Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Priscila and Frank Zabala. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Priscila and Frank, appreciate you joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

If we could start over, we would have started our business much sooner and with much less fear. We were both working very traditional jobs and we really didn’t think our business would be where it is today. We let fear, doubt, and outside opinions dictate a lot of how we ran our business from the structure, how to price ourselves, and many other things we really wish we would have trusted our gut on. So, really, we would have taken the leap into our business sooner rather than later.

Priscila and Frank, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We started our business a couple of years ago because we were feeling very worn out from our traditional jobs (Priscila was working as a teacher and Frank a bar manager). We really wanted to have the freedom to dictate what we did with our time. Both of our jobs were time consuming and taking a toll on our mental health in an unhealthy way. Our priority was family and spending more time with our son.

Priscila: I always loved photography but it was more of a hobby than a career. I bought myself a professional camera again, started an LLC, and put myself out there for free photoshoots and then paid shoots when the time was right. After a few months I started receiving inquiries to capture weddings (this is the industry I really wanted to be in), and started thinking about working with a local videographer in case couples were interested in the both services for their wedding day. This is where Frank joined.

Frank: When Priscila told me she wanted to start looking for videographers to work with, I jumped right in and mentioned I would learn the craft and we could instead work as a team. That’s exactly what happened and we’ve been working as a dynamic duo ever since.

Breaking into the wedding space was no where near easy, but through time and trust from our clients, we’ve been able to build something we’re truly proud of. We take pride in continuing to learn our craft our every day and perfect our style in the hopes that people recognize our work when they see it – mainly, because it’s hard to stand out in an industry with so many talented photographers and videographers. We genuinely love what we do though, and we think working together as a team really sets us apart from the crowd. Couples that come to us with their wedding vision love that we’re a husband and wife duo or a package deal. So, not only are our couples getting a team for their wedding, we’re a one stop shop for both photo and film and they’re only having to hire one vendor versus two. We also take pride in getting to know each and every one of our couples and forming a relationship with them. This is the most important part of what we do because we really don’t like showing up to a wedding day as complete strangers. This can cause awkward situations that no one wants or needs on such an important day. Instead, we find that most couples ask for engagement photoshoots along with their wedding packages and this really gives us a chance to get to know the couple one-on-one while they get a feel for how we work together. We also meet with couples before the wedding in person or via a Zoom call and talk about all things related to their wedding day (timeline, family, shot list, etc.) This really helps all of our couples and we find they are at ease knowing we’ve got them covered on their big day.

We’re most proud of the signature experience and relationships we’ve built with couples that trust us to capture their wedding. It really is amazing and heartwarming when couples tell us just how much they enjoyed having us with them, so much so, we’re now being referred to family members and friends of past bride and grooms! Fun fact: Photographers and videographers spend THE MOST amount of time with a bride and groom on their wedding day, which is why the experience, trust, and relationship are so important. We’ve built something that works for us and our amazing clients. While we still have ways to go, we’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. Our brand is really about family and trust and we hope that’s the message we continue to convey to potential clients.

We’re also very proud that we’re now taking our services outside of Florida and into other states within the U.S. and out of the country, too! We recently completed and engagement shoot in Downtown Chicago for one of our 2024 wedding couples and it was a blast! Read more about it here:

https://zphotoandfilm.com/2023/11/06/downtown-chicago-engagement-photoshoot-cody-and-silvana/

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being reliable and treating all of our clients with respect and humility has really helped propel our business forward. That trust factor is huge – especially where we live. We’ve also been very blessed to network with amazing vendors in this industry that believed in us from day one.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

We learned very quickly that not everyone has the same business mindset that we do. The business world is very dog-eat-dog, unfortunately. Add weddings into that and you’ll see just how ruthless people can be. We were very trusting when we first started our journey and it’s something we wish we could go back and change. When we first started we very much worked from the mindset of being giving. While we are still giving, we’ve learned to be more reserved about who we are that way with. We’ve been taken advantage of so many times to the point where we opened our eyes quickly and learned that not everyone has the best intentions.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zphotoandfilm.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/zphotoandfilm
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/zphotoandfilm
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ZphotoandFilm?si=Xmsk8k7TsM6b8BNU
• Other: Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/zphotoandfilm

Image Credits
All images are ours. Z Photo and Film.