Meet Steven Hernandez of First Stage Photography in Tucson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Hernandez.

Steven, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
So I picked up my first camera back in 2016. I bought it from someone online and had no idea how to even use it. I followed around my co-worker for a while and he taught me how to use my camera and what everything did. Soon after that, I found online courses to help me understand lighting and understand my camera better. I spent hours on hours on YouTube learning how to edit a certain way or how to remove items from photos in Photoshop. I was completely infatuated with being outside constantly just taking pictures of any and everything.

Finally about a year into taking pictures of family and friends I decided that I wanted to start taking photos of other people and their families. I was completely nervous and had no idea how to even ask someone to take their photo, I joined a local Facebook group called TAPP which has some amazing artists with amazing work and everyone was super helpful when I joined the group. I saw a local girl Shawna Cadwell who is now one of my very good friends sharing a flyer for this event she was hosting. The event was a grunge themed photoshoot that was going to have models, fire breathers, and a ton of photographers. It was a rush. There were smoke bombs, a tire swing and it was just this awesome place with everyone doing what they love. After the event I wanted to keep going, I wanted to take more pictures of people just smiling or laughing anything just showing natural emotion.

Shortly after the event, I got together with Shawna again because I wanted to host an event and I wanted to invite people from all over. The more people the better cause it meant I got to meet more people and learn from them. The event turned out to be amazing and I had an amazing time. The whole time I was just in a dream it seemed and I didn’t want it to end. I picked up more gear and started to familiarize myself with different types of styles of shooting and editing and just kept it going. As Shawna and I started becoming friends I would ask her if it would be okay if I tagged along during her family sessions in exchange just to learn. It was awesome because she taught me pretty much everything about lighting and how to make it look amazing. As I started to take photography more serious I wanted to challenge myself and get into weddings. Again I asked Shawna because she is a wedding photographer and she taught me everything I needed to know, where to stand, my camera settings, the whole thing.

March of 2019 I had my first small wedding. Shawna gave my name to a client who was looking for someone for a short period of time. I had the time of my life. I fell in love with it and since then I’ve even had some of my weddings. Right now I have a mix of family sessions and weddings even a maternity shoot coming up in December that I’m super excited about. Right now everything is slowly but surely falling in line.

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?
I feel that for the most part, I haven’t hard any struggles. I think the biggest thing that bummed me out was dropping my camera one late night on Mt Lemmon trying to take photos of the milky way. Set me back a little bit and was a bit worried I wouldn’t get it back in time for a wedding I had scheduled. Other than that I would say just trying to get myself established.

Tell us more about the business.
I’m a wedding photographer but I wouldn’t say I specialize in just weddings cause I’ve done events, family portraits, even a maternity session so I feel like it’s a little bit of everything. I think most people know me for being the jokester in the crowd. I tend to put that into my sessions especially when you have younger kids who are just cranky and need somebody to do something silly. I’m the one making the ugly faces in the back or making baby noises to try and grab their attention. I think what sets me apart from some of the others is that it’s not just about a picture it’s something more. It’s something that they will go back and look at with a smile on their faces. It’s a memory.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think luck has good when it comes to my family sessions or even weddings. I can’t think of a time that I’ve scheduled something and it rained or it was too windy. I’ve been lucky enough to have a friend that went out of their way and set time aside to help me and get me to where I am. I think that I would not have progressed as fast as I did if I didn’t have the help. Plus I made a friend out of photography too so I think I’ve been pretty fortunate.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stevenhernandez.smugmug.com/
• Phone: 4804041016
• Email: firststagephotography@gmail.com

Image Credit:
Photos of me were taken by Jane Pruitt and Shawna Cadwell
Models: Mia
All other photos were taken by me.

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