Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandria Norado.
Alexandria, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started photography back in 2010 and was only shooting film. It was just a hobby I had picked up during my Photo-journalism and Journalism classes, so I didn’t really foresee much for that side of me. When I graduated in 2013, I had to buy my first DSLR for some classes at TWU but the classes left me unsatisfied and unmotivated — so I returned once again to my SLR and my Portra 400 to bring back any inspiration I had. I remember turning in my negatives and self-developed works for a project that was supposed to be done digitally (I left my Nikon in the building over the weekend and it was inaccessible) and was fully expecting to get in trouble with my professor over it. I was pleasantly surprised when she actually started praising me and asking me how long I had been shooting, how I captured the images, etc. As someone with very low self-confidence, this was an experience I needed to force myself to continue pursuing photography, perhaps more conceptually and creatively rather than through the target of Seniors and Friends family pictures.
Fast Forward to 2016, I had taken yet another hiatus from my craft, kind of putting it off due to work and also a lack of inspiration. I decided to start reaching out to local businesses and possibly start marketing myself as a portrait and event photographer. I took a gig with Hallyu Entertainment, a Korean event agency that brought idols to Texas and other locations and soon one gig became two and before I know it, the marketing manager at the time had sent over my work an online magazine called Officially Kmusic. Now, personally, I was a studying Russian major and Korean minor at the time. To me, I was doing this for fun but also to be able to add to my academic resume, since it was so difficult to get a field related job at the time. Kmusic offered me a position to take photos for all Dallas based Korean pop culture events and concerts based on my images taken from Hallyu and I began to wonder if maybe concert photography was my official image now.
It wasn’t.
I enjoyed taking photos of the concerts, but there was no passion in it for me. I would shoot because it was fun seeing the concerts and meeting the agencies and management for companies I had only seen on TV before. I really was still begging myself to pick a style and stick with it, so I kept pursuing more things. Now, during this time I wasn’t just searching for my calling in all of my free time. I was (currently still am until May) a full-time student, working a serving job at a hotel and a karaoke bar, and also was pursuing a career that could secure me after graduation. This would lead to another hiatus that lead to possibly my most current phase in my life.
It’s 2018, I’ve now officially been on Instagram for 2 years, and have met amazing friends through the platform and grown my style a bit more to a contemporary niche with urban street fashion thrown in. I can’t narrow it down specifically, but it’s mine and it fits. I still work at both my serving jobs and shoot for Officially Kmusic, I’ve actually started interviewing the celebrities now as well and have traveled to SXSW on behalf of the company. I also am now the marketing assistant for Yelp Fort Worth and I’ve been slowly adding to my academic resume for when I graduate in May. It’s been a long story for me, but I’m still going.
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?
It’s been a more or less neutral road for me. I run into fits of de-motivation, as do most photographers, and being a full-time student with 3 other jobs that aren’t photography does tire you out.
I remember a specific instance where I was shooting with my old camera, a Lumix Gx7, and I was actually getting chastised for how it “wasn’t a real camera” because it didn’t look like other bodies in the DSLR community. If I would have let that stop me I would’ve been out much sooner in the game.
Allie Norado Photography and Visual ilinx – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I have a plethora of styles. I have been described as contemporary, but also dynamic street style. I don’t want to limit myself to one style but I definitely do have a cleaner look to my photos as far as what is portrayed, with a small hint of grain and a mix of neutral tones.
I contract myself out to do concert photography still, but I mainly only deal with agencies and their management now rather than solely promoters. I am in pretty good contact with a few agencies that fly me out for tours or bring me in when the artist travels to Dallas.
My passion is definitely more of a creative and conceptualized look that takes planning and lots of inspiration. I’m proud of the shots that jump out and speak to you without you relying on my captions for how to feel about it. I don’t want to set myself fully apart from others, there are so many different and talented people I know in this community and it isn’t about who is better or what they are doing to be who they are, it’s about how we support each other so that we can all meet at the same finish line together, empowered.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
So far, I think that the first meet-up that I co-hosted with Kevin Fides may be my proudest moment. I had individuals messaging me and thanking me for taking the time to help them to meet their favorite Instagrammers and give them a setting to take part in. It made a lot of creatives realize their importance to the community when they got full attention from models and photographers that they really adored.
Pricing:
- Blogger + Personal Portrait Session: $85
- Concert + Event: $100/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: allienoradophotography.com
- Email: allienoradophotography@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allienoradophotog/?hl=ru
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allienoradophotography/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/visualilinx
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=M6bDzkViKpiuWfc0Y4Tf5A
Image Credit:
@daniela.cru, @levelofcreation, @saigesinger, @madisonhohenstein, @saharaale, @svmragi, @sit0nm3
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas 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.
