Meet Maria Peña | Photographer

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

Hi Maria, is there something you believe many others might not?
“doing collabs and work for free” Working for Brands, Influencers or anyone with a big engagement or following for free.
I think that is exactly how you should start, thats how you put your foot in the door. I firmly believe that you should know how much you are worth and how much your craft is, but in an Art career you also are doing it for the passion to your art. There are so many opportunities that will sadly will be for free but you will learn so much and will now have the experience.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was in the Military and to be quite honest I always wanted to have an Art Career so once i got out i decided to take Photography more seious and began my Bachelors in Fine Arts. I slowly started you know the regular, photographing my friends and slowly began growing a following. I remember getting ready to leave Hawaii since that was my duty station and i was moving back to Texas, and i decided to shot my shot with Princess and asked to take pictures of her before i left island. It honestly was like a 1/10000 shot that i never thought she would even reply so i kinda ignored it, the next day she reaplied to me and i was SHOOK. Honestly from there, everything took off. I began working for her and realized aside from the traditional family pictures we all start from, I really LOVED shooting content for brands. I kept getting good at it and i even desided to stay in Hawaii a little longer to keep working with her. I got to work with numerous local brands and started applying to magazines. Everything kinda started going so fast and i was working with so many more brands, magazines, hotels and I worked with MTV for the first time. Everything was such an amazing experience, I am forever grateful for evrey opportunity ive had and ive tried my best to keep getting better. MTV offered to hire me as their photographer for the second season of their show and i was so happy! I knew there had to be something i did good and i am so excited to see all the images out in billboards and Times Square. To think this just started as a DM thru instagram is crazy. Along the way i leanerd so much about how this industry is and although everyone alwasy says “dont do photoshoots for free” GIRL. DO IT. Get the experience, use it. You are only gonna get as far as you want.

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.
I will first make a stop at Gens Korean BBQ, that is literally my favorite place in the world ! but you have to get the crazy sauce otherwise it doesnt reach is full potential. I would definetly make a stop at Mochinut, you JUST have to, i dont make the rules. I would definetly visit the AT&T discovery District because its just a fun place to visit, or go create my own suculent for my house at the local shops.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I will always thank Princess Mae for a lot of the opportunities she has given me. I started working with her when i had first started and she gave me the opportunity to grow and perfect my work while still working with her. She has more than once put me on opportunitites that i wouldve never imagined and those gave me the practice and experience to be working with everyone i do with today.

Website: mfpena.com

Instagram: mfpena_

Image Credits
Princess Mae Rachael Ostovich Keiffer Leslie Jessica