We were lucky to catch up with Baylie Ranae recently and have shared our conversation below.
Baylie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?
My hero is (or was) definitely my Grandpa. He was everything to me. No one was more supportive of me and my photography than he was. I was constantly getting emails, texts and calls telling me how amazing my work was and how he saw a picture at a farmers market in a booth and how it didn’t hold a candle to my work. I feel like in a way a lot of what I do, I do for him. He passed away when I was 20 and I really want so bad to make him proud. I know he would be cheering on my successes and giving me a big hug, as kind loving grandpas do, while I go through my failures as well. I like to think that my photography business makes him beam with pride and that when he was alive I was just freelancing, but now I’m doing it as an actual career and I think he would be so proud of me.
Baylie, 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?
My name is Baylie Ranae and I’m a wedding and elopement photographer based in Utah (although I do love to travel and explore new places!) I have been shooting literally since I was four, but started my business in 2016. My whole life I have always wanted to be a photographer, something about capturing fun/silly moments, the serious moments, the happy moments always inspired me. I would sit in a moment as a kid up until being a teenager and just wish I could bottle it up and make it last forever and in a way photography allows me to do that. I used to set up blankets on a fireplace in my parents home as backdrops and take photos of my sisters, friends, neighbors, anyone who would pose for me! I knew from the young age of 4 that capturing the beauty of the world through my camera is something I needed to do, my life calling if you will. I love to capture all the moments and really tell a story. And I love to stay in touch with my clients, I am their biggest cheerleader, capturing the happiest day of their life is so important to me but it’s just the beginning. I am literally always there for them, cheering them on, watching them go through life’s greatest up and downs, I am so blessed to be able to forge amazing friendships with all my clients. I love each of them so much and they all mean so much to me.
One of my favorite compliments I get on my shoots is when the bride and groom go “wow that was so much fun” being able to be fun and silly, I let my bride and groom let their hair down. I love to make them feel beautiful and confident and completely 100% themselves.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When I was a senior in high school I was walking out to my car to go to my piano lessons, sitting on top of my car was a DSLR camera. My first DSLR ever, my parents bought it for me as a gift. From there the business grew. Unfortunately I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing, instead of reaching out to other creatives and try to learn from them I decided to just go all in. The fall after I graduated I had an acquaintance reach out to me asking if I would shoot their wedding. I was SO excited, my first ever wedding. I shot the wedding (for the same price that it took me to put gas in my car and get to the wedding) and was on cloud 9. I was doing it. I shot my very first wedding, I was a “wedding photographer”. A few months after I delivered their wedding to them I got a call from my acquaintances husband, the groom of the wedding, he said all my photos were terrible. They hated all of them and they wanted a full refund and all the unedited photos. I was devastated, I thought I had done such a good job and they would be so happy. We got it all worked out and I swore I was going to quit photography and shooting weddings all together, but instead of quitting I decided to learn. I went to workshops. bought classes, and really dedicated myself to learning all I possibly could so I could come back stronger than ever. Now I can’t imagine not shooting weddings, it brings me so much joy and I’m so grateful for it every day.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I feel like we live in a really amazing time with social media. I follow all of my clients on their socials and I love to keep up on their lives and watch them succeed and continue to be the amazing people they are. I get to watch them welcome babies into their homes, graduate from school, start their new amazing business, get that promotion they have been wishing for. I try to stay pretty involved in my clients lives. I want them to know that even though I may just be their photographer, that I can and will also be there to support them, that they can always count on me for anything they need.
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