We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Danielle Gabrielli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with important influences in our lives. Is there a historical figure you look up to?

The historical figure I look up to most is Audrey Hepburn. Her story of perseverance through incredible difficulty during WWII and how she used those skills that she developed to become one of the most iconic actresses in history. And by looking at her, you would have no idea that she taught underground dance and piano lessons to provide for her family until she nearly starved to death, aided the Dutch Resistance by carrying messages past Nazi soldiers, and became a humanitarian working with UNICEF in the 1980s. She loved others to incredible lengths.

To me, she is someone who looked at suffering as an opportunity. She took her hardships and turned them in to opportunities for growth and gifts. Her life is an encouragement to take what life throws at you and turn it into strengths. To turn suffering into gifts and create a career out of them. And, most of all, to love people.

Danielle, 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 have been a wedding and engagement photographer since 2015 when some friends from my teeny tiny college thought: “You’re a yearbook photographer, so obviously you can shoot a wedding.” And it’s been a full adventure and a half since then! I have shaped my brand and the way I photograph weddings around my story. Every love story is personal to me and I love every minute of it. I love sitting down with my clients and hearing about how they met and how their story is growing. Most of all, I love being a resource for my clients and supporting them in every way I can. I’ve been in the wedding scene for awhile now, and I love using that experience to help my clients with everything from referrals to just being their to support them when wedding planning gets stressful.

On a personal note, I have an interesting history when it comes to memory. So being a photographer and preserving those memories for my couples to relive is one of the greatest gifts. Between a family history of Alzheimer’s disease and my experience with multiple concussions, I know that the photos I have now will allow me to keep those memories close to love, share and smile about for years and story times to come. Whether it’s my own story telling or our future kids retelling me those stories and showing off albums of photos. I truly believe that every love story deserves more than just one moment, and photos tell those stories over and over for generations.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Resilience means a lot of things to me. My junior year of college I did a statistics project as part of my Social Work degree on what foundationally builds kids ability to be resilient. I learned a lot of things, including how important it is to have a support structure. For me, I had a hard time learning what my support structure was and what that meant for my own personal resilience and perseverance. Over a decade ago, I had a series of concussions that ended up in Post Concussion Syndrome. For those that aren’t familiar, basically I had concussion symptoms long after my brain should have healed. Nearly two months after I had my second concussion I was still experiencing 26/30 of the symptoms they measured concussions in. And over a decade later I still deal with memory and sensory issues as well as a chronic headache disorder. It’s been a long road, but I’ve learned to turn what I’ve come through into strengths. To notice the fine details and listen to every story. To write it all down and just take the time to love on people.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My business partner also goes by the other title of “husband.” We met on a missions trip to Brazil back in 2018 and it wasn’t long before we realized that there was something real between us. While he pushes me to grow in business and tackle new challenges, he’s also one of the best encouragers to follow my dreams I could have asked for. We’ve been through a lot together but all roads have led us to where we are now. Whether it’s the literal roads of cross country road trips to move us both from Pennsylvania to Texas, or the metaphorical winding roads, it’s been quite the adventure. We got married in September 2021 and he started to take more of an interest in the world of photography after years of me retelling wedding stories and watching me edit over my shoulder. So now he comes along to assist at weddings and engagement shoots, and works with me on the finances and taxes on the business side. I love getting to show him this world and owning a business together!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dannileaphoto.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/dannileaphotography
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/dannileaphotography