Meet Danny Schumacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Danny Schumacher and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danny, other than deciding to work for yourself, what else do you think played a pivotal role in your story?
I believe, for me, the most important decision I made was moving to Los Angeles. I was raised in Kensington, CA which is a small town in the Berkeley Hills in the SF Bay Area and I spent 30 years of my life there. I have a loving and supportive family, but I started to notice that as I transitioned into my 30’s I wanted to start building a career for myself. I always battled with my inner thoughts about what I wanted for myself and what my friends and family were telling me I should do. In July of 2021 I found myself in a very dark place, mentally and emotionally, and I was struggling quite a bit. I called up my sister who has lived in LA for over a decade, and we talked for a while and came to the conclusion that I needed a hard reset on my life. So what did I do? I quit my security job the week after, and packed up and moved to Los Angeles. Three years later I’m now in the best place I’ve been, mentally and emotionally, without any regrets. Because of this, I was able to find steady work in the food industry, and slowly start building my photography business on the side.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I knew I wanted to do photography pretty early on, when I took a class in high school as an elective. I learned how to shoot film, primarily using pinhole cameras that we made in class. So almost right away I was thrown into doing things myself. I had some trouble learning as a kid, and wasn’t always paying attention, or I was goofing off with my friends and not really investing myself. Once I started learning how to use a dark room, the creative process was so interesting to me – the fact that I was in full control of everything I was doing, I could choose who or what I wanted to shoot, and my brain never got distracted. Bingo. I started to go out and shoot as much as I could during school projects and even in my free time. Digital photography was just starting to become a thing around the time I left high school, and I noticed a friend of mine got a digital camera and I was blown away by his pictures. The lights, the colors, the saturated tones, the exaggerated editing was everything to me. My mind has always been colors and pictures… I needed a digital camera. My first digital camera was a Nikon – I took pictures of everything, everyone, and every street we drove on. But there was something missing – the pictures just didn’t look great and I quickly realized that I needed to learn how to edit. So after discovering Adobe Lightroom I quickly fell in love with the process; I could create quite literally anything out of nothing. If I had to pick one thing that I learned along the way that I’d like to share with people reading, it would be editing. You can create so many cool and different things just out of one single picture. Every picture tells a story, and I try to convey that in my work. Individuality and creativity are so important in today’s world, and photography has given me that outlet. The journey has definitely not been easy, but it defintiely has been fun.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There are so many places and things to see in LA. That’s something I’ve always loved about this city. My best friend from back home is a big sports lover, so of course we’d have to start at Dodger Stadium to see the boys in blue (we are not dodger fans but it’s an awesome stadium), or possibly take a road trip down to Anaheim to see the Angels or Ducks play. Afterwards, head back to Hollywood and enjoy some nightlife on the Blvd, check out some sports bars or hang at Dave and Busters for a couple hours. The rest of the time would be checking out some of the amazing museums LA has to offer – the LACMA is a personal favorite, there’s the observatory, and maybe even check out my good friend Dom Wordlaw’s art shows. I couldn’t pass up taking my best friend to see the Grove and catch a movie or head over to Glendale to see the Galleria mall and get some new styles. It’s hard for me to pick out just a couple things when there’s literally endless activities to do and see in this city! Can’t forget the beaches – Venice is definitely a cool one for visitors, as well as Santa Monica and Long Beach. Or would I take him to Malibu and try to find Tony Starks house? Who knows? The possibilties are endless.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to dedicate this shoutout to my extremely loving and caring family. My mother and father, Laurie and Kirk, and my older sister Anna. Without them I wouldn’t be the person I am today and I am forever grateful. There are two honorable mentions that I’d like to add – Dominic Wordlaw who is a truly amazing artist, and who has been my roommate and a close friend and inspriration during my time here in LA, and my girlfriend Marlene who has shown me endless support and love through the transition into building my own business. Without these people in my life none of this would be possible. And of course I’d like to thank the photography community as a whole for continuing to inspire me day after day!

Website: www.dsphoto.biz

Instagram: @schu.shoots

Image Credits
All images are taken by Danny Schumacher.