If you’re new here + wondering who the heck this Krista girl is, HEY HI HELLO! Welcome! I’m so so glad you’re here + am so thrilled to give you a bit more of a window into who I am as a person, + why I’m so passionate about my clients + what I get to do for a living.
Is it just me or is it actually so fun to look back on your childhood + realize even though you didn’t know it was happening, + maybe even fought it off for years, that you were being guided into who + what you are today from a very very young age? My life hasn’t always been easy (whose has?!?) but I’ve been doing quite a lot of soul-searching lately + am loving how much I can see God directing me into being an entrepreneur + photographer.
I’ve been encouraged + drawn to the arts, creativity, + finding + creating beauty since I was a young child. Both of my parents are educators with a love for the arts, specifically music. My dad has taught music, especially music theory, + conducted multiple different choruses since before I or any of my siblings were alive. My mom, a kindergarten teacher turned librarian, is a gifted scrapbooker who has quite literally documented our lives as individuals + a family for 30+ years. Together, they cultivated a home where creativity was encouraged (ask me about the epic craft room we had growing up) + making a life for yourself was almost expected. Although I think they’d be wary to admit it, both of my parents are entrepreneurs – my dad owned + operated a painting (homes) business up until his semi-retirement a few years ago, while my mom’s ‘side hustle’ is being a seamstress.
Cameras + hobby photography have pretty much always been a part of my life. As I mentioned earlier, my mom is an avid scrapbooker, so my + my siblings’ lives have been documented photographically since our births. My dad even taught a photography class in his early teaching days. So it was only natural that I picked up my first camera for about $10 at a yard sale when I was 8 or 9 years old. That old camera was such a joke – it was a clunky old digital camera that really only worked maybe 20% of the time + ate through my rechargeable batteries (hey, I’m a 90’s baby – the technology back then was, shall we say, a bit lacking 😂) but goodness I carried that thing around proudly.
Since then, I’ve pretty much always owned some sort of camera + photographed objects solely as a hobby. I threw around a dream of someday being a travel or nature photographer but never really gave it much merit. I never expected to ever make a career out of portrait photography but that all changed once my life was turned upside down by the events of 2020.
Early 2020 found me working as a marketing coordinator for a local up-and-coming business. At the time, they were transitioning out of being a start-up business so I was wearing multiple hats as they navigated the growing pains of building a business. Part of my role was providing about 75% of their product photography. However, when Covid hit, I was unexpectedly let go (truthfully, it was a blessing in disguise – it was a highly toxic workplace + it was time for me to get out of there in order to save my own sanity). To make a long story short, by September of that year I was sick + tired of interviewing for new jobs + bored out of my mind with being unemployed. I looked at my photography gear + decided to take the plunge into portrait photography (hey, if I could photograph products, surely people weren’t that hard, right?!?). I fell head over heels in LOVE with it + as they say, the rest is history.
Photographing people feels like such a gift to me. Showing a client the back of my camera screen in the middle of a session + watching their face light up when they realize ‘ohmystars, that’s ME in that image?!?!’ is the best feeling in the world. Listening to a client express how a photoshoot began a shift in how they are able to look at themselves + be grateful for what they look like makes me want to hug them tight + sob my heart out. Seeing clients’ images hanging in their homes or on their camera backgrounds or set as their social media account profiles gives me all the warm fuzzies.
It is absolutely my deepest, most passionate desire that Krista Lae Creative be a place where people can feel safe to open up + be the most real, raw, + unique versions of themselves. The best compliment my clients give me is when they say things like ‘I feel so beautiful in these!’ or ‘I can’t believe that’s us – we look so cool/incredible/hot!’ or ‘I feel like you captured our relationship/personality so perfectly!’ I’ve been there – I’ve struggled through the days of not ‘feeling it’, of feeling ugly + fat + so invaluable + unworthy of love. And yet, even in those darkest of days, I know there are people out there who still see the good parts of me + love me for all of it. If I can help just a handful of people believe in how beautiful, unique, loved, + needed they are in this world, I know I will have done what I’m here on this earth to do.
If you’ve made it this far through all my ramblings, thank you. If you need a bit of encouragement today, leave a comment below – I’d love to say hi + thank you for being here today. If you are looking for a photographer who will be in your corner + do everything she can to hype you up + remind you of the good, of the beauty, + of the uniqueness you bring to this world, all the while making sure you’re having the absolute time of your lives, fill out a inquiry form + let’s chat! 🤍
