We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Saudino recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Magical Girl Photography to others can mean different things depending on the reader. Is she referring to herself? Her clients? Who is the ‘girl’ in “Magical Girl Photography?”
The answer comes from the Japanese word “mahō shōjo,” translated to “Magical Girl.”
Magical Girl is a subgenre of Japanese media like manga or anime, and the most commonly known magical girl media is of course, Sailor Moon.
Growing up, I had a very difficult childhood faced with unfortunate trauma and adversity no child should experience, and my way to cope with my difficult upbringing was escapism via video games, movies, books, and cartoons.
Sailor Moon was my comfort show, my escapism from reality, and very empowering for young girls in the 90s across the globe.
When choosing the name of my business, I didn’t feel “Amanda Saudino Photography” sounded right. It felt like it lacked energy and I wanted something that represented who I am at my core, and the kind of experience clients will have with me, and Magical Girl felt like the answer. It was my first choice, I had no other business names, I knew that I always wanted to go with it.

Amanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Amanda-Joy Saudino. At the time of writing, I am 28 years old. I’m a Gemini if that’s relevant, a vegetarian, animal lover, video game connoisseur, and comedian at heart. I grew up in 90s and 2000s with my parents splitting at a young age. I grew up living with my mother in Edmonton Alberta and my father in Timmins Ontario in Canada. I started boarding aircraft alone as young as 6 to take the journey back and forth between my parents for visitation during summer holidays and school years. As I approach 30 and grow out of my angsty teen feelings, I acknowledge that my parents did their best with the tools they had been given in life, but I won’t lie and say I had a healthy childhood.
It was hard and traumatic, and I grew up a black sheep in my family. It wasn’t entirely terrible, and scattered in my memories are the moments of my childhood where my core personality developed amongst the swamp of trauma. My father and grandparents loved to play video games, which is where my passion and love of gaming and all things geeky stems from.

As a child, my grandpapa did some part-time real estate photography after retirement for a local insurance company. I didn’t quite understand what exactly we were doing, all I knew was that we would go for drives around Timmins together taking photographs of people’s houses. When he would babysit me and my cousin, he would take us along for the ride. We would help him take photos of the houses, and we had a very strict rule: “Don’t waste the rolls of film!” From an early age, I knew I loved the creativity and beauty of photography.
My grandpapa might’ve had no idea how much I would idolize his work ethic. My love for photography flourished and became my hobby for over 20 years.

Subjective but intentional art is where I strived to expand my creative services. Clients seeking standard portrait work, boudoirs, family shoots, couples, babies, and children, can expect the experience with me to be relaxed, funny, and memorable. I’m here to capture your memories in a magical way that showcases the human experience of being “in the moment.”

I believe my personality, point of view, and life experience is what sets me apart from other photographers. While I am still a fresh face on the scene with only three years of shooting professionally, I have 18 years of experience working with cameras, editing software, and understanding photography theory. I also find I stand out with my editing style leaning towards more fantasy and vibrant elements, wanting to bring life and colour to the lives of everyday clients, to give them a truly magical experience.

The main thing I want you, the reader to know about me is that I am just as nervous as you on shoots. I have a very big bleeding heart, and my biggest fear would be to have a client dissatisfied with their photos. I respect that when you give money for a service, you want to be satisfied with your purchase. I hold myself to a high expectations to be professional and courteous. I care about making sure you have both a comfortable time on our shoot and also over the moon about the quality of the photographs you receive, capturing your special memory in time forever.

I believe photographs are some of the most important components in documenting human history. Maybe someday down the road when aliens take over the Earth, they will see the work of the millions of photographers and see the passion in human hearts.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I shot my first wedding last year which was the hardest adversity I had to face so far in this business. I have terrible social anxiety and imposter syndrome. I was deeply terrified at the prospect of holding so much responsibility in capturing this couple’s special day, and there are no do-overs with a wedding. You need to get it right the first time, you cannot miss that first kiss! You must balance directing a large crowd, managing your camera settings, being mindful of where you’re standing, moving running jumping, it’s very physically and mentally demanding.
I remember while working on the photos from the wedding, I had a panic attack during editing fearing the couple would be so unhappy with the work and feel robbed of their money. It took a lot of time to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable, and accepting that sometimes you can’t please everyone. In the end, the couple loved the photos and I really hyped it up in my head that they wouldn’t.

Working with the public has forced me to confront a lot of my internal fears and learn to get to know myself better with what I can and can’t do. I’ve become more confident in asserting boundaries and learning to communicate more using empathy-driven skills.

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

I’m still not quite sure how it all happened, and even now I feel I am doing a very poor job! I organically grew my personal Instagram for over 10 years, and when the time came to make a business account, I basically spammed my photography content on my main account to get my friends and random followers over there to feed the algorithm machine. I am horrible on Facebook, so while I try to keep my business page updated there, I find Instagram to be more creative and entertaining with wanting to express my brand aesthetics.
I’m currently in the middle of a rebranding and still ironing some kinks out, my 20s are almost over, and as my 30s approach, I’m entering a metamorphosis so to say on realizing who I am and what is important to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://magicalgirlphotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magicalgirlphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magicalgirlphotography/

Image Credits
Magical Girl Photography Phil Reg Photography Nene Fortier Photography