Photo by Taylor Seely
Diamond Troutman, a 23-year-old beach girl from California, never thought she’d be working in photography or creative writing, but after studying abroad in Paris and starting her blog, Paris Elsewhere, something clicked. Today, she’s worked with companies like Anthropologie, Madewell, The Style Line, Conscious Magazine and more doing everything from photography to styling to blogging and more.
As a content creator, she’s written 1,000 word articles along with 30 word product descriptions. She’s taken countless photos and carries her camera with her everywhere she goes, as she does the day she visits me at Giant Coffee in downtown Phoenix.
She searches for inspiration and takes her time to ensure the highest quality, but even so, content creation doesn’t go without its challenges.
“Content creation is about telling a story in a second. You need to know how to explain an emotion. You need to be very direct. It’s incredibly hard,” she says.
Sitting with Diamond during our interview, I was taken aback by how calm and collected her responses were. She took a few seconds after every question to craft a mindful answer in her head. Here’s what she had to say –
CitS: What AZ spot reminds you most of Paris?
DT: For architecture and people and feeling, there’s a Japanese restaurant downtown called Harumi Sushi. It’s not too far from the Orpheum Theatre. It’s this really tight space, they have the best sushi, and there’re always people there. Groups come in and out and walk down the street as the light rail passes by, and it kind of just feel like an international city like Paris. Besides the feel, a place that reminds me a lot of France that I go to just for décor is Zinc Bistro at Kierland. I love it so much. The interior, the terrace, the umbrellas, the French press. It’s awesome, and I’ve done a few photo shoots there. I did one for Conscious Magazine, and I ended up doing some promotional stuff there for Madewell.
Photo by Taylor Seely
CitS: What’s your favorite part of being a content creator?
DT: It’s very challenging! You’re always looking for another perspective. You’re looking for a way to tell a story through photography that hasn’t been done before. I think that’s one of the most rewarding things about content creation – everyone’s depiction is different. Through social media, it’s become even more important to find the right way to tell that story. Sometimes it’s just imagining different scenarios and finding another way to depict something. It can be really tough though because it’s a new profession and there’s so many people doing it. So when you see that stuff saturated online, you kind of question, am I doing this right? But what I love about content creation is there isn’t really a right way to do it.
CitS: How do you keep your creative juices flowing and avoid idea droughts?
DT: In some ways, I’m a perfectionist, and if I can’t do something right the first time, I’ll just kind of let it go for a bit. For photography, what helps is I try to have my camera on me at all times. Once I started working heavily in photography and doing work for clients and brands on my own time, I realized sometimes when I was out, I’d have inspiration but no way to document it. If I’m not casually taking photos like that, I organize a day. Recently, I picked a day in the week, and I said, ‘Today I’m going to just have my camera and look for things.’ If I have something I really want or need to photograph, I’ll go there and kind of scope out the space and really just sit and see how the light moves around in the space throughout the day. I think it really helps to live in those moments you’re trying to write about or photograph. A lot of people tend to go to Pinterest, but for me, it’s all about feeling moved by something. I’m that person that’s easily judges myself, so I’m not going to feel inspired when I see someone else produce something amazing. What’s going to give me inspiration is feeling something from being somewhere. I definitely have my own style of doing photography.
CitS: Any camera-specific tips?
DT: With photography, honestly, I feel like it’s just knowing your camera. You kind of have to play around with it. I do a lot of natural light photography, and certain lenses work differently in different light. I typically have one lens that’s always on the camera, and it’s my 35mm because it’s not so zoomed in that I can’t see the whole perspective but it’s not too wide, so I still feel that it’s intimate. For social media, I find that that’s something that really helps – that the photo feels like you can relate to it, like you’re in that photo or in that moment. A nice trick to have is to get a board reflector and just reflect the light on what you’re trying to shoot. It makes your photos more vibrant, and I think that’s a really good look to have when you’re doing digital content. There’s something about highlighting the best features when you’re doing content for social media – you want everything to be bright; you want to reflect happiness.
Photo by Taylor Seely
CitS: How do you stay creative in your written content?
DT: I’m a little weird. I always have a pen on me. I don’t always have paper on me, which is a little strange, so I’ll find napkins. I write words that come to me, almost like how a singer does voice exercises. It helps get me thinking about how I’m going to describe something. I think words are super important. Content is great, but what helps are all your adjectives, and I love using colorful vocabulary. So when I write about a place, I’ll sit and then just write every single word that comes to mind. Then when I’m done and I feel like I can’t squeeze anything more out of my brain, I take them, and I pair them together. So it’s almost like a mix matching of things. I think it helps because as someone who’s really calculated, what helps me is understanding the entirety of how I feel – knowing all the words that I can and then finding the most elaborate and most authentic way to describe the experience. To me, it’s all about picking the colors, then painting the picture. Besides that, reading is a good way to have another view on how you can describe a place or create a dialogue, depending on what you’re writing. So I love reading, and for someone who does digital content, I love reading online. That’s a big thing too.
CitS: Clearly, you know your style and technique, and it’s something you’ve honed in over time. How did you get into the field to begin with, though?
DT: What really helped me was having some kind of outlet to try on my own. I think blogging has been really influential in that, and then finding a creative community and just getting yourself out there and finding mentors (is important). Mentorship is something that has really helped my confidence and helped me to say, “Hey, I’m going to give this a shot.” I started getting into my own projects… I started writing on a blog, and then I tried to find people around me who were doing the same thing. The people you surround yourself with, you pick up their habits. So definitely if you’re trying to do it, you need to have someone who understands where you’re coming from. But yeah the best way, I’d say, is just getting into blogging or trying to get a creative internship.
CitS: Anything special you want our readers to know?
DT: I think a day spent in the city is a day well spent. I try to be outside of my home whenever possible because I think that’s when you have the most inspiration. I feel like it’s easy to get lost in your own thoughts and be discouraged on your own, so I try to really go out in the city. Sometimes I leave my car, and I’ll try to take the light rail. I try to be around other people and catch their smile or see little things that inspire me to write about something. A last note on Instagram – I think if you intrigue someone enough to leave a comment, as opposed to liking your photo, or to do both, then you’re doing a great job.
Photo by Taylor Seely
