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

Alright, April thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I have had the opportunity to work with some of the most amazing people. Whether it be weddings, families, welcoming a newborn into the family, or doing headshots or branding photo shoots I have had the best time meeting some of the best people.

Quite literally EVERY client/project is meaningful to me. Because typically if I am there we are *celebrating* something and those are the best moments. I have so many meaningful moments that I think I will quickly share a few…

I have shot weddings for 10+ years and they are all special to me. But there will always be one that stands out. Growing up in a small town that everyone knew everyone else and all their business you *knew* or at least thought you knew who people were. Two of my teachers had long been rumored to be “together.” This was a different time, different town, different mindsets and there were many that were uncomfortable with the idea as they were a same sex couple. Randomly, one day I received an email asking if I would be available to photograph their wedding. I was honored and so excited. This one wedding-on a VERY cold Minnesota day, in a small back banquet room in a random hotel in Minneapolis became of the weddings that I will never forget because it was that meaningful. It was a wedding, yes. But in so many ways it was more of a big celebration of a 35+ year commitment to each other. All their closest friends and families were there and I will admit I cried many times throughout the day because I was just so excited for them. They had overcome so many obstacles and been through so much that it was more than a celebration of two lives legally becoming one but more so a celebration of what love can and will do.

Another meaningful project happened recently when I was able to serve at a church in Dallas as their photographer. Social Dallas quite literally changed my life with their love and teaching of how much Jesus loves me that when I got the opportunity to work at capturing the different aspects of service and make the love of Jesus available to be seen in content creation my life was not only made better but the friendships and experiences I have had because of it very literally changed the trajectory of my life.

Finally, I have gotten to work with many non profits and business doing brand management, headshots, and content creation. One stands out though. I was give the opportunity to work with the Make A Wish foundation by giving their families a free session to celebrate all the obstacles they have overcome. I would say working with this foundation and the families within it impacted my life forever.

I really find tons of meaningful moments in everything I do but those three stand out this morning as I type this up.

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

In 2009 I welcomed my second baby girl into the world. She was perfect and amazing-to me-but did come into the world with some extra needs. Over the course of the first few years of her life she had 50+surgeries and countless appointments and therapies. I became her full time care giver AND mom. It was the most fullfilling job and yet the most challenging one I had ever had.

In 2012 one of my friends got engaged and I had started taking photos as a hobby and asked if I could take some of them. When I say I knew NOTHING about how to properly run a camera-I literally mean NOTHING. In fact, one of those first sessions my friend-who was the groom-had to tell me the exact numbers my camera needed to be at. Oh, and did I mention that I almost failed my photography class in college? However, my heart has to always love on people, serve them, give them a safe place to be themself, and laugh. Which, even if my settings weren’t always right-my heart was. And that is what I captured. People and their hearts, personalities, and love.

I wish I could say I immediately knew exactly what I was doing but like many things it took time. I took so so many bad photos and I am incredibly blessed that those first few years of clients kept coming back and telling their friends about me. And although I took a lot of bad photos I also created and captured a lot of magic as I learned settings, light, and composition.

Love has always intrigued me and from a very early age loved weddings. In a lot of my social media memories status updates and stories will pop up saying how much I loved weddings long before taking photos of weddings was even across my radar. So, I have always gravitated towards weddings/couples/in love people. Many ask if it stresses me out and I can honestly say there was NEVER a time shooting weddings that I questioned what I was doing or missing shots. It just came very natural to me-the weddings part, the shooting part took some time…

Because my heart has always been to serve and to remind people they are loved my business grew and grew and grew until I started adding associates and team members to continue to grow my brand. Even with Covid and weddings being shut down my team and I STILL shot more than 25 weddings in 2020.

What am I most proud of? I think that I am most proud of the fact that I have heard over and over again how loved people feel when they work with me. That when they leave their session or wedding they feel like they have gained a friend and were able to show their most authentic self while with me AND get some pretty awesome photos from it too that capture the essence of who they are.

Taking photos is, and will always, be a passion of mine. It is a chance to capture a moment and FREEZE it. My goal in creating photos is to capture the emotion of a moment so that when you look at it years from now you can almost go back to that exact moment and feel the feelings, smell the surroundings, and hear the moments that were captured. Photography is such a gift because it allows us to remember special moments while also being fully present in living in those moments because their is confidence that I am going to capture your biggest emotions, your favorite people, and freeze time. It is powerful, wonderful, and such an honor to love on people in this way.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I think most would say that 2020 was the year of the pivot. We went from being a full scale, balls to the walls, shooting three weddings a weekend to having such intense guidelines that some of our weddings were either full out canceled OR moved to the next year. Which, 2021 was a HUGE year that I leaned the art of pivoting as our team shot 65+ events and weddings-and NO ONE can do that well.

Because of all the guidelines we branched into new areas of photography business and created completely new packages to aid our couples in still having coverage of their day-even if it looked differently than originally thought.

I also went through a significant break up early 2021. I had to relearn how to do everything alone. Including shooting alone. I had become so accustomed to relying on this particular person that was no longer a part of my life that learning to do life alone was painful and super challenging. However, I DID learn to shoot alone and ended up finding that I do better shooting alone and am actually not lonely at all at weddings where I know no one.

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

I have always had three main goals. Two really but the third is the nature of my job so I will include that as well. My heart in starting my business and continuing in my 11th year is that I can make someone’s life a little bit better. A little bit brighter. Leave them feeling a bit lighter. And loved. My goal is that everyone that I meet walks away happier, feeling more loved, and seen. My main two goals are to really SEE people and then to also SERVE them. In doing these two things well I am able to accomplish my third goal which is to create stunning imagery that captures emotion, love, and freezes a moment in time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sophisticatedgracephoto.com
• Instagram: @sophisticatedgracephotography
• Facebook: Sophisticated Grace Photo-SGP