Meet Austin Connoyer | Wedding & Portrait Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Austin Connoyer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Austin, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Work life balance has always been a big factor in how I create my workflows. Even at the beginning of my business, I tried to follow the old adage of work smarter, not harder. Now at the beginning I did have to work harder to figure out how to work smarter and a lot of that came from getting experience! When I moved out to Colorado from St. Louis, I made it a point to spend as much time as possible learning how to cut down the hours of my workflow. I’ve seen so many photographers working until late in the night and getting burnt out by taking a crazy amount of weddings. That was one thing I wanted to make sure didn’t happen to me, I want to still love what I do a decade down the road.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a wedding photographer out here in Colorado who specializes in a full service experience throughout the entire wedding planning process and not just on the day of! Before I got into wedding photography 7 years ago, I really only knew about sports photography. It was such a different type of photography and had a massive learning curve to it. I had to really teach myself about sun positioning and lighting as well as posing couples which took a lot of time and experience. I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way, but the big one is to just keep at it each day even if it’s just a little bit. That time you put in will reward you.

With all of this experience, I was finally able to figure out what I loved and what I wanted my brand centered around. And that was making lasting connections with my couples! I do enjoy the photography aspect of it, but what I really love is being able to connect and learn about my couples as the year progresses.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I mean first things first we have to hit up a Red Rocks show! So we’ll have to make sure thats on the docket for the weekend. We’d also absolutely have to check out Boulder and then head up to Lost Gulch Lookout to take in the sights. One day would be a winery day where one of the spots we would go to is Deep Roots over in Golden! With it being almost summer I would definitely recommend one of the many outdoor markets and food truck stops here in Denver. And finally we would have a drink at my favorite dive bar, PS Lounge!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Oh there are so many people out there that I wouldn’t be here today without them. The support of my family and friends has always been so important. They never once told me you can’t do this or that’s not possible. They have always been there for me especially when I really needed it throughout this process. My biggest shoutout though goes to Jeremy and Melissa of Your Story Photo & Cinema. They took a chance on me when I had no clue what I was doing and without their mentorship and support I have no idea where I would be or even if I would have my own photography business! So thank you so much to them and everyone else who has played a role in my life along the way!

Website: https://austinjphoto.com/

Instagram: @austinjamesphoto

Facebook: https://facebook.com/austinjamesphotoco

Image Credits
Brogan Resch Photography
Woodville Dream