We recently connected with Ashley Brooke Mason and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley Brooke, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My mission is to provide exceptional wedding and portrait photography while keeping up with current technology, delivering images in a timely manner, and giving access to top quality albums in order to timelessly preserve photos. I want to show the people I photograph that they are beautiful and worthy of being photographed. On my way to every photo session or wedding, I pray that God will help me to love and serve my clients well.

Ashley Brooke, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In grade school, I considered myself ugly and plain. At least when I compared myself to others. My teeth weren’t straight and I had worn glasses since third grade. I believed the names people called me – four-eyes, nerd, snaggletooth. Or my favorites – chipmunk and donkey-face. The lies from my peers far outweighed the truth I knew in my heart – that I was beautifully and wonderfully made. Self-confidence was a daily struggle. I hated taking pictures and would hide any time someone took out their camera. I bet you didn’t expect that from a photographer, did you? This was a daily battle in elementary and middle school. I’m not sure what moment was the pivoting point for me. Maybe it was when I started reading a chapter of the Bible each day. Maybe it was when I found friends that encouraged me. Maybe it was when I ditched the glasses and started wearing contacts. Maybe it was a combination of all these things.

I remember in middle school when I started taking a disposable camera with me everywhere. I loved taking photos of my family and friends and putting them in a scrapbook. In high school, I got a digital camera and a cell phone. That 2MB digital camera with the tiniest viewing screen made me feel like the coolest person in the world. A few years later, my parents gave me and my brothers cell phones that could take photos. It’s funny to look back at how much technology has advanced just since I was in high school!

Fast forward to my junior year of college. I did a few photo sessions for my friends (with a point-and-shoot camera!) and I was hooked. It took me three years to decide what I wanted for my high school graduation gift from my grandparents and I finally decided on a digital camera and a zoom lens. Being a business major, I wanted something valuable that I could also use to make money. That particular semester, I took 24 credit hours (what was I thinking?!) and I didn’t have much time for my camera. That is, until I saw another photographer doing a photo fundraiser for a mission trip and I had a light bulb moment that I could do the same thing since I was planning to go to Belize that summer. I started photographing all types of sessions for only $20 and all the money I made went to pay for the mission trip to Belize. I was able to pay for the entire trip and meet some amazing people in the process. Little did I know that just a few years later, I would have a successful photography business!

I never dreamed of becoming a professional photographer. I never could have imagined that this would be my reality. How ironic it is that someone who hated being in front of the camera would enjoy being behind it so much and would eventually choose to get in front of the camera! I’m glad that I struggled with self-confidence because I’m able to recognize when my subjects are self-conscious about the way they look and make a point to encourage them. My goal is always to show them how beautiful they are and give them that moment where they think, “Wow! I look amazing!”

To me, photography is way more than just taking pictures for people to hang on their walls. It’s freezing moments in time so that you always remember the love you shared, the details from your wedding, how tiny your baby was once, and those loved ones that have now passed on. I have built so many relationships through my business and shared laughter, tears, and happy memories with the people I photograph. Clicking a shutter has allowed me to click with people from all walks of life. As our babies grow, loved ones pass away, and time moves on, it reminds me just how precious this gift of photography is to countless people.

This is why I do what I do. I’m so thankful that God uses me in this way to bless others. All the credit goes to Him because I would not be where I am now without the growing pains of starting from complete brokenness. I have been in business for almost 12 years now and I am so proud of this journey.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

There was a time about 5 or 6 years into my business when I seriously considered giving up and shutting down my business. I had gotten married, moved three hours from my hometown where I started my business, and I was working a full-time job on top of running a business. From the outside looking in, I was crushing it as a marketing employee and as a business owner. I was booked with photography every single weekend that year and I shot 20 weddings. It was exhausting. That year, I cried more times than I can count. I wanted to give 110 percent to everything and I just couldn’t anymore. I was on the verge of burn out. My husband, Weston, and I looked at the rest of our student loan debt and figured out we could pay it off in just 6 more months. I raised my photography rates and committed to blocking out weekends each month where I wouldn’t work. I also committed to never shooting 20 weddings in one year again. It was just the push I needed to keep going.

When Weston and I graduated from college, we had $92,000 of student loan debt between us. With other various consumer debts, our grand total was $135,000 of non-mortgage debt that we paid off in less than 5 years. We couldn’t have done that without hustling and setting goals together. Shortly after becoming debt-free, I left the marketing job. While I chose not to become a full-time photographer at that time, I chose a less stressful and less demanding job at our church. The day after I started working at our church, we found out we were pregnant with our daughter. What a blessing it was to be debt-free and in a stress-free environment as we prepared to welcome a baby into our family! A couple of years later, we found out we were pregnant with our son. I finally made the decision to be a full-time photographer and it was the best decision for our family! I get to spend more time with our kids and I have fun documenting our lives together!

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

A few years ago, one of my goals was to read one book per month. I was able to do that for two years straight and I have a long list of business books that impacted the way I run my business. Here are some of my favorites (in no particular order): -EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey
-168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam
-Quitter by Jon Acuff
-The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
-Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt
-The Power of Broke by Daymond John
-Start with Why by Simon Sinek
-Everyday Millionaires by Chris Hogan
-Deep Work by Cal Newport
-What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam
-Finish by Jon Acuff

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ashleybrookephoto.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ashleybrookephotography
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/AshleyBrookePhotography