We recently connected with Danielle Walker and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?

I wouldn’t necessarily call this a failure, but basically I kept taking hit after hit during the first wedding I’ve ever worked on my own. I’ve worked weddings with other photographers or short shooting times by myself, but this was my first 10 – 12 hour work day with no other photographer or videographer. So many things just kept going wrong. I thought I had prepared myself the night before, and did everything that I could to prevent any disasters that may occur during the wedding day. I had all of my batteries charged, set up my camera the night before, got plenty of sleep, ate a good breakfast and left early. I listed out all of my prompts, family photo shot list, and had the itinerary ready to go and saved as my lock screen. I was ready for anything, or well, so I thought.

My day started with me running late. If you ask any of my loved ones they’ll all tell you I’m directionally challenged, although I blame this one on Google Maps. Nonetheless, beginning the day late can always be a stressful start. However, it wasn’t until the groomsmen portraits when disaster really struck. We’re all walking in a field to the ideal shooting location, and a groomsmen comes up to me and says, “Let me see your leg”. I was incredibly confused, but lifted my right leg anyways and discovered I was covered from knee to toe in fire ants. Oh yes, I was absolutely being devoured in fire ants. This guy was so kind and helped me knock all of those suckers off, and the crisis was most averted. First lesson learned – watch where you’re walking.

Then came the ceremony. The ceremony site was a little walk from where I was keeping my equipment (and it was raining), so I stuffed my pocket with extra batteries and memory cards to have on me just in case. I was trying to plan ahead. The ceremony came and went, and it was incredibly beautiful. Then it was time for the family portraits. I reach in for another camera battery, and discover that one of the batteries was leaking battery acid, and this was quite literally eating away at my flesh. Talk about chemical burn galore. I calmly tell the couple and their families who were patiently waiting for their portraits that I’ll need to be right back, and I head to the bathroom while Googling how to treat chemical burns from Lithium batteries. I cleaned up, covered the area with a Band-Aid, and went right back for portraits. Second lesson learned – all batteries will remain in a separate bag. At all times.

Now, I didn’t notice the most glorifying “failure” of the event until I got home, and part of me is incredibly thankful because I have no idea how I would have handled the situation. I get home, start to decompress and tell the crazy events of my long day when I notice I’m feeling a breeze. That’s right, a breeze. My pants were split from front to back, and most likely was caused by me trying to get “the perfect shot” by hopping on and off the stage of the reception area. I strongly choose to believe that my slacks were loose fitting enough that no one even noticed, and you can’t tell me otherwise. Third lesson learned – always, I repeat ALWAYS, bring an extra pair of pants.

I go through all of these embarrassing and horrifying details in this article, because I think it’s necessary to remind yourself that things still go wrong no matter how prepared you think you are. What’s important is how you handle these situations. I could have chosen to allow any of these events to throw me into a full blown panic attack. I could have easily fallen into a stress-ridden attitude that the bride and groom would have picked up on for the rest of the evening. Instead, I kept a professional and light-hearted atmosphere, so that the couple had no clue anything was going wrong in the first place. (Although the groomsmen who picked fire ants off my leg may have had an idea, but he seemed to have kept it to himself.)

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Hey there, my name is Danielle. I’m a wedding and lifestyle photographer located in Central Texas, but I love to travel.

The relationships that I build and the stories that I get to be a part of are what makes me proud of my business. I’m here to capture all of your milestones. My absolute favorite thing is being able to watch my clients grow. I’ll meet them capturing their engagement session or wedding, then following along their journey and find myself capturing their maternity portraits, and before I know it we’re taking family portraits. Or I’m scheduling a branding session for a client’s business who’s senior portraits I shot just a few years prior. Being able to witness this growth, and handing back a memory that they’ll now always be able to look back on is why I do what I do.

I like to think that I sort of just fell into photography. I’ve always been told that I had “an eye” for it, but never truly felt a deep pull to a camera. I had a college career planned out for myself, but then as I’m registering for classes I panicked, ignored everything I planned, and picked the very first thing that looked interesting – RTF. Radio, television, and film. Fast forward to the PA gig that I was working in Oregon that made me fall in love with photography. The art director I was working with and I went exploring before our job the next day. He handed me his Nikon D7100, showed me how to work it, and let me have at it. He basically had to pry that thing out of my hands by the end of our trip. The very day that I flew home I went out and bought my first camera – Nikon, of course. We also accidentally stumbled upon the set where the Goonies was filmed, but that’s a story for another day. I’ll always look back on that trip and be thankful for Steve for providing me with the creativity-inspiring experience that paved the way to my career.

I’ve always loved weddings, as cheesy as that sounds. I’m the kind of photographer that arrives genuinely excited to see you marry your best friend, and will do anything within my power to make sure you have the best day possible. I’ll lead you through deep breaths when I can tell you’re getting nervous, cry with your bridesmaids after you put on the dress, carry your veil when it gets too heavy, and will always dance with you and your loved ones to the Cupid’s Shuffle. I’m here to provide a quality service, but also a quality experience. I’m not a big fan of stiff poses, and instead focus on navigating your day so that it feels like a seamless flow while still composing a breath-taking image.

I aim to capture the raw and unapologetic moments as a photographer. Weddings (and even family sessions for that matter) aren’t meant to be perfectly composed, and neither are we. I want “the ugly”. The jumping on the table, mud on the dress, mascara-stained faces kind of ugly. I want to provide images that you’ll look at years down the road and remember the exact depth of emotion that you experienced in that moment, because I know I will.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

During my college journey in Film I had to take a photography class as a credit. Funny enough, it was during this photography course that I lost all interest in photography. The instructor I had really enforced working by the book, instead of allowing you to expand beyond the box you’re put into and work as a creative. Granted, it did help drill in the fundaments of photography such as composition, camera settings, and lighting set up. However, I was in a complete creative mind block by the time I finished this course. In fact, it was the course I was doing the worst at grade-wise. It took months for me to unlearn how to do everything as it was written by the book, and allow room for any creative freedom to take over. Without any creative freedom or composition I felt my images were stiff, and looked just like everyone else’s. I had no interest in the subject, and it really took me some time to find that spark I’ve always carried when looking through a lens. This is when I learned that art, passion, and creativity is not a trait that can be taught. My all time favorite quote is, “Learn the rules like a pro, so that you can break them like an artist.”

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I’ve always held a passion for the arts. Ever since I was a child you would find me making scrap books out of old family photos, drawing and painting with anything I could get my hands on, and writing poetry until I lived my days in a constant rhythm. To this day I’ll stay up until 3AM because my book is just that compelling, or I find myself lost on Isla Nublar in the world Stephen Spielberg dreamt up for us. I’ve always considered myself an artist, and finding a way to truly express my creativity fuels my desire to keep creating.

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is providing a product that makes my audience and clients stop and experience an emotion. Even if it’s just a spark that inspires reflection of a feeling the image may be portraying. The shocked gasps from the bride and groom when I show them the image I snagged of a couple having their own intimate moment during their ceremony, the tears of joy that shine’s in a mother’s eyes when she sees the perfect shot of her children laughing, and the reaction of empowerment a client receives after seeing him/herself in an image are all reasons that encourage me to continue down my path.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.daniellewalker.photography/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniellewalker.photography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniellewalkersphotography/