UOG student Diana Sapigao is a 20-year-old UOG biochemistry major who started Reel Life Guam in 2016, a small business aimed at providing quality portrait and event photos at a fair price.  

“I was really scared at first to actually start it because I kept comparing myself to others,” Sapigao said.   

The idea came when Sapigao was hired by a church friend to photograph a birthday party.

She said the event helped her realize that people will pay affordable prices for high-quality photographs at small-scale events.

Sapigao’s focus right now is to promote her business in order to build a bigger client base for Reel Life Guam.

She hopes to gain this client base through advertising her business on her Facebook and Instagram pages.

“Right now, we actually have an ongoing sale of $50 a session,” Sapigao reveals as the promotion she is offering in the advertisements.

Sapigao’s journey in photography started when her father encouraged her and her siblings to develop an interest in it by teaching them how to use a camera to capture important family memories.

“I was like the family photographer,” Sapigao said. “Every time we were on vacation, I would be the one carrying the camera. I would never be in the photos but at least I took some pretty good photos.”

It wasn’t until high school when she really knew her way around a digital single-lens reflex camera, and that was the time people would ask her to take pictures of them because of the quality of her camera.

From there, Sapigao’s passion for photography began to flourish and she decided to take an introductory photography class at UOG.

The class provided her with the basics of the field and provided the basis for understanding the tricks and terminology.

“Once you know how to use a camera, you just keep practicing [sic] and use other resources online to improve your skill,” Sapigao reveals as the reason she didn’t pursue a higher photography class.

Sapigao enjoys capturing candid photographs of her subjects that convey a story that words can’t express.

“Each expression [sic] just tells this deep story that we can’t put into words,” Sapigao says.

Sapigao greatly appreciates any support she receives and hopes Reel Life Guam will keep telling stories through their photos.