Expert Profiles

Daniel Usenko

Wedding Photographer

My name is Daniel. I am a film photographer from Seattle, WA.

I was born and raised in the Republic of Abkhazia, a small country on the coast of the Black Sea. When I was seven, a civil war broke out. Having lost everything after a year-long war, we fled to Russia and eventually came to the United States as refugees.

The tough childhood has taught me to be thankful for all that I have, and I have a lot to be thankful for. One of the things I am most grateful for is the gift of photography and the fact that I have been able to share it with the world for the last 15 years. I love everything about it - from enjoying the art, to serving my clients, to traveling, to teaching others. I am truly fortunate.

The one word that describes my approach to photography best is beauty. I believe that people are beautiful and my primary job is understanding, finding, observing and capturing the beauty of every one of my subjects. In fact, the first lesson at all my photography workshops is called “Philosophy of Beauty”.

The majority of my time now goes into running Pixellu, a startup I co-founded a few years ago. Pixellu is a software company that helps other photographers run successful businesses through album and slideshow design.

All images © Daniel Usenko