When you scroll through your favorite artist’s social media, almost every post you see is a video of them performing at a festival or in a club. It’s someone’s job to shoot and edit all that content into 30 second Reels or Tik Toks. This is what Dominic Palacios, better known as Domoohh, does for artists like Walker & Royce, VNSSA, and Black V Neck. We sat down with Dominic to learn more about his love of film, how he got his start, and where he hopes to go from here.
Dominic grew up in San Bernardino, California and has been a fan of EDM since 2010. His friends were listening to Deadmau5 and Afrojack, and he fell in love with the house sound. As for film, he really started to dive into it in 2015 when he was attending University of California, Santa Barbara where he studied Film and Media Studies. As a film major, he needed to create a portfolio of work so he “bought a camera on OfferUp for $300.” It was a Nikon D3300, an entry level HDSLR, that came with two different lenses. He started out by taking portrait style photos, but it wasn’t until he had a chance meeting with a rapper named Tajro in an Uber that sparked his interest in working with musicians.
He attended Escape in 2018 and saw a videographer making content and he realized that this was a path he could take. He went up to the videographer and asked him how he got started doing videography for events and his response was “sending cold emails.” He was also following a bass artist named Hype It Up and Ricky Remedy on social media and saw recap videos of their shows and realized “this is a legit thing people get paid for.”
From then on, Dominic immersed himself in learning everything he could about how to shoot nightlife because “Nightlife is completely different from making movies.” He researched the gear that he would need and just started making videos. In his own words “to be honest, I wasn’t the best at first.” As time went on he started to develop a style that worked for both him and the artists he works with. The name he chose for his project, Domoohh is both a play on his name as well as the Japanese cartoon character Domo. He decided “If I’m going to be serious about film and videography, I want to be called something like my nickname because I’m already called that by a lot of people.”
In 2019, Dominic met Ocean Roulette and “he was the first artist to give me an opportunity to showcase who I am and also allowed me to help him build his brand. Because of him, I was able to meet a lot of other people.” 2021 was the year things really started to take off and he was able to work with artists like Luke Andy, VNSSA, Om Nom, and Yolanda Be Cool. This is when he started making festival recap videos in vertical format, since he knew most people would be watching them on their phone from Instagram or TikTok. He also shoots his recap videos in a similar style to the way a bass artist’s recap would look, but instead for house artists. He likes to help artists with their brands. His work is inspired by “Rukes, hands down and Skrllex’s video guy Jas Davis. I also have a friend named Juju that does really good work.”
Over the years, Dominic has upgraded his gear. He currently shoots with a Canon R5 as his main camera, with Canon EF S 10-18mm and Sigma 18-35mm lenses. As a nightlife videographer, he shoots in a lot of low light settings, so he also uses a Canon speedlight. To make sure his shots aren’t shaky, he uses a monopod and a gimbal. For the best possible sound, he also runs a Rode mic instead of relying on the camera’s onboard mic. He keeps all of these things safe in the backpack you’ll normally see him wearing, which he ordered off of Amazon. “It’s a denim backpack that has separate pockets for your cameras and lenses.” After everything is shot, he uses Adobe Premiere Pro and sometimes AfterEffects to edit his footage.
A photographer/videographer’s worst nightmare is dropping their camera, and luckily Dominic has not done that yet. He did say that while he was shooting for Luke Andy at Audiotistic in San Francisco in 2021 a girl dropped her drink on his camera, but thankfully it was not damaged.
Some memorable moments in his journey so far include shooting for Luke Andy, Om Nom, VNSSA, Arnold & Lane, and Walker & Royce at EDC Las Vegas in 2021. This was the first time he was able to attend EDC. At the end of 2021, Dominic shot for Luke Andy, Black V Neck, and Ardalan at Countdown. Ardalan was one of the artists that was chosen to play a set during the New Year’s countdown and he was able to capture that moment. This year Dominic was able to travel to Miami Music Week and shoot sets for Black V Neck, VNSSA, and Walker & Royce at Ultra. “It gave me chills, it was really cool and I’m very grateful I got to experience that.”
He’s at the point now where artists are starting to reach out to him to shoot events for them. He was recently able to shoot for Baby Weight at Lighting in a Bottle and at the Dirtybird Camp INN in Florida. Coming up next for Dominic, you can find him at HARD Summer. When he’s booked and can’t make it, he’ll try to pass them along to another photographer friend. If he could shoot for any artist, he would love to shoot for David Guetta, Nicky Romero, Swedish House Mafia.
The main goal he has for his project is “to become known on a bigger scale. And continue to build everyone I’m already working with. I kind of see myself becoming the next Rukes or Cole Bennett, but for house music.” He also wants to inspire others and let them know that this is a real career. When asked if he had any tips for anyone who is interested in getting into nightlife photography, his response was “Have fun, do your research before coming in, and be nice to everybody. Work with friends and any DJ’s you know. Always give out good work, always make sure you know what the people you’re working with are looking for in terms of content, that’s key.”
When he’s not working, he likes to do more nature photography, mostly of sunrise, sunset, or flowers. He also likes to go on walks and hang out with friends, things that are much less stimulating than his work because “it can be a lot.”
The last thing he would like to add thinking back about the last few years is “All of it is just so crazy to me, it’s been such a blur, but in a good way.” To check out more of Dominic’s work and keep up with what he has going on, click the links below.
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