Interview: Spencer Berke

Today I'm really excited to announce I got to interview Spencer Berke. I know Spencer from Instagram, he has quiet the account to follow for anyone who loves cars, but I'll let him talk about it. At first I followed him because of the pictures he would put up, I soon realized he was the definition of what Paved By Success would eventually come to portray. He truly is an individual to look up to.

Tell us about Spencer Berke.

My name is Spencer Berke, I recently turned 21 years old and I live in Newport Beach, California. I'm originally from Michigan, but my mother and I were really not interested in living in the snow for the rest of our lives. We headed out to California when I was about 14 years old. I currently work for the #1 Lamborghini Dealership in the United States of America. I started with Lamborghini when I was 18 years old as a receptionist for a 4 brand exotic high line dealership. Making a name for myself by 19, I landed a job in Newport Beach with Lamborghini & McLaren. By 20, I was known world wide for my photography and career. 

How do you find your motivation?

I found my motivation when I first moved to California. My father ended up passing away a few months before I headed out to San Diego from a rare brain cancer known as Pix, aka Alzheimer's. I'll always remember one day when my mother and I first managed to get our own place in Pacific Beach, it was a very hard time for both of us due to living in a new city and dealing with my fathers passing. She had taken me on a drive one night, just to get some fresh air and enjoy San Diego. We were at a stop light in La Jolla, and I'll never forget what I saw that night. I had turned my head and looked to the left, and I noticed a sign that looked just like a "Lotus" logo. Bright yellow, glowing in the distance.
As we pulled up to this building, I slowly started to notice bright colors under the shining lights in the showroom. I had never seen anything like this before, we made our way into the parking lot where a small window was visible, and behind the window was a brand new Mercedes McLaren SLR in Silver. It's almost embarrassing to say, but I started to tear up, it was something that I had always wanted to see in real life. I played Need For Speed when I was younger, and it was a car I always used to modify and race with. From that moment, I knew that I had a strong drive to use these dream cars as a motivator to become successful.
My mom had purchased me a camera (Sony DSC-H1) for my 15th birthday, and it gave me a lot of freedom to go and shoot pictures wherever and whenever I wanted. I started shooting my neighbors Ford Lightning that was always parked in front of my house. I realized that my love for cars and my new hobby for photography was something that could quiet well possibly mix together. Can you guess where I went once I had that camera? Yep, back to that dealership known as Symbolic Motors.

Where do you see yourself going long term?

I see myself with the Lamborghini brand forever, but in different fields.

Spencer shooting a white Gallardo at 18

Who do you look up to?

When I was 12 years old, I managed to get my first computer. I started looking online at cars, and discovered the online forum communities. Once I started posting on different forums, (Teckademics, Bimmerforums and TehDriven), I realized that the online forums were a great way to start marketing myself. It was a free, and easy to use tool for marketing myself. This is when it all started, building my database of people and trying to find people who wanted photographs of their cars. I had started talking to a few random people on the internet through these forums, and the ones who stuck in my head were Edward Ratenun, Felix Winqvist, Micah Webber and a few other car enthusiasts who were a big motivation for me. All three were photographers and had great work, but they were from all different parts of the US. Felix was from Finland, and he lived in California. Ed was from Florida, and he started a company called Driven Clothing, and Micah was from Buffalo. So the diversity was definitely there. They were all inspirations to me with my photography.

How/where did you get started with your hard work mentality?

I started with going to car shows, and posting a lot on the forums. I had posted a thread on Lambo-Power, which was crazy of a 15 year old kid to request a ride in a Lamborghini. Sure enough, 2 weeks later JeffSD offered me a ride in his 04 Gallardo. With an insane amount of excitement, I could barely sleep for the next few days. He offered to take me to Crystal Cove, which I had heard a lot about and saw plenty of photos from the event in Newport Beach. My mother thought that it was crazy that a person would take me for a ride in his Lamborghini, who I met through the internet at 15 years old... haha, crazy right? But luckily, my mother was supportive of it and did her research. 5:00am strolled along on a Saturday morning, waking up before the sunrise and my mother and I headed out to meet Jeff at the La Costa exit parking lot.
Taking the exit, I'll never forget seeing that bright Orange Gallardo sitting underneath a light pole in the parking lot. I shook hands with Jeff, talked to my mother for a minute and the next thing I knew I was going 130MPH pulling 4th-5th gear in a Lamborghini with a Tubi exhaust. It was something that I'll never forget, I actually just managed to get goosebumps while I typed that because of the fond memory I have. From that moment on, I knew that this is what I wanted to surround myself with, Lamborghini's.

Spencer at 15

Where does your passion for photography come from?

I've always had a creative family, from architects, professors to painters. I think it runs in the family, but photography had always intrigued me. My main goal was to find ways to explain a scenario with out any verbiage, only a photo.

Quickly take us through a typical day in your life.

My contribution to the company includes Photography, Videography, Internet Management, Social Media, Marketing, Internet Marketing, Internet Advertising, and a few other roles. My main title would be Internet Marketer. Typically I wake up, jump in my car and head to Starbucks. Grab a Coffee and a bagel, step into work and get myself in the zone. Between 9am and 6pm i'll post on social media websites with new inventory, new information from the brands, type articles for our newsletter, photograph and market new arrivals at the dealership and spend a little bit of time with our girl at the front desk.

Large Lamborghini shoot directed and shot by Spencer

What obstacles have you faced? and how did you overcome them? (anything specific would help)

I've faced a lot of different obstacles in my life, and having them happen at such a young age has taught me the importance of life. The importance of family and the importance of friends. Without them, you really have nobody to share your life with. I'm sure that you could find a partner, but it's just not the same as having your closer ones to share it with. My dad had passed away when I was 14, and it really sucked to be blunt. My mother was married to him for 35 years, and my older brother definitely had the harder end of it than I did because he was a bit older and had spent a lot more time with him. I was able to overcome a lot of my problems by staying focused on my career. It didn't really matter what was going on in my life, I was just staying dedicated to what I wanted. Usually going to car shows/car meets and taking photographs made my day a lot better. It was just a way to say I'm getting closer and closer to making my dream a reality of being an automotive photographer. 

Your recently bought what you called "one of your dream cars" (Subaru Impreza STI 5-door), which of course came from all the hard work you've been putting in, how does it feel to work hard and reward yourself like that? and how are you enjoying your new STI?

I've always wanted a Subaru. My friend Jake Wade actually owned a nice 06 WRX, he was always working on the car in my Autoshop class. I loved the sound, look and feel of the car. I owned a BMW e30 at 17, then I purchased a Lexus IS300 at 19, and eventually right when I was about to turn 21, I managed to put a nice down-payment on a 2010 Subaru STI hatch. The feeling of doing it on my own was what I was most proud of. It made me happy to say, I did it, and to drive off the lot with the car. It's fun, it's fast and it's practical. Works for me :).

And finally, where can we find you online?

You can find me on Instagram, which is what I use mostly by looking up @ThatPhotographer. I'm also on Facebook with my photography SpencerBerkePhoto.

Spencer shooting 2 McLaren MP4-12C

I'd like to thank Spencer Berke for taking the time out to answer a few questions. This barely begins to scratch the surface of the hard work he does. I'd encourage anyone to go follow him, especially if you like to see nice Lamboghini's and McLaren's.