Hey! I'm Ayla!
I have been a photographer for 14 years. It's insane. My favorite part is absolutely, watching these families grow right before my very eyes. These littles babies that I once held in my hands now tower over their mom's and almost their dad's. I do not take this job for granted and I think it's such an important job. It's your memories.
If I'm not at the studio or in a field somewhere you most likely will either see me at a basketball game or not at all because I am a homebody. I love to be at home. I just hang out with my 14 & 8 year old, and sometimes their father, my husband, when the kids are bored of us. We love the lake, summer, basketball, our dogs, and did I mention, being at home.
I started photography when my son was born. I wished I could say ''I was born with a camera in my hand" but that's not part of my story. I just really did not want to leave him, ever and I just picked up a camera and thought "you know what, maybe?" I took 1 million pictures of him, the dogs, the horses, the trees, friends, just anything that I could make a subject. I lived on YouTube trying to figure out stupid photoshop and Lightroom and all the tips and tricks of "how to become a photographer."
I charged $50 a session that first year, and then a steep $75 the next year. I quickly learned what it meant to be a 'starving artist.'
I look back on those early years with so much admiration for myself, because I never quit, even when I wanted to. Mostly because I had a rock solid support system of family, friends but mostly my, husband. He told me "you got till Pax goes to school to figure out what you want to do."
I was a 22 year old, brand new mom, that had flunked out of college twice because I hated it so much, floating between jobs that I also hated.
So, I took those 5 years and become a photographer.
