Time and practice, as in all things, allows you to become better at what you do. Over the years I’ve learned to direct a lot of my efforts towards this one passion that I have, and over the years, I’d like to think that I’m learning more about myself as I am learning more about other people that come in and out of my life because of this particular passion. I’m Shayla Sanchez and I’m a storyteller and I’ve become better and better at sharing my stories one wedding, one prenup, one shoot at a time.

A storyteller will come in many forms in your lifetime, they come masked as musicians, as painters, as businessmen (believe it!), as teachers — the list goes on, but as for myself, I prefer to tell my stories masked as a photographer. Through the years, my photos have become my voice — they speak for me, they will tell you the stories that can never ever be told by just uttering sentences, uttering words that will never suffice, that will never encompass the beauty that I get to witness and capture in these small snippets of time.

When I tell my stories, I make sure I fade into the background. When you whisper how your day went just when the priest goes down the steps for church communion, or the way you stared at her across the dance floor as she made her way to talk to some of her friends, or yes, the way you took out that cake crumb off his shoulder just before you both drank your wine, I was there, inconspicuously clicking away catching your little moments of magic. Sometimes though, I’ll resurface and make myself felt, I’ll ask a bride to point her toes, or to extend her neck — to make sure she becomes this beautiful ballerina (or princess or deity that she imagined herself to be on her wedding day) that moves effortlessly throughout her day, waking up a little girl’s dream of someday marrying her own Mr. Perfect-for-her, or admired from a distance by her doting father, his little girl officially all grown up. Sometimes my stories will be told through a series of photographs — of one wedding I did, or a place I’ve been to, and sometimes my story will be told in just one photograph. No matter the story, I’ll share it through my photographs, in the hopes that one day, when you turn the page of a story that I told, you’ll be able to walk in the steps of mine or someone else’s once upon a time.

I’m a storyteller. Here is one of my stories.