I’m Dani Teston
Hi there! Nice to see you here!
I’m Brazilian by birth, Irish by heart and (almost) Dutch by choice.
I’m also a photographer with ADHD that loves to share my knowledge. Where people would say “I have a passion for photography”, I’d say “I have an hyper-focus on photography”, which means, I’ll go really deep on the topic that I’m working with.
I have photographed food, products, business & people in 10+ different countries, had clients from 15+ different nationalities and won competitions in a high-standard photography club in Ireland.
Teaching photography is one of most rewarding things I could do. This way I can help people to capture and cherish their most precious memories in beautiful photos. I can help entrepreneurs to grow their business by taking better photos. I can help photographers to bring their photos to the next level.
A thing or 2 that you might not know about me
- Coffee first. Coffee next. Coffee again and coffee before sleep.
- My favourite colour is… I don’t know, I cant’ decide.
- I don’t like chocolate bars, but love things made with chocolate. I don’t like mangoes, but love mango juice. I don’l like things made with coconut but love coconut. Go figure! 🙂
- Once I photographed a inline hockey championship for 7h straight. Spent next week in the hospital because my eyes couldn’t stop trembling.
- Another time, when I just had moved to Ireland, I volunteered to photograph cats in a shelter for adoption. When I got there, there where quite a few cats for a adoption, including a hurt black cat. After the first photo session, all cats were adopted. Including the black one that was sitting there for a while.
Everyone has a different need. Everyone learns in a different way. Why should everyone take a standard workshop or training?
In the beginning from my career, 2 things always bothered me:
- Why I cannot find a photographer, a buddy, a mentor that would help me fill the gaps in some specific topics? Doing another “basic photography”, “understand light” or “fashion photography” workshop was not helping me any further as the topics covered was always the same and I couldn’t “mix & match” the content of the workshops/courses.
- Why to be considered a “good photographer” I can only focus in one specific topic? Why can’t I learn and work on more than one? Ok, I get that most of the people like one thing and want to stick with that. But I’m not this person…
That’s why I created this mentoring program. It’s tailored to the student needs. Are you a small patisserie chef? I can help you to photograph your baked goods in order to sell more. Are you a mother from children from 2-15 years old who like sports, arts and books? I can help you to photograph those special little moments with your mobile fast without leaving your 2yo unattended. Do you want to learn photography or improve a specific point? I can help you.
The mentoring includes in person or online lessons, exercises, a real-world session and followup calls with practical advices.
The best way to not forget your memories is having them in a photo
I can’t recall the first time I picked up a camera. I just know it was from my dad. Or from my beloved (in memoriam) auntie.
Were my less then10-year-old-self photos good? Of course not! Did I care? Of course not! It was just amazing to put the 12-photos film roll on the camera, wait for that super-special occasion, take the photos, roll back the film, go to the store wait weeks to get it back. Frustrating to see them blurry, not well composed, dark or burnt? Yes, of course!
But, in a time prior to the internet, when photography books were out of my reach (think early 80’s in a small country-side town), and not knowing any photographer, there wasn’t much I could do to learn.
Fast forward to some time in future when the resources were available, I started to study, did professional courses, workshops, volunteered with photographers and to photograph homeless kittens, went out on countless walks and did several model calls.