Daddy Love

Daddy Love, becoming a business owner was natural. After all, he didn't like being told what to do. "I feel like I move to the beat of my own drum," said Daddy Love, owner of Pure Shots Studio, a photography business in Asbury Park. "I always liked to move around and get things done on my own time. It became clear to me that I had to work for myself because working a nine-to-five job every day just was not for me. A lot of the things that I felt that I could accomplish were getting put on hold. At one point, I just made the decision to branch out on my own and follow my dreams." His entrepreneurial efforts started early. "When I was younger, I used to make music for cellphone ring tones," Daddy Love said. "People from my town would come to me and ask me to produce the ring tones for them and it became really popular for a while. It was one of the first things I used to do and I would make good money off of it. That was one of my first gigs that I really enjoyed doing, but it just was not paying the bills. Still, I would say that was my introduction to going into business for myself Daddy Love enjoyed photography and taught himself how to improve his skills. It would lead to a paying business. "I always loved being behind the camera," Daddy Love said. "I started out by shooting music videos for local artists after getting a small camcorder as a birthday present. Afterward, I decided to open up a studio and started out with a couple of weddings that were very successful. Eventually, I moved on to a bridal show, which happened in 2015. That was my ticket into the industry and I got a lot more gigs booked after that event. "I was mainly freelancing and not charging a whole lot to my customers because I really just wanted to get my foot in the door and get my name out there," Daddy Love also shot and developed a web series called "Cold Summer," which discusses the goings-on of Asbury Park, good and bad. "My series has been featured in many different film festivals," Daddy Love said. "After it came out, it won Best Visuals for 2018 and Best Director for 2019 at the Urban Film Festival. That really put me over the top with my career, even though I had already achieved prior success with my business in general. People are contacting me from all over the county to do special events for them. It is more than I could have ever asked for."