Growing up and sitting next to my cousin, Robert, I couldn’t understand how he could effortlessly move a pencil across a piece of paper and create the most detailed images. His pencil would appear to radically move about on the surface of the paper with no real purpose. Yet, when he finally lifted the pencil from the paper, there appeared the best super hero or 4X4 truck I had ever seen drawn.

Thinking his pencil was magical, I’d pick it up and try replicating the images he had drawn. Even with my best effort, my stick people lacked creativity and even symmetry. I was incapable of drawing anything recognizable. For some reason, all the artistic creativity that exists on my dad’s side of the family did not find its way to me. There are quilters, painters, embroiderers, carpenters, musicians, and artists… real artists who can visualize and then create a work of art. I cannot. I cannot draw!

I earned my first camera when I was about 11 by selling greeting cards from a catalog I received in the mail. I could have opted for $1 earned on every package of greeting cards I sold, but I selected the 110 film camera instead. It even came with a roll of film, 12 exposures I think, to get me started.

That camera initiated the little creativity I did have. Later on, I’d “borrow” my parents’ Polaroid and take my little sister on a photo shoot in the front yard. I’d ask her to wear her pink Hermann Sons ballet outfit and to lean against a tree. Or, I’d ask her to scoop up some puppies and pose on the back porch wearing her newest school shirt.

Pictures not only served as an artistic outlet for me, they have also served to preserve some of the most important people, places, and times in my life. Once an event is captured in a photograph, there is no letting it go, or forgetting about it. That photograph will live on.

After toying with my love of photography for some thirty-something years, I am thankful I have taken the last five or so to really, really learn photography. I am pleased with the knowledge I have gained, yet also realize that I still have lots to learn. The most valuable thing I have learned is to do things my way–not to replicate someone else’s work. I’m constantly looking through the viewfinder, even when my camera is out of reach. I often wonder what that skyline would look like from this perspective, or that shutter speed, landscape… no, portrait with a black vignette. I have come to a place that most everything I see is through the viewfinder.  I love photography!  I am an artist!!

I still can’t draw.

Tanya Diane, with puppies

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I am a San Antonio-based wedding and senior photographer who started Ata-Girl Photography Co., LLC in 2010. As one of the up-and-coming San Antonio wedding photographers, I am also available to shoot in Austin, Houston and Dallas and the surrounding areas. I am also available for destination weddings worldwide. Ata-Girl Photography Co. offers an amazing wedding photography service that you won’t soon forget.  As professional photographer, my sole purpose is to provide you the absolute best photography experience.

I am a professional photographer who enjoys documenting the important milestones and captivating moments in people’s lives. I firmly believe that the unique set of circumstances I have faced in life has prepared me to take a personal and genuine interest in my photography clients. When I’m not photographing a wedding, family or high school senior, I enjoy watching my daughter play softball, hiking, cycling, reading, and listening to Elvis!

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