Danielle Miranda Photography | Virtual Assistant for Photographers

Virtual Assistant

Nov 12

Why did you become a photographer?

I am obsessed with people! I love capturing the love and fun and genuine connection in your family. I also love helping women owned businesses up their social media game and get their names and faces out in the world.

Tell us your story? How you started until now?

I graduated with my master's degree in education in 2008-during the worst teacher hiring freeze ever. I decided to have babies and go into teaching in a few years instead. I was a mom of two little boys (1 and 3) and decided to buy a "nice" camera from Costco to start documenting our time together at home. A couple friends loved the pictures I took and asked me to take their kiddos' photos. I started doing portraits of kids at our playdates which morphed into a business. I officially got my business license in 2014. Since then I have become a consistently 6 figure business, photography business coach, photographer for our local Real Producers magazine where I photograph leaders in San Diego's real estate market, and "mini session queen."

Who is your ideal client?

Women!! Whether you are a senior, in the thick of motherhood, starting or thriving in business, or wanting to celebrate your body with a boudoir session. I just love working with women!

What is your WHY... what keeps you going in business? And why are you passionate about it?

I want to have something to show for all of my hard work the last decade. I am now a corporation and invest heavily for myself and my 3 sons. Your business doesn't have to just be "fun money"! We can thrive and invest and leave wealth for ourselves in retirement and for our children and their futures. I love my job because it allows me to all of that but also allows me to not miss out on sports games and vacations and time with my loved ones. We can have money and time in this industry and that is the most important thing for me.

Where do you see your business in the next few years?

Hopefully still thriving behind the lens but also growing the coaching side of my business. I absolutely love helping other photographers succeed.

Tell me about how you manage your work/life balance as a small business owner?

I never work Fridays, never work weekend mornings so I am there for activities and games, and try to work as much as possible during the day when my kids are at school. I also love booking back-to-back sessions if possible so I can knock out sessions in one location on one date so I am home as much as possible.

Shooting or editing? Which one is your fav?

Shooting always!

What do you listen to while you edit?

PODCAST

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger photographer-self, what would it be?

A yes to something is a no to something else but at the same time you do have to work your butt off at first to build something successful and sustainable.

If you could give feedback to the photography community as a whole... what is one positive thing you'd say? And one constructive criticism?

I am amazed at the level of support now vs when I started. Community and lifting each other up has become the new normal and I love that for us! One criticism might be the posts claiming "do this and you will be so successful". Success comes with hard work, consistency, and a lot of lessons learned along the way. There is no "one thing" trick to success.

If you had no obstacles (fear, money, mindset etc) - what would you do next?

I would go way harder on coaching and cut down on shooting way more. Mama's gotta make money though so shooting shooting shooting is still a necessity for now!