We had the good fortune of connecting with Cayla Curtis and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Cayla, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’ve always had a draw towards creative hobbies. I first picked up a camera when I was in middle school. It was my parent’s and it also took videos. My friends would come over and we would take photos and record short skits. We would then play back everything we just shot, we would laugh and rewind to watch our favorite parts. In high school, I never took a single photography class, but insisted on shooting portraits of my friends in the rain or with fun props. I was your typical high-contrast, weird composition high school photographer. In 2014, I received my first DSLR as a gift. The next day I drove to the mountains and started shooting everything in my surroundings. I really enjoyed photographing landscape and wanted to post more of my images online. I found Instagram to be a great place to connect with other photographers, and that’s what reignited my love for portraiture. After three years of photographing for fun, I made the leap to start shooting family portraits for friends and family. After a few months, I felt confident enough to create pricing and that’s when Cayla Brooke Photography was born. By helping people capture sweet moments in their lives, I was instantly brought back to those feelings I had when I first started shooting. I knew this was something that I could grow.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Cayla Brooke Photography is a love & lifestyle photography business. My services include engagements, elopements, weddings, family portraits, and maternity. My goal is to capture life’s big and little moments while incorporating empathy and grace to whomever is front of my camera. I’ve always enjoyed the creative process and encourage clients to have a complimentary creative session with me prior to our session. I love the ideas that my clients come up with and commit to capturing the vision that they have in their head. I’m most proud of the relationships I’ve built. I get so excited when reunited with my families and couples year after year, and see how big their kids have gotten or what new phase of life they’ve entered. And I absolutely live for delivering final photos to my clients. Their kind words and excitement are what keeps me going. Getting to where I am today with my business was not easy, much like anything worth doing. There have been some really hard lessons and with each lesson comes a decision to continue growing into a new unknown phase or to stay put. The inspiration to keep going comes from watching fellow creatives make that decision for themselves. The feeling of being on this journey with other business owners is what tells me that I can do this too. The biggest takeaways for me have come from my challenges. What I always try to keep in mind is that my clients trust me. They trust that I will take care of capturing the big moments, and the in-betweens that we’d otherwise forget. And they trust me to deliver which is an honor that no creative business owner takes lightly.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I think every person probably does this, but whenever my best friend comes to visit I always try to convince them to move here. In Denver, I always take them to a local coffee shop, like Bardo, Crema or Black Eye. And they love live music so our stops have included the likes of Cervantes, Larimer Lounge, and the High Dive so they can experience our local music scene. I also try to plan any weekend visits around a Red Rocks show if we can. In the mountains, if we have the time, I’d take them to Aspen or Telluride, something grand and that they don’t see everyday where they live. And it’s always fun to drive them up Mount Evans or Pike’s Peak, the tourist-y stuff I did when I moved here almost a decade ago. And I think there are some great ways to hang like locals, too. I’m a fan of ordering Blue Pan or Adrift to-go and eating it at Cheesman.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Yes, I really can’t begin to describe the immense amount of support that my boyfriend (now husband) provided me when I was first building my business and into today. He’s been a commercial videographer for 10+ years and has shot for some well known brands (@curtisvisualworks). His expertise, encouragement, and desire to help are what kept me going in times of doubt. In fact, he is who inspired me the most when it came to making the decision to start my own photography business. I’ve seen him build his business and brand from the ground up, and his commitment to his clients and the joy they bring him is a connection I was hoping to build with future clients of my own. My parents were the people who gifted me my first DSLR, and I would be remiss if I didn’t thank them for pushing me towards something they knew I always loved. And the Denver creative community is an amazing source of inspiration. I’ve met a lot really hard working and kind people through this community, and I’m so grateful for the friends who let me shoot with them or who put me in front of their camera.
Website: https://www.caylashortley.com/
Instagram: @caylabrookephoto
Facebook: @caylabrookephoto
Image Credits
Cayla Brooke Photography, Curtis Visual Works.