We recently connected with Sebastian Orta and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sebastian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Since my arrival in the United States back when I was 14, I always knew I wanted to be a video editor. I went to the University of Florida, got my bachelors degree back in 2018, and joined the work-force. However, I wasn’t able to get a job as a video editor and our family had just had our first son, so I couldn’t wait and started driving Uber. After a couple months of Uber I got a job at an Amazon warehouse, and after 2 years I started working at Publix grocery store in Florida. Throughout that entire time, I worked as a video editor on the side working small projects, building my portfolio. During the winter of 2021 we had our second son, and I decided to take some time off to spend it at home with my family and my new born son. During those 30 days, with the support of my wife, Claudia Gonzalez, I thought to myself: “I have all of the equipment, I have the knowledge. Why continue working for someone else when I can do something for me, for my family.” And so I decided to make a change. Started setting up the business, buying any necessary equipment we didn’t already have, and building a stronger relationship with any and all clients I already had coming to me for any video editing. Soon enough, we had business coming in left and right. Corporate events coming into town calling us to photograph it for them or capture video, personal events like birthday parties and family reunions, on top of all of the video editing requests we keep getting all over the country.

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 back background and context?

At OG Photography and Video Services, we are a small family run business based in Orlando, Florida. I focus on everything video related, from videography, to video editing, to motion graphics. On the other hand, my wife, Claudia Gonzalez, focuses on everything photography related. We pride ourselves in being able to cover just about any request we get from our clients, and whatever we can’t cover, we try to accommodate to the best of our abilities.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My cofounder and business partner is not only my business partner, she is also my life partner. My wife, Claudia Gonzalez, supported me through all of this journey to be able to start this business and keep it running. Whenever she is not out in the field doing a photoshoot, she stays home taking care of our kids, which is needed in order to run a business when its run by a small family. We started working together almost 7 years ago in a completely different industry. We started a relationship and pursued our dreams, which led us to moving to Orlando, Florida. She always supported me when I spent day and night working many different jobs while she was also in school. After having our second kid, she was the one who put the idea in my head to start our own business. I was afraid at first to do it, but she pushed me to take that step, and thanks to her, we have a business now that takes care of us and allows us to go on family trips and vacations to enjoy our time together as a family, while also doing something we love and enjoy.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

It all happened slowly over time throughout the years. Little by little I started buying a camera, then a lighting kit, then camera lenses, software, everything. When the decision for us to start this business came up wasn’t the ideal moment. It was in the middle of the pandemic, my wife had just given birth to our second son, and I was on a 30 day unpaid paternity leave. It was a very risky step to take, but we believed we could do it and so we took that step. Thankfully with the equipment already there, even if it wasn’t up to date, and the loyal clientele I had built the months prior to that, business was able to stay running. Slowly but surely, every month, the demand increased and we were getting called more and more about more events to shoot or videos to edit and we haven’t had a bad month yet, fingers crossed!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/og_photoandvideo/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/OGphotoandvideo/