Today we’d like to introduce you to Luciano Revera.
Hi Luciano, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hi there!!! Thank you for having me here. I’m Luciano Revera, a Wedding, Maternity, Family, and Portrait Photographer based in San Diego. I grew up in Brazil but have been living here in San Diego since 1996. I love San Diego!!! I am married to Priscila Sarmento, owner of “thesweetcravings.com,” and have two kids. I have always loved photography, but it wasn’t until 2014 that I started to work in photography professionally. Prior to that, I worked as a Project Director in a marketing research company in Eastlake and owned different kinds of businesses in Brazil. In 2002, a co-worker at the marketing research company bought a digital camera and asked me if I could keep it for the weekend to learn how to use it and then teach him. I have always been a little geeky and had my way with computers and electronics in general, so I was used to requests like that. Back then, cameras used film, and you would need to have it developed before you could see the pictures you took. My friends and I decided to go to Big Bear that weekend, and I took the digital camera to check it out. When I pressed the shutter and could immediately see the picture in the camera’s LCD screen, I was in extasy!!! I went ahead and bought myself a digital camera on the following week and started to study photography. Back then, professional digital cameras, DSLRs, were very expensive and not as good as the film SLRs, so I was learning the concepts but could not apply them because my camera was not professional (it was a point-and-shoot). When I was able to buy my first DSLR, it was very easy to apply the concepts I had studied. By that time, YouTube was becoming very popular, and I was consuming everything I could about photography. It was then that I came across a video by Joe Bussink, a Legendary Wedding Photographer based in Venice Beach who photographed a lot of the Beverly Hills weddings, including Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, etc. In this video, he told his story, and it touched me deeply. I instantly fell in love with the possibility of becoming part of people’s lives by creating the memories of their most important day. I still feel honored and privileged to be able to freeze these moments in time and create these memories that are going to be cherished forever. That’s the gist of it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For me, the greatest challenge of being a wedding photographer is definitely the time you spend away from your family. Weddings typically take place on weekends. So, when every “normal” family is having fun on the weekends, I am usually working. I had to set some boundaries, and now I only take a handful of weddings each year, so I can spend time with my family. Another very common complaint among wedding photographers is the nightmare known as “Bridezillas,” that is, brides who are rude to their vendors. I have to be honest; I feel privileged to have had zero “bridezillas” encounters. ALL the brides I worked with were very nice, and I loved the experience of working with them and their families.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
Well, as I said, I am a wedding, maternity, family, and portrait photographer. I’ve been doing it professionally since 2014. I love what I do. I believe not many people can affirm: I love my job! So, I think I am very privileged in that regard. When I am photographing, my main concern is to make my subjects feel at easy and relaxed to enjoin the session. If they feel awkward during the process, then the photos will show it, and I will have failed. Based on my photos and the feedback from my clients, I believe I have been doing a good job so far. My business philosophy is centered on people. I am a people person. I like to genuinely find out about people’s passions, and desires and have meaningful conversations during our sessions. I like to focus on the good. I am a firm believer in the law of attraction, and I know for a fact that where your focus goes, it grows. If you focus on the good, good comes back. If you focus on the bad, bad comes back. That’s why so many photographers complaint about their clients. I believe the problem relies on the photographer’s view of the world. They focus on negativity and thus, have a negative experience with their clients. And that goes for any profession. Any situation really. One thing I do differently than the great majority of my competition is that I offer prints. In any type of session and any package my clients choose, they will get prints from me. This is something I started doing about two years ago. I realized, based on extensive research, that now that technology makes things pretty easy to access, photos are becoming something very trivial. Everybody has the tool of my trade in their pockets. The current smartphone’s cameras are pretty good, so people have a tendency to think that photography is not that important. However, the importance did not change. What changed was people’s perception. Take for instance, the best tennis player in the world. If you give everybody a racket and a tennis ball and they carry it along all the time, will this make them professional tennis players? Of course not! But somehow, with photography, that is the feeling. The sad truth though, is that PPA (Professional Photographers of America), an association that I am part of, conducted a survey among past brides about their regrets regarding their wedding, and the number one regret was not to have invested in a better photographer to document their most important day. If you think about it, all vendors are very important for the bride; however, at the end of the day, after the flowers wither, the cake is cut, and the day is over, the ONLY thing left for the rest of their lives are the photos. And if you take the photos on a flash drive, more than likely, it will end up in a drawer, and you will rarely see these photos. On the other hand, if you have an album or even individual prints, you will adorn your home with the memories of your moments, and you will be looking constantly at what really matters in life: your marriage, your significant other, your family, the way you were when you were expecting your baby, etc. So, having your memories printed is a must for a meaningful return on investment.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
My favorite childhood memory is when I went to summer camp with my school when I was in seventh grade. It was very nice to be with my friends for a whole week in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by Nature, enjoying all the activities the place offered. It was really fun!!!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.reveraphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reveraphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reveraphotography/
Image Credits
Revera Photography
