Today we’d like to introduce you to Sergio Vaz Lopes.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sergio. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I began traveling in 2011 and decided an important addition to my carry on was a fancy camera. With each exciting adventure, I discovered new depths of my love for seeing the world through a lens. It allowed me to see the beauty of the world with new eyes. Then my adventures expanded to include a wife and children, which meant so too did my carry on. Not just strollers and diaper bags… but new lenses, filters, lights. I jumped head first into photography and the gift of being able to record not just the world around me, but capture a cheeky glance or sneaky smile from my loved ones.
This passion soon expanded to include a wider circle as others began seeking me out to photograph their adventures. A lark that started as a hobby began a passion, and now has bloomed into calling. My portfolio reflects the shifting stages of my life. My earliest pictures are of exotic butterflies on leaves, and scenic foreign landscapes, as my family grew my style shifted to focus on people, I became engrossed in photographing my family, my children.
Then as people sought out my services, it prompted me to actively reflect on the direction I wanted my photography to head. It felt natural to blend my experience in the corporate world with my love of photography, which spawned my most recent incarnation as a photographer: a professional headshot and portrait photographer.
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?
No road is truly smooth upon examination. This pursuit may seem that it is, as it grew organically from an interest and passion. Yet the challenges of the skills and equipment represent a constant learning curve. The challenges of identifying a style and approach that I can make my own… those are challenges I struggle to refine and define every day.
Really it is the challenge encountered in other aspects of my life that created the space for photography. At a time when I was faced with defining myself professionally, and tasked with forging a path forward in my career, I faced struggle after struggle and obstacle after obstacle as I worked to integrate myself into a new country, a new business network, a new community. This challenge created the room that allowed me to develop my photography into more than a hobby.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Sergio Vaz Lopes photography provides photography services in a variety of spheres including family portraiture, and special event coverage. But what I specialize in is corporate portraits and headshots. I am really proud that my corporate background has provided me with the tools to help clients capture the look to match their corporate advancement goals. I can encourage them to speak about their aspirations and communicate in the same business language to ensure they are heard and their needs met.
A background in sales and operational management means translating people skills into putting subjects at ease in the photography environment, operational expertise into professionalism and timeliness of my work. I am very proud of how quickly this business has grown and the trust that it has created with my network and client base. As a relatively young photography business, only a year into its operation in the United States repeat business is such a testament to the good work being done, and the relationships forged.
What were you like growing up?
One of the first questions I am asked is: “How is your English so good?” The answer to this speaks in many ways to the question of my childhood. I grew up in a small town in Portugal about half way between the two largest economic hubs in the country, Porto and Lisbon. The cobbled streets were frequented by roving bands of soccer playing youths after school. I was not one of them. My mother was a teacher, and my father worked away from home for weeks at a time on large vessels in exotic foreign locales.
This made them particularly attune to economic needs of their children in an ever-broadening world. So as those other boys were playing games in the street I was attending classes in English after school, with a lovely English instructor who complained that I did not share his English accent as I was watching too much American television instead of British. This after-school commitment immediately set me apart in a small town, it made me different.
At the time I longed to play in the streets in the other kids. But already being different meant I was able to keep being different. I played basketball and lifted weights, but I also took photography and would be found hunched over in dark rooms developing film. I chafed against the restrictions of a small town, so when it came time for University I went as far as my incredibly loving parents would allow me to roam. Porto. I reinvented myself, became a social butterfly, dedicated myself to socializing and studies.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vazlopesphotography.com
- Phone: 832 802 9373
- Email: sergio@rooksview.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vazlopesphoto/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sergio-Vaz-Lopes-Photography-1435778826477675/info
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/vazlopesphoto
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