Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to RADskillZ. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, RADskillZ thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

In the beginning, RADskillZ was first used on my myspace page for fun. RAD represent my initials and skillZ was just a playful add on. This was before I even thought of directing my life towards visual journalism. It wasn’t until 2010-2011 while I was attending New England School of Photography (NESOP) in Boston, MA that it actually became a nickname and then turned into a business name. One night, I had decided to change the name of my hard drive because everyone’s hard drive had the same basic name (HD1) and we could never figure out whose was whose. I renamed mine to RADskillZ. The next morning I turned my hard drive in to Prof. Glen Cooper leading our photojournalism class. A few minutes later he called out “Radskillz?” and it caught everyone’s attention. I raised my hand and the class laughed and made funny comments about “of course it was you” referencing the fact that my photography was always wild and adventurous content. It was from that moment on, the name stuck with my classmates. One fellow photographer, Aram, really stuck with the nickname and called me Radz the rest of our time knowing each other. RIP Aram. It really wasn’t until a few months after this nickname came to fruition that I realized it was great for branding. At the time I was using my full name followed by photography dot com for people to get to my website. I realized how long and tedious it was to type in so decided to make a change to RADskillZ.com. During this time, I realized how catchy it was and took a bigger step into embracing it and branding my photography and myself. Now, 13 years later it still works and is memorable to a person hearing it for the first time. I am so thankful for my younger self for creating the myspace account, and for the visual journalism class, especially Aram, for helping me embrace a nickname and turn it into a business name.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Since I was a child, I was always interested in cameras and camcorders. The first camera my family had was a film and had these external flash pop offs. This always intrigued me and I always wanted to “play” with it. As time passed, cameras developed more and my mom started taking our pictures more often. Still with film, we would have to wait for processing and printing before we could see the photos. We started realizing my mom was not the best photographer as she would chop off the taller peoples heads in the photos. It was then that I realized I could do a better job and started taking more photos and in college I always had a disposable camera until I could afford a digital. I strongly believe that because I was raised having to use film which meant you really have to think about each photo very carefully, it structured me with more discipline in my photography future. With that being said, for every shoot, I look for the flow of positive energy. Even if it is not an event, I try to find the moment when the subjects’ energy is peaking and my energy behind the camera sync up to create our own frozen magic moments. For my future endeavors, I am currently working more with water. This is a new avenue of photography I am pushing to learn more about and succeed in. I am now available to document peoples scuba diving trips like I’ve done with Aquanauts Adaptive Scuba Program, or just capturing moments at the beach and taking portraits of family and friends and other underwater creatures. One of my favorite things about underwater photography is that naturally cameras and water don’t mix, but with mixing safely, you can really create some unique moments that could never be duplicated. More of this content will be available on @naturesorad

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Good ‘ol word of mouth!! I am so thankful for those that pass my name along to other potential clients. After moving back to Miami from Boston in 2014, I had to start all over with contacts and building my brand. I was lucky enough to meet a few people that really plugged me into everything like DJ Zehno. A big thanks to Gio Profera aka drag queen Juleisy Inbed aka BassFunkDaddy for pushing my name into the minds of people and places that I am lucky enough to still work for today like Blackbird Ordinary, Sweet Liberty, BlackMarketMiami. Without the people that mentioned my name in rooms I was not in and without these wonderful clients that believe in my vision, I would not be as successful as I am today. I appreciate all of you!

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

The most rewarding aspect is definitely the people that I photograph reaching out to me whether its in person or through the internet and saying things like, “I don’t even remember this moment but I love that you captured it.” It’s the random candids that are in the heat of a moment like singing at the top of your lungs at EmoNiteMiami or dancing with your best friends to your favorite song at YesMaam305. When people let loose and are truly feeling the moment it gives me the opportunity to capture them as piece of art.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.radskillz.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/iamradskillz
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniella-rascón-98990933/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/radskillz

Image Credits
© RADskillZ