Portrait of Aby Inside Buena Vista Studio
We’ll replace this with your actual hero image.Meet Aby: How Buena Vista Studio Began in San Antonio
More than an Instagram caption.
Hi, friends. I’m Aby, founder and owner of Buena Vista Studio .
Since this is the first entry in the Buena Journal, it feels right to start at the beginning.
The Journal is where we get to share more than what can fit into an Instagram caption. It’s a space for the stories behind Buena, the people creating here, the lessons we’re learning, and resources we hope make creating and running a creative business a little easier.
The Making of Buena takes you behind the scenes of building, operating, and continuing to grow Buena Vista Studio. We’ll talk about everything from construction and our Grand Opening to studio ownership, overhead, policies, lessons learned, and the business decisions happening behind the pretty photos.
Photo of the Month celebrates the photographers and artists creating inside Buena and gives us a chance to share more about the people and stories behind their work.
Studio Notes is where we’ll get practical: posing ideas, lighting tips, client interactions, session planning, studio setups, and ways to get more out of your time in the space.
How We Shot It will reverse-engineer actual photographs. We’ll break down the camera and lens, settings, lighting positions, angles, composition, subject placement, and even editing choices when they’re relevant.
Seasonal at Buena will take you behind our seasonal installations, from the inspiration and design process to styling ideas and ways you can photograph each set.
You may even hear from a few special guest voices along the way. We’re letting the Journal grow with the studio and the community, so who knows where it takes us.
But before we get into Buena, you should probably know a little about the person who decided to build it.
Marketer. Photographer. Studio owner.
My professional background is in corporate marketing, with nearly a decade of experience across digital marketing, communications, social media, sponsorships, events, and community engagement.
Today, much of my corporate work focuses on events and sponsorships in the financial services industry, a space I genuinely love. Outside of that role, I balance two businesses I care deeply about: my photography business and Buena Vista Studio.
I’m big on communication.
And organization.
Probably annoyingly big.
Clear expectations. Thoughtful systems. Preparation. Follow-through. Making information easy to find. Making people feel like someone actually thought about what they might need before they had to ask.
Those values followed me from corporate marketing into photography and eventually became a major part of how I wanted Buena Vista Studio to operate.
Before the camera, there was an iPhone.
Back in 2019, I was working at Topgolf as a marketing lead and managing our local San Antonio Facebook page.
We had approved company stock photography available to use, but San Antonio is such a culturally rich city. We do things differently here, and I wanted the content representing our venue to actually feel like our venue and our city.
So I started taking my own photos on my phone.
That became my introduction to composition and natural light. I started paying attention to where light was coming from, how an angle changed a photograph, what made an image feel balanced, and how to capture something in a way that made people stop scrolling.
Eventually, some of the photos I created on my iPhone were approved for use company-wide.
Nothing made me prouder than seeing other venues using photographs that had been created right here in San Antonio.
That gave me the confidence to start looking for a real camera.
Enter the nifty fifty.
A coworker needed some extra money and offered to sell me his Nikon D3400 with two lenses for around $600.
At the time? $600 felt like SO much money.
Knowing what I know about photography equipment now, I can confidently say I got a pretty great deal.
There was one lens in particular that quickly became my lifeline: the 50mm f/1.8.
My nifty fifty was basically glued to my camera.
I started in Auto mode. Then came Aperture Priority. Eventually, Manual became my everyday setting.
That transition was when I started feeling less like someone who owned a camera and more like someone who understood how to intentionally create an image.
Seniors became the beginning of a business.
When COVID hit, I was furloughed from my marketing position.
It was an incredibly uncertain time, but it also gave me something I hadn’t really had before: time to shoot.
It was around March, and many of my friends were preparing to graduate from UTSA.
Graduations looked different. Proms disappeared. Events were canceled. People were missing experiences they had spent years imagining.
But people still wanted to celebrate. And they still wanted photographs.
So I started photographing seniors. I gave it a shot. And people booked.
Senior portraits turned into events, engagements, weddings, maternity sessions, family photos, prom portraits, and just about everything in between.
I realized I didn’t have to choose.
Photography grew during that season, but I never stopped loving marketing either.
Eventually, I returned to the corporate world and transitioned into a completely different industry: civil engineering.
That move challenged me in a new way. I had to learn a new industry, understand a different audience, and figure out how to communicate highly technical work in a way that still felt clear and meaningful.
At the same time, my photography business was continuing to grow.
For a while, I think I assumed I would eventually have to choose one.
Over time, I realized I didn’t.
Today, I work in the financial services industry and genuinely love that work as well. My role allows me to continue growing in marketing, events, sponsorships, relationship-building, and community engagement while still operating my photography business and Buena Vista Studio.
Corporate marketing has taught me how to think about communication, partnerships, planning, systems, organization, brand experience, and the details that happen behind the scenes.
Photography has taught me how to adapt, create, connect with people, solve problems quickly, and tell stories visually.
Buena Vista Studio became a place where so much of that experience could finally come together.
The cameras I reach for now.
Today, my main camera is a Sony A7R V .
My 24–70mm f/2.8 is easily my favorite lens and usually the one you’ll find attached to it.
But I still love pulling out the 85mm f/1.4 when I want that extra compression and depth.
Then there’s my Fujifilm X-T50 .
I actually almost sold it because I wasn’t reaching for it enough.
Then I started experimenting with in-camera double exposures.
And suddenly, I understood exactly where that camera fit into my creative process.
Now, I think of my Fuji as my artsy camera.
It’s the one I pick up when I want to experiment with layering images, movement, composition, and something a little less predictable. It’s also become one of my favorite travel cameras.
I love experimenting with the film simulations, especially black and white.
My relationship with light changed too.
When I started photography, I was strictly a natural-light photographer.
Natural light taught me how to actually see light: its direction, softness, contrast, shadows, open shade, windows, and how dramatically the time of day can change an image.
For a long time, that was all I wanted to use.
Now?
I’m obsessed with flash.
I use it with natural light, without natural light, subtly, dramatically, and everywhere in between.
Learning flash didn’t replace what natural light taught me. It simply gave me another tool.
Events, branding and portraits. No weddings.
Today, I primarily focus on corporate events, small-business branding, and portraits, especially seniors and families.
One thing you won’t find me photographing anymore?
Weddings.
And I actually love weddings.
But wedding clients deserve a photographer who has the capacity to provide the planning, communication, attention, and customer care a wedding requires from beginning to end.
Between my corporate career, photography business, and Buena Vista Studio, I knew that wasn’t an experience I could confidently promise.
So I chose to focus on what I can serve really well: events and portraits.
One of the biggest lessons photography has taught me is that finding your niche isn’t only about discovering what you love.
Sometimes it’s also about becoming comfortable saying no to the things that no longer fit.
The camera is only one piece.
I didn’t officially form my photography LLC until about three years after I started shooting.
And those first few years taught me very quickly that running a photography business involves a lot more than taking photographs.
You have to understand your boundaries, your values, your pricing, your niche, your policies, your contracts, your communication, your client experience, and eventually the systems that hold all of that together.
Finding the right CRM was part of that learning process for me.
Coming from the corporate world, I initially gravitated toward tools that felt familiar.
I tried Salesforce.
That was... a lot.
Then HubSpot.
Not quite what I needed.
Then Square.
Closer.
Eventually, I found HoneyBook , and at that stage of my photography business, it felt much closer to the way I actually worked as a creative service provider.
HoneyBook helped me bring more of my client experience into one place, including inquiries, contracts, invoices, payments, scheduling, and project communication.
And that process taught me something important:
HoneyBook
If you’re exploring HoneyBook for your own creative business, you can use my referral link to receive 30% off your subscription.
Full transparency: this is my personal HoneyBook referral link, which means I may receive a referral benefit if you decide to sign up through it. I only share tools and resources here that I’ve personally used or believe are worth exploring.
There’s a person behind all of this.
Outside of marketing, photography, and Buena, there’s a whole person behind all of this too.
I live on the northwest side of San Antonio, which basically means I am always in my car.
Between work, photography, Buena, and frequent trips to Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth, Texas highways and I have become very well acquainted.
There’s usually a drink in the cupholder too. Give me a good chai, a sugar-free latte with oat milk, or an energy drink and we’re ready to go.
I won my high school talent show senior year singing “At Last” by Etta James.
Invite me to karaoke now, though, and there’s a very good chance you’re getting Fergie, Michael Jackson, or Pat Benatar.
I also love a good adventure.
I’ve jumped out of airplanes, driven race cars on a track, and generally enjoy experiences that make you question your decision-making for a few minutes beforehand.
Oddly enough, when something actually goes wrong, I’m usually very calm.
I am the person who will call 911. And I say that from experience.
Family is a huge part of my life as well. I’m a very proud big sister to two much-younger siblings who have somehow reached the stage where I’m helping teach them how to drive, which I’m choosing not to emotionally process just yet.
At home, I’m also a mom to two very loved fur babies and a newlywed to an amazing husband who is easily my biggest supporter.
He cooks.
He does the dishes.
When my car’s AC goes out in the middle of a Texas summer, he gets that fixed too.
Trophy husband behavior, and we love this for me.
I already knew this room.
Before owning Buena Vista Studio, I was actually a studio member in the exact space Buena occupies today.
The previous tenants operated their own creative studio here, so I was extremely familiar with the room.
I shot here MANY times.
I knew the windows. I knew the floors. I knew how the natural light moved through the studio. I knew which corners I gravitated toward. I knew what I could create here.
Even becoming a studio member had felt like a scary financial decision.
When you’re running your own creative business, adding another recurring expense isn’t something you take lightly.
But that membership pushed me.
I photographed more. I created more. I marketed my work more consistently. I had more content to share.
And I could confidently offer clients a studio option without figuring out a completely new location every time someone booked.
That year, my photography business was profitable every month and experienced its highest sales year to date.
A studio membership didn’t magically create that revenue. I still had to do the work.
But having consistent access to a creative space absolutely changed the way I showed up for my business.
And I never forgot what that investment felt like.
What if I became the studio owner?
Eventually, the owner of the previous studio needed someone to take over the lease.
Suddenly, a space I already knew extremely well came with a completely different opportunity.
My first thought wasn’t: Obviously. I’m ready.
It was closer to: Am I actually ready for this?
But eventually I had to ask myself another question.
Why did I think I wasn’t?
I knew the space. I had years of experience behind a camera. I understood what it felt like to rent studios. I understood what it felt like to make the financial commitment to become a member.
I had experienced firsthand how having access to a studio could affect the consistency of my own business.
And professionally, my background was already rooted in marketing, communication, events, sponsorships, organization, and community building.
Maybe I wasn’t supposed to know everything before I started.
Maybe I already had enough to begin.
The opportunity came much sooner than I expected. There was a lot of prayer, reflection, and trust involved.
It felt exciting. Humbling. And honestly, a little scary.
But deep down, I knew it was something I was being called to build.
So I said yes.
And the rest is becoming Buena history.
The beautiful view became something bigger.
San Antonio has always felt like the biggest small town.
It’s a city filled with creativity and culture, but relationships are what make this community special.
People know people. People recommend people. And when this community believes in something, people genuinely show up for one another.
That spirit became part of the foundation for Buena Vista Studio.
Our studio sits just off Buena Vista Street inside Warehouse 5. One of my favorite parts of making your way to the studio is the beautiful view of the San Antonio skyline as you approach the area.
The name felt fitting from the beginning.
Buena Vista means beautiful view.
But over time, I’ve realized the “beautiful view” means more to me than the skyline you pass on the way here.
It’s the people.
The photographers chasing a dream. The families celebrating milestones. The artists creating something new. The entrepreneurs building businesses. The connections and friendships forming within these walls.
That’s the Buena Life.
We know what it’s like to be the creative behind everything.
I never want to forget what it feels like to be the creative on the other side of the booking.
The person wondering whether the cost of renting a studio is worth it. The person trying to run an entire business themselves.
Because being a creative entrepreneur often means being much more than the creative.
You’re the photographer. The marketer. The salesperson. The negotiator. The scheduler. The website person. The SEO person. The content creator. The customer service department. The bookkeeper. The time manager.
And somehow, somewhere in there, you still need to find time to actually create.
We know what that feels like. In many ways, we’re still living it.
That’s why my vision for Buena has never been to simply provide four walls and an hourly reservation.
That means maintaining a clean, thoughtful space. Creating educational resources. Planning community events. Sharing posing and studio setup ideas. Showing you how images were created. Highlighting artists. Resharing work created here. Creating programs like Photo of the Month that give photographers another opportunity to have their work seen. And continuing to listen to what our creative community actually needs.
The Buena Life Community Chat
If you want to stay connected beyond the Journal, you’re welcome to join The Buena Life Community Chat on Instagram.
It’s a space for creatives to stay connected, hear what’s happening at Buena, share resources, discover opportunities, and be part of the community we’re continuing to build around the studio.
You don’t have to rent the studio or be a Buena member to be part of the conversation.
Because one of the biggest things I’ve learned through photography and business is this:
You really don’t have to figure all of it out alone.
It already is.
Photography will always be a major part of Buena, but the studio has already become a creative home for so many different types of people.
We’ve welcomed photographers, videographers, models and modeling agencies, podcasters, actors, content creators, entrepreneurs, seasoned professionals, people building their first businesses, families, couples, and more.
That variety is part of what makes the space special.
Some people come in with a full production plan.
Some are experimenting with something new.
Some are creating content for their business.
Some are documenting a milestone.
And some are simply looking for a space where they can bring an idea to life.
You don’t have to reach some imaginary level of success before you belong in a creative space.
Buena has already become a place where different industries, experience levels, and creative ideas can exist under the same roof.
And we want to keep building on that.
There’s a lot more to this story.
Throughout The Making of Buena, I’ll take you further behind the scenes.
We’ll talk about taking over the space and everything the previous tenant left behind.
Restoring the original floors.
Designing a functional creative studio within roughly 435 square feet.
Driving all the way to Houston for the frame that would eventually become our movable cyclorama wall.
Choosing furniture that made sense for the room instead of simply filling it.
Developing our core values.
Creating policies designed to protect our renters and our business.
The month we spent getting the studio to a point where we actually felt comfortable welcoming people inside.
Our Grand Opening.
The financial realities of becoming a studio owner. The expenses we expected and the ones we didn’t. And the lessons we’re still learning.
When we get into topics involving business structures, taxes, contracts, insurance, finances, or other professional matters, we’ll also point you toward credible resources and professionals who can help you continue your research.
We’re happy to tell you what we experienced. We’re not here to pretend our experience is legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice.
Whether you’re thinking about opening your own studio one day, growing a photography business, looking for ideas for your next session, or simply curious about what happens behind the scenes at Buena Vista Studio, I hope you find something worth coming back for.
There’s a lot more on the horizon.
We’ll figure some of it out together.