We were lucky to catch up with Megan Piotrowski recently and have shared our conversation below.

Megan , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?

Captured Living Photo Co. all started with an idea. An idea of creating and capturing the most epic story, my story, and then doing the same for others. Breathed into existence after the pandemic, I used my life events, the heartbreak, the joy, and anything else I felt, and turned it into art.

Even before that, Captured Living started off as a dream. I often dreamt in college what it would be like to chose to do something for myself. To do something bigger than myself. Something that I gave to the world, and made an impact on someone’s life. Something that was mine and mine alone. At first, Captured Living was meant to be a blog where I shared my life story with my audience. However, during the pandemic, I was really able to dive into what the meaning behind “captured living” really meant. I came to realize that it meant capturing not just my own story, but the stories of others as well. I had ALWAYS loved love & capturing people’s life stories through visual and written media, so I shifted my photography focus to capturing couples and individuals living their everyday lives, while making it absolutely magical. I use my photography to romanticize their stories similar to when one watches a film, and used elements of the world around them to showcase their beautiful lives to the world.

Over my first year of establishing my photography business, there were so many hoops to jump through and lessons to learn along the way. I definitely did not have everything figured out when I took the first steps to start this small business journey, but there’s been so much growth and joy in figuring it out along the way. My day to day when I first started was learning my camera and my audience, and growing my craftsmanship by doing as many photo sessions as I could. I remember that one day I did 10 sessions in one day, just to grow my portfolio. By time I was six months into my business, I booked my first wedding/elopement, and was able to really define my business niche of capturing couples on some of the biggest moments of their lives.

At my one year mark, I was then also able to begin utilizing my love for fashion with photo and began designing fashion editorial shoots, and found my second photo niche of fashion editorial photography. I was able to broaden my creativity with fashion editorial shoots I designed, and it brought along opportunities to work with brands such as Texas Young Professionals and Myngly to grow my editorial portfolio. At the eighteenth month mark, I began collaborating with influencers for these types of shoots, such as with @mellowyellowpay & La La Land Coffee, and was able to find my creative joy through designing and implementing concepts that used even my own attire that I designed and created.

Now at the two year mark of my business, there’s still so much to learn. Things like taxes, atomization of daily tasks, social media/content creation, and sales are still areas of growth, but looking back and seeing how owning my own photography business grew from the seed of an idea to now a continually growing entity is absolutely astounding and I’m forever grateful.

Megan , 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 am an editorial photographer specializing in weddings, couples, elopements and fashion editorial photography based in Dallas, Texas. My photography business, Captured Living Photo Co., grew out of a desire to create timeless memories for my clients that they could cherish for decades to come. It grew allowed me to take concepts I dreamt and turn them into a reality through photography.

What sets apart Captured Living Photo Co. from the rest is our incredible, above and beyond customer experience. I have a huge heart for serving my clients and making them feel that they can be comfortable and their most authentic selves when we are working together. Plus, we have so many additional services that we provide to our clients to make their experience with us unique and personal to them.

We provide our couples wedding planning support, guides and resources for elopement & wedding planning, and connections they otherwise wouldn’t be able to have without our support. We like to say that we make capturing your wedding easy and stress-free, and we are there to help every step of the way. We additionally have special items within our packages to show our clients how appreciative we are of them choosing us for their wedding/elopement day such as polaroid film keepsakes and a surprise wedding day gift box!

For our fashion editorial clients, we provide packages that include wardrobe styling and even a client closet to ensure our clients feel their best selves during their session with us.

If you’re looking for a photographer that gets you while taking time to get to know you, and is able to showcase you beautifully & timelessly through photography, all while making you feel right at home, then Captured Living Photo Co. is for you!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Being a photographer, or just a creative in general is HARD y’all. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes of what all creatives do to create and make ends meet at the same time. Personally, there are many times when clients don’t choose to hire you for a number of reasons. Most of the time it can be because we are not seen as affordable with our pricing without the understanding of the reasons why we price ourselves the way we do. As a photographer, buying equipment, renting studio spaces, and living our daily lives all cost money and at the end of the day we have to make ends meet and budget the same as everyone else. Our clients also don’t necessarily see the amount of time, hard work, and money that goes into building our business and doing what we love. For that reason, I always encourage my clients that are looking to hire a creative to do their research on the market rate for a specific type of work and ask your creative for education on their pricing. And know, most of the time we are happy to work with you to make your creative dreams come true and bring understanding and transparency to our pricing.

Additionally, I think it can be difficult for non-creatives to understand that there is a lot of comparison that can occur as a creative, especially for a creative that is a small business owner as well. Social media makes it so easy to see all of the “good” in other creative’s journeys, and forget that behind every account is a human that is also on their own journey full of highs and lows with their art and their business. I think it’s important for non-creatives to remember to uplift the creatives around them on their feed and in their lives. It means the world to hear people outside of the creative world uplift and encourage us!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission that drives my creative journey is creating & capturing moments that you would see in your dreams, but also the ones that you see every day. It’s the romanticism of ordinary life that really gets me going and drives my creative spirit. Choosing to take the little things and see how beautiful they are and what they mean to every person I work with is an incredible feeling. I love capturing people in a way that showcases who they are in the most creative way possible. There are so many things in a person’s life that makes them unique & beautiful, and I take those aspects of their life and use them to create absolute magical preserved moments in photographs. The opportunity of getting to capture them is an honor and what gets me up every single day, and continue to be a dreamer within reality.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.capturedlivingphotoco.com
• Instagram: @capturedlivingphotoco
• Facebook: Megan PIotrowski & Captured Living Photo Co.
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/meganepiotrowski
• Other: TikTok – @capturedlivingphotoco Email – [email protected]

Image Credits
For my personal photo – please credit Allie Provost as my photographer.