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By Emily Murray (@emilykmurray)

Since the August death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown, there has been constant unrest in the streets of Ferguson, MO., and one man has been capturing it all.

Daniel Shular, a St. Louis native and a freelance photographer, has been at the heart of the movement, and I recently spoke with him to get the inside scoop on his experiences live streaming one of the biggest stories of the year.

After completing his studies from the University of Missouri, Shular set off on a post-grad trip. When he returned, he found a storm of civil unrest brewing in his hometown. Shular recalls turning on the television and seeing police tear gassing the Al Jazeera news crew and other local news crews on the ground. 

“This is insane." Shular thought, "I need to go down there. And I didn’t know what I was doing at first. I was going to go take pictures, shoot video.” 

When Shular got down to the protests, he connected with Stringwire and decided to give live streaming a chance. Since then, Shular has live streamed key moments from the protests, including Ferguson October, the aftermath of the grand jury decision, mass die-ins and marches. Shular has garnered an audience of thousands, many of whom stay with him late into the night as they watch the protests unfold from home. In addition to his online audience, Shular’s live streams have also been featured during on-air news broadcasts, including The Rachel Maddow Show and All In With Chris Hayes. 

Shular still shoots photographs with a Canon Rebel T2i, but he says it’s distracting with the flash and gets in the way compared to the iPhone 5S he live streams with now. When asked what his essential live streaming accessories are, Shular says his life proof case has saved his phone on many occasions, particularly during the Ferguson October protests in torrential downpours. Other accessories Daniel uses include a selfie stick, a waterproof backpack, and a lot of external backup batteries.

Some nights, Daniel even carries a bike helmet and a gas mask with him for safety. However, the gas mask hinders his peripheral vision and he is not always wearing it, as he describes from an incident in October. 

“I had it with me, but I wasn’t wearing it at the time," he said, "The crowd—even media—everyone got pushed into the street and the police started macing. Just like spraying back and forth. I got hit with that a little bit. People in front of me got hit and I just got blow back from it. So I was moving back, and me and somebody else were commenting like we smell gas and by the time you smell that tear gas smell, it’s pretty much too late.” 

On one of the most explosive nights of the protests—the night the grand jury announced Darren Wilson would not be indicted—Shular was standing about 20 feet away from Mike Brown’s family when the decision was announced. 

“It was, it was surreal, it was terrible. I’ll never forget that,” he said.

Following the announcement, thousands watched live streams from Ferguson as flames engulfed buildings, cop cars were vandalized, and shops were looted. While some of the shops are already back open for business on West and South Florrisant streets, Shular says many are still in disrepair as shop owners try to raise money through crowdfunded sites like GoFundMe. 

According to Shular, most of the destruction that has occurred in Ferguson is the product of a small group that are misrepresenting the movement. During Ferguson October, thousands of protesters organized a march to the Saint Louis University campus. After bypassing cops on the sidewalk and entering SLU with students who had their campus IDs, protesters, including the likes of Cornel West and Vonderrit Myers family, occupied the campus. Shular remembers that night as “one of the most powerful things I saw.” 

There are other well-known live streamers Shular has met throughout his time covering the protests, many of who got their live streaming foot in the door during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011. Compared to the mainstream media, Shular says live streamers have been embraced by the community for the most part and have much better information on the ground.

Shular plans to pursue a career in photojournalism and will continue to live stream. In the future, Shular sees great potential in live streaming and believes it will become an important tool for freelancers to have.

  Follow Shular on Twitter: @xshularx

Check out Shular’s photography: http://danielshular.com/