Last year, everyone’s favorite KugrTV bromance, Lakief Traynor and Zavier Romero, graduated, so where are they now? In an old downtown studio of course! Working together on making it in the world of photography and filmography. LZphotography is Lakief and Zavier’s small business which started with just a camera and a Craigslist ad.

Having just bought a camera, Lakief had a dream to make movies but quickly realized that it takes a lot more than just a camera to make a movie so he thought “how can I make money with just a camera and I (Lakief) was like, oh why not do photography!”Soon after, he was asked to do a wedding, his first gig as a photographer. At the time Zavier had just been laid off from his plumbing job so he decided he might as well help Lakief with this new idea. Not too long after that, they found an ad on Craigslist for a location in downtown Colorado Springs where a theater used to be, where Traynor and Romero’s business is now located, starting them on a journey into their new world of business and art.

“What I’ve come to realize is that, what a lot of photographers do is they try to create this universal image of beauty… You have to take what you think looks amazing, you know, you have to really put your heart into everything… you have to sell it…and you have to show them why it’s beautiful through your eyes,” said Lakief and Zavier about selling the beauty of art.

Lakief and Zavier found their passion for the arts at Coronado and as young entrepreneurs just out of high school, they are finding just how valuable all the school programs could be in inspiring creativity in the youth of Colorado.

Zavier had some ideas on how the school system and local government can help support young artists and he said “I would think just focusing more attention on school programs and opening up the budget for those school programs, you can’t really do a whole lot if there’s no money for kids to do what they want to do. If they’re just locked in math science and English, there’s no creativity.” They found much support at Coronado in our school’s great arts programs and in teachers like Mr. Philipsen and Mrs. Ambroz.

From Coronado to successful young entrepreneurs, we wish them the best. If you want to check out their work, you can find them on Facebook at LZphotography or Instagram at lzography. You can also reach them at (719) 652-8014. The Coronado alumni are also running a senior photo promotion with a 25% discount to District 11 students and a 50% discount to Coronado students.