Player Bio
 

As Aristotle said, "Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."

Former State University of New York at New Paltz student-athlete Austin Collins' '14 passion has taken flight since obtaining his bachelor's degree in digital media production. He primarily works in the music industry but also has experience filming documentaries and commercials. Collins also specializes in photography for modeling, branding, real estate and lifestyle.

Prior to New Paltz, Collins was a 2010 graduate of Westhampton Beach High School who swam for two years at SUNY Cobleskill where he was part of the program-record-setting 800 freestyle relay. For the Hawks he competed in the 200 free, 100 free and 50 free in the 2014 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championships.

Additionally, Collins was also named SUNYAC All-Academic team in both his seasons as a Hawk and made the SUNYAC Commissioner's List during his senior campaign.

"I think my biggest accomplishment in my time as a Hawk was grades to be honest," Collins said. "I didn't do well in high school and since college allowed me to take classes that I was genuinely interested in I focused way more and saw that it returned some amazing results for me."

Collins has been interested in film since he got his first VCR video camera in sixth grade. Throughout his adolescence he filmed his day-to-day life with friends and family and then began to take it more seriously when he chose to study it at college.

In the summer of his junior year, Collins interned for 91 East Production company, a high-performance creative shop and editing facility located in New York City and the Hamptons. It wasn't until the final week of this internship that he was sure he wanted to work in the music industry after filming Avicii at a music festival in his hometown.

"Following that night, I ran around New York City filming concerts all over for free just to gain experience and footage to produce a show reel to get the ball rolling," he said.

Collins has been involved in the industry since 2010 and even launched his own brand, Austin Collins Media, for which he does various exclusive freelance jobs. Since 2015 Collins has worked for Timeflies, a duo composed of vocalist Cal Shapiro and producer Rob Resnick, as their videographer and photographer.

"I travel with them to shows all over the USA, help provide them with content for their social medias, and create their 'Timeflies Tuesdays' videos," said Collins. "I've had the pleasure of going on two USA tours and one EUR tour with them; they were the first musicians that I worked with exclusively and I couldn't have picked a better group of guys."

Collins said that being a part of the swim team at New Paltz shaped his experience here in a number of ways. First, it helped him make friends being a transfer student and taught him responsibility as he was required to keep his GPA in good standing in order to participate in practices and competitions.

Collins advises current student-athletes to focus on what they love doing in their time here at SUNY New Paltz.

"If you love what you do for a living, there's nothing better than that," he said. "It's been quite a journey getting to where I'm at in life now, but it's made me who I am and helped shape this crazy adventure I get to call my life now."

Collins is always looking for new creative opportunities to expand his brand and encourages anyone interested to reach out to him. To see his work go to austincollinsmedia.com or follow him on Instagram @austincollinsmedia.