Today we’d like to introduce you to Maraelia Romine.
Hi Maraelia, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was originally born and raised in Sitka, Alaska. If you’ve never heard of it, I highly recommend to go watch ‘The Proposal’ with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock, lol! Anyways — the town of Sitka is located on a little sliver of an island in Alaska; this means seclusion.
The only way to get away was to pay for an expensive plane flight out or hop on a ferry boat and sleep over night (or many) just to be anywhere other than Sitka.
Sitka is absolutely amazing, gorgeous, and is home to the sweetest people and community.
However, it’s still a small town and, with that, still comes the quintessential small town problems; i.e. everyone knowing your business, not being able to even go to the grocery store without running into someone you know, and especially getting island fever and feeling secluded from the rest of world.
So once the end of high school was creeping up, I knew I was planning on going to a college out of state. This was quite normal for most college-bound kids in Alaska, our parents mostly knew it was just a part of living in a place so far away from everything else, so they mostly expected their babies to leave and fly far away from the nest.
As most would agree, Alaska is known for just a few things: being the last frontier, igloos and polar bears, oil, and our booming fishing industry.
Sitka is a full-blown fishing town. Although my dad was, and still is, a fisherman, my brother and I both weren’t as apart of the outdoorsy community as most kids were in the town, and therefore, didn’t relate as much to the other students around us.
So I didn’t always feel that I quite fit in with everyone around me. Luckily my parents did have us join sports early on in life so we had plenty of friends but I still didn’t always feel in the right place for me — so college was my getaway.
I decided I wanted to move somewhere where I could be who I am and not worry about trying to fit into a community that just doesn’t feel right for me; so where does that take me? Southern California!
Originally I just thought about how great it would be to live near the beach and be able to bask in the sun (not doable much back home) so I was looking for basically everything I couldn’t do in Sitka.
I found a school around 30 minutes from the beach that was a apart of the WUE program (discounted tuition for students in the western states of the US) and almost immediately committed once I received my acceptance letter.
Thus, my move to San Marcos, California began.
I was too afraid to try out a school like SDSU where there were around 35k undergraduate students when I was coming from a town of only 8k people on an island! So California State University; San Marcos was my top choice, with only 13k undergraduates at the time.
I was even so ready to get out of town that I stayed with a stranger (she was set up to be one of my roommates) so that I could go to the very last orientation weekend. About 10 years later, Melissa is still one of my greatest friends to this day. Her and her amazing mom allowed myself, an absolute stranger, into their home with just a weeks notice ahead of time and wanting nothing in return — you can see how I’m so lucky to have her in my life!
Melissa and her sweet mom lived in Orange County at the time and my mom and I were quite unaware of the airports around, driving distances, etc. so I flew into the San Diego airport rather than Orange County, and because I was way too scared to take any sort of public transportation, my very kind mom was willing to splurge and get me a private car all the way from the San Diego airport up to Orange County, around 2 hours or so, in the middle of the night, and arrive to Melissa’s around 2am!
We woke up the next morning, and drove off to orientation around an hour away. From then, I immediately knew this is where I was meant to move to.
After getting back to Melissa’s house, I handed over the freshly frozen Alaskan salmon and halibut as a thank you for letting me stay with them (thanks for sending them with me mom)!
One memorable moment I laugh at looking back on is being on the freeway, driving back from orientation and not knowing that it is not normal to have your windows down on the freeway! All I knew is that I wanted to enjoy the sunset and feel the warm California breeze on my skin.
Well, I had the helicopter noises going for at least a good ten to fifteen minutes before I felt bad thinking it was probably annoying to Melissa and her friend; now I know that’s what AC is for!
San Diego has since been my home and I have never regretted it, ten years later.
During college, I found photography through a good friend of mine at the time.
His best friend was an outdoor and adventure photographer with photos of places I couldn’t even imagine that opened my eyes to how much beauty is really in this world we live in.
Instagram was just taking off and there was much less popularity around the gorgeous outdoors on the internet versus now.
So, I saved up, working at Which Wich Sandwich Shop in Carlsbad at the forum and finally was able to buy my own brand new beginners camera, the Canon Rebel T3.
From there, my passion for life bloomed and photography has taken me to places I never thought I’d be and interested in things I never knew would be apart of my life.
I feel so extremely fortunate to be able to capture life and people enjoying their lives, as my career.
I started out in outdoor and landscape photography, and still dream to make this my full time career — but I had found the space of wedding photography which then my hopeless romantic self, couldn’t turn away from the opportunity of being able to earn a living while capturing peoples’ love for each other and their family and friends celebrating them!
There has been countless ups and downs throughout this ten year journey to get to this point, but I wouldn’t change any of it.
I’m starting to really understand the saying: “if you love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life.”
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
A bumpy road would be an understatement! Moving to a place without family was hard in and of itself, but also going to a commuter school certainly didn’t make things any easier.
This meaning, most students lived in the area and already had their local friends and groups and lives and were not interested in befriending anyone new.
Keeping a healthy mental space has been the hardest hurdle throughout these ten years. I was trying to make friends, have a social life, while still trying to go to work and college at the same time.
There came a point where I could no longer afford school and decided to try to pursue my photography passion outside of college.
This was a hit to the ego, feeling unsuccessful without a degree in my hand. Thinking people/businesses may find me and my work unworthy without one.
Staying up until 3am, editing and watching YouTube videos and scrounging money to pay for courses to learn more and more to prove to myself that I can do this, without the “proper credentials.” Doing countless photoshoots for free just for the practice, spending time without earning a thing.
Feeling imposter syndrome with comparing my work to the numerous amounts of photographers in the industry and in San Diego.
The bumps in the road seemed to never end!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I believe that my heart sets me apart from the rest. I believe that truly feeling the feelings of others on their wedding days is a superpower. Because of this, I am able to do my job of documenting their feelings with (somewhat of) ease.
My wedding photography style is more on the ‘documentary’ style, where there are less poses and I just capture your day and feelings with how they unfold naturally.
I also strive more towards a film-inspired look and am recently starting to offer real film photos and packages as well.
I am so proud of this style because I believe that you can feel the emotions just by looking at the photos.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Love this question, thanks for asking this!
I am most reachable through my Instagram profile: @miaadoraphoto
My website is currently being updated but will be back up and running under www.miaadoraphoto.com
Prices per shoot and wedding packages will all be available through reaching out via DM on Instagram or feel free to email me at miaadoraphoto@gmail.com with what type of photoshoot or hours of wedding coverage you are looking for!
I am absolutely happy to collaborate with brands who are looking to step into the wedding industry with no-charge! I love to collaborate like this because if no one took a chance on me, I would’ve never gotten the chance to be in the industry myself, so I ensure to try to pay it forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.miaadoraphoto.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/miaadoraphoto
Image Credits
Mia Adora Photo LLC
