In today’s episode, we have the incredible Omar Diaz, founder of wedding photography business, By The Wilde. We met at a workshop in early 2021 and since then he’s gone from strength to strength - pushing his creative boundaries and creating a business that aligns with his style and values. It was an honour to chat with him and discover more about his journey to becoming a recent full-time photographer. Get to know Omar Omar is based in Hobart Tasmania - a beautiful part of the world that attracts a lot of interstate travel for elopements. He started his photography journey inspired by travel after burning out from years of social work. Backpacking through parts of Asia, Europe and the Americas he captured stunning images of nature and progressed onward to people-focused photography in the streets of South America. This sparked an obsession with wanting to collect and curate those special moments - building a story around every one of his subjects. He did his first official wedding in the summer of 2019 and has since been building his skills and business into the impressive portfolio you see today. What we talk about Omar's roots and photography journey. The benefits of having a fantastic wife who has wedding industry knowledge. How he’s feeling 6 weeks into full-time photography - an honest and raw perspective. Creating his new website and honing in on his personality. Why community is important to him. How to build and search for a sense of community. Mentoring and peer-reviewing. How he chose certain creators to review his work. Practical things Omar took away from mentoring. How to make your clients feel comfortable. The power of humanising the space and levelling with your clients. His kit and how he uses it throughout the wedding day. Building relationships and rapport - and what it means to him. His ratio of creativity to business person. How much of a factor his editing has on the end image result. A few practical things you could do to create that ‘magical’ feeling with light. Personal projects and style shoots - the benefits he’s seen. How to handle others' expectations of style shoots: balancing creativity with meeting the brief. Documenting his son’s life and the guilt of not documenting enough. My biggest takeaway It’s awesome to see someone who has stepped into their own style so early on in their career. But my biggest takeaway from our conversation was the power of human connection in photography. And this comes in different, but all equally important forms. His connection to his wife and her network. His connection to the community of peers and mentors he’s built around himself. And, creating a human connection with his clients. It’s this connection that drives purpose, supports creativity and truly helps you tell stories. Links we mentioned The By The Wilde website: https://bythewilde.com/ By The Wilde Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bythewilde/ By The Wilde Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bythewilde By The Wilde Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/bythewilde/_saved/ My Website: https://ryanteague.co/ My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanteague.co/