In Progress: From Passion to Career w/ Maria Arriviello

One Thursday afternoon, I sat down to chat with Maria Arriviello over the phone. Maria is a lifestyle and landscape photographer based in San Diego, CA and she’s been on the journey of turning her photography passion into a full-time job. We often hear from those who’ve completed the journey, but not much about the progression in between.

Maria is in the middle of this transition, searching for her direction and growth. As a photographer, her inspiration is comes from outdoor adventures and the laid-back surf lifestyle of Southern California. She runs a print shop through @sand_to_summit and also provides services for brand content, commercial, weddings, and more. We started off the conversation with how she got to this passion in the first place.

Iris: What got you started in photography?

Maria: My background in creative fields is a little weird. In college, I thought I was going to go on to either dental school or medical school and right after I took the MCAT I thought, “This was a big commitment.” I need to try something else and make sure I’m making the right choice. If I keep coming back… then it was meant to be.

I picked up a job and moved to San Diego. I had never been there before. I slept on this girl’s couch I met off of Craigslist. I didn’t know anyone. I had a project management job in marketing and life science so I had the biology background. It wasn’t until I moved out to San Diego – I had a camera throughout college (I got it as a Christmas present) but I don’t know if I just wasn’t inspired.

“If you fail, you fail. But if you don’t even try, how are you supposed to know if it was something meant to be for you.”

Once I moved out to San Diego, three and a half to four years ago, I really started taking my camera out to shoot because I was constantly exploring. I was in a new city doing all the touristy things and going out and getting lost. Landscapes come naturally to me just because if I'm there, I’m going to take photos. It wasn’t until I started doing that that I was like “Wait, this is something I could do from 7am to 7pm and never think twice about it.” It started up a hobby and grew into a passion. From there, a lot of people reached out to me out of the blue asking for prints and that’s where I’m at now, running a print shop. My next goal is expanding my work, I don’t know what direction I want to take that yet.

I: What was that like when you had that realization, that this was something you wanted to pursue?

M: I’ve always gone back and forth with it. I think fear for a while was blocking me from really making it a full time career. I was always just [thought that] I need a real steady career with a company and I can keep doing this on the side. I had a big surgery last year and that has debilitated me a bit. I am working hard on the recovery process but that moment gave me the final push – ok you‘ve always been thinking of it, just do it now. If you fail, you fail. But if you don’t even try, how are you supposed to know if it was something meant to be for you.

I: When you decided you were going to pursue this, what were your first steps?

M: The first thing was actually accepting the fact that if you want something, it’s not going to just fall into your lap. You actually have to put yourself out there and let people even know you are pursuing it. It’s crazy when you come to a moment when you need support from your friends and family, how much people actually show their love. The first step was even updating my Instagram bio and starting to posting stories of prints I was doing for people – 16” x 20”, showing it framed, and in people’s places.

That was my first real step: get a genuine interest and if it makes sense. I saw an interest and I knew I had to promote my self and track my analytics, rather than siting back and hoping it happens naturally. I think that’s one of the misconceptions on social media, [thinking] “oh, these people are so lucky it just happened.” They probably used digital marketing to push [themselves]. Not everyone falls into a following and turns something into a career overnight. There’s a lot more work that goes into to that people don’t talk about.

I: As you continue on your journey of turning this into a career, what does it look like to hone your craft?

Figuring out what you want to pursue. You could go down wedding and engagement route, work with brands, or focus on a print shop. Do I really like working with people every day in terms of engagement shoots? Will that seem boring to me? I won’t really understand that until I dabble in a bit of everything. I just found someone to let me second shoot for them for a wedding just to get a taste of it. I could go in and fall in love with the connection and the feel of a wedding or I could go in and say this was fun but I can’t imagine doing this every weekend. Some of it is just finding what environment I work best in. Going to a tailored shoot with a brand is way different from an engagement shoot.

I: It’s amazing that you are trying out so many things. A lot of areas may seem scary or unapproachable. How do you go about finding those opportunities to test things out?

M: I became a little ruthless on social media. Some people I’ll DM because I like their photos or their company. I can’t believe how many want to respond and use social media as a vehicle to grow and help people rather than keep to themselves. Hearing advice from people who are going down the path you’re looking for, whether they’re already there or watching them grow as well, inspires me to actually put it into practice. That’s not to say that what works for one will work for another, but it helps with the inspiration and drive.

Some people reach out and ask how people got to work with this brand or that brand. They say “I just take photos on my own and tag [the brand] in it. They reached out and said, “Hey, we want to pay you for it.” It’s so funny. It’s so simple.

I: It seems so easy when they say it.

M: They don’t talk about all the hard work that when in the in-between part of it. But something so simple as that – I can easily take the things that I am eating, drinking, or doing everyday and take photos with a nice camera – and it will already gain traction.

A lot of it has been reaching out to other creators who I admire and seeking advice through them. It’s such an easy thing to just communicate with people. They’re people you don’t know, but who cares, right? It’s already opening doors and I really haven’t put 100% of myself into it yet. I’m excited to see where it can go once I go full throttle.

I: Let’s talk about the print shop! What was the process of getting it up and running?

M: I’m still figuring it out. In the beginning, your audience is more of your friends, especially when selling through Instagram. You say your price is $25 but since they are your friends, you’ll give it to them for $15. Then you realize you went through the process of editing it, bringing to the shop, and sending it and you made $5 off of it. If you want to take things seriously, your friends will respect that. The hardest part is taking yourself more seriously – if you want this to work you can’t be handing out free things to everyone. They’re asking for prints to support me so they’re not going to be mad to support me ten extra dollars.

I kind of started it on accident. People asked for it and I just started posting more. The question is at what threshold do I turn it into an online process? It’s hard to understand when that time will come, depending on where the rest of my photography is at. Once more starts happening, I will begin to grow it more and rely on the e-commerce side rather than that personal touch.

I: There’s almost something nice about the personal aspect when it comes to working with an individual personal.

M: It really is. It’s kind of fun in the sense that you get this interior designer [role] where people will literally send me photos of their space and their wall and ask what size I think. Sometimes talking it through with them gives them the confidence to actually buy something. I feel like people rely on making sure that there’s a real person behind brands. If they reach out to DMs, they expect a response. It’s a form of customer service now.

I: Where would you like to see yourself a year from now?

M: I would love to see myself full time. My intention this year is to get to a point where I feel like I am either doing this on my own and can quit the corporate lifestyle, or close to it. One year from today, I am feeling confident enough in the amount of inquiries or jobs that I’m getting where I can say goodbye to the corporate world. I’ve learned so much from my job but I also have tuned into myself to know that I like creating my own schedule, not having to be somewhere at a specific time, and if I feel like working from 10pm to 2 am because that’s where my energy burst comes from, then that’s what I get to do. I think that’s why I’ve had such a push to reach out to anyone and everyone to try and figure out what I like. There’s no way I can genuinely pursue something if I don’t know what that thing is. Check in on me in a year.

I: You talked about reaching out to anyone and everyone. Is there anything you would want to put out there that someone in our community may be able to help with?

M: Any sort of photography collaboration, whether assisting with an existing project or leaning on me for advice (I do work in marketing so I do have a good gist of the digital marketing world). I am focused on collaborating this year. I won’t understand how to run up by myself until I understand from the professionals. Even if they don’t consider themselves professionals, people who have been doing it just to learn and grow from it. Just to be involved in the creative community would be awesome.

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Thank you so much to Maria for taking the time out to speak with me and share her story! I hope this could all help you gain some insight on turning a passion of your’s into a career. If you would like to collaborate with Maria, shoot her an email or DM! And let me know if there’s anyone else you’d like to hear from.