Today we’d like to introduce you to Ramiro and Emma Simon-Aredes.
Ramiro, Emma – please share your story with us.
Ramiro started loving photography when he was living in Barcelona in 2007. He took a few classes and started with Street Photography. When he returned to Argentina, his native country, he began studying photography in the University. We met in the university in Argentina while I (Emma) was studying abroad for a few years. When I returned to the United States we were long distance for 4 years until we both finished school. Ramiro moved here and started doing some freelance photography while working full-time. It wasn’t until he was laid off from his full-time photo-editing job, due to major layoffs in the company, that we really started to focus on our photography business. This year we have seen some amazing growth and gained invaluable experience.
Ramiro’s love for photography has expanded into a love for wedding, engagement, event, and portrait photography. He loves to imagine his clients looking back fondly at their pictures from their special day years down the road.
He’s continued his photography studies here in the United States and enjoys sharing ideas with his colleagues.
We can’t wait to see what the future brings. Ramiro looks forward to capturing many more beautiful memories for his clients.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We’ve had a few challenges. Ramiro still finds it difficult to communicate with clients sometimes due to language barriers. He is much more romantic and always wants to send emails with “adjectives” (like beautiful) and exclamation points. I, on the other hand, am much more “direct”. I’m a project manager for a web development company. I’ll help him out with virtual communication with the clients, but sometimes it’s hard for me to capture the essence of what he really wants to say because it goes against my nature to use more romantic language. Ramiro actually now speaks and writes English very well. He worked hard attending English as Second Language classes and now has college level English. I guess I will have to stop micro-managing his emails!
Another challenge was just believing in ourselves that we could have a valid photography business. It wasn’t until he lost his job that we really started thinking of this as a real business. Since then we have really started marketing the business and gotten many gigs. The best part is turning the photos in to the client and hearing how much they love them!
Ramiro says that another challenge is choosing which photos to feature. We have very different taste! I like to choose the pictures that “Rank Well” when we share them on Social Media. He prefers to follow his heart and his artistic eye and chose photos that touch him personally.
Simon Aredes Photography – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We’re still experimenting and offer a wide variety of services. Some of those services are Engagement, Wedding, Family Portrait, Portraits, Product, and Real Estate Photography.
We specialize in Engagement and Weddings particularly.
We’re most proud of providing memorable images that will bring smiles to our client’s faces years down the road. Ramiro is great at capturing weddings even in those stressful pre-wedding moments and really integrates himself with his clients’ family. I’m proud of him for always coming back with stories about how the family wanted him to stay longer and celebrate with them after a shoot.
We know how stressful weddings can be and we definitely don’t want to contribute to that stress. We set ourselves apart by getting back to clients quickly and ensuring we have all the information we’ll need for a smooth and successful shoot well before the wedding. Another way we set ourselves apart is by the relationships we build with clients. We care about them and we care that they get the images they want of their special day.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
One of my clients had an engagement shoot/Civil Ceremony. They had a larger wedding at a later date, so that is why we call this their “Engagement Shoot”. When we got to the courthouse, they asked me (Ramiro) to be their witness. I’m proud to have contributed to their union and to have had the honor to not only be a witness but capture their love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://simonaredes.com/
https://es.simonaredes.com/ (Spanish Site) - Phone: 213-817-2595
- Email: ramiro@simonaredes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonaredesphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SimonAredesPhotography/
- Other: https://www.gigmasters.com/photographer/ramiro-simon-aredes
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.
