We were lucky to catch up with Paul McPherson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Paul, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
“Make Adventure Your Tradition® – We spent the time and money to trademark this Vision Phrase because it encompasses and defines what we think matters most in life…and that is our experiences, especially the experiences we have when we’re on Adventures. We feel that by and large, the standard Wedding template is a hollow, meaningless format that people follow simply because that is the way it’s been done forever. Even down to the songs played during the reception, most Weddings are identical and lack authenticity, adventure, and experience.
If you took the time to think about all the most meaningful, lasting memories you have, we would guess that most of these occurred on some adventurous trip to a place that was magical and unfamiliar to you. Something new. Something different. Something otherworldly. Our adventures don’t have to be in the outdoors on massive hikes or expeditions. They can occur through any new experience. But making your Wedding Day more of a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, the tradition you hope to have, guarantees a memory that will be lasting, unique, and highly memorable.
We’ve been forced to tell far too many wedding stories that are more fiction (what the bride & groom HOPED happened) versus the actual truth of what happened. We came to a point where we just couldn’t do it anymore. The experience became hollow and meaningless, and we could no longer endorse that model. So we adopted “Make Adventure Your Tradition” and have made that a mantra for our family, our lifestyle, and livelihood.”
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We’re Katie & Paul based out of New Mexico going on 15 years as a married photo+video duo. We’re obsessed with adventure & documenting signature love stories throughout the Wild Southwest.
Best friends, married going on 15 years. Started Shutterfreek® when we got married. We have 3 amazing kiddos, 1 golden doodle, 1 bearded dragon & 1 hedgehog. Our passion has been shooting weddings & adventure elopements together throughout our marriage.
As our kids have grown we’ve decided to take more time from our summers back and are doing less weddings & elopements (only about 12 a year) and have shifted our focus to Commercial Content Creation.
Before cameras our background was web development and graphic design. We love commercial content creation, especially for lifestyle brands.
We have expertise in brand development & social media marketing. We function like a small advertising agency covering the gamut of marketing services including photography, video production, web design, seo, youtube, google my business, meta business suite, apparel design, print design and more.
We live in a small town in the four corners, in Farmington. It’s a little bit of desert with a view of the Rockies up the road. We thrive on loving our three beautiful children and cultivating experiences that will shape them into positive, productive, thriving human beings. We treasure having access to the diverse terrain & native history in this area and live to explore & adventure throughout it.
We have a love for travel and adventure paired with great food and comfy beds. We enjoy music, binge watching Hulu & Netflix, cozied up with a bowl of Haagen-Dazs. Most people think we’re pretty cool, but we’re actually just nerds. We love each other deeply and aren’t afraid to show it. We’re affectionate and not afraid to show it. Our friendship and love for each other gives us a knack for helping people get comfortable in front of the camera. For 14+ years now, we loved creating art through the lens. It’s a stewardship we don’t take lightly.
Have you ever had to pivot?
We had already starting pivoting from Weddings to Adventure Elopements for reasons expressed in the first question in 2019 and then when the pandemic hit in 2020 and all events where effectively canceled due to mandates by our New Mexico governor, that galvanized our decision to pivot whole heatedly into adventure elopements.
How did you build your audience on social media?
It’s taken over a decade, thousands of dollars and many content experiments to get our instagram follower base to 136K. Happy to share more about that process and why it’s a critical part of having a successful photo / video business.
Contact Info:
- Website: shutterfreek.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/shutterfreek
- Facebook: facebook.com/shutterfreek
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/shutterfreek
- Twitter: twitter.com/shutterfreek
- Youtube: youtube.com/shutterfreek
- Other: pinterest.com/shutterfreek
Image Credits
all images ©Shutterfreek