We were lucky to catch up with Karolina Shanks recently and have shared our conversation below.

Karolina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I was born and raised in Ukraine. My story with photography started back in middle school when my family traveled throughout Europe and I got a hold of our little camera. I fell in love with pictures and wanted to learn more about it. My last year of high school I went on a foreign exchange program and was put on the yearbook team where I was able to expand my knowledge, get more experience and truly fall in love with creating photos. Right after graduating I decided to go into an online photography business school and started my professional path.

It was a crazy journey starting a business in 2019 and trying to work through it in the midst of covid in 2020, but I was blessed to be able to build my portfolio and work in Ukraine for over 3 years until the Russian invasion when my family had to flee the country. Starting my business in Kentucky during the summer of 2023 was challenging. After moving to 3 different countries and starting nearly from scratch, I truly would not be where I am at now without God. He blessed me with an amazing husband, whom I met here and a wonderful lovely community, whom I am blessed to call friends.

Documenting love is one of my favourite things to do in the whole entire world. I truly love people and believe that every one of us is unique and has a special story. I’m ready to capture every single story, all the small, candid and simple to some, but mean the world to others, moments.

Karolina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Photography has been my passion since a very young age and I was blessed to be able to go into this industry right after high school. I had a special opportunity to live in different countries like Ukraine, Poland, Germany, The USA and travel to many others too. Experiencing other cultures changes your mindset and really shifts your perspective on not just photography, but every day life too.

I love my clients and truly want to be best friends with them. The more I get to know them – the better the photos will be. I believe that every session is a story about a family, a couple, a man or a woman. They’re all unique and special. I want my followers when they see my work to really feel what this person’s lifestyle or maybe what they enjoy doing from the photo is like, the capture them just they are in the season of life they’re in at that moment.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Surprisingly, my best source of new clients is Instagram. Almost all of my inquires this year came from this platform and I’m excited to continue to grow it. The biggest advice I can give is being consistent and showing your personality as much as you can so people can get to know you a little bit too.

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

Being able to create. I truly love what I do and it’s a blessing to be able to capture love of others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://capturedbyshanks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karolina.shanks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karolina.shanks/