We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joanna Sanchez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joanna below.

Hi Joanna , thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

As I sat in my cubicle at a corporate job I had held for over 10 years, the steady rhythm of typing on keyboards and the soft chatter around me felt both comforting and stifling. Each day blended into the last, and while I was grateful for the security and routine, I couldn’t shake the feeling of unfulfilled potential lingering in the back of my mind.

The idea of jumping into something completely different started as a whisper. I had always wanted to start up my own photography business, but it felt more like a fantasy than a tangible goal. I would often imagine what it would be like to live my life passionately for my family and for myself, pursuing creativity instead of living for the weekends. But jumping from the safety of a stable paycheck into the unpredictable world of freelance writing felt like standing at the edge of a cliff, peering into an abyss.

After years of working on my portfolio, I decided to take the risk. I dedicated evenings and weekends to connect with others in the industry, offered model sessions, and started to advertise for portrait sessions. Once I started booking sessions and started figuring out how I wanted to run my business my family and I made the decision of becoming a “stay at home mom” while also focusing on my business full time. I had double the challange set up for me but I thrive in a goal oriented enviorment.

Having to rely on one income in this economy has been challenging but also my motivation to not waste this opportunity to stay home with my son but also to build my business, although there has and continues to be many learning curves I am still going after my dream. I am dedicated to learning new marketing strategies and perfecting my craft.

Today, I reflect on that pivotal moment with gratitude. Taking the leap into photography has been more than just a career change; it has been a journey of self-discovery that taught me resilience, the value of pursuing my passions, and the exhilarating freedom that comes with taking risks.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hello!! My name is Joanna Sanchez and I am a bilingual Photographer based out of San Diego, CA. Ever since I was a young child I remember taking pictures or videos of EVERYTHING! My parents would constantly go to Costco to get their film developed to see what I had captured. Come the digital camera era it was game over, I was my family’s memory capturer and I loved it. When I was 16 I was able to purchase my first DSLR camera and that was probably the best thing I could do to grow my love for photography. It has now been a little over 10 years since that purchase and it was the best decision ever.

I have recently decided to fully dedicate my time to my business, causing me to leave my secure day job. I pride myself in giving my clients the best service possible by getting to really know them and understand who they are as a person and as a family. It is important for me to get to know my clients because I want to be able to capture memories through their hearts; what matters to them? what makes them happy, what are they feeling at the moment I press my shutter button. I get hired for my art, my client expirience and my adaptability but in the end of the day these memories are for my clients and they deserve nothing less than perfection.

It’s really important for me that my clients have forever memories where they can look at the photos or video and smile. Being behind the camera I am rarely caught in photos and I do feel sad when I don’t have those memories captured with my son or my family and I want to take that feeling away from my clients. They deserve to feel seen, they mattared in that moment and a photograph will capture exactly that.

I find fulfillment in the reactions I receive after sending a completed gallery to my client, I love seeing my clients change their profile image to one of the ones I took, I enjoy the genuine connection that I get to build with so many people. Looking forward, I am excited about my business continuisly growing and serving so many more individuals, families, corperates and events with my passion of photography.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I decided to turn my passion into a business I knew it was time to start building my social media presence and after only gaining like 50 followers in 1 year I decided to do a giveaway of a free photography session. I was posting anywhere I could, shared my giveaway on facebook groups and even paid for ads. In one week I jumped from 50 followers to 150 and that was a huge deal for me because my social media presence was minimal. From those new 100 followers I was able to retain 75 which was not terrible but that Giveaway really kick started my social media presence. I will be doing another giveaway on instagram very soon at the end of the year so keep a look out for that!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

You all read a little about how my photography hobby started but there was one particular photo I took that convinved me that I could build my business. The one photo that changed it all was of my nephew in Florida, I had gone to visit my 4 week old nephew and took my camera to capture the moments with our expanding family. My sister in law convinced me to do a little newborn session for him at their home, very simple and minimal but there was this one photo she wanted of the baby in the middle of my brother lineman gear. We set up the seen, safely set up the baby and captured away, once I had uploaded and edited my Sister in law kept telling me to open my business Instagram page. After the fact I looked on Pinterest for photos similar to the ones I took and they were so similar, I was speechless. After lightly comparing and loving what I had captured I opened up my Instagram page and the rest is history, I still keep up my older posts to remind myself of where I had started, it’s a daily reminder that if you put your mind into it, you can make it happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cmbyjs.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capturedmomentsbyjs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capturedmomentsbyjs
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/captured-moments-by-js-spring-valley