Today we’d like to introduce you to Andres Guillen.
Andres, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As a son of two immigrant entrepreneurial parents, I have always strived to be financially independent with my own business. Thanks to my education, and my experience in and passion for photography, I have been able to realize this dream while also landing the corporate job of a lifetime that allows me to pursue my art form in new ways that I wouldn’t have ever dreamt of.
I started in 2013 when I began working as a camera salesman at the Sony Store in Costa Mesa my senior year of college at CSU Fullerton. I was pretty good at it too, and I made it a point to pick professional photographer’s brains to pieces every chance I got. Thanks to this position, I was lucky enough to be given access to the latest camera equipment at a nice discount. As a broke college student, this was an insanely lucky start, as I was also able to finance my kit on really great terms. Thus starting my journey into professional photography. What a journey it has been.
Shortly after graduating in 2014, my wife (then girlfriend) and I moved to North County San Diego from Santa Ana. Being an Orange County native my whole life, I was ready for a change of scenery and my wife had found a nice, stable teaching job at a school she liked in Escondido. I effectively just dropped everything, resigned from my Digital Imaging position, and moved with no real plan on what I was going to do now that I had graduated. All I had was my camera and a determination to make that camera provide a livelihood.
As luck would have it, I found a job in my first week in La Jolla when I was shooting portraits on the beach. I began working for a local photographer, Aaron Goulding, selling his art prints and services. I learned a lot about how to run a successful photography business while helping out Aaron in his La Jolla Shop. He taught me how to sell prints, working with clients, managing overhead, and general small business insights that he confided in me. This further inspired me to work towards being a professional photographer and one day having my own business.
After about a year of working for Aaron, I started working on a corporate sales job in 2015. I had a goal of saving as much as I could to start my LLC and have the money to pursue it full time. After two years, and with the tremendous help and support of my partner, Brenda, I was finally able to quit that job and pursue photography full time, starting my LLC and launching my website.
In a lucky turn of events, in 2017, I was invited to interview for an interesting position at Sony North America’s Digital Imaging Division in Rancho Bernardo. They needed someone with knowledge of cameras and experience in photography to join the growing PRO Support team. This team would support professional photographers from all over North America. Even though I originally set out to be self-employed, I accepted the once-in-a-lifetime position where they offered me a salary, a desk at HQ in Rancho Bernardo, health care, unlimited paid time off, and the ability to work remotely if I needed.
That was what sealed the deal; I had to be able to still pursue my personal business and passion. Thanks to Sony’s flexibility I’m still able to shoot anytime I want. Having entrepreneurial parents taught me to always have more than one well to bring money in; you never know which well will dry up.
What does one do when making it? I’m still shooting portraits professionally because I love working with people, and, as Sony PRO Support representative, I like putting myself in my PRO’s shoes and shooting with our equipment first-hand. I still dream of selling fine-art landscape prints like I did for Aaron in La Jolla. I travel the Western US in my Honda Element and shooting landscapes for product ideas.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Starting a business with little to no capital, in a field that is hyper-saturated with photographers was a difficult choice. Anyone can purchase a DSLR fairly cheaply nowadays and start shooting very nice looking photos.
Leaving behind a lucrative career in sales for self-employment was also a big leap for me and my family. It’s kind of like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute when you leave the safety of a steady, and lucrative, paycheck. There are no guarantees and you have to start figuring out how you’re going to land. Sometimes, you just have to throw caution to the wind.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I run a portrait photography business, specializing in Engagement, Family, and Senior Graduate portraiture. I’m a big fan of natural light, editorial photo shoots that tell stories. I have access to flashes and strobes but am always finding myself shooting with fast primes and working on the images in post to give them a pop that’s not too processed or overly produced. Unlike most photographers that I’ve shot with, I like providing direct digital high-resolution downloads. I very much dislike high-pressure, tricky sales that force you to buy prints. After your photoshoot, I provide access to online proofs on my website that you can select for processing and downloading.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up with an extreme interest in music. I was always playing guitar, recording bands and just generally getting really geeky with everything related to music. I was able to apply what I’ve learned in music to photography.
I generally always got along with everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.andresguillenphotography.com
- Phone: 7607020118
- Email: hello@andresguillenphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andresguillenphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndresSGuillenPhotography/
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