After spending a grueling five years working in a customer service call center all day and pursuing my degree all night, I graduated from University of Arizona with my Bachelors degree in Business Management. By that point I knew the corporate world wasn’t for me and I FINALLY made the leap and bought my first camera. I spent the following six months watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts and teaching myself everything I could about photography. The week after I graduated I booked my first client and with that Through Camille’s Lens was born.
For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a business owner. My ideas ranged from starting a boutique to creating stickers to designing PNW-inspired apparel, but the one thing that remained consistent was photography. My parents told me I had a toy camera as a toddler and my grandma bought me my first “point and shoot” camera in middle school. In high school I began to follow several peers on their photography journey constantly wishing it was me, but I was too scared to take the leap. Instead of following my entrepreneurial dreams, I dove head first into the corporate world for the sake of tuition reimbursement.
After becoming a repeat client and friend of my own wedding photographer, I quickly realized I wanted to be a wedding photographer too. It was really important to me that I didn’t dive into weddings head first with no experience, so when the opportunity arose to apply for a wedding photography internship I knew I couldn’t pass up the chance to learn. As a part of this internship I’ve shadowed my mentor at countless weddings, attended classes, and had the opportunity to create a wedding portfolio in the process. Not only did I spend all of 2023 learning from this internship but I will also be spending 2024 second-shooting alongside my mentor. By the time I start offering weddings in 2025, I’ll be able to hit the ground running with 2 years of experience in the wedding industry that will help me give my couples the best experience possible.
Shortly after high school I swiped right on Tinder where I met the extremely nerdy love of my life, Levi. Within two years I moved to the Salem area, started my job in the corporate world and we moved in to our first place together. In 2020 we got engaged and had planned on waiting until September 24th, 2022 to get married. However, that was in the midst of the pandemic and with all the uncertainties that time created our plans changed. During the first week of September 2021, Levi turned to me one day and said “Let’s get married this year and not tell anyone”. So with that we decided to “elope” on September 24, 2021 and have a small private backyard ceremony with our close friends and family. We kept this our secret until our dream wedding in 2022, when we announced to over 100 guests that our “wedding” was actually an elaborate one year anniversary party. Levi and I now reside in the quiet town of Stayton with our two dogs Tipsy and Kylo. Our “hobbies” include binging tv, going out to eat more often than we should, and sending each endless memes or Tik Toks while we’re laying in bed next to each other. As you can tell, we live very thrilling lives, but really I wouldn’t have it any other way.
