Meet Jay Balanza of Playful Soul Photography in Santa Monica

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Balanza.

Jay, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As far as origin stories goes, ours is pretty straightforward. I started my professional life as an architect. I was always the type of kid to doodle on pads and snap photos on cameras if I was left unattended. It turned out to be the perfect mixture of coincidence and skill, as I ended up being more drawn to the lens than the drafting table. I knew it was hard to do it as my main job, especially since I carried through with architecture to the end. It wasn’t until a random day in Central Park in New York City that I realized I wanted to give this a shot. I found that my favorite thing to do was connecting with people, and photography was the venue I wanted to use to do that. I made a ton of great friends and met a lot of people wandering around that city with a camera and my playful personality. That was where the first portfolio for playful soul photography was created, and the serendipitous conversation with a random passerby in NYC gave us our name.

From then on, I dedicated myself to shooting, in every format, in every medium, and trying to find likeminded people that just loved to connect to people. The artistry of our shots comes from the interaction we have with our subjects. We’re never the type of people to take a long photo to preserve candid moments (although we do that too), we’re more likely to be right in the thick of it, whether it’s a well-practiced model who’s shot with designers in Paris, to the stubborn kid in the family that they could never tease a smile out of. It’s because of this ethos that we’ve been not just the people that take our clients photos, but the friends they’ll call time and again.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Trying to be a photographer in Los Angeles (well California in general) is like trying to be the next big breakout star. There’s literally thousands of us out here. The trick has been that we recognize that and it hasn’t really broken our spirit. But getting our name out there has been both a creative and patience-trying exercise. We also had some good team members leave to go on their own path. We tend to try to stay positive and just dig in, drop our f-stop, and make sure we’re still doing what we love.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Playful Soul Photography – what should we know?
We’re photographers by trade, but really, we’re entertainers. Most people loathe getting their picture taken. In the age of selfies and the iPhone, we’ve really had to step our game up. So we’re known for being able to get the shot a selfie or a phone can’t, that crisp clean candid of laughter or really genuine smiles, ones that don’t need a high angle or a selfie stick to capture. We try to provide quality so that people understand that a photo shot by us really means something.

We’re also super picky, we’re firm believers that if you don’t like us or like our particular personalities, you won’t like the photos, so we make sure to speak to each of our clients prior to booking. We do this because we love it, so we’re not trying to shark people for sessions all the time. If you want to shoot with us, then we want to hang out with you, plain and simple.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Personally, I had a mentor that sadly passed away a few years ago. He was one of the first people of color that penetrated the advertising and marketing agency and he was a freaking legend. He would regale us of his scrappy stories of starting out in the mail room and pursuing his passion, working from a crappy dumpster camera he repurposed into a portraiture black and white pin hole camera all the way up to working with cameras that used lenses that cost more than my entire camera kit combined. He really showed me what it was like to get in the thick of things and try, even if I wasn’t likely to succeed. I like to think he’d be proud of our little studio that could.

Pricing:

• Portrait (Headshots, Family, etc) Sessions starting at $185
• Special Event Coverage starting at $1500

Contact Info:

• Website: www.playfulsoulphotography.com
• Phone: (424) 442 – 9721
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playfulsoulj/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlayfulSoulPhotography/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Geekitect
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/playful-soul-photography-irvine
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/playfulsoul_oc/

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.