We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Caitlyn West a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Caitlyn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
Like every other high-schooler, I had a camera that sparked the love for photography I have now. I would get paid by gift cards or whatever else families or other high-schoolers would be willing to pay a 14-15 year old haha!
I never once asked for payment or ever assumed someone would pay me for my work.
I fell away from photography for a few years as life took hold and other things became priority.
Then 2021 rolls around and as life is getting back to normal finally, I was asked by a co-worker, that she remembered I used to take pictures for people and she asked if I would take some pictures for her and her young son. I obliged but didn’t expect anything in return honestly. I hadn’t done this in so long I never expected anything or assumed I would be deserving of payment as I didn’t even know if I would still be good at it if I’m being honest haha! She ended up giving me my first “real” payment of $100 for the 1.5 hours we were taking pictures and just hanging out.
When I got home and edited the images with the program that I still (surprisingly) had on my old reliable 2016 laptop, it really started to set in like, “Hey, I could actually do this for real like I always wanted too”
I was honestly shocked that someone found me worthy of paying for my work. It was humbling and extremely exciting.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a traveling wedding and elopement photographer based in South Carolina. I love capturing the authenticity of a wedding day and just love in general over the perfection with all the kisses, giggles, movement and emotions it brings.
It brings me such joy building friendships within my couples and being apart of such beautiful moments and creating memories for them that’ll last a lifetime.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
That not everyone you know will be in your corner during your journey.
Many will be jealous, intimidated, critical of your drive and dreams, etc.
The ones you may think are with you the entire way, especially fellow creatives that are personal family or friends, most likely will be the least supportive.
You will become closer to those who you may never meet in person, but they will support you and love you the most via social media or styled shoots or conferences.
It is true what they say about how it is a community over competition once you find your people, but unfortunately more times than not, you’ll run into those who are competition over community. And then it feels like high-school all over again haha!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Honestly the biggest thing that society can do for us creatives is to just share and compliment and recommend us to others.
For about 90% of us it’s all word of mouth and so when we get an inquiry or a follow by someone because, as an example, you did their best friends wedding and loved your energy. Or because a former bride of yours tells bride about you from 5 states away and how well you treated her during her wedding day. It means the world to us because it just means we did such a great job with giving all involver an experience they will always remember and we left a lasting impression on them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.haveandholdphotography.com
- Instagram: @haveandholdphotography.co
- Facebook: @Haveandholdphotography.co
