We were lucky to catch up with Daniel recently and have shared our conversation below.
Daniel, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I think back to a time when my knowledge of the “how to” with photography wasn’t at the level it is today. When all I knew was that I loved taking pictures and that I was mostly happy with the way the photos turned out. It wasn’t until I started taking photos for others that I realized I would need to take photos that not only pleased me, but that highlighted a specific request. After a few moons of trial and error, I figured out something that really made sense to me. Vision is just the layering of details, like in music, and I knew music. In music composition you spend great lengths of time meticulously pouring over and layering sounds to create one song. It’s all the individual components that ultimately make the song what it is, which in the end is experienced as one single piece of art. With photography, there are also many components involved when creating a great shot. Everything from composition, lighting, angles, exposure, your subject, all of these individual elements matter just as much to the final image as do the layers of sound in a song. With photography however, they all have to come together in one instant, at the click of the shutter. What I love about music has a lot to do with what I love about photography, only that love get’s expressed in a still. My post secondary studies helped me out during this part of my learning curve as well. As a philosophy major a fundamental understanding that I gained was that there is more about the world and life that I don’t know than the sum of all I will ever know. Or as Socrates said it “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” This helped me stay curious, which kept me open minded and I have been able to keep finding new ways to express vision in a photo ever since.
Daniel, 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?
Photography was an early passion for me. I grew up in Chile, in a humble neighbourhood that lacked extravagance. Despite my backdrop feeling simple to me at the time, I remember being exposed to many forms of art at an early age. My uncle had an acoustic guitar which I silently adored and could never bring myself to touch. It was clear to me that it was very valuable so I was terrified of breaking or damaging it. He also had a camera. A Kodak flat point-and-shoot 110 film camera (look it up, very retro). I was mesmerized by this thing, but terrified to touch, just like with his guitar. I left Chile with my family to build our life in Canada without ever knowing what it felt like to hold a guitar or camera, but thought about both for years after. When I was 15, after saving enough birthday cards stuffed with cash, I had enough money to buy myself something special. The heavy weighted choice, a guitar or a camera. I’ll be honest, the choice here was no contest, I ran to Long and McQuade’s and grabbed myself a guitar because Slash (who hopefully needs no introduction), had become my hero at that time. I played that thing until my fingers bled. I finally had confirmation of why I had obsessed over my Uncles guitar all those years ago. It was magical. This reminiscing helped me remember the other elusive curiosity I had formed all those years ago. The camera. After working my first job for a bit, I managed to save up a chunk of money once again and this time I went out and bought myself a Canon Rebel. This, unlike the guitar, didn’t feel like love at first experience. Photography is absolutely an art form, but the medium is so technical, so having little knowledge on how to use the thing, left me more frustrated than excited. Given I had spent so much of my hard earned money, I decided I may as well use it anyway and began taking pictures of my family at BBQ’s, birthdays, that sort of thing. I kept up with playing the guitar and even began making my own music and writing songs, all while the canon Rebel sat on my shelf throughout most of that time. After graduating from University I decided to take a road trip across Canada and taking my camera along felt like it just made sense. I had planned the trip with the intent to see more of Canada and like most 20 somethings “find myself”. What I was met with was breathtaking landscapes that I couldn’t quite put into words. The vastness lacked extravagance, much like the backdrops I remembered growing up around, only now, it all looked like it needed to be witnessed. Funny how your perspective changes as you grow. Suddenly there it was. Inspiration. Within the frame of my lens I was able to document, celebrate and capture an honesty that I knew I didn’t want to forget. I went on that trip to find myself, but really found the thing that has allowed me to re-love life as I save some of its most striking moments in a still. If figuring life out had taken a simple route for me, I would have started my photography company right there and then. Returned from my trip and never spent a day doing anything other than taking pictures for a living. But it actually took me another 10 years, a few corporate jobs, and the birth of my first son to finally take the leap of faith and pursue something that in truth, I have been fascinated by since I was a young boy living in Chile.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
The first thing that pops in my head is the first time we booked a booth in a bridal show. It was early in our company’s life and we didn’t have many funds or bookings for that matter. My wife and I decided to really give this a hard thought and were trying to come up with every gimmick in the book to justify spending our money for the booth so that we could get some clients from the show. After many nights pondering it hit us: Just be yourself. We decided to believe in us, not a gimmick, the tactic was us! We set up a simple booth with portrait lights and a table that had a photo album book with our work and a laptop also showcasing our images and videos. When prospective clients approached our booth we just tried to connect with them and offered the a complimentary portrait shot for the bride, so they would get a feel for how I work and then my wife would just have a conversation with them. It was a huge success, we managed to get bookings as well as many contacts to follow up with that ended up booking, and it was all on a weekend that had a huge snowstorm as well. It really proved to us that we have to have faith in us and what we do in order to see success
Have you ever had to pivot?
Like many of us COVID was a force that we didn’t see coming and couldn’t see how it would affect the photography business. Weddings and all events were cancelled, all business just dried up. It was also a crazy time in my personal life as my wife and I had just decided to move to Ottawa in late 2019. We had a baby boy, 2 years old at the time and we felt that living in midtown Toronto was getting too hectic and too expensive. Construction and dust everywhere! So we moved to Ottawa, and three months later the pandemic hit. It was blessing in a sense that we were secluded form the much more cramped city of Toronto, but we were also much more isolated from our family and friends who were all here in Toronto. We had to find new avenues to make money and get creative with photography. Outdoor portrait sessions were now the big thing and maximized them while the weather was good. Later during the pandemic, in 2021 my Father was diagnosed with cancer, another surprising and devastating blow for me and my family. We decided to make the move back to Toronto to be closer to him and my Mother while he battled this illness. Nothing is bigger than family and you do everything you can to be with them and support them. So with that the business had to change again, now we had to reconnect with the Toronto market…this business is never boring to say the least.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stillyouphotography.ca
- Instagram: @stillyouphotography
- Facebook: @stillyouphotographyToronto
Image Credits
Still You Photography