Elio Peña Profile

Elio was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, where he remembers saving all his pocket money to visit the ‘Cinecito’ – the local kids cinema – as often as he could. He has always been involved in the arts, whether it was working as a sound operator with some of Cuba’s most revered musicians, a DJ and MC at events and festivals, a dancer performing at the Millenium Dome before the Queen, an extra in several famous films and in several cases an actor in well known series Auf Wiedersein Pet. Surrounded by so much artistic talent, his desire to record and preserve the unique moments he was witnessing was the impetus for him to pick up his first camera.

Moving from in front to behind the lens he began to specialize in producing first class photography and videos for the Latino arts community in the UK and later branched out to weddings, portraiture and corporate events. His most treasured photography and film moments are working with Rebecca at WOMAD world music festival, where, with access to all areas “every act took me to a new level of inspiration and I relished the opportunity to find just the right angle to make the images transmit that feeling of hair raising energy”. Similarly, photographing and filming traditional weddings on a 3 month deployment in Africa with ImigCapture, the colours and vibrancy of the people, dress, customs and landscape had him awestruck. The majority of his learning has come from working on the job, but he likes to evolve his craft with online training courses and holds a Diploma in Video making from Morley College and Diploma in Advanced Photography from the Shaw Academy.

A self-proclaimed techno-geek, qualified electrician and all round handyman, he loves not only the artistic side of image making, but the machinery behind it and has built an impressive collection of equipment to support Firesoul Media’s technical department. He is often found tinkering with all sorts of equipment till the early hours, fixing, organizing and troubleshooting. He loves to laugh and brings an element of humour and fun to every shoot he does, making his clients feel at ease. When he’s not working he spends time with his fire soul partner, Rebecca, and their two sons, always with a camera at the ready!