two weeks. We had this client for over 8 years and shot over 150, sports stories for the network. This was one of my first jobs and I learned more than you could ever learn in school with this job. We traveled the country, as well as overseas shooting events and stories such as, Worlds strongest man, the masters of mini golf, college gymnastics, ultra marathons, the iditarod (Alaskan dogsled race), just to name a few.

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?
My best friend is visiting me from Hawaii and I want to show them around. First, if its summer time, I take them to the beach and we go for a surf either in Huntington beach or Newport. This area reminds me the most of Hawaii.
There are so many places to eat in our city, so where do I start. Easy go to spots in Los Angeles are the Hillstone group/ South Beverly Grill, always consistent and enough options for everyone, burgers, sushi, and the fried chicken sandwich!
Visit Wallys Beverly Hills, good drinks and people watching there before heading to dinner at Angelini osteria at The Palisades Village for great Italian food.
Another day we would head to some concert. So many venues across the city, but seeing a stadium show at
So-Fi is on the top of the list. The audio and visuals there are amazing.
The last stop on my tour would be a day crusing through the city with stops in Venice Beach, Santa Monica, if it was the summer, head through Malibu, and end the day with dinner at Merios, the rooftop restaurant at the Pendry Hotel on Sunset blvd in Hollywood.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to shoutout to my wife Fallon Smith. She has helped me along the way to first of all take the leap and move away from Hawaii to attend film school and pursue my dream of becoming a filmmaker. Several years down the road after I have been successful in my career, I had struggled with alcohol, and she was a huge part of helping me get sober. She stuck with me after all these years when she could have left, and now we are still married for 10 years, and I am sober for 5 years in February of 2024.

Website: http://www.grantsmithcamera.com/

Instagram: @grantsmithcamera

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-smith-908b33a/

Other: https://vimeo.com/grantsmith IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7876995/

Image Credits
Patrick Record. Photo of me shooting with easy rig and photo of me shooting tennis woman.