Loaded Bow

These two are the principals of Vancouver’s RAD STUDIO photography.  They specialize in weddings and are in the process of expanding into portraits where they will no doubt continue to clean up!

Ral and Danelle have only been shooting professionally since 2007, but have achieved an incredible amount of success in this time.  They took a few hours out of their crazy schedule to sit down with Zoe and I to share their thoughts on diving head first into their business, achieving their 5 year plan in their first year, and sleeping with their business partner.

Loaded Bow: Can you tell us a little bit of your story and how you made the transition into this industry?

Ral Nicanor: We never intended to be photographers! I taught 6th grade for 3 years. That was fantastic. Loved, loved the kids! I loved that I could call the parents and say, hey I’m in a bind, can you help me out? It was cool that there were so supportive. You’d get these dads coming out to be there for their kids and I really want that when I’m a Dad, but it would have been difficult as a teacher. If my kids were sick or something, I couldn’t just leave class.

We taught computer courses at Simon Fraser University for 5 or 6 years. One of our colleagues was getting married in 2007. She knew that we were really tech savvy, and when you aren’t tech savvy, you think that people who are know everything about computers and cameras! She asked us to shoot her wedding. We subsequently booked 15 weddings in the next 6 months – it was crazy!

My dad was an amateur photographer so I picked up some stuff from him, but we learned the most from getting out there and shooting. We would look stuff up on Wikipedia! And we grew into some sort of business. Everything that I knew about Photoshop and cameras, I taught Danelle. She started kicking my butt from the get-go!

Danelle Nicanor: I love working in photography because I like meeting new people. I went into this thinking that it might be part time and it blew up into something more. I was in school – I only have a semester and a half left until I’m finished – but I had to put it on hold because it was either us investing in really good gear or me finishing school. I decided to hold my breath. I am really blessed that this has become a lot more than I thought!

It has been really good for our relationship as well. I now am able to see him on a professional level. I respect Ral so much.

RN: That’s recorded right?

LB: Crazy! So 15 weddings from word of mouth?

RN: All word of mouth! We had a small ad in the Italian Directory, which we thought would generate a huge response. That was kind of naive of us. It was one of the bad decisions I made. I am very methodical about where we are going, but that was not well played!

We are part of a new generation of photographers. I respect the others to bits, but we saw a gap that could be filled. There was room for a very modern style with a fashion feel – we were ready to hit the streets. It had a huge response.

LB: Was that transition from teaching difficult?

RN: This is going to sound really cheesy – but from September to November last year I literally couldn’t leave the house from 3:00-4:30 because seeing the kids walk home from school made me miss the classroom so much. Teaching is my trade. I want to be investing in the future, investing in society.

Photography is going to allow me to be with my family, and that’s so important to me, but I am a teacher.

We were so stretched in what we wanted to do right up until last August: whether Danelle would go back to school and I would continue teaching, or whether we would start a full-time photography business.

In a matter of 2 weeks, crazy things happened. We were invited by our wedding photographers, Jenn and Steve Bebb, to an exclusive workshop and to a cocktail party with arguably the best wedding photographers in the world. There were 20 people and we were there!

When we got married 2 years ago, we had no intention of becoming photographers. I remember Jenn and Steve saying that there are so many copy cats in Vancouver which they didn’t like. When we got into photography, I was like, oh, no – what are they are going to say about this? I was literally scared.

DN: I think they respected how we were going into the business though. We are here to make a contribution and I think they respected that.

RN:  We told them that we didn’t want to step on their toes. When they went to change their branding and they chose the colors that we had at the time - Tiffany blue and chocolate brown. We were like – whoaaaa! Make it known that we are not copying you guys! They called us back and were so sweet and they acknowledged how we were trying to be different. They were just phenomenal to us. It’s pretty cool.

LB: Every entrepreneur reaches a point where they have to decide to embrace their business full time. Was that a critical transition in moving your business forwards?

DN: It was a huge mind shift for us. We’re young. We’re very intentional. We like to set goals. We were very deliberate in how we approached it. We asked ourselves what our family is going to look like.

RN: The past and the choices you make have such a huge impact on what you’re doing today and your future. Being self employed is scary, but at the same time, if you stretch something too thin, you aren’t going to achieve anything at all.

Teaching is a 12 hour shift. With photography, we’re shooting, editing, doing it all. Something was going to get screwed – either our clients or my students, so we needed to focus on one thing. We felt like I can always go back to teaching and Danelle can always go back to school, but we can’t always go back to a photography studio.

LB: You touched on how you learned photography and Photoshop. How did you learn about business?

RN: I can chock that up to 2 things: I play a mean game of Monopoly and I watch every episode of The Apprentice! I literally attribute it to those things. You’re laughing, but I’m serious!

I have played Monopoly with Danelleand her sisters for the last 10 years and I have only lost once! Withthe game, I am very goal oriented and see the bigger picture. With our business, we are also really goal oriented and make sure everything has a purpose.

DN:For me, I have learned the most from my Dad who owns his own business. He built his business from the ground up while raising 5 kids. I always thought if he can do it, I can do it too. I wanted to follow him so he could be proud of me, especially doing this with Ral.

We want to build this life for our kids. A girlfriend recently told me that one of the best things that you can do is for your kids to let them see that you have followed your dreams and that it’s possible. That’s what I saw in my dad. It has really helped me out.

LB: You guys are business partners, but you are love birds first. Tell us about what’s like working together.

DN:I only recently realized that it is ok to be different people with different opinions. As much as we want to agree on everything, I don’t think our business would be what it is without both of our opinions. I am crazy artsy and Ral is very objective.

Early in our business we would be up at night lying in bed thinking, I really don’t like him now but I am not going to talk about it tonight because then I will start yelling. I remember so many nights like that, because it turns out that I’m not really a team player! It is hard for me sometimes to listen to what he has to say and not be selfish and say, ok I’m pretty sure that my idea a better than yours, so you can stop giving your opinion you little kid!

It has been really interesting, but I really do respect him a lot more. I don’t think I would have been put in this position to see how he responds professionally. We don’t always agree but I really do respect his opinion.

RN:Aw, thanks. I can really see where Danelle is coming from. Her family works hard at everything. They are so talented. When they are in a group setting they are the ones who lead the group.

I went to Montessori Schoolwhere everything was peer taught. It was very collaborative and I took that into business with me. So I wanted to discuss everything I did with Danelle, and she wanted me to get it done! A difference of opinion there…

But I love working with my wife. The reason why I got married is because I love her.

We have a real work flow. I get up earlier than Danelle so I go to the computer and prepare stuff for when she’s awake. It’s awesome. We play The Office, The Simpsons and The Family Guy in the background. We just laugh all the time. We have our alarm set to go off at 5:30 to Celebrate for the end of the day. We really treat it as a 9-5 so that we can have the time to hang out, read together, play, go for dinner…

We try really hard not to compromise so that no one has to lose. Instead we try to collaborate.

LB: Beyond working together as a couple, you work primarily with other couples. What is it like working with them and immortalizing their love?

RN: We’re actually really exclusive now with the couples that we shoot (Gen breathes a sign of relief that she and Kev made the cut . You can feel that the couples that we chose not to shoot will be that statistic. They are getting married because they think it is the next step. I love being around people who are in love. You can really tell when people exude that confidence in each other.

DN: We have actually had to turn people down because we feel that we aren’t the right photographers for them. We aren’t about superficial connections. Some people come in here and they don’t talk, they don’t touch. The groom is on one side staring off and it’s like the bride is marrying her binder.

LB: Did you make that decision from the being that you were only going to work with the real deal?

RN: We learned pretty quick the first year. There were 2 couples who we were on the fence with, and their wedding days turned out to be such long days – and one of them was only a four hour shoot! We were encouraging them, saying come on, get real close! And we could hear them whispering to each other, it feels like we’re acting, it feels fake. We were like wow, you literally just got married.

DN:  We can’t Photoshop in a connection between a couple!

LB: Your office is in your home. Has it been difficult to separate home from work?

RN: Our office used to be in this space. It was so visible. It was a spectacle. We don’t want it to even be in our personal life, so we moved it into a different room that is smaller and off to the side.

We really made a point of making sure that there is no business after 5:30. It wasn’t like that in our first year, but that was understandable. The first year was a tough year.

LB (Gen): As a workaholic, (joking…. but not) I think the boundaries that you have set are amazing.

LB (Zoe): WOWWWWW!! You’ve heard it right here, folks. Admitting to it is the first step!

DN:The first year was tough but we learned a lot. We were also newly married. We really had to kick it up. Ral is so consistent in putting family before work. For me, I really had to define those boundaries and remember that now and in the future, family will always be more important than work. For me, I could just be like if we work in the sunroom we could watch the kids play outside!

RN: But then we wouldn’t be playing with them!

DN: Right, so I really had to think about that. I had to finally say to myself, my work comes second to family. It has to.

RN: There are also unexpected things like guests and family that comes over. They don’t really respect the boundaries. Oh, you guys are working? We’ll just help you by vacuuming! They will ask what we’re doing. They don’t realize that studio hours are working hours.

LB: Maybe that’s cultural, because my family doesn’t come over to help me clean!

DN:We are still newly married, and I think that that works to our advantage. We are so crazy about each other. I have to let him know that he is the priority. That have been times when I haven’t made Ral feel like a priority. I’m a perfectionist and a workaholic and sometimes I put my work before him. But at the end of the day, I am about my husband and he needs to be my priority.

RN: There is this one line that comes to mind: Would you rather be right or would you rather be married?

Working together, playing together, having fun together, is like being on the playground. There are tiffs, but at the end of the day, it’s like sorry, I was whack. You know? There is nothing so big in the business that it should be entering into the marriage. All the things that happen in the business have to remain just business.

LB: You guys have achieved incredible success in a very short amount of time. What factors do you think have been most pertinent in arriving at this place?

RN: First of all, our leap of faith. Trusting and knowing that it will work out. No matter what, something will happen whether it is good or bad. We know that it will eventually be good.

In 1999 Celine Dion was supposed to sing The Prayer with Andre Bocelli at the Grammy’s rehearsal. Bocelli had tonsillitis so David Foster called up Josh Grobman – this was back when he was this chump-looking 17 year old kid – to stand in for Bocelli. This strong solid amazing voice came out of this dorky looking kid. I was like wow! There was an interview afterwards and he said “I was scared but this is what I have been training for. This is where preparation meets opportunity”. I think that’s what it is for business. It’s the preparation that will help determine whether it will be a fruitful business venture or not.

DN: Our faith has played a huge role in how our business has progressed. I remember when we were dating and it was our third year teaching graphic design and I was like, why are we doing this? I should be spending more time doing more music stuff. But the opportunity just kept on coming. During this time I worked a lot with Photoshop. It was so interesting how that knowledge carried itself over into what I mainly do now. Things have come full circle. That is why it feels so right..

RN: I have always thought dream big, aim high and move forward. I think that is what has propelled us to where we are now. Otherwise, we would always be scared. We would always be afraid to take risks. You have to jump in head first.

LB: So what are your goals going into the future?

DN: Our 5 years goals were squashed last year. When we were invited into Wedluxe, we reached our top long term goal.

RN: And all of our other goals were subgoals to help us get into Wedluxe. It is the most exclusive Canadian wedding publication. It is invite only. It was our 5 year goal to get in there, and we made it in after a year. Now we are just like wow, what do we do for the next 4 years?

My goal this year is to rest. Every year I have a goal. Last year my goal was to “break through”. The year before that it was to celebrate. My personal goal is to rest.

We can’t wait to see where that revised 5 year plan takes you!  Rest up, lovelies, cause it’s gonna be an adventure.

zoe+gen + loadedbow

PS I promise not be hopped up on Benedryl on the 13th!  Wouldn’t want to be mixing up the world’s most wanted with the next President   I can actually hear my international relations profs cringing…