Meet Dianna Navarrete | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dianna Navarrete and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dianna, what principle do you value most?
Never give up, if you mess up it’s okay just get back up and try again. When I first started taking pictures I didn’t understand anything about ISO, Aperture, or anything like that. I always shot in automated setting and was scared to shoot on Manual, but I started watching YouTube videos on it and eventually switched over to manual. I would ask my family and friends if I could take their pictures for free and that’s how I started off. I made many of mistakes with my settings in the beginning, and i still do sometimes. After 3-4 years of taking pictures for free I decided to start my own business and start charging people. I had the experience but I didn’t have the confidence. Little by little I built up my portfolio. I started off with senior pictures and then family pictures. And every time someone would ask me if I could take pictures of something even if I had never done it before I would say yes and act like I knew what I was doing. And by taking that step I gained my experience and I didn’t let fear get in the way. Even now I just shot my first wedding and I was scared but I went out there tried my best. Mistakes where made but I played it off, nothing that can’t be fixed with a little bit of editing. And I’ll do it again until I learn how to do it better. But definitely never give up because no one does it right the first time. You just got to go out there and learn while you’re doing it. And if you know other people that do photography ask them questions and learn off of them. They’re lots of help, just don’t give up 🙂

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Taking pictures doesn’t even feel like a job to me, I genuinely enjoy every single part of it. Whether it’s talking to a client, taking the pictures or editing. It’s definitely a lot of work, but when you see the finished result it’s all just worth it. It was definitely not easy to choose this as a career and it’s still not easy now. I can’t wait to be a full time photographer and not have to rely on another job. I’ve grown a lot from the beginning but I still got more growing to do. Something I’ve learned is go above and beyond for your clients. If you go out of your way for them they’ll hire you again. There’s no better feeling than having a returning client. That lets you know that they liked you or your work so much the first time that they decided to come back again.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my friend came to visit I’d take them to the beach or to see a movie. We’re definitely going to go out to eat a lot because I love food or we can cook. I’d probably ask them what they’d like to do as well. But for the most part I’m a homebody so maybe we can play some cards or a board game.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Theres definitely a lot of people I could give thanks to first of ima give thanks to God for giving me this passion and allowing me to grow it. Secondly my parents for buying me my first camera and encouraging me. My close friends for allowing me to practice my photography on them, and my friend Kaysa who is a profesional photographer she’s awesome and every time I have a question about photography she always has an answer for me, she’s definitely helped me and taught me a lot.

Website: www.divinephotography.org

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Image Credits
Divine Photography