ABOUT ME | ucibycrystalengstrom

ABOUT ME!

True Story:

I have always been a little artsy and liked taking pictures and scrapbooking, but after I had my own children.... well, I became obsessed. I would take thousands of pictures with my old point and shoot camera. I took my first born to a professional every four months for the first two years. However, I don't know about you, but taking my kids and my husband (who was way worse than the kids) to get their pictures taken stressed me out to the max! I hated the pressure I put on myself to find the perfect color coordinated outfits and then hoped and prayed that in the time slot I paid for that my toddlers would behave, hold still, and pose perfectly! HA!--HA!--HA!

So in an attempt to end a little stress, I took the plunge and invested in my own fancy pants camera. I am a self taught photographer. After a few years of practice and largely due to my Facebook posts of my own kids, I started getting asked by friends and family to take their pics. Then I really started to fall in love with photography!!! It is so fun to put ideas together, see amazing results and then have people love their photos!

After a lot of encouragement from family and friends to get more serious about this, here I am.

Photography is my hobby and something that I really enjoy, it is my creative outlet. By day I am a social worker. I have worked with parents and children (ages 0-18) for about twenty years now. My day job has given me tons of experience working with and talking to kids, making them feel comfortable under not so comfortable circumstances. I learned that when dealing with little ones, it's all about getting them to have fun, and turning their photo shoot into an adventure! The pictures where kiddos forget that the camera is even there and they are in their natural state are by far my favorite pictures. Those pictures only come after we are both comfortable with each other.

What I have Learned so far:

I get why Photographers charge so much. The equipment is expensive and I had no idea how much time I would have invested in prepping, editing and processing pictures. For every hour I spend with you taking your pictures, I am spending at least 4-6 more prepping editing, and creating finished images that you will want to run to the printer with. I am loving every minute of it. When I decided to go into business for myself, the hardest part of this was figuring out the pricing. I fully understand that is the digital age, which is why I offer digital packages. While you may have hundreds of pictures stored on your phone or your computer that you may never print, they are still yours and yours to do with that you want. I feel the same applies to the images I take of you.

In my opinion photo sessions are not a Luxury item, they are a necessity. No matter how bad I want to create that artistic image that you will want keep on your wall forever, I know realistically, 3-5 years from now you will look back on those posed photos and say, What was I wearing? or Look at my hair! So it will always be my priority to keep my pricing affordable. I want you to come back every year. Not once every 5 years.