So Daniel Grove, go ahead and tell me about your vision.
So my vision as a photographer is to create unique images that are different than the typical you see out there.
I like to create very personalized experience for my customers. So I get to know them, I get to find out what they expect, what they're hoping for.
And I try to one up that, you know, I give them what they want. But sometimes I give them things they didn't know were possible or didn't expect.
And so I like to give my clients a great experience and meet their needs, but also put a unique spin on it.
And, you know, I want to provide for my family with the skills that I have. That's another part of my vision is to turn my skill set into a full career that also branches out into other things, which it already has begun doing that.
So yeah, that's kind of my, in a nutshell, that's my vision.
I love that. And how many kids do you have? Do you have family or dogs or cats or whatever else?
I only, I only have five kids.
Okay, very good. Only five? Hey, you've only got me to be by one. So I'm catching you. We're like the modern 20 kid family.
Yeah, equivalent freaks.
Awesome. So, you know, you mentioned this unique experience. I'm curious to know, you know, one, can we get some shots of the portfolio of what types of unique experiences you're talking about?
And two, where did the vision come from? Because it would be easy to do headshots just like everybody else, you know, or just kind of keep the status quo. So what drove you to, to change it up a little bit and make it different?
So this approach came from me being a creative person before photography. So I am 35. Yeah, 35. You know, after 25, you start forgetting what age you are.
So yeah, I'm 35.
Yeah, no, I've got you beat by one year on that. So you got me beat by one kid, I got you beat by one year.
So I've always been a creative individual. My whole family is very blessed with creativity. My two older brothers and I, we're all drawing like nerds. We do always drawing Legos just and then I got into 3D graphics, which led to Photoshop, which then led to image manipulation.
And so around middle school, I was tinkering around with Photoshop, composite editing and special effects and even 3D graphics too, which is way ahead of my time. And so that that was like the foundation for what would come later, which is in high school, I discovered photography.
And the camera to me was like this new awesome art and pencil and paper. It was a new art medium that I could create imagery on. And, you know, I didn't even think of myself as a photographer, I was taking pictures that I so that I could edit those in Photoshop and do cool stuff with them.
And that's sort of where it started. But then fast forward about 10 years, I'm pretty deep into portraiture. I discovered, I love portraits. I love people, I love their stories and their unique beauty. And I can capture that with photography, you know, among other art forms. Photography for me was the easiest and most immediate, you know, instead of sitting in painting for an hour, it's like take a picture and it's done mostly. It was quick and it was immediate gratification. But I discovered portraiture. And then I think it was around 2014, my best friend, I think it was around 2014, I was in the
And the first rib 4, I was in early answer of both. I was always trying to follow my word, so like I said, I found, I found my face, and I was are you gonna forget your skin, not gonna say that again. I found my face face to dem ne
the most immediate, you know, instead of sitting and painting
for an hour, it's like, take a picture and it's done mostly. It
was quick and it was immediate gratification. But I discovered
portraiture. And then I think it was around 2014, my best friend
and I, he he said, Hey, let's go to Comic Con. Let's do pictures
at Comic Con. I was like, I never been to one. I never I
don't even know what that is. Like I'm a nerd. I love all
things actually changed out of my Star Wars shirt just to be a
little more professional. But I love Star Wars. I have four
lightsabers. I know way too much about Lord of the Rings. I'm a
huge geek through and through. So there's that. But that
crossroads met with my photography and around 2014 2015
when I started doing cosplay photo shoots, and I loved it was
so fun. And every cosplay, by the way, cosplay stands for
costume play, generally is for adults as well, where they're
dressing them as a character from a book, movie and anime,
comic book, whatever. And there's also themes like you
could just dress up as a Renaissance person or you know,
80s person like that could be cosplay in a sense, but mostly
cosplay is a specific character. So anyway, cosplay
photography became my specialty and still is and I love it. It's
so fun. But each cosplay shoot is very unique because every
character is different. So I kind of brought that into my
other photo shoots like my family sessions, my senior
photo shoots of graduates, even like kids photos, and I started
asking these questions like what, what do you love? What are
you into? You know, mostly for seniors, this really applies to
seniors. Awesome. What are you into? What do you love? What
entertainment do you like? What are your goals and dreams? What
your personality? What's your style? Like all these questions
I start gathering and that that allows me to craft a unique
experience for them that captures their unique
personality because every person is very different. And I try
not to be that cookie cutter photographer where okay, we
everyone hires me we all need it to either one of these three
parks. And I only do park photos, I only do sunset time,
I only do these these specific style. And if you hire if you
want that you hire me there's nothing wrong with that. Most of
my friends do that and I do a little bit as well. But I
started going beyond that equation that cookie cutter and
saying all right, what awesome epic stuff could I make that's
different. And it'll stand out. Yeah, that's
I'm gonna put somebody on your radar. This individual to me is
Michael Jordan of photography. Ooh. And so you either have him
on your radar right now or if you don't, you're gonna have a
wealth of a resource. Yeah, you to draw inspiration from his
name is Josh Rossi. You know that? Oh, yeah. He's awesome.
Josh Rossi was a client of mine. Well, great, great guy. Yeah,
blew my mind to how much money you could make in a red ocean.
You know, in a market that's super saturated, but what
phenomenal. Yeah, when you stand out, you have you have more
value and specific types of people that want to buy that
unique thing come to you. And so that's that's sort of what the
boot I'm in. Yeah, that's awesome. And I'm excited to see
it. And, you know, yeah, it is that is those are unique
opportunities to take some really cool shots that can be
utilized in so many different ways outside of the experience.
That's awesome that you enjoy the experience as well. No
shame on the Lord of the Rings stuff. I just finished the
Amazon series.
Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I did too. There's a
lot of haters in the reviews. And I was like, I appreciate it
for what it is. So good stuff. Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to vision pros live. I'm
looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more
fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll
invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for
giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent
time building out your vision and becoming a vision pro
yourself.