Adam Torres and Willy Sanjuan discuss Mega Mix Expo.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Mega Mix Expo coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres and Willy Sanjuan, Co-Founders at Willy Sanjuan Photography, explore Willy Sanjuan Photography and the upcoming Megamix expo.
About Willy Sanjuan
Willy Sanjuan is a freelance photographer, photojournalist, and photography instructor based in Hollywood, California. Pursuing a lifelong passion for photography, he launched his own photography business years ago, turning his creative vision into a thriving career.
Previously, he established a photography studio in Mexico City, specializing in portraits, model books, editorial work, and family, couple, newborn, and kids’ sessions. With a keen eye for storytelling and a deep understanding of the craft, he continues to capture compelling images that leave a lasting impact.
About Willy Sanjuan Photography
Willy Sanjuan Photography brings artistry and expertise to every project, from capturing Hollywood’s most iconic faces to creating stunning event and wedding photography. Led by Willy Sanjuan and Patricia Ricca, the studio is dedicated to delivering compelling, timeless images.
Located in Sherman Oaks, the studio provides a professional and welcoming space for portraits, commercial work, and private sessions, ensuring every client feels at ease and beautifully seen. Every photograph reflects a commitment to excellence, storytelling, and the art of photography.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today we’re going to be getting into the Megamix Expo. For those that have been following the show for a while, I’ve been talking about this pretty often.
And it’s coming up quick and it’s going to be in March on the 12th and 13th and definitely want people to come out. You can go to mega mix expo dot com and I have on the show today. Willie San Juan, who is one of the co founders at Willie San Juan photography. And he’s going to be at the expo first thing.
Willie, welcome to the show. Thank you, Adam. Good to have you. Have you been to one? for having me. Have you been to one of these? for having me. Good to have you. All good, man. Have you been to one of these before? These Megamix Expos? I actually haven’t. I actually haven’t, but I’m looking forward to it because it was an idea of mine.
My co founder, Patricia, discovered this expo, so it could be interesting for us, which is a business in the valley. So, to get to the next valley, because we’re in the San Fernando Valley, in Sherman Oaks, and we, get some new Relationships with other business to be people, so, you know, like, see how it goes, but I think it’s going to be pretty, pretty interesting for us showing our business and get a feeling of what other business owners are doing and what are the tactics, what is it, you know, so it’s going to be interesting.
Yeah, that sounds great. And Patricia is over there, I believe right now, right? shout out to Patricia’s there. I think. Yes. Hello, everybody. Hey, the other co founder there. I thought you were there. I’m like, wait a minute. We got to make sure we got the other co founder here to be here. Willie, I’m curious.
So tell me a little bit more about your business and tell us a little bit more about what you do. So, Willis World Photography, as you can imagine, is a photography company, we are actually photographers Patricia and I, and we decided one day, I’ve been a photographer for several years, for more than probably 15 years, and I decided that, we need to do like a step forward in this country, we arrived in 2016, and we sat down with Patricia one day, I said, okay, you are working for another, Employees.
So why don’t we get our own business? So she found it really interesting experience and she was so looking forward to it more than I actually. Yeah. She decided to take the leap with me and now she’s handling everything, so she’s taking care of the clients, looking for clients. We are both photographers, so we are going to events.
We opened a studio, like a physical space, in Chemin Aux. It’s on Ventura Boulevard and Beverly Glen. So it’s centrally located in the area of the valley and of course in Chemin Aux. Serving all All on the Los Angeles County as well on the thing is that this is an actual studio. So we get families. We get people like professionals that want to do shots, professional portraits, branding portraits.
We do professional events as well. Both photography and videography. So we have a team of also photographers as well that they can help us out when we Canada can everything. But the thing it’s pretty interesting because the city is always moving and there is always things going on. Besides of that, I am also a photographer with the Associated Press in Los Angeles, in covering entertainment.
So, I’ve done like literally thousands of events in the last few years. Covering all types of celebrities. I do portraits for celebrities as well. In movies TVs, theater, music, stuff like that. I photograph mostly everyone in the industry so far. Probably there’s a couple thousand names that are not on my portfolio yet, but mostly, most of them, yes.
Amazing. What’s one of your favorite just events that you’ve covered before, besides the Megamix Expo that’s coming up? Events that I am attending? Or, or, or No, no, no. Photographs. Yeah, what’s one of your favorite things that just comes to mind, like a cool event that you covered and that you took photos of?
Well, I’ll go For me, the coolest event is a thing that is called TCA. It’s from the Television , it’s held twice a year by the Television Critical Association. it lasts about two weeks, it’s mostly ten days. And it’s when, almost every day. One thing dedicated to each network, for example, Paramount Paramount Plus, CBS, or Netflix.
It was Netflix before. Now Netflix has its own TCAs apart. But it was, you know, like, FX Fox, whatever. They just present the new series or the new projects they have, and it’s intended for the best journalists in the country that write about television. They just gather for two weeks in a relaxed hotel in Pasadena, and , we are covering that.
I just started covering the All of the panels, because they do panels every 20 minutes, they do a final presenting with all the cast of the show, all the producers, the directors, whatever, mostly is all of the industry are there for 10 days and I just start covering the panels first for the AP and then I move to the portraits.
So there is one day that I can easily photograph 60 to a hundred people. Wow. Celebrities for different shows on TV, their most beloved shows, and I get portraits of all of them. So that is good for the studio because we can showcase them there and people see that we are like best photographers, we have a lot of experience and stuff like that.
So that’s, that’s a thing to attract people as well. but I think it’s really interesting because I. Like to get the portrait. I like the most and I work them a side of AP on a more on in a fine art with a final perspective and I print them and I frame it and You know, it’s very nice. I mean, I just like to show the work like we do over there.
That’s amazing. That sounds amazing. That sounds so next level. And and you can obviously, I mean, your passion for what you do comes through. Like I can feel it coming through here like you. That’s absolutely amazing. And I could see it. I could literally feel your passion for photography and what you’re doing.
What’s one of your favorite we already talked about maybe one of the favorite events, let’s talk about maybe at the mega mix expo. Like, are you going to be taking photos on site? Are you going to be covering the, the event? Are you going to have a booth there? Like give us a little bit of feel there.
Cause I definitely want to. send. I want to send I want to make sure that the audience goes and connects with you, right? So we’re still thinking about it, but we’re probably going to do like a headshot station and we’re going to be taking headshots for people that attend even for the first time or they just want to renew.
Yeah. Headshots for the, for the company, for LinkedIn. even for social networks, like for fun. So we are going to be taking pictures. And then we are one of the few photographers in L. A. that we are using a system that is called Spot My Photos, which is actually a system that you can deliver the photos in at any particular event.
You can deliver the photos in real time to people, but you are only delivering the photos. where the people are on. So if you go to the event and I take a photo of you and you just give me your number for the first time, then after a couple of hours, if another of our photographers take a photo of you you are going to get the photo immediately, because we use a facial recognition software that it matches your number with your face.
It’s pretty cool. Wow, that is cool. That’s magical. There is no concerns about security and stuff like that, privacy, because the system is intended to keep you private. You don’t want to get flooded with a, thousand photos when you go to a photo booth, for example. You don’t want to look a thousand photos.
People want to see the photos where they are on. We are living in this kind of society. Don’t be giving me all these other photos. You didn’t get, let me tell you something. I got, I was there and I didn’t get one photo. Come on, man. Give me some love. I’m going to Megamix Expo. Yeah, because back in the days you went to a wedding and then you always wanted the photos with the We were right in the room now.
You only want to see the photos where you are on, right? So it’s like the system is intended for that. Oh, man, that’s funny. And that’s true though. Now I’m feeling guilty. I’m glad it’s not just me. No, we are, we are actually have a an iPhone attached to our professional camera. So it’s not like a big rig, but we actually use this to to like satisfy people in terms of like, they want the phone immediately.
Right. So we, live in this another. Era that the record system like the immediate satisfaction with everything needs to be now, because if not, there’s not good. So, you know, so we are trying to to fill that gap. I know there’s some other companies or photo studios that they can deliver the photos on a timely manner, but we don’t do it on a timely manner.
We do it immediately. It’s just almost in a half of a second. I take the photo. The photo uploads immediately. You got it. That’s it. Yeah. Very simple. Fantastic. Well, I’ll tell you, Willie, this has been fun having you on the show. And for everybody listening how, how do people follow up? How do they learn more, how do they connect with your team?
So our website is ws photography studio.com. Willie, some fun photography, ws photography studio.com or some fun photography. And also we are on Instagram. At what is a fine photography is something and of course, our phone numbers. You should better call Patricia, which is the one that handles everything.
You guys like a white hair right now because of having, you know, all of the clients request is the three three, two, three, two, eight, seven, four, nine, four, five, three, two, three, two, eight, seven, four, nine, four, five. And of course the website, we have like a new website uh, WS photography studio. com.
Perfect. And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the website in the show notes so that you can just click on it and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new. So I’m going to be on site doing some live podcasts, some interviews, and really just going out into the community, meeting everybody and checking out what’s going on at the expo. I’m definitely going to be checking out Willie San Juan.
and his photography and also meeting the other co founder over there for sure. And really just having some fun. So definitely go to megamixexpo. com, grab some tickets and meet us out there. And we’ll, and we’ll definitely be happy to, to meet and and connect. And Willie, thanks again so much for coming on the show.
Appreciate it. Thank you. I’m looking forward to seeing you soon.