Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy West.
Cathy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Oh, my gosh – this is such a crazy kind of story! My path has never been direct I can say that for sure! I’ve always loved taking photos. I have photos I took when I was probably 10 of my Cocker Spaniel and I had him posed on these stacks of bags on our back porch. They are so funny to look at now! I took photos of sunsets all the time growing up. My mom used to make fun of me for it because I “wasted” so much film taking photos of the sky. But I loved it. In high school, I joined a photography club and at that point it was an old-school dark room and I shot black and white film. I had so much fun experimenting with techniques then! I have some of my favorite photos from that class still. I would use any excuse to leave class and go play around with film in the darkroom.
Once I got to college, I majored in backstage theatre focusing on stage management, lighting, and directing. I took photography classes as my schedule allowed, but I didn’t think it was something I could make a career of. I took photos of friends and their engagements and things like that, but never took it too seriously until several years later when my boyfriend at the time bought a nice Canon digital camera. That was the beginning of the end for me! Within a few years, I had established UnPosed Photography and was photographing pretty seriously. When me and the boyfriend who had since become my husband divorced, all I asked for in the divorce was the photography business. I knew that was where my heart was. It took a couple of years, a move to upstate NY and then back to the Midwest, and falling in love with my current partner/husband/business owner/right-hand guy, but that dream finally happened. UnPosed Photography has been both mine and my husband’s full-time job for 6 years now and it truly is a dream come true!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not even a little bit! As I briefly mentioned in my previous answer, I found myself divorced with pretty much nothing but my camera, some lenses, and a fledgling photography business. I moved to a different part of the country to try to pursue theatre thinking that had to be the right answer for me but kept finding myself inextricably drawn to photography. I fell in love with my then best friend who has since become my husband and we moved back to the Midwest with the full intent to try to take my photography business full time for both of us. When we first moved to Galena, we lived in a 500 sq. ft. house and we literally slept on our couch the whole first year we lived here. We lived on ramen and PB&J sandwiches. I mean, we truly moved with just a dream, so it was really tough at first. But we made friends, created relationships within our industry, and constantly pushed ourselves forward. It has really been an up and down road, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it. If nothing else, the struggle has made us try all the harder for our dreams. And it’s so good to have a partner in things like this because when I’m having a hard time he pushes me to keep going and vice versa. I’m so grateful to have someone in my life that can do that for me. Also, our clients are AMAZING!!! I say often that UnPosed Couples are the best couples and they really are! The reviews they leave and the referrals they send us are incredible. It means so much to us when our clients send others our way. We wouldn’t be where we are today without them!
Please tell us about UnPosed Photography.
Primarily, we are known for our wedding and commercial photography, but we recently began branching out to baby and family photos which is really exciting for us! Though we are based in Galena, we travel worldwide for our clients and often find ourselves in Chicago for photo sessions and projects.
For our wedding couples, we do all that we can to treat them with the utmost respect for who they are as unique people. I think it’s easy to see couples as just a number when you’ve been working in weddings for several years, but to us each couple is unique. They have their own stories and their own struggles and we do our best to honor that in our photos of them. We have a lot of fun with our couples, and we also get to know them throughout their planning process to the point that we truly create friendships with them. We adore our UnPosed Couples and because of that, they know they can trust us to create imagery that will last beyond them.
For our commercial clients, it’s really a similar situation. We know each company and business is unique. There are stories they need to tell the world. We want to showcase that company and the people within it in the truest way that we possibly can. We feel that impeccable images will attract your ideal clients and when you attract your ideal clients your business will succeed. In the fast-moving, the imagery based society that we live in, quality images that tell your story will set you apart. That’s what we long to create for the companies that hire us.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I don’t really have one specific favorite memory, but the house I grew up in was really close to a forest and corn field. Many of my favorite moments happened when I took our dog, Sammy, for walks in that forest and that field. I’d put on my headphones and go outside for hours exploring and walking. I rescued a litter of opossums whose mom had been killed. I brought home lord knows how many stray cats. I saw deer and countless rabbits. I built forts and climbed trees. It was the best!
Pricing:
- Wedding Photography starting at $3950
- Commercial Photography starting at $250 per hour
- Baby and Family Photo Sessions in Galena starting at $125
Contact Info:
- Website: http://unposedphotography.com
- Phone: (309) 648-4025
- Email: hello@unposedphotography.com
- Instagram: @unposed_photogs
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unposedphotography
Image Credit:
Main photo: Ryan Davis Photography
UnPosed Photography
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