It all started at Gaithersburg High School. Just three guys doing their thing in school, just trying to graduate like any of the other typical teenager there. They had a common interest in photography and videography that allowed them to connect, creating the close friendships they cherish to this day. But something changed in the midst of their final year at the school. Senior year marked the start of their common interest becoming a foundation for something more.

“Casual visuals was our creative initiative,” Aung said.

A common thread between three friends became the foundation for a business that would pay them them when hired by people for photoshoots or events that people wanted recorded, like weddings. A business with friends. A business that had the potential to grow. A business that no longer exists.

After over a year of working together Elias Villanueva, Duy Le, and Aung Oo, the band of musketeers who created this group ceased activity as a collective under Casual Visuals. Now they are on their own paths, pursuing their own goals. But how did they get to this point? How did the journey start and end?

“In the beginning it was just us working together all the time,” Elias noted. “We didn’t have a name for ourselves.”

From doing it in school to people asking them if they can take photos for them or do videos, they would casually collaborate on these projects together. They didn’t think about the future when it came to working as a team, but over time that mindset started to change as well.

“Eventually we started branding to build something,” Elias added.

Henceforth, Casual Visuals became a business in photography and videography. The three of them would be hired to do photoshoots, music videos, films and edits on a video recaps for newlyweds, etc.

“It was all over the place,” Aung said, “not one general niche.”

Even so, it proved to be a nice pursuit for the group as they made began making this their future career. They worked as a team and it proved to be a mutually beneficial relationship.

“On shoots we would have different camera angles,” Elias said, “we would share equipment with each other, ideas.”

This further helped them when venturing out and doing business for their clients. But even so, there were a lot of cons that stunted their growth when it came to how effective the group was when working together.

“Organization was a bit more difficult ‘cause a lot of us were going at different paces,” Elias said.

This stemmed from how different each of their skill levels were, which lead to conflict during shoots or editing later on. There was also the issue of the group never truly materializing what they wanted to see happen.

“We dreamt a lot,” Duy said. “We had a lot of ideas, but when it came to doing it we didn’t know how to.”

Add on to the lack of organization and what seemed to be an inability to execute, there was also tension between certain team members.

“Heads were clashing—especially Aung and Duy,” Elias said.

With all that transpiring, the guys just naturally began to drift apart. Each of them were still working on visual arts, being called out to photoshoots and being paid, but not as a team.

“We were getting hit up more individually than as a group,” Elias says.

For Aung, it was a bit more different as he came to better understand his relationship with photography.

“I’m not giving up on photography or videography,” he states, “but I definitely know that I don’t want to pursue it as a career.”

For him, he’s preparing to begin life as a college student at Montgomery College in hopes of becoming a physical trainer later on in life. Duy is just simply trying to support his friends as they move forward. His hope is to see them succeed. As for Elias, or better yet Eli Aura, he is working diligently on his music career, trying to further build his fan base and become a household name in the music industry. But even though this is the end of Casual Visuals, it is not the end of a brotherhood.

“I know we’re going to keep working together in groups,” Elias said, “just not under a name, and I know that for a fact.”

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