We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Domenech – Remedios a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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.

Here’s the story of how my faith and future family impacted my career.
I spent the better part of a decade working as a photographer and videographer in the wedding industry. My years were planned well in advance with two year contracts and obligations set in place. Coming out of the pandemic I began attending church on Sundays and fully taking my faith seriously.
The first risk that I took in my business was declining weddings on Sundays, in order to make church service a priority.
At first the transition wasn’t so bad as it opened me up to other days during the week for smaller elopements and weddings. However, within the last four years, and taking account of my future and truly not knowing what it would become I started to examine my life as a wedding photographer.
Knowing that I wanted to have children, not work weddings (typically weekends) in order to be home with them, I took a risk to stop taking on weddings altogether.
This risk opened me up to different options within the photography industry that I never considered before. Eventually I decided to go full steam ahead and open up my own photo studio, not just for me and my clients but for other photographers and content creators to rent out.
This was the biggest risk I’ve ever taken in my life, to pivot my entire career on children I might never have.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I first picked up a camera I never could have imagined I’d have my work featured in Forbes magazine after a business trip to Morocco. My journey as a photographer actually began during the MySpace era as I took hipster images on my point and shoot. Later on in life I learned the true technical aspects of photography from my then boyfriend. I was taught on a film camera although we were well into the digital age of photography.
It taught me that every shot mattered when you’re confined to a roll of film. It pushed me towards a patient nature when it came to photography.
In the last thirteen years as a professional photographer, I have been all over the world, photographed events, weddings, influencers, brands, businesses, retreats and of course portraits. I always considered myself a “functional” photographer, I don’t think my photos will ever grace the walls of an art gallery because although I’m using an art-form, it’s for the purpose of pushing a story forward.
While my work is functional I can’t help but be influenced by the light and shadows and general beauty of the world. So whether I’m photographing a construction site, baptism or plate of food, I’m going to find the beauty in it.
I’m most proud of the fact that this art is my job. A little Puerto Rican girl from Brooklyn is a photographer and studio owner with a brick and mortar location. I’m the first person in my entire family to ever be self-employed and my time is truly my own. I have somehow created a life surrounded by art. I can never take that for granted.
I think that gratitude is what sets me apart from others in my industry, I don’t come with entitlement and am truly honored whenever I get a booking or even an inquiry. Because of that gratitude, my clients are my favorite people. I’m joyed to make them happy with the work we create together.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

During the pandemic, my careers shuttered as a photographer. My main job was being around people and that was taken away. However, there was another area of my life where I shined, and it’s the reason why my photography career had flourished the way that it did, and that thing was my mind.
I was / am really good at brain storming. I think it’s my artistic nature, necessity births creativity. So during the pandemic when I didn’t have a way to make money I began offering Brain Storm Sessions.

There were other individuals that need to pivot their businesses who were looking for ways to make money. I offered calls, website critiques, business naming services all through the brain storm sessions.

Not only was I able to pay my own rent by this but I saw the businesses and entrepreneurs that I helped flourish with their new plans.

My resilience didn’t just help me make it through that tough time. It helped others.

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

Prior to making photography my full time job I worked for retail at a tech company. I knew that the goal was for me to break out of that industry and take the leap as a photographer but I already had rent and responsibilities to account for.

I made a goal to leave my job in one year, within that year I got in the room with mentors, some physical rooms, some just online space and others were mentors who didn’t know I existed. I consumed books, podcasts, youtube videos all of people who were doing what I wanted to do.

I began to introduce myself as who I wanted to be, not my current place in life. For example, if I met someone new and they asked me what I did for work, I told them I was a photographer (not a retail associate) because my identity wasn’t found in what paid the majority of my bills, my identity was deeper than that. This slight change opened so many doors for me. When people knew I was a photographer, I became the person they called when they needed work.

I worked before my job and after my job, offering free photo sessions to hone my craft and booking what I could.
Eventually, it was losing me money to start at my retail job. I booked enough jobs that I would be covered for the next year if I quit, and I did all this before the year was up. After 9 months of planning and working, I was able to make photography my career.

Now I’m a photographer with my own photo studio. I don’t just get paid when I work but I also get paid when other people work in my studio.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bookremistudio.com
• Instagram: @book.remistudio @a_leethal