Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Austin & Shilo Kirkpatrick. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Austin & Shilo , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Does anyone else feel like they made extreme life-changing decisions during COVID lockdown? For us, it was like, “Hey, if it happened during a world shutdown and doesn’t work out, there are far worse things happening, and it won’t be a big deal, right?!” And on a whim, we took a risk with the little money we had saved up and rented a photo studio. The behind-the-scenes, more detailed story was that Shilo was working from home at the time, and things finally started to open back up, so she met some friends for lunch. She had that attitude of like, “OMG, I’m finally out of the house, away from the kids; I should do something crazy!” And instead of getting a new tattoo or a piercing, she randomly toured a photo studio. When Austin was off work that night, she started her greeting when he walked in the door with, “So I did a thing….” Renting a studio had not been a part of our recent discussions, so it was a shock. But Austin agreed to come see it the next morning, and we had written a deposit check that evening! We had no money, two little kids, and a lot of pent-up “lockdown energy” that fueled our decision. Risky? Yes. Hard? Definitely. Worth it? 100%. That chance we took led to so many blessings for our family, and we could have never known the impact it was going to have at the time. We planned to use the studio just for our photography business when we first got the studio. For the first year, it was only just for us. Then, we moved into a bigger space in the building and decided to open it up to the community of local photographers. When I tell you we poured every ounce of ourselves into this space and opened it up, we had so much support. It was astonishing. Shortly after opening the studio for rentals, we got pregnant with our third child. Our sweet daughter had some medical diagnosis that kept us busy with appointments and therapies, and with both of us working full-time jobs, doing photography, and running the studio, we couldn’t keep up, so we took another risk; Austin left his full-time, very dependable job. While it has not been easy, our local community of talented photographers and amazing clients have shown up for us, supported our business, and changed our lives. This summer, we celebrated a whole year of Austin being home full time!!! Stepping out of the box is so scary, and it’s not all easy, but putting in the work and continuing to be bold with our business has blessed us, and we do not plan on stopping anytime soon!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We reside in Dayton, Ohio, with three beautiful children and two dogs. We are Austin & Shilo Kirkpatrick. We are a husband and wife duo that are the photographers behind Austin and Shilo Creative and the owners of Arrowood Studio. Our story started in college, and we both studied graphic design. Studio dates turned into sunrise walks capturing nature, and we never looked back. We share a similar background; at a young age, we both picked up cameras and instantly fell in love with all things creative. Austin started by taking photos of him and his friends skateboarding, and Shilo immediately knew she loved posing people. Having that background in graphics, we are able to offer graphic services such as logo designs and website design, but photography remains our core service, and we rent out the photo studio. It’s really popular in our industry to pick and stick to a niche, and we have seen many talented creatives have extreme success in doing so. But we have always worn many hats and offered an array of services, and that works very well for us. If we get a small business client who comes in for branding photos, then we are able to also offer them design services for their logo, business cards, and even a website. On the other hand, we could get a wedding client or even a high school senior and offer them invitation design work. We are proud of our background, the diversity we can bring to the table for our clients, and how it fuels how we run the studio. While some may say it’s best to find your niche and perfect that, we firmly believe in constantly learning new things and evolving, and as long as it all brings us joy and aligns with our passions, we keep going and growing!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

It has easily been word of mouth! We pride ourselves in creating the best experience for every client with personable and genuine connections. We know that our clients talk about their experience with us as being authentic, real, and comfortable. Those are the types of words that bring new clients our way! In fact, our first Facebook timeline cover (Remember when those were so cool?!) said, “Just be you,” and looking back, we laugh and cringe, but it has come back full circle for our business to reflect our core values. When we show up as genuine, our clients feel safe to do the same. We create and nurture an authentic environment that continues to show us how valuable our business is to the community.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For us, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is the endless variety and opportunity for growth within our creative community. It is such a privilege to share our space with other creatives and to see them interpret our creative space in their own way. The creativity never stops over here! Each session, every studio set, and every piece of art we create is unique. There’s always room to dream up new ideas, discover fresh angles, and learn new tools or techniques. The creative world offers limitless possibilities, whether it’s coming up with innovative set designs or finding inspiring locations. The idea of never “peaking” because there’s always more to explore and create keeps the excitement alive. How could we ever get bored? We may eat a lot of ramen noodles to afford new glass for our camera, but hey, you do what makes you happy, right?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aandscreative.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_s_creative/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AustinShiloCreative
• Other: https://www.arrowoodstudio.com

Image Credits

Ivory & Olive Photo Co.
Davia Desires Photography