We recently connected with Maeta Avery and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Maeta, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

As a lifestyle family and newborn photographer, my mission as an artist is to create timeless imagery that allows the family to look back on each of the moments and not only remember the time, but actually feel it. I focus on finding small details and big emotions and translating them through my images, giving those findings back to my clients and hoping they can hold onto them for years to come.

Maeta, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a family photographer based in Southeastern Minnesota, right in beautiful bluff country along the Mississippi River. I focus on lifestyle photography, capturing the real-life, organic moments between family members; always searching for the details full of happiness, laughter, and love. I enjoy photographing families, newborns, maternity, and seniors, with sessions taking place outdoors or in-home. My goal as a photographer is to provide my families with authentic moments of interaction, involving a lot of movement, play, and joy they can feel oozing from the photographs. Moments they can look back on with fondness, and the little details of their children they can remember as they grow and change over the years.

I strive to make the photography process as simple as possible for my clients. As a busy parent myself, I know the stress it can cause to plan and prep. So I walk my families through each step, helping with clothing options, what to bring along, and what to expect before, during, and after the session. This gives the parents a peace of mind, knowing what to expect and how to prepare their children. The sessions themselves are laid back and easy – the kids lead the way and I take my cues from them. This helps keep them happy and playful and parents stress-free.

I began my photography journey 6 years ago after I left a job I was incredibly passionate about for a job that provided a better work-life balance after having my second son. While it was absolutely the right move for myself and my family, I felt that loss of passion for my work on a deep level and I needed to find a new outlet. Enter: photography. I purchased a cheap, used, old DSLR and was determined to learn everything I could about it and take pretty pictures of my kids. I found so much joy in learning how to really use my camera, in capturing my children’s day-to-day lives and the little details I loved about them, and realized that I had found a new passion. I didn’t go into photography with any intention of building a business, but about a year later I started Maeta Grace Photography and I have never looked back. Five years later, I’m amazed at what has transpired and how much photography has truly changed my life and perspective.

One of the most magical parts of this job is that I now develop friendships with my client families as I watch them grow year after year, have photographer friends across the country I connect with every day, and am moving into the education side of photography as well. I have recently developed an online course for new photographers to help them learn how to use their cameras and create beautiful, interesting photographs – a course I always wished I had when I was first learning and growing. I also offer online mentorships, and am also working on editing courses for photographers of all levels, with dreams of expanding my educational offerings over the coming months/years.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal is simple: to create art with feeling. I love looking back on photographs and being able to actually feel that moment. The joy, the love, the sorrow, whatever it may be. When I’m working with a family, I encourage authenticity and natural interaction through play and motion. This allows them to relax and be themselves, and allows me to find those beautiful, natural moments they share.

I have always been drawn towards emotion and storytelling, and being a registered nurse of 13 years I feel has helped me find those moments of deep emotion through my own empathy and caring for others. Figuring out how to allow families to feel comfortable letting their walls down has been a learning process, but when they do, that’s when the magic happens and the session itself seems to let out a deep sigh of comfort. Afterwards, when I then go through and edit their photos one by one, I find myself smiling, laughing, and even tearing up as I feel their family’s connection all over again. I’m so grateful to be able to provide that to my clients, and when they respond to their gallery with tears of joy, I know I’ve met my goal.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think the biggest thing non-creatives don’t realize about a creative career is that our art means so much more to us than simply being a job. I don’t go into a session with a checklist of tasks, or with the mindset that this is my job and I just need to do it and move on to the next item. Instead, I go into each session thinking about how I can make this particular session authentic to this family and capture their uniqueness. What new techniques can I try, or how can I best capture this family in a way that is true to them? Artists put their whole selves into their work. It is their outlet, their passion, and it’s what creates joy in their lives. When I go through and hand edit each photograph, I do so with heart and love, wanting to deliver the imperfectly perfect timeless moments that my clients hold on to for years, and when I deliver my galleries, I do so with so much love and hope that my clients will LOVE what I’ve provided them because I’ve put my whole self into it. The words of encouragement and appreciation I get from my clients keep me going and give me the boost I need to continue putting my creative energy into my business. So I hope that people realize how much more than a job our creative journeys mean to us. We put heart and soul into our work and we only hope it translates as we intended to our customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.maetagracephotography.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/maetagracephoto
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/maetagracephoto