Meet Kiersten: Owner and Photographer of Kiersten Marie Photo
Hi there! I realized today that people might not know a ton about me on this little website. So! I thought I would take a second (or maybe a bit longer) to introduce myself. I’m Kiersten, the photographer and owner of Kiersten Marie Photo, and this is a bit about my story.
The first thing you should know about me is that I’m a little zany. I love making people laugh and have a family filled with sarcastic people. I’ve come to find the this helps during photo sessions :)
I grew up in a suburb just east of St. Paul, Minnesota, and every so often you can still catch me saying “boat” or “bag” strangely. I loved the midwest and its focus on the outdoors. I was constantly in awe of nature around me and am still completely that person.
On top of being a photographer, I’m a musician and a film nerd. I swear Amelie is one of the reasons I’m a photographer today. I also have a big addiction to iced americanos and smoked salmon (ah, it’s good to live in the northwest).
But let’s get into how I got into this whole photography thing. It was in 9th grade when I discovered that I loved taking photos. Now let’s be real—they weren’t great. They were mostly what I liked to call “artsy selfies”. But the more I took, the better I got at understanding portraits. I soon realized I loved getting better and learning as much as I could (which is a little rare for a high school freshman).
That’s when I decided to take as many photography classes as possible in high school and figure out how film and the darkroom worked (sidetone: I’m not even kind of jealous of the photographers that had to fully rely on film).
In addition to these classes, I also had an older brother that was (and still is) an unbelievably gifted photographer and filmmaker. I was constantly drawing inspiration from his work and asking him about cameras (until he got annoyed with me—I was the little sister, after all).
In my junior year of high school, I knew I wanted to get out of the midwest to try something new. I researched my heart out and found a city that felt perfect for me—Seattle. A city that treasured art, music, the outdoors, and coffee. These three things are up there on the list of most important things in my life (plus I’m a sucker for a rainy day).
I found Seattle Pacific University and pursued studio art and philosophy (thanks for letting me do that, parents). I painted, soaked up David Hume’s theories, and took so many photos of this new beautiful city I called home. College was a dream. During my summers, I decided to start second shooting for different wedding photographers. I realized that being pushed into the high-stakes, fast-paced world of weddings was the best thing to help me learn an insane amount at light-speed. Like going to a foreign country to learn a language.
I also grew to really love the client-photographer relationship and how meaningful it was to be able to be with them during these beautiful days and hand their memories to them. Their stories, captured. I was hooked.
Through these years, I soaked up as much information as I could through incredible women photographers who were the best mentors I could have asked for. I knew I was going to have my own business someday and they are 100% responsible for allowing that to happen for me. I started Kiersten Marie Photo in 2012, knowing that I loved the slower moments of a wedding… the times where I got to crouch down and take some shots of the flower girl looking up at the bride like she was royalty. Or the small moments where a groom’s eyes well up when his best friend is hugging him after the ceremony.
All of these moments made me realize I wanted to focus on portrait sessions. And that’s exactly what I did! I started shooting families, maternity sessions, engagement sessions, newborns, and even headshots. I was truly in love with the work I was doing. I began incorporating weddings into my schedule and knew that I adored capturing these stories.
Since then, my love for meeting new clients and documenting seasons of their life has only grown. I still tear up during weddings I’m shooting, I still giggle behind the camera when I’m watching a little one make a clumsy and adorable attempt at walking, I still smile the whole time I’m editing photos.
And I still feel my heart swell when a client tells me how I have captured their story in a way that they didn’t know was possible. I’m amazed that I get to do this for a living.
I hope I get the chance to meet you and shoot what’s truly important in your life right now. It’s my absolute favorite thing to do.
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