VUE

Can you share a bit of background about yourself and how you got into photography? I was always the "friend with a camera" growing up, all the way back to disposable cameras at summer camp. I became more interested in it in high school, and then bought my first DSLR camera right before college. I interned with a wedding photographer friend of mine in college—it actually just started as a way to make some extra money, but I quickly fell in love with the job! I shot 10 to 15 weddings with her, and then she actually referred my first wedding to me. e couple were friends of mine, and I photographed their wedding a few weeks aer I graduated college. I was hooked, and decided I'd spend a year trying to build a photography business, and if it flopped, I'd get a job teaching (which is what my degree was in). It didn't flop. You also work with your husband. What drove you to settle into adventure weddings and elopements as your focus? What is it that interests you? I recruited my husband, Callen, as my second shooter for those first few weddings and we had so much fun working together that he's shot every wedding with me since! We started out when we were living in Texas, shooting bigger more traditional weddings in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. At the same time, we were taking these big road trips out West every chance we got, and falling more in love with places like the Utah desert and the mountains in California. About two years in, we took a big three-week trip and drove from Houston to Canada and back. By the end of that trip, we'd decided we needed to hit the road full-time and get out of Texas. We originally thought we'd just book a few weddings a year in Texas to sustain the road life, but as we traveled more, we began booking more couples in other states, and then began booking more adventurous gigs. By March 2017, we'd committed to "e Hearnes Adventure Photography" brand with a focus on small weddings and elopements in adventurous places. We love it because we love adventure. ese places are where we belong, and the goal all along has been to spend more time in these places. Now, we get to live and work in Yosemite and Moab and all of these amazing places! We've also fallen completely in love with the logistical side of planning these elopements, and the relationships we form with our couples. Now, we spend so much time with our couples, we're oen the only witnesses to their wedding! e closeness we get to have, and the satisfaction of helping them have a creative and adventurous wedding day is unbeatable. V U E N J . C O M 74

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