Meet Joe and Kari Pyle | Elopement and Adventure Session Photography in Wild Places

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joe and Kari Pyle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joe and Kari, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
We are outside, in the mountains, several times a week. It is important for both of us to be fully present and with our couples each time we are hired for our sessions. That being said, we do our best to stay in shape and are quite active.

We backcountry ski, rock climb, mountain bike, and hike frequently and we’re always scouting for new locations. Living next to the mountains is one thing, but living IN the mountains is entirely different. We pride ourselves on being able to keep up with all of our couples and it’s important for us.

Our adventure sessions are the most popular session up here and we love being with our couples in remote, wild places.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
A lot of you may be thinking…

“Here’s another photographer trying hard to make themselves sound better than everyone else”.

The bigger picture is more truthful. We are a married couple and we shoot every elopement, wedding, and engagement together. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We love it here in Estes Park. We love living five minutes from Rocky Mountain National Park. We love our family, and we love our friends. We love photographing people on their best day. If we didn’t love this we wouldn’t do it. Our entrepreneurial mindset has created a lifestyle here that affords us more than just “working photography” as if it were a job. For us, it’s not. Granted, there are times when it feels more stressful than others, but 98% of the time we are loving what we do.

We hope to be thoughtful, present, kind, and most of all, excellent photographers on your special day.

It took a lot for us to be able to live here in Estes Park full time, and we don’t take it lightly. Working in factories, striving to make ends meet, and being someone else’s pawn as a full time employee with benefits was not for us so we started looking for other ways to be self employed. It sounds a bit “out there”, but we have done everything from teaching in school, to HVAC, to factory work, to retail, to being a dental assistant, to…

Nothing is more satisfying than delivering a stunning gallery to a couple that is an expression of their day. We love every aspect of our photography and it’s never been a burden to us.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Without a doubt, if someone I knew was visiting for the first time I would take them into Rocky Mountain National Park for either a trail run, backcountry ski, or hike. It is by far the most amazing place we’ve been. The best day I can think of would be started with meeting for an espresso drink at The Birds Nest, followed by grabbing a sandwich or pastry there to pack in with us. Once we were in the park, we’d probably try summiting a peak or skiing a glacier in the park all day. Once we were totally spent and back to our van, we would head to Bird and Jim for some amazing, fresh cocktails, a local beer, or a glass of top shelf whiskey, neat. (Try the Sm’oaked Old Fashioned, made with local 291 whiskey!) They have an amazing menu as well and chef Thomas is on point!

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?
We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of really big names in the industry help us along the way. To mention one over another would seem a bit cold, so let’s just say that they are all part of the Fearless Photographer’s group. We’ve either been mentored in person, or online, and they are all good people.

Website: joepylephotography.com

Instagram: @joepylephotography