Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucas Stein.
Hi Lucas, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
As a child, growing up just outside of New York City, I spent a lot of time auditioning and acting for broadway, television and film. Shirley Grant was my agent and my mom acted as my manager coaching me and taking me around. My best friends parents were broadway and TV stars so I was saturated in the culture and the people. In the summer at my Dad’s sleep away summer camp I was always in plays and focused most of my time working in the circus program. It was a massive performance arts program with two full size trapeze, Spanish web, tight ropes, single trapeze, clowning acts such as the multi person bicycle, juggling, tight rope lines and more like jump roping small children. Our coaches were from Circus of the stars, Club Med and other key circus’. I became an expert catcher on the full size trapeze, road the bicycle for the clowns and kids riding up to 8 people at once who were performing acrobatics as we drove around and performed solo acts on the single trapeze. At 17 years old I went through the wind shield of my car at the beginning of my jr year in high school and missed the entire year in order to recover. Then I moved to New Mexico with a friend to continue my recovery and finish high school then went and hitch hiked the Middle East to continue my recovery attempting to seek God and mystical healing techniques. When I came back to the U.S. I moved to Colorado and went to alternative medicine schools getting licenses in Deep Tissue Neuromuscular Therapy, Hypnosis as a licensed Hypnotherapist and attended Chinese Medicine school, which I dropped out of as I started traveling the world with the U.S.A. pro cycling team Celestial Seasoning’s as their Soigneur (Massage Therapist and porter). Soon after that time my parents retired to South Florida. On an extended visit to South Florida I volunteered on a Film Festival, helping to produce it, then I found myself in a circuit of production after production working behind the scenes for producers and doing massage therapy on the cast and crew. Eventually I took over a Feature Film called the Luke Freakfest 2000, starring Luther Campbell from U Live Crew, Kingboo, The Bishop Magick Don Juan and many hip hop legends of that time as the 1st Assistant Director when the original staff left; I had gone from PA (production Assistant) to 1st AD and got the movie completed. After that I was all the talk of Miami production and spent the next three years running commercial sets, music video sets and working on feature films there, show after show. I had done about 75 commercials or music videos (Shaggy, Redman, Method Man, Wutang, to George Michael, Dave Mathews and more) as the Assistant director or Production Coordinator. Eventually I helped a team of people from NYC start a film Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico-Santa Fe Film Festival. It grew big fast and helped lead the state of New Mexico in creating its film incentive plan. Next thing I knew I was working as the key office assistant to Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s movie The Missing shooting in New Mexico while also doing massage therapy work on cast and crew in between on set time. My transition to feature films was completed after an actress named Shirley MacLaine, who lived in Santa Fe, made me her personal assistant and made sure everyone locally knew who I was. My film career had elevated to the A list and my healing work clients did the same. I spent the next 24 years working on feature films and television shows in New Mexico; I handled the explosives for the special effects department on Avengers 1, I worked with the set decorators on Breaking Bad season 1, True Grit, Paul, on Terminator 4, and as a scenic artist on Love Lies Bleeding, Roswell, Harder They Fall, so many shows over the years I don’t even remember without looking myself up on IMDB or my personal resume which is a 4 page list at font size 8 to serve as a reminder to myself. Eventually I was the personal teamster to the Netflix executives, guest directors and department heads on the TV show Longmire. It was on that gig over 4 years that I learned digital photography from the best directors and DP’s (director of photography) in entertainment. I had grown bored of production crew work and working on shows with hundreds and thousands of people and wanted to elevate myself and my career again to spark passion back into my life, so I quit Longmire to travel and to become a photographer. I ended up back in Miami and south Florida where I connected with key photographers and developed that skill while bringing my big set experiences to the table. I became great friends with a Jamaican photographer who was the best in Miami, Gary James. He had just began shooting for resorts internationally and between his photography and my knowledge and skill running large sets we crushed it as a team. Over the next 7 years Gary and I worked together shooting lifestyle commercial photography for the highest end resorts in Mexico (Vidanta Resorts), Las Vegas (the Wynn + Encore) and the Caribbean and West Indies (Sandals). At one point before the pandemic 90% of all the advertising space in the international airports in Mexico and baggage claims was our work for Vidanta Resorts, it was the most massive spectacle of a gallery anyone could have dreamt of! Eventually life shifted again and international travel wained. I got married at 46, became a step father and needed a more stable gig thus I found Epic Photos + Films, who needed a new Kansas City/St. Louis area manager to rebuild their staff and team of young photographers and videographers for the hundreds of weddings they do in this area annually. I became a trainer, teacher and mentor to over 50 people here, teaching them everything I could about photography and videography so they could take that knowledge and go and be the best the could be. I managed over 400 weddings, shot about 100 engagement sessions and about 70 weddings personally over the course of 1.5 years before that level of wedding work burned me out. I found a corporation in Lenexa called the Long Motor Corporation that needed a product photographer full time and that is where I work now by day, as the creative team supervisor and company photographer, I am still doing massages by night and freelancing photography and videography (weddings or anything that comes my way) on the weekends.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My greatest obstacle was also my greatest blessing, my car accident. I went from not being able to walk for a year and being diagnosed to go blind in seven years to healing myself to helping other people learn to heal themselves. That process of self discovery amidst fear of loosing life and the mastering of the human body along the way filled me with a passion for life gave me the ability to live my best life possible.
Another struggle that I have had to find balance with was the always shifting ever changing landscape of freelance gig production. It is no easy task to go from gig to gig. You need a huge network and a great reputation to make freelance work as a constant staple of income. I am so grateful for my skills as a healer, they always got me through to the next gig while I was waiting for my next big opportunity to roll around. Being a massage therapist was always the best side gig, so much better than being a waiter or doing odd jobs.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Currently my reputation and portfolio is quite extensive, I can and have shot almost anything and everything. I am known for getting things done and done well. I make the difficult seem easy and the impossible possible. I am always open to discussing and shooting whatever a potential client may need and I would be happy to serve more local Kansas City area company’s looking for creative digital work. I am still new to the area having only been here for three years now and I would love for more people to know my name and to think of me when they are considering creating content for their brand, company or corporation.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
My advice for people working in creative fields is to never give up and don’t be afraid to try something you haven’t done before. Do what you can to help other professionals, develop a big network and learn everything you can along the way, eventually your next big gig will come. Be sure to work well with others, creative people need to support each other not work against each other. There are enough clients for everyone and a reputation of being good to work with will take you further than you can imagine.
Pricing:
- TBD based on the gig, please see my website for base structures
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lucasstein.com
- Instagram: @lucassteinphoto
- Facebook: @lucasmathewstein
- Youtube: @lucassteinphotos
Image Credits
1. BTS for Longmire by Lucas Stein 2. Lucas Stein directing Half Track To Hell by Tino Duvick 3. Lucas Stein wedding photo 4. Lucas Stein for Death Or Glory restaurant 5. Lucas Stein landscape photo 6. Actor Robert Taylor as Sheriff Walt Longmire by Lucas Stein 7. Rob Gronkowski for Voyager-Dogecoin by Lucas Stein 8. Jimmy Connors for the Jimmy Connors tennis camp experience by Lucas Stein 9. Forrie J. Smith (Yellowstone) headshot by Lucas Stein
