We were lucky to catch up with Daniele Aquino recently and have shared our conversation below.
Daniele, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I think the meaning of success can vary for every individual. Generally, success is when achievements or goals are met regardless of scale. For me, success is a state of mind or way of living. To be successful, is to be happy and unbothered by the opinions and or judgement of others because you’ve already won. You’ve put in the work to build your confidence by working towards perfecting your craft, prioritizing your health, training the mind and reaching a state of belief in oneself. When you’ve reached this point, there’s no chance of failure because anyone who has the desire to believe in themselves with unwavering faith, success/happiness then becomes inevitable. I am constantly working towards success meaning I am constantly working towards believing in myself which happens to be the hardest part for most people. To believe in yourself means learning to love yourself unconditionally which takes a substantial amount of mental practice. On another note, there is a difference between lying to yourself and repeating affirmations that you don’t actually deem as true where I think gets categorized into toxic positivity. Simply calling yourself successful oppose to actually taking action to achieve the mindset and lifestyle that you desire is more harmful than anything. I want to clarify that I am speaking on a deeper level aside from the successes of financial gain or fame. Money can never buy you happiness but internal success will consequently lead you towards financial freedom as well.
Daniele, 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?
I initially got into photography during my third year in college where I randomly took a photography class to fill electives. I ended up really enjoying it and bought a camera with my financial aid. From there, I took more classes and discovered how much depth there was to photography. There were several types of photography ranging from fine art, fashion, documentary, abstract, journalism, landscape etc. My journey becoming a photographer started with my interest in abstract experimental photos then I naturally started to slowly move into portraiture by shooting the friends around me. I have been shooting for about 5 years now and absolutely love that I have the ability to make it my profession. Of course I enjoy the art of photography and the ability is has to bring your visions to life. Over the years I’ve learned to love the process and by creating with friends, exploring the manipulation of light and shadow and understanding composition to create a balanced photo. However, the second part to photography is reward of gratification coming from your client or muse that makes it so fulfilling. I take pride in creating a comfortable atmosphere for the people I shoot and it is always my goal to have them leave the session feeling good and confident.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
For the past 5 years I have been juggling my corporate job as a food stylist and my personal freelance photography business. It wasn’t until recently, maybe 4 months ago, I decided to quit my job and fully commit to myself and my photography. I was financially dependent on my job for so long that quitting had to be one of the scariest periods of my life. I was tired letting the years go by wanted to finally make my dreams of being a full time artist become a reality. Here I am 4 months later doing exactly that, waking up excited every morning and living everyday on my own time. If I don’t believe in myself, who will?
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
When I was in college, photography was my little side hustle to make some extra cash and when I say little side hustle, I mean little as in $25-$50 photoshoots coming from anyone who would just give me a chance to shoot something cool for them or least what I thought was cool. Later, I tried wedding photography and quickly stopped because of how redundant and uninspiring it was for me personally. Then, I got into food photography which I actually really did enjoy and started shooting for restaurant in San Diego that helped me build my portfolio. I then used my food photography experience to apply to my first corporate job as a food stylist and ended up staying with that company for 5 years. while I was working corporate I also was doing BTS photography for music videos which somehow led to me to producing music videos. From there I was financially comfortable to move into a one bedroom loft in DTLA big enough to act as a home photography studio where my creative portrait photography journey began and I started my own personal photography business.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://danicribo.com/
- Instagram: @danieleaquino
Image Credits
Queenie Mae, Raven Norris, Bella