Yodith | Artist Spotlight

Happy Friday beautiful people!

I hope your week went well despite the freezing subzero temps! Mine was okay- it could have been better, but I will not complain :) I AM happy to share this post with you guys today though! I’m sharing another one of my talented friends with you ^_^

Today’s artist spotlight features fellow photographer- Yodith! She and I actually only recently met in person a few months ago, but because social media makes you feel like you know people, it was like catching up with an old friend. So I asked to shoot her and feature her on my blog and she kindly obliged :) I enjoyed getting to know more about her and her art and I hope you do as well-

Meet Yodith!

What is your name?
Yodith Dammlash  

Where are you located?
Prince George’s County, MD  

What do you do?
I am a photographer (more specifically a photo-based artist) and archivist. I am also a part of Mambu Badu, a photography collective for self-identified women of African descent.

How long have you been a photographer?
Ten years now. Time flies!  

How did you become interested in photography and when did you know you wanted to make a career out of your passion?
I’ve been interested in photography for as long as I can remember. When I was little I always wanted to use my mother’s little film camera and my uncle’s professional camera. I took classes my junior and senior years in high school and my mentor insisted I apply to a few visual arts colleges along with regular universities. It wasn’t until I saw the exhibit “Ethiopian Passages: Dialogues in the Diaspora” and I saw Aida Muluneh’s work that I really felt like I should also take my art seriously and pursue photography after high school. I subsequently attended Corcoran College of Art + Design where I earned a Bachelors in Fine Art Photography.  

Who are some of your influences/inspirations?
My family. Visual artists Gordon Parks, Aida Muluneh, Chester Higgins, Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Richard Avedon, Kebedech Tekleab and Margaret Bourke White. Writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Langston Hughes, Edwidge Danticat, Khaled Hosseini, Warsan Shire and Audre Lorde.  So, so many music artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Kendrick Lamar, Donny Hathaway, Robert Glasper Experiment, NaS and Meshell Ndegeocello, to name a few.   

What has been your favorite project that you’ve worked on so far?
My favorite project is probably Placement, a photo series about my grandmother. I originally started documenting my grandmother for a photojournalism class assignment. I started considering the quiet in her life and how different her life may be if she still lived in Ethiopia, as oppose to my family home for the past 18 years. She is so interesting to me, in just her day to day life. Her movements, her chores in the house, her belongings. The older generation who leave their homelands to join their adult children and families overseas is a part of the African diaspora that you rarely see documented. I wanted to shed light on that usually more stagnant life.  

What other types of creative work do you do?
I’ve become something like the documentarian/historian of my family. I’ve always been interested in my family lineage and stories my grandmother and parents would tell me about their families. I’ve accumulated and archived over 300 photos, negatives and slides of my parents families and their time in Ethiopia. I’ve been incorporating them in my current project The Names We Bear so I fancy myself a creative archivist. I’m also a closet writer (shhh!).  

 

What inspires you? 
All of the aforementioned people as well as my Ethiopian culture. Natural light. Smoke as an aesthetic. The human face. Spike Lee Joints.

What keeps you motivated?
Surrounding myself with other creatives. Having a community of other artists and photographers to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with helps in moments of self-doubt and exhaustion.  

Any advice to fellow creatives (in your industry or otherwise)?
They say there is there nothing under the sun that hasn’t already been done. I say it still hasn’t been done by you. Your vision, your narrative, your art can only be done the way you do it. There is space for that; there is space for you.  

Any other fun tidbits we should know about you?
I am somewhat of a human jukebox. I have an affinity for memorizing song melodies and lyrics after one listen and I’m able to mimic the artist almost exactly. I love coffee but never turn down bubble tea. I enjoy baking almost as much as I enjoy eating. I probably have the most organized and extensive Google Music library you’ll ever find. Most importantly, I know every Living Single, Chappelle’s Show and Boondocks episode by heart.  

Where can we find you online?
online portfolio: www.YodithD.com
twitter: @yodithnprogress
instagram: @yodithnprogress
tumblr: @yodithnprogress​ 

I hope you enjoyed her interview! Be sure to follow Yodith social media and keep up with her projects :)

I hope you have a great weekend!

-Danni

Latoya & Johnny | Washington, DC Engagement Photographer

Happy Wedding Wednesday! I DO participate every so often ;) I can’t wait to share this engagement session with you guys today!

Latoya & Johnny are my wonderful wedding clients from the beautiful (but COLD- especially now lol) city of Chicago! They came in town for their engagement session last month and as it would happen, it rained the ENTIRE day we’d scheduled for their session :( 

Needless to say we were bummed. Some of the major things Latoya loved about my work were the natural lighting and colorful surroundings- two things we can’t easily replicate indoors :/ But necessity is the mother of invention so once we knew for sure it would be raining all day, the gears started moving and I gathered ideas to ensure that they’d have the flyest indoor engagement session ever! The results? Gorgeousness.  

I had to do some heavy reassuring to Latoya because she really had her heart set on an outdoor session but as I reassured her the photos would turn out beautifully, I was also reassuring myself in the process because I was doing something new for her. But I was very excited to not only do something new, but to do it awesomely!

In the end, instead of Latoya & Johnny getting something similar to what I’ve done previously, they got their very own unique engagement session and I think that’s much better than colorful walls and natural light ;)

The rain let up just in time to sneak a few outside shots in their last outfit!

If you’re interested in booking a session and would like to have the DFinney Experience yourself, email me and schedule yours today! Currently booking: February 2015. 

On Being a Black Photographer | Truthy Tuesday

Happy Tuesday loves!

I’m back with another Truthy Tuesday today! Two weeks in a row?? I know! Don’t get used to it though lol.

Today I want to share something a little personal that I just recently realized a few months ago after talking with a couple of my clients…

When I first started my business over 5 years ago, I was a little bummed that I didn’t have more diversity in my work. I live in a predominately black area, but that is not to say that I only work with my race. One of my friends a few years back told her co-worker about my photography business and her response after looking at my site was “oh, but she only works with black people”. If you can imagine, I was somewhat hurt by her co-workers feelings, but I was thankful to my friend for sharing them with me. I thought, well she can’t be the only one who feels this way… she’s probably just the only one who SAID it! Thus began my quest for diversity. I never wanted anyone to look at my site and be hesitant to work with me because they thought I only worked with one race over others.

Well fast-forward to this year and I will say that my mindset towards this whole “issue” has changed slightly. Let me tell you why: In speaking with a number of my clients this year, one of the reasons they decided to go with me was because of how beautifully I photograph people of color. It was shared that in their search for a photographer, they saw lots of options, but weren’t sure how well the photographer would be able to capture their skin tone because they didn’t see very many (if any) minorities in their portfolio.

I have mixed feelings on this because while I’m glad their search led them to me, it made me realize that having a diverse portfolio is not something every photographer deems as necessary. I actually stumbled across someone tweeting about this very issue a couple days ago.

It absolutely does take skill to be able to photograph different skin tones well, so I do understand the concern of my friend’s coworker initially because I did only have clients of one race at that time. However, I will say this: I work hard to make sure that everyone I photograph is captured in their best light, regardless of their race, and if I’m able to do that well for people of color, well that’s an honor I’ll accept gladly :) Especially with the limited options available. Here’s what changed my mind about this whole thing: If someone is not willing to book with me because they think I only work with one race over others, they are not my client. If you’ve followed my work, you see that I do indeed work with people of varying cultures and shoot them all beautifully!

I do have a predominately black client base, but instead of wishing it were more diverse, I am and will be forever grateful for the support of my community over the past 5+ years and thankful for the opportunity to capture these positive images that may not have been seen otherwise!

I want prospective clients to fall in love with me and my work, and if seeing the race of my clients keeps them from booking, well I guess they’ll be missing out then :)

This has been on my heart for the past few weeks so I just wanted to share. This is Truthy Tuesday, right? Lol 

Check back in tomorrow for a fab engagement session post for Wedding Wednesday :) Be safe in the snow!

-Danni

Winter + Spring 2015 Group Sessions | News & Updates

Quick news and updates for you guys interested in the upcoming group mentor sessions!

Mentor sessions in the above cities were announced last month and about half of the spots are gone already!

Full details and pricing for Sessions 101 and 102 are viewable right here on the blog!

If you are interested in participating in one or both sessions, simply shoot me an email (danielle@dfinneyphoto.com) and we can get you secured for the date(s) of your choice! All that’s required to secure your seat is a $100 retainer and the balance is due two weeks prior to the session itself.

If you don’t see your city, don’t fret! These are only early 2015 dates and additional cities like Brooklyn, Charlotte, etc will be added once the dates have been confirmed next week.

First up for mentoring in the new year is Atlanta! I had a great time last summer working with 2 wonderful groups of photographers, so I can’t wait to see your faces again and meet some new ones :)

If you enjoyed your session, tell a friend!

Share how the mentor session benefited you and maybe they might be interested as well. Don’t keep a good thing to yourself!

Same goes for you guys in DC! If you can’t attend, but know of a friend who would benefit from Session 101 (or both)? Send them my way! Or better yet, share this blog post with them :)

I can’t wait to kick off these new sessions next month!

And on that note…

This month I will be finalizing the curriculum for these sessions beginning next month. I have core items I already know will be included, but I’d love to hear from you! What are some things (questions, concerns, things you’ve always wondered, are in the process of dealing with, are nervous about, etc) relating to owning, operating, beginning, maintaining, or revamping your photography business?

This will help me put together a program that hits on all the right notes :)

That’s it for now, but please please please take advantage of this opportunity while space is available. As was mentioned about half of the spaces have already been booked and the cap is still 4 per session so please make sure you secure your space ASAP if you’d like to attend. I look forward to working with you soon!

Have a great Monday!

-Danni

New Orleans Group Mentor Session [Oct 4] | Washington, DC Photography Instructor

Happy Monday!

I hope your new year is off to a great start! I am unofficially “off” this month (only because I’m not shooting any sessions), but I still have lots of newness to share with you on the blog this month :)

First up is the recap from the bright and colorful mentor session in New Orleans this past October!

I had somewhat of a rough start the morning of this session because I was so sick! It must have been from something I ate the night before because I could not keep anything down! I felt so bad because I came all the way out of town for this- just to feel bad the morning of! Fortunately the nausea subsided and I was able to have a great session with these ladies! The weather was perfect and the colors? 

Ahh! I couldn’t take how they all ended up matching :) Color harmony makes my heart rejoice lol.

Here are each of the ladies’ headshots!

If you’re interested in participating in the next group mentor session and would like to have the DFinney Experience yourself, email me today! View more information on the photographer education options offered here!