Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Dinse.
Hi Sarah, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Well, as you’ve chosen me to explain, buckle up because I always have an excess to say.
Middle school is probably where I first found my spark. I had an old point and shoot and would run out on to my street to take photos of the sunset, the road in the rain, and really anything around me I found beautiful. I grew up an only child without the best home life, so I found a lot of comfort in the positive relationships I found with my surroundings.
When I got to high school I took my first actual photography course. I took it as many times as I could and in my second year, I got to shoot in a studio for the first time. I was so drawn to high contrast black and white portraits and as much as I loved it, I never thought I would take it farther than a hobby. Everyone knew you couldn’t make any money that way.
Throughout that class at Mission Vista High School in Oceanside, I had a teacher who I will never forget. His name is William Salley. Mr. Salley spoke softly and didn’t have to say a lot to leave the largest impact. He would end every semester of photography with the same video to send us off. That video was a clip of a lecture by Alan Watts called “If Money Were No Object.” I watched it four or five times, graduated, and left it behind to figure out what I would do for a career.
After a lot of trial and error and a bit of personal turmoil throughout my college era, I had a day sitting in bed when I couldn’t stop thinking about that video. I had no idea what direction to go down, and knew only that you had to find something that interested you and follow it. I went to my third college in a year and a half, and changed my major to photography.
Once I realized that it wasn’t exactly “easy” to work full time and go to school full time, something had to give. At this point I had accepted that I was pretty good at this and that I could not afford to keep running myself into the ground going to school full time for an art I could learn on YouTube University. I dropped out and started emailing as many people as I could.
I emailed so many photographers. I was convinced if I could find someone to shadow, or teach me more, I could do it. Eventually I did, and when I didn’t get a job with her, I asked what for helpful feedback highlighting how to improve moving forward. She told me I needed to go back to school. I proceeded to exchange every day I would have gone to class for sitting on my laptop learning photoshop tutorials, growing my craft, and getting better. It was purely out of spite.
I took photos of my best friends in my tiny San Diego apartment with a lamp from my kitchen and a black yoga mat as a backdrop. I moved into a new house with the most beautiful big windows and used the extra space for a cheap studio set I got online. I didn’t even own my own camera. I borrowed them from beloved friends who I am endlessly grateful for. I tried new things, some worked, some didn’t. I got payed to take peoples portraits in my garage, and eventually made enough to buy my own camera. I bought a Sony A7rii because I shot in a dingy garage and heard it was the best for lowlight. Sounded good to me.
This was a tough time to be a portrait photographer because this was in 2020. I was trying to take photos of people who were so sad and so isolated in a garage in my home in the Oceanside suburbs. I started to feel so burnt out and wildly drained and knew the way I was doing this wouldn’t hold up.
At the end of that year I moved back to San Diego. Moving back to the city was my push to eventually stop working in north county and get a new job. I had been working as a barista for a good amount of years at that point and needed work fast so I applied to every shop in the city and got an interview on the spot at a shop in North Park called Holsem Coffee. As I walked up to drop off my resume, I noticed it was right next to a music venue I had been to many times. I remember getting in the car and saying, “if I get this job, maybe I could try shooting a show. I mean that’s The Observatory so not there but like.. maybe I’ll meet someone and I could try it.”
When I started at Holsem in late 2021, I immediately got extremely close with one of my coworkers. He was a musician conveniently enough. He had been kind enough to open up some of his world to me where I met his best friend who was also a musician (I’ve learned they travel in packs). After a drink and a cigarette some time later, they decided they liked me enough to bring me to a show. His best friend, and maybe the best bassist I’ve ever met, told me his band had a show coming up and if I wanted to try shooting live music I was more than welcome. I honestly didn’t think much of the remark after a few beers on a good night, but a few weeks later I got a call. They asked me where I was and said they’re at the Holding Company in Ocean Beach, going on in an hour, with a ticket waiting for me. I grabbed my camera and went out the door.
That was one of the best nights of my career. I had never photographed people with so much genuine joy. I tell people I love shooting shows because concerts are one of the only places with that much love in the room. You’re there because you love the music, or you love the person next to you, or you love something about something that has gotten you to that place at that time. There’s a Raymond Carver quote that says it best, even though it may not be the exact same picture.
“I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.”
I fell in love with shooting live music because it shows us the heartbeat. It’s capturing a fraction of a second and making it feel as big as an artists journey, a song that’s given someone a seed of hope, a presence in a moment that is nearly impossible to make last.
I started going to small venues and shooting for the musicians I met in exchange for nothing but my time because of how much I loved it. Once I started getting better and my portfolio started getting bigger. I knew the next step was to try and expand.
I started applying to bigger shows for more well known artists at bigger venues under no publication. After a lot of rejections, I finally got a “yes” to shoot Peach Pit when they performed at SOMA in December of 2022. One show led to another and I began applying to work for media outlets and publications to improve my chances at shooting bigger shows and expand my portfolio.
Before I got to be apart of a publication team, something happened that I never could have expected. In May of 2023, I was reached out to by Jesse James, the long time house photographer for The Observatory. He had gotten my name from a customer at the coffee shop I was working at and needed a photographer to work for the venue that night in his place. To this day I am honored that I get to sub in occasionally to shoot for their house team.
A few months later, my first publication I got to work with was Janky Smooth. I started shooting and writing reviews for them for a bit, but seeing as they were based in LA, keeping up with it was difficult. After that I got the opportunity to be apart of a newer publication started by Lily Ordunez in 2022 called “Local Gems CA”. I was so in love with her style, what she represented, and the brand that she made. Being a part of a publication that was created by an amazing badass women was exactly what I wanted to contribute to and I’ve been doing their San Diego coverage ever since.
Working with Local Gems CA and Janky Smooth has led me to cover artists like Chappell Roan, The Garden, Yves Tumor, Dominic Fike, Remi Wolf, T-Pain, COBRAH, Maggie Rodgers, and so many others. I still am expanding, covering shows I feel passionately about with hopes to tour, get a full time house photographer position, and add to many creative teams. But in 2025, I am focusing more on becoming more well rounded and sharing my portraits and other types of photography as well.
All that being said, the thing I want to highlight in my story is the same thing I have to remind myself constantly. Dreams take time. This culmination of big moments does not happen over night. It happens between large periods of self doubt on a random Tuesday. It happens after a night you don’t remember from how insignificant it felt to meet a few new people and put yourself out there. It happens when you want to quit, want to reprioritize, want to give up.
The dreams that felt so big to me when I was 12 became tangible and led to even bigger ones. And as beautiful as that is, none of that would have happened had I not kept going when I failed. My story is really about never giving up hope, no matter how silly it feels, and making sure you surround yourself with people who will push you to continue, especially when you feel you can’t. Cherish your community and learn from everyone you meet. We all have stories of our own, and coming together in them is what matters most.
For that, my journey wouldn’t be complete without expressing my gratitude to those people in it. Thank you to Jonah Nillson, my coworker turned my friend turned my partner and love. Thank you for opening your world for me to fall in love with, and for loving me within it. Thank you to Bill Santana, who truly is the best bassist I know, for your love of music and seeing the potential in me from the very beginning. Thank you to all of The Band Cope. You are my favorite band in San Diego and growing as artists with each other is a privilege. Thank you to Jesse James for inspiring me with your talent and giving me a chance. Thank you to my best friend Ravyn Bowen who has taught me everything I know about love and how to feel it. Thank you to William Salley for teaching me the best way to live is by following your heart. And most importantly, thank you to Lydia Budny for teaching me the power of my own persistence, gifting me my drive and being my number one fan until your last breathe. I wouldn’t be here without you.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
On the surface, the struggle is money. It’s always been money, it will always be money.
I don’t have the means to new gear most of the time, and while I can still make great art regardless, it can be limiting.
Freelancing is so so tough and puts the love of your art into jeopardy when you monetize it.
That being said, the heart of that struggle has been reshaping my definition of “success” to not be entirely financially rooted.
That leads into the other issue which has been myself. More so, my inner voice. Often as artists, we are our harshest critic. I have had to battle myself for years to define and constantly reshape what satisfaction looks like as an artist, especially in a world where photography has become so accessible. Social media platforms and the internet are amazing for expanding the network of people who interact with my work, but it does lead down roads centered in constant artistic comparison, judgement, and setting importance and expectation of happiness on false markers like views and interactions. It takes the personal relationship away from the art and can create a deep sense of superficiality and loneliness.
Although that’s been a hurdle, it has forced me to focus on what it is I really want from creating. After a lot of introspection, I came to the realization my deepest desire was to use my skill to make an impact.
The next step was to determine how I want to leave that mark. As much as I long to tour, to work interpersonally with artists or be apart of a team, I concluded that the best way for me to do that is to teach.
My long term goal now is to become a high school photography teacher for the opportunity to provide a space to teens and youth to believe in themselves and follow their artistic pursuits in the same way I had someone provide that space for me that changed my life. I aspire to open my own studio one day that offers classes working with local LGBTQ+ centers and students from low income families to make photography accessible and show younger generations that you don’t have to have a lot of money to make beautiful creations and how valuable artistic expression is.
All that being said, I am so grateful for my struggles because they have given me the most important periods of reflection and understanding of the way I want to leave my legacy.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a photographer who specializes in photographing the music industry. My background comes from creative portraiture and has become a signature focus in my work in live music. I shoot every show like a portrait session, trying to capture the energy of the artist, the event, and their brand.
I am very flexible aesthetically but my strength lies in energetics. I am consistent in showing the heart and emotion of my subject but also a window to myself and how I show up in that moment. My style is showcasing transparency.
I have been complimented on my ability to photograph women, and our queer community and it has absolutely become what I am most proud of. I look through my own personal lens for someone’s inner individuality and capture what makes them who they are. As a queer women in a male dominated industry, I pride myself on my ability to photograph other people in ways that shows their strength, their command, and resilience throughout any aesthetic. I create a safe space for people to feel comfortable, beautiful, and truly seen. Shooting with photographers can be extremely intimidating and knowing I can make people feel confident in their skin and seen in a way they are proud of is something I do not take for granted.
How do you think about luck?
The way I am answering this question at this point in my growth as both an artist and person is much different than it would have been a year ago.
My temptation is to say so much of my journey has been luck and being in the right place at the right time and getting blessed with opportunities, but I think that’s simply untrue.
To credit my progress in my journey to luck is to diminish the true reason I have been able to create my platform. I am here because of my drive, talent, and willingness to adjust for my goals and desires. I consider myself very blessed and lucky to have been able to make the connections I have, continue my artistic journey in the way I have, and been given the opportunity to connect with such monumentally impressive artists and creatives. However, those things have happened because I have made the active choice to put myself in fulfilling environments. Environments that struck me as rich of opportunity and that would ignite my creative spark.
I have become better through hard work and willingness to learn. The work I’m discussing has not come from necessarily looking up how to improve or proper technique, but the work I’ve done to connect and experience. I’ve pushed myself to always say “yes” to opportunities. To be present in those opportunities with an open heart. To allow myself space to try and fail and try again and not limit the ideas and capacity to capture a feeling that naturally flows through me.
If I am in a place or around people that don’t make me feel alive, I leave. If I do not feel inspired I find new beauty in what I can. If I want something bad enough, I do everything with in my control to get it, and accept when I do not, that I need to take new perspective.
What I will say is I am lucky to have love. I am lucky to have met such wonderful musicians who welcomed me into a new space with open arms. I am lucky to have a life partner that reminds me I can do anything. And I am lucky to be in a wonderful relationship with someone who believes in me even on the days I am filled with doubt. But also, I have that love because that is what I give to the world and in turn get to receive back.
So as far as luck goes, it is irrelevant. No matter what direction I was taken, I would make something beautiful of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sarahdinse.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah_dinse/
Image Credits
Studio shot and main photo of me both taken by @neno_captures
He is very wonderful and am very thankful for his time, talent, and friendship.
