We recently connected with Tanya Santamaria and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tanya, thanks for joining us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

Well, the best investment I’ve made is getting my own office studio space. I was taking photos and making videos at my house and I would edit in my room and take pictures in my living room . Sometimes I would have peace and quiet doing my stuff but sometimes I would not , I live with my dad and my 2 brothers and sometimes my dad would barge in the middle of me making a video and then also my brothers are pretty loud when they play their video games. and just overall i just felt a bit uninspired in my own home.

I wanted a space that I could go to and be like ”Oh yeah I’m definitely feeling creative today and no one will bother me for sure” . So I ended up looking into my finances to see if i can even afford an office space … after i totaled up all my bills i saw that i could spare $300 to $400 a month and so onto my search for an office i go . I started looking up Studio Spaces in San Antonio ..well ”affordable” Studios in San Antonio haha..

In my search, I found Studios by Alamo, you have know idea how i felt when i looked these guys up, literally the first thing i read on their website was ” We build living and work spaces for artists in San Antonio…” i was like ”omg this is totally for me!” They had so many creative spaces and offices for someone like me and the best thing was that they had spaces that were AFFORDABLE! right on my price range.

It was the best investment I’ve made for myself because in the process of all this, I ended up opening my own business for Photography and Videography( and soon my online boutique store) . Now I can take pictures/videos of myself and others in a real creative studio environment .

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

wow where to begin …well At a young age I always loved watching movies. Everytime i would go to the movie theaters I would save my tickets, now today I have like 1,000 or more of them . I loved watching the behind the scenes of the making of movies. Everything about movies amazed me , the shots, the acting etc…

When I entered middle school , an English teacher I had at the time , asked me what I wanted to do for my career and well at the time I didn’t know what I wanted to do and so he asked me ” well what do you like?” and so i told him . He then told me ” why dont you become a Film Director or a Photographer…”

At that very moment , my whole life… no, my future started to write itself, it’s like the plant that was in me had sprouted a leaf lol… I started researching the whole world of film/photo/ videography etc… There were so many career paths that I could take so many opportunities for someone as creative as me out there.

Later on , I ended up doing Film festivals , Production assistant gigs, acting, even some film jobs … I met a lot of people in the film industry here in my hometown. It was so amazing to get real world experience and to learn as well from others.

I think what sets me apart from others is that I have quite a bit of experience in some fields and honestly that’s what I want to be known for. I don’t just want to be recognized as this one thing, I want to be experienced in any type of field in the world I’m in.

I’m just overall proud of how far I’ve come. I never imagined I would have my own business in Photography and Videography, and in a way I have to really thank my parents for that. My dad is the hard working getting it done type of guy and my mom she is the dreamer /creative person. I feel like it works hand in hand you know. If I have an idea or a goal I want to pursue I’m going to do it.

And well I am a person that has a lot of ambitions there’s so many things I want to do and see like I want to travel more, I want to get a scuba divers license, I would love to paint more, and just overall I am a person who is very positive, energetic, and open minded. And I’m also someone who is very creative in everything I do.

My hopes for the future of my business and for myself is to definitely have a bit more clientele and to also maybe travel with any clients who would be willing to go that far to take photos and videos in other places in the world. I want to do all sorts of film/photography/ videos , I even want to start underwater photography. I think it will be so cool to do some photoshoots underwater and maybe even get featured in National Geographic…

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There was a time where I was on a quest of finding a job of course, I wanted to find a job in something I love so I tried searching for film jobs. There really aren’t that many film jobs around here that will pay you decent enough and basically be a 9-5 type of job but luckily i ended up finding one.

At that moment in time it felt like i was living the dream because i finally found a job in the field i love, The job was super cool i got to make videos for businesses like restaurants, spas, and real estate agencies etc… but it’s not always the dream when your working on someone else’s payroll and you start to lose your passion.

I worked at this film job for almost i believe a year, during that year my skills were put into high gear like my editing skills were put to the test, my filming style started to change, and you know I learned a lot and I for sure gained a lot of experience which is super good but then something happened … I started to lose passion for film little by little as days went on and I also started to notice that the person in charge was making way more money and I was basically getting crumbs.

Look I understand that the business side of things is important but I believe that you also can’t forget to do things with a passion. The person in charge didn’t really have a passion for film, that person was more into the business side of things. which was a problem for the filmmakers/editors that worked there. You can’t really expect to film at a location you just shot ,edit the video of the footage you just took and finish it in one day when on top you have other videos that are due. The deadlines really were not realistic at that job. Everyday was just a constant thing, I was editing back to back and filming back to back and it just doesn’t help when you have someone breathing down your neck.

One day I woke up, started getting ready for work, and I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked so tired and miserable and then i looked at myself and i said ”i don’t want to do film anymore” as i said that i instantly started to cry, i felt like i was losing myself and the fact that i said that to myself was heartbreaking like what was wrong with me, this is what i always wanted, right?

and so later I put my math nerd pants on and I started to do the numbers of what I was getting paid every 2 weeks and how much that person was getting every month with the amount of clients the business had.. and well i’m not going to go into detail but just know that I was definitely not getting the whole pie I was better off doing it on my own… oh wait I did end up doing that lol…

I quit that so-called ”job of my dreams” and I started my own photography & videography business. Where I can run on my own terms, work from anywhere I want to, I get the whole pie of my money not crumbs, don’t have someone breathing down my neck and most importantly I can do my work with a passion.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the fact that I am making and leaving my mark . I want to take as many photos as possible and create videos under my name so that when i leave this world someday others can see my work and be like ” wow she did so many things when she was here …oh my gosh she did that too!” and just overall being a creator will take you to places and make you do things that you never thought you would ever experience like imagine being a underwater photographer/videographer and you are swimming side by side with sea turtles or maybe even a whale?! That is something definitely on my bucket list and that I hope I can do sometime in my career.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.santamariaproductions.net
• Instagram: @throughtanyaslense @santamaria__productions @santamaria___boutique
• Facebook: Santamaria Productions
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj0T8UcDIPXw2-HsnqRXRMA
• Other: My business contact info – (210) 585-7392 Email – [email protected]