Dream Catcher Wedding Photography:
A Dream Come True

By Linda L. May

"Outside of my family, wedding photography is my passion and first love. I am so grateful that my job and what I love doing are the same. If I could afford it, I'd shoot weddings for free in a heartbeat--that's how much I enjoy it," says Juan Gonzalez, owner of Dream Catcher Wedding Photography in Harbor City, CA.

Juan overcame many obstacles to reach the pinnacle of success he currently enjoys. Through hard work and determination, a never-give-up attitude, savvy marketing and a friendly, outgoing personality, Juan is now one of the South Bay's best and most popular wedding photographers. However, his path to reaching this level of personal happiness and financial freedom was neither fast nor easy.

Juan was born in 1958 in Lagos de Moreno, a small village in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Growing up in Mexico, dreams of owning a camera or a car were unattainable. At age 18, he immigrated to the United States in search of a better life. At the time, he could not speak a word of English, so it was quite a culture shock. To make the transition even more challenging, he was alone in a strange country.

Soon after arriving in California, Juan got a job in the manufacturing sector and began studying English. When he earned enough money to buy a Canon AE-1 camera, he experimented with photography for his own personal satisfaction.

Working days, and taking night classes, Juan earned a degree in manufacturing in 1986 from El Camino College in Torrance, CA, and was making a good income. While he took a few photography classes, continued practicing his craft and bought all kinds of neat photo gadgets to improve his work along the way, he never seriously considered doing it for a living.

Answering an ad in a local magazine and being chosen as a model cemented his interest in photography. "Qvo magazine ran an ad looking for people to model pachuco-style clothes, the old zoot suit look, and since I already had several outfits in that style, I signed up to be a model for them and I got chosen," says Juan. "That was when my love for photography kicked in, and I started photographing the shoot while I was being photographed. Qvo published my modeling images, but also ran some of the ones I shot during the session. This happened early in my career and got me excited because I could compare my work with theirs. I was more excited about seeing my photographs in print than the ones of me modeling the clothes."

Juan started shooting weddings on weekends and worked during the week at his manufacturing job. Because he wasn't under pressure to book weddings, he could relax and enjoy the experience. In 2001, his manufacturing position ended and instead of getting another job, he opened his studio full time. He had already built a following so he felt confident that the time was right--and it was.

At one point, Juan was shooting 65 weddings a year; he has since cut that number down to 35. Ideally, Juan says he'd like to book no more than 25 high-end weddings per year, and have more free time to spend with his family.

Juan is recognized for his amazing photography by the Professional Photographers of Los Angeles County and has spoken and served as print judge for the Professional Photographers of California. He was also chosen as part of the Fuji Talent Team for 2007-2008 and is an honor graduate from the West Coast School of Professional Photography. He's certainly come a long way from his life as a shy Mexican immigrant who arrived in California not knowing a word of English.

Juan works out of his spacious home, dedicating two rooms to the business. He has no employees, and does everything himself. However, he does hire freelance assistants to help at weddings. Even the studio name, Dream Catcher, exemplifies Juan's ability to stand out from the crowd and grab the public's attention.

"The dreamcatcher is an Indian artifact that is placed outside the home or sleeping quarters. During the night, it catches the good and bad spirits as they pass through it and blocks the bad spirits, or dreams, only allowing the good ones to reach the sleeping human mind.

"Telling people the legend of the dreamcatcher and how it relates to my business makes a big impression. It's sort of a play on words because I'm catching the good dreams or memories of their wedding day. I often get notes from happy clients saying, 'You truly are a dreamcatcher,' which makes me very happy too," says Juan.

He shoots with Canon 5D, D2X and Fuji S5 cameras, using a variety of focal length lenses. One effective trick he does to further set his work apart from the stiff California competition is to use various length extension poles to capture different parts of the wedding, and "it works like magic," he says.

"In the old days, we used a monopod extended 10 feet in the air. I thought it was such a great idea that I've been doing it for years," he says. "However, I was not satisfied with merely 10 feet above the event, so I devised my own special poles that go 20 and 25 feet in the air. I have a tripod connection atop the poles for my Fuji S5 camera and use a radio remote control to trip the shutter. The poles are lightweight and I carry them around and shoot from different locations and perspectives. Viewers wonder how I got that high in the air without standing on a building or ladder. Everybody loves these mid-air images."

Juan prefers using natural or available light whenever possible, but when more illumination is needed, he uses the Canon 580EX flash unit and a Brinkman Dual rechargeable flashlight gun. "The flashlight is a bit on the yellow side, but my Canon camera has auto white balance and fixes the color balance beautifully," he explains.

Marketing is another of Juan's talents and interests. Paid advertising does not work effectively for this California imagemaker, so he has found a better way to get the word out--by building a huge network of about 80 South Bay vendors with whom he works closely. Besides giving these vendors sample albums or wall prints to show off his work, Juan goes one step further.

"I'm always thinking of new ways to advertise and promote because the market is so competitive. I decided to set up big-screen plasma TVs in venues that were already working with me and had proven to be worthwhile moneymakers. Right now, I have four venues that have television sets, which run a constant slide show of my pictures of their establishments. I have my contact information and website on every few frames so I get lots of exposure.

"I also give these special vendors a Fuji S5200 digital camera to capture events when I can't be there to do the photography. I collect all their images, edit and catalog them and enter them into my slide show, so I have complete control of all their images, whether or not I shoot them. So far, I have four outstanding locations for my TVs and plan to install more in the future. It's a relatively inexpensive form of advertising and it is effective. I can't say that about paid magazine ads," he says.

Juan's website also brings in new clients, but he uses it mostly as a reference tool for clients to review his work before booking him. Juan says it's tough for the website to bring in new contacts by itself, which is why he supplements it by networking with vendors.

The future looks promising and profitable for Juan because he's always working to improve his business, perfect his craft and help others in the industry by sharing his ideas. Juan is always available to do presentations to share the knowledge he has learned and help motivate his peers.

In time, he plans to move his studio from his home into a freestanding location in Harbor City. He is also creating a new web-site, DreamTeamWeddingPros.com, where he will be working exclusively with a select few wedding vendors who will form a team that pools its resources and shares clients and advertising costs.

"It's a win-win situation because we'll all be helping ourselves and each other at the same time," Juan says.