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

Alyssa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My mission is to simply witness and capture the beauty that God has laid out on this earth for us to enjoy. I believe we get so busy with life that we forget to live in the moment and just admire the view that surrounds us. I seek to experience these moments as much as possible and freeze time so that we are able to go back and relive that memory.

Alyssa, 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 started to learn photography in high school, and failed several times to start up a business. I gave up on it after some time, but still had the passion for it. I bought a camera when I graduated in 2019 and would just take photos for fun of myself or friends during outings. Fast forward to 2021, I was saved, and had officially started to pursue God and what he had in store for me. He said to me, “I am going to revive a dead dream.” I thought, “what dreams of mine died?” I sat on that for a few months, unsure what God had meant when he said that. In August of 2021, I got Covid, and was officially isolated from the world. I had nothing but time to sit and pray, and I had a growing desire to try for my photography business again, and I thought, “what if the reason I failed so many times was because I never had God?” Sure enough, the moment I started up again, God provided all of the support and allowed my business to grow from the bottom within just a few months. I joined the photo team at my church and sought to learn as much as I could. In the beginning of creation of my business, I realized I need a “why” statement. I thought so long and hard on it, but the answer is so simple; God. God is my why, He is my mission. He is the one who made this happen, and He is the one who gets the glory. All I ask is that His will be done, and that He shines through in my work, so others can see that God is the one who is behind it, in front of it, and all around. I am just here as a witness to that work.

When starting, everybody kept saying “find your niche.” It honestly caused me so much confusion in the “what” aspect of my business, because I did not know who my target audience was. I just knew I wanted to take pictures and provide quality content. I just advertised whatever photos I was able to take, and captured almost whatever came my way. Over the course of a year, I have learned that I thoroughly enjoy shooting couples. Although I absolutely love families and other “niches,” I find myself getting super excited to do couples. I feel that I can click most when it is a smaller amount of people, and I just really LOVE love. With couples being a shift in my business, I have just added weddings to my services, after being booked for so many before even advertising them. I proudly wear on my sleeve that I am different from most photographers in the sense that I am so far from tradition. You see family portraits and you see they look stiff and posed up. I prefer to capture moments as they are, ugly laugh and all. My goal is to make you have as much fun in the short amount of time as possible, feeling like you just left a hangout rather than a photoshoot. I like to create magic with loose and *horribly explained* prompts for clients to translate that however you’d like, so that I can capture the personality perfectly.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

One of the most rewarding aspect as a photographer is being trusted to be part of such important memories in others’ lives. Only once will you have this exact experience, and to know that I am being trusted to save these memories is so important to me, and I do not take this responsibility lightly. I show up to a session ready to give my best efforts in creating a masterpiece that the family, couple, etc will carry close to their hearts until the end of their lives. Another rewarding aspect that keeps me going is getting to see the end result of a session, and hearing back what clients think of their photos. They always get so excited about receiving their final gallery and start posting almost immediately. It fills me with joy for them to tell me how much they loved the experience, from the initial message to receiving the final images. I pride myself in the fact that I have not yet had a client state that they do not like their photos, and my reviews reflect that they absolutely love them.

I had an amazing client who texted me after receiving her gallery: Thank you Alyssa! We appreciate all your hard work and using your talent for the Lord. I showed these pictures to two of our family friends today…I wish you could have heard their comments. They went on and on about how nice all the pictures were. “Wow, these pictures are great!”, “How did she get *her son* to smile?”, “These are some of the best pictures I’ve seen “, “She did an amazing job!” and more.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

When I first started my business, I was advertising free sessions to get the most experience that I can. I initially had decided to do a full year of free sessions to build my portfolio and grow as much as possible before charging a dime. 3 months later God said “It’s time.” So I announced for New Years my prices, very excited to move my business to the next level. As soon as January hit and my prices were posted, I received nothing but radio silence. I remember having doubts about whether or not moving forward was the right decision, but I kept shutting down my growing fear with faith. It wasn’t until March that I had finally booked my first paid session. I was stoked, and honestly very nervous. The shoot was probably one of my all time favorites, mainly because the connection I had, given it was my first paid shoot, but also the family and vibes were incredible. (Golden Days Vol. 100 on my website if you’d like to see the pictures) There was a whole 3 month period where I was not getting any inqueries, and for a second I thought that I failed yet again to start my business. However, once I got that first paid shoot, they just kept coming in like crazy. I went from no bookings to 3-6 sessions a month. I started setting goals to make within certain periods, and sure enough, God provided through it all. I never gave up the hope and faith that the Lord was requiring of me, and now my photography is thriving because of Him.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://capturedbyalyssajade.mypixieset.com
• Instagram: @capturedby.alyssajade
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capturedby.alyssajade/
• Other: @capturedby.alyssajade on TikTok

Image Credits
Alyssa Jade Photography