Today we’d like to introduce you to Gina Medina.
Hi Gina, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
-By being raised by Jorge and JoAnn Águilar Medina. Lol but like every photographer in the world, my story starts with an over obsession of moments and craving to capture every single one. Always always always with a camera in one hand, and a latte in the other. All through high school and every second after I was documenting as much as I possibly could like I was scared of losing time…Which I guess we all are.
In 2017, I was still working in Aviation and we were traveling everywhere and there was most definitely an overabundance of time to try and freeze. I picked up my camera again as a business because there was just so much in me that needed to creatively come out. I was learning again and finding my niche… trying to figure out how I was going to try to please whatever audience would come my way… but then it was 2021 and the entire world had changed…my entire world had changed… and it was then that I made sure that I was the only one I would ever try to please…
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
-With my life or my photography? Lol. For us creatives, it’s all the same really… the main struggle I’ve had to endure is my mind and how to set myself free from minuscule rhetoric like comparison or inadequacy …this art and what it can do to reignite passion and fervor into your bones, into every cell in your body is what I want to be able to bring to life for others…not everybody is for you, and that’s something life is continuously teaching me. In regards to my personal life, my miracle baby is who set me free, but he’s also the reason why I’d become so afraid of so much…the not knowing, the not being able to protect him from absolutely everything in the world… I think any mommy/parent, whether stay at home or working, single or married will tell you the same… everything I think/do, is for him/them (went through IVF and have one son here cuddled with me and four babies waiting for mommy)… I am so incredibly blessed with the hearts i have surrounding me that I now allow myself to feel everything fully and then try to truly release it to keep from drowning in those fears while simultaneously capturing moments for people because of how extremely precious and fleeting it all is, and how giving them moments they may have missed helps me cope, love and breathe…
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
-Well to put simply, people pay me to take pictures of them with people they love, whether that be with themselves or their families. I’m a little ok at it sometimes… I’m the blurry, messy, live your love out loud, laugh awkwardly and don’t look at me kind of photographer. I edit darker and moodier and with as much grain as i feel like using because that’s just how I’m built. I give with my entire heart and I feel incredibly too much, but I’m proud of the work I do and grateful for clients who turn into community, and some even family because of it.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
-Well lol as i mentioned earlier, 2021 came and shook and shattered and changed the world… I had been put into a position where all my bunnies had to be put into the same hat (is that how that saying goes? lol) So I’d say because of that, I take risks quite a bit having solely this passion be what takes care of me and my babies. My parents, siblings, and those friends who are, in real life, more family than anything are the Avengers of my story (remember that scene at the end of End Game? Yeah. That’s them in formation. Every single day)… they are the reason I’m able to do what I love, and to not be able to have photography in my life the way I need it to be? Oh yeah no, my heart would crumble just as fast as Thanos snapped his chunky chubby fingers.
Pricing:
•15 minute mini session with 10 edits = $125
•20 minute mini session with 15 edits = 150
•30 minute full session with 20 edits = $250
•1 hour full session with 50 edits = $350
Contact Info:
•Email: gmariephotography@yahoo.com
•Instagram: instagram.com/
•Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Image Credits
JoAnn Marie Photography (main photo)
