Today we’d like to introduce you to Daina Buchner.
Daina, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was drawn to the underwater world from a young age. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from time spent on White Lake in Michigan, where my family would spend long weekends in the summer. And I have always been obsessed with sunsets.
I started out by chasing sunsets whenever I could. Then one trip I borrowed a co-worker’s GoPro for a trip to Dominica, and I started seeing the possibilities with underwater photography. Fast forward to today I now spend a lot of my free time in the ocean here in San Diego snapping photos of my favorite local shell-ebrities 😉
Many of my trips are focused around outdoor and water activities so I haul all my camera gear with me across the world, sacrificing clothing space for camera gear to make sure I am able to travel carry-on only.
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?
It’s been a bit of a wild ride for me. I was determined to become the next big travel blogger, but as it turns out that’s actually a bit of saturated and highly competitive landscape. As I am juggling this with a pretty demanding full-time office job that I enjoy, my heart wasn’t in it the way it needed to be. For a while, I was pretty overwhelmed about not finding the joy in my creative work. I needed to take a step back to re-evaluate what my ‘Why’ is, and the more I thought about it the more I realized that my passion for the ocean and outdoors far outweighs my passion for travel.
I struggled with this shift in mentality for a while, thinking that if I changed the course, I’d be somewhat of a failure. But the more I venture down this path the more I realize that changing course is OK.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Headed Anywhere story. Tell us more about the business.
Since I specialize in underwater and adventure photography I want to share my passion for the ocean and outdoors with other people. I’m most known for my underwater and landscape (typically sunset) work. Oh, and I LOVE turtles. One might call me the OG ‘I love turtles’ kid.
My photography is a tool I use to spark the soul and seek adventure within our natural environments. My ultimate goals are to help people create a sense of wonder for our oceans and wilderness. I want to create a connection so strong that it leaves people driven to be outdoors and to protect our beautiful world. Creating stewards of nature while improving the quality of life. Being in nature and even seeing images of nature is scientifically proven to improve one’s health so there’s that, too 🙂 I’m a bit of a data nerd so love to share tidbits and factoids like that with anyone that is willing to hear it.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’m not sure if luck has had much of a role, but I will say that sometimes I feel like I made the right choice at the right time and connected with the right people to help me improve my craft and gain confidence in my skills. Things felt like they started falling into place for me in the last few months. I hope that streak keeps going.
Contact Info:
- Website: prints.headedanywhere.com
- Email: contact@headedanywhere.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/headedanywhere/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/headedanywhere
- Other: www.headedanywhere.com
Image Credit:
Daina Buchner
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