Today we’d like to introduce you to Yailin Benitez.
Hi Yailin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hello, my name is Yailin Benitez, and I’m the proud owner of YB Photography Studios located in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. I was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to South Florida at the age of 10. While in undergrad, I worked at a bank for four years while earning a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. Before opening the photography studio, I worked eight years for a world renowned, non-profit organization.
My passion for photography began when I was 15 years old. For my 15th birthday, my parents gifted me a small digital camera, and this was when I started shooting photos of animals and landscapes. Fun fact: my high school senior thesis was on photography as my main career choice. When I was 23 years old, my now husband of 13 years bought me my very first professional camera (Nikon DSC 3200 – yup they don’t make those anymore!)
I continued taking photos of nature until my younger sister began to dance becoming a professional ballerina and contortionist. We both became very invested in these arts which led to creating an Instagram account (@photoflexdancer) to showcase my photography skills and her dance abilities. My sister’s career immediately started to grow as she began representing a variety of dance companies and becoming an ambassador for a number of amazing dance brands.
Through our new connections, I soon found myself becoming a dance photographer as we were fortunate to travel in addition to being featured in magazines, social media pages, and websites. As my photography career grew, I had the wonderful opportunity of photographing many astounding dancers, dance campaigns, and dance clothing brands. With my dance portfolio thriving, I expanded on my skills and began to photograph other types of portrait photography such as friends’ milestone moments including engagements, maternities, children’s birthdays, and many others. All while working my 9-5 job, a new hobby transitioned into a business as I started to accomodate paying clients.
In 2018, I was blessed to become a new mom and raise my sweet son, Jordan. As you can imagine, I took many professional photos of my son which sparked a new interest and love for children and family photography. My husband again gifted me my first full-frame camera (Nikon DSC 850) which helped me master my photography skills and lighting abilities. This growth immensely improved my portfolio as it became transparently clear that I had a very strong passion and eye for photography.
Now, with my new camera, lenses, and lights, I was destined for greatness! As we all know, 2020 changed everything as COVID-19 hit us hard. I switched to working my 9-5 job remotely from home, and I was even temporarily laid-off. With time on my hands, I was able to book more photography clients and improve on my skills while taking classes and studying the art of photography in depth.
By 2021, the pandemic was improving, and I was asked to return to the office with my 9-5 job. This quickly became a very difficult transition as I had gotten used to having more time with my family, son, and passion for photography. I’ve previously contemplated opening a photography studio, but this was a scary thought as I felt insecure and didn’t believe I could actually do it. After a few months of being back at my 9-5 job, my husband began encouraging me to start the process of looking for a space to have a photo studio.
In September 2021, I quickly and secretly signed the lease to our very own photography studio – a beautiful, 1,400-square-foot space that needed a lot of work! My husband and I built the entire studio, and with just the two of us, we sacrificed months of work, tears, and yes, actual blood into making it possible! As I am writing this and putting these thoughts together, I cannot believe that dreams do physically come true!
Alright, 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?
While it has overall been an incredibily rewarding journey, this path has also been filled with extremely difficult challenges. First of all, I had to overcome a few personal obstacles. Let’s list a few: my parents getting divorced after more than 25 years of marriage, postpartum depression, selling our house in a buyer’s market, and not being able to purchase another home as the market skyrocketed. Of course, let’s not forget about my own anxieties, insecurities, and life obstacles, however, worse of all, was when my mom got diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.
I found out about this awful diagnosis while working on opening the photography studio. It made me feel like giving up and crumbling, but I knew my mom would want me to be strong as she was throughout the process of chemotherapy. I am happy to say that as of today, my mom is cancer free! In addition, there were many obstacles to starting a business including issues with the lease, permits, inspections, and just the overall process. These physical problems eventually had a solution, but more challening than this was having loved ones who lacked faith and belief in you and your passion.
A number of friends and family members were very discouraging and told us not to pursue opening a photography studio with high overhead costs after finding out I had quit my stable 9-5 job. They insisted this was a crazy move and that we would eventually fail. This fueled my insecurities and self-doubt which initially prevented me from opening the studio. It is very difficult to ignore those destructive thoughts and opinions that consume us and poison our dreams.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Yailin Benitez Photography Studios?
YB Photography Studios is located at 2529 N Dixie Highway, Lake Worth, FL 33460. We are a 1,400 square feet space full of props, sets, photography equipment, and so much more! We specialize in family milestone photography such as engagement, maternity, newborn, cake smash, children, family photos, senior portraits, headshots, birthday shoots, and quinces. We have maternity, quince, and little girl dress collections.
The Studio has a variety of props such as swings, pianos, flower arches, thrones, angel wings, and a number of kids and adult furniture. Here at the Studio, we believe in quality versus quantity. While our customers do receive all unedited photos, we specialize in high-end editing. We edit all our final images to meet high-end standard quality.
Our clients have the opportunity of selecting which photos they would like edited, and we are very proud of our final image quality and value. We also print high-end canvases, acrylics, metals, prints, and photo albums. We want the readers to know we love and value our clients, and we love capturing their special memories! Every time a photoshoot is in session, the studio closes and focuses on just that customer!
We give every client our undivided attention, and we treat them as if they were our family. In fact, most customers do become friends and return very often for us to capture their special occasions. As the main photographer, I do all balloon sets and decorations myself. I love kids and have all the patience in the world for them, and I have many tricks from my years of experience to capture your child’s best smile.
During the pandemic, I learned a few skills that allow me to create a magical setting for my customers and especially for the cake-smash little ones. For the adults, we help with posing and guide our customers during their sessions. We do pre-consultations to ensure we create the perfect photo session. We even offer posing classes to all of our quince clients before their big photoshoot day, so they are educated and very confident in their posing skills.
We are also very family-oriented as you might meet my husband, son, sister, and other family members who may be helping or hanging around the Studio. I am very proud of the Studio and everything my family and I have built. I am thankful for my customers, my family, and all those who believed in me. I love my career and my little, small business. It has been a very difficult road, but I would not change it for the world!
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My favorite childhood memory was at the age of 9. We were very poor but couldn’t be happier. My family all chipped in and rented a small house at the beach. We somehow managed to cram 5 families (about 30 people) into that one-bedroom beachouse. The smaller kids slept on the bed, and I remember the adults found room on the floor. We all laughed so hard and had so much fun that I don’t think we ever slept!
We rode horses, went to the beach, had picnics, and danced as we listened to music. The kids played endlessly. It is not until now that I look back on that memory and realize how little we had; I never noticed because it was when I was at my happiest. It was at the end of that trip when my mom told me the news that we would be moving to the United States in a few months. It made me feel sad to leave my family behind, but I was also very excited, because I could only imagine what it would be like to have my very own room for the first time!
I never realized how that news would change my life forever and allow me to have all my dreams come true with hard work and confidence. If you are reading this, and you have a dream, do it! Fear only exists in our minds; it is not physical. You cannot fear the future, because it has not happened yet, and in fact, it may never even happen. How can you be afraid to fail when it has not even happened?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.yailinbenitezphotography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yailin.benitez.photography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yailin.benitez.photos/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCovyRiQ5jXbuB9PWIK8FU4w/featured?view_as=subscriber
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/yailinbenitezphotography/
