Meet Kyle Couture

Kyle’s love of filmmaking feeds his love of travel. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, he relishes the freedom to explore and play that both shooting stock and traveling give him.

Describe your trademark style.

My style is naturalistic, real, and in the moment. A lot of my work involves my friends, rather than actors, in real-life scenarios, doing what they enjoy and forgetting about the camera rather than doing something for the camera.

Where do you look for inspiration?

I find inspiration everywhere. That might sound cheesy but it’s true, haha. The way light is hitting someone or something, interesting architecture or landscape, or a moving story — all can spark an idea.

Vimeo is a big source of inspiration. There’s such a large amount of incredible content on there in a variety of styles! My Instagram feed is another place I’ll go for quick inspiration. Seeing a constant flow of great work is a good way to get motivated in the morning.

How much are you influenced by trends?

If I see something new and different that catches my eye, those themes and ideas definitely stick in my memory when working on my own projects. Sometimes they appear subconsciously, and other times I’ll set out with a trending theme in mind and experiment with that.

Which came first: your photography or video work?

Photography, out of accessibility. I was later drawn to video as another medium for telling stories. I enjoy capturing the actions, imperfections, and personality of a scene as they unfold.

What do you like about shooting stock? Dislike?

I love shooting stock footage. There’s a freedom to shoot whatever you want, in whatever style or technique you want. I can experiment, fail, and even change direction on a whim. It keeps things interesting. I live a very active lifestyle. I love traveling to new places and trying new things, and filmmaking has always been a passion — to combine it all is an amazing opportunity. But then there’s the metadata side, which no one likes, haha.

What’s your most memorable shoot?

On a recent trip to Puerto Rico, we hopped off the plane and immediately into the rental car, ready to start our adventure. We drove for hours down winding back roads on a wild goose chase in search of an unknown waterfall with only a vague geo-tagged location off the Internet. Even the locals were skeptical of its existence, but we continued.

After a long hike through the thick jungle, we finally heard it — we were all pretty excited. Camera in hand, I waded into the large pool at the bottom and was soon waist deep … which is when I realized my phone was still in my pocket. I got some great shots, but my phone didn’t turn back on. I spent the next seven days phoneless, which ended up being pretty nice.

What are your three shoot essentials?

An interesting subject, plenty of cards, and batteries.

See all Kyle’s footage — it’s exclusive to Dissolve. Check out his website, and follow him on Instagram and Twitter.