Daniela Villareal travels the world as a destination wedding photographer but some of her richest memories are of shooting weddings at home in Mexico. Her FUJIFILM GFX System has allowed her to not only advance her wedding photography but embark on some interesting side projects, too.

Globetrotting wedding photographer Daniela Villareal is a native of Mexico, born in the northern industrial city of Monterrey. Her mother, an art historian, and her father, an architect, nurtured and encouraged Daniela’s artistic talents from early on, enrolling her in art classes, and allowing her talents to grow naturally. She travels all over the world for her job but it was in New York City, as a student at the prestigious Parsons School of Design, that she fell truly in love with photography,

Since then, she has jetted off across five continents to shoot weddings of all types, always keeping in mind her classwork at Parsons, where she also studied composition, design and photography. Don’t be surprised if her next career leap is as a film director, because she takes on each wedding assignment as though it were a motion picture—and it shows in her work.

“I like to imagine every wedding as a movie,” says Daniela. “In every classic film, you have story, characters, scenery and a soundtrack–I absolutely love music! With every wedding, I feel like I’m the film director of that love story. I strive for natural looking photos but always with a cinematic style of action and adventure.”

Daniela has followed her wedding parties all over North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Among her favorite spots: South of Italy in Puglia, Abbey de la Cambre in Brussels, and the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Daniela typically spends several days at a location, sometimes as much as a week when the site is remote, to absorb the atmosphere and set up the shots. 

One of Daniela’s recent shoots was in Puglia, Italy, a world heritage site, was a multicultural wedding (Mexican/German), and the venue was a Masseria, a fortified farmhouse found on the estates in the Puglia region and typically built in the 16th century. ¨The venue, the people and the food left me breathless, the masseria was surrounded by trullos, which are a traditional dry stone huts with a corbelled roof. The day began with an intimate ceremony with a view of the valley, followed up with a cocktail hour serving Prosecco and typical Italian aperitives. After this, the dinner began with an amazing and delicious Italian catering, and a party under the trullos It was one of the most magical venues I ever been at!¨

Daniela currently shoots with the FUJIFILM GFX50S and a FUJINON GFmmF3.5 R LM WR. “Moving on to these sophisticated digital cameras was a big step up in my game,” she says. “I had never used or even tried a medium-format digital camera, and I was skeptical. From the first results, however, I was simply stunned at the detail and sharpness of the images. I could shoot with almost no light at all and still deliver quality that was out of this world.”

She goes on to add, “The Fujifilm GFX system showed me a quality I didn’t know, therefore it stepped up my planning when shooting. Since the sensor is 1.7 times the size of a full frame (so much detail!), before shooting I try to be very sure about the scene I’m capturing. I study the light and the composition game carefully. The Fujifilm GFX system makes my way of shooting and planning bold and more conscious.”

As the world remains in lock-down because of Covid-19, and wedding gigs have temporarily slowed, Daniela has been using her Fujifilm GFX gear to keep her skills sharp. She has been shooting portraits and still-life images right at home and that has given her more time to be reflective on her art. “When the pandemic started and we were all locked down, I came up with an idea of a fictional fruit world and started experimenting with a series entitled “Frutal Crime”, she explains. “I did all the work in my room, with natural light next to a window. The result was amazing! I had so much fun during the process, the camera was my perfect ally to make this possible. Now I keep working in this project experimenting more with exotic fruits and the concept of the series, its projected to become an exhibition and a book!

“Photography, even during a pandemic, has become a daily reminder to me to appreciate every small detail of life, to fully experience everything I see and do and touch,” Daniela says. “I am more than ready now to get out and back into the world. But I will go there with a refined sensibility and a magnified view of the world that I certainly never expected to ever have when I first arrived as a 19-year-old student at Parsons on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, in search of my place in the world.”

To see more of Daniela’s work, visit: danielavillarrealweddings.com/

Special note: Daniela was named one of Rangefinder Magazine’s “30 Rising Stars in Wedding Photography” in 2020, announced to coincide with the WPPI 2020 conference (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) which took place in Las Vegas a month before the COVID-19 global lockdown.

Check out Rangefinder’s 2021 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography here!