Today we’d like to introduce you to Christie Abascal.
Hi Christie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
As a young kid, I remember my parents gifting me a Nikon point-and-shoot film camera. I would load it up with 35 mm film and take photos of squirrels, plants, and other random objects wherever my mom would take me. Later on, in middle school, I took one semester of photography, where I learned how to shoot on a manual camera and had my first intro to composition and lighting.
Fast forward almost 20 years and I found myself wanting to try my hand at professional photography after having reignited the spark once my son was born and I was gifted my first DSLR camera by my husband. Once again, I took photos of everything, both as a means of practice and a way to document my son’s first few years. I shot photos of my child, our dogs, friends’ birthday parties—if I was there, I probably had my camera. Over the next two years, I started to ask friends to model for me in exchange for photos they could use for their holiday cards. While I had a decent grasp on what I was doing, there is nothing like learning on the job. Practice makes perfect, right?
After making some upgrades to my gear (thank you, pandemic stimulus checks) and waiting as long as I could, I created social media accounts and a website…I was ready for business! I started by shooting what I knew: families. I had a good grasp on what I wanted my family sessions to look like: documentary, lifestyle, photojournalistic. I wanted to shy away from the traditional posed photos I grew up with and really create photos that brought people back to the fun they had during their session. After a few months of working non-stop with families, I started itching to get into something I had been dreaming of since the inception of my business: elopements.
As someone who had a fairly traditional wedding myself, I loved the idea of couples going off either alone or with just a few of their closest friends and family to celebrate their union in the coolest, most unique ways. While I was drawn the most to adventure elopements, I knew that focusing on elopements, in general, was where I wanted to spend any time, I wasn’t dedicating to family sessions. I wanted to help couples create and document wedding days that really spoke to who they were, giving them a voice in what their day really looks like. After setting up a few styled shoots and nabbing my first few small weddings and elopements, I began to get more inquiries and bookings for elopements and intimate weddings throughout California, the west coast, and eventually throughout the country.
While I still have so much growing to do in my business, the last two and a half years in business have been an incredible journey filled with so much love. I’ve met some of the sweetest couples and families, many of whom I now consider friends. I am so excited to see what the future holds for me and my business!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I can honestly say that it’s been a mostly smooth road from the beginning. Sure, I have had a couple hiccups here and there, but overall, it’s all been fairly positive. I would say the two biggest things I have dealt with over the last couple years have been navigating imposter syndrome as well as how to successfully run a business as a woman with ADHD.
As a photographer, we are responsible for documenting our clients’ lives, their memories and putting it into something tangible yet something unique to our style, our art. It’s a tricky balance one you add in the pressures of social media and seeing what everyone else around you is doing or accomplishing. It becomes easy to slide into the thought process of “Am I good enough?” or “I wish I was more like XYZ photographer.” While there is always room for growth, education, and bettering your craft, I combat a lot of this negativity by making sure that I leave space to create and shoot for just me sometimes. One method has been to pick up analog photography again, as it’s given me space to really slow down, get creative, and think about what I am doing in a more intentional way. Settling up styled shoots for my own creative ideas has also helped get me out of negative thinking along with spending time outdoors.
My other struggle has been being diagnosed well into adulthood with ADHD and managing my own business with that hurdle. It wasn’t until recently that I was diagnosed and while it explained a lot of the issues I was having, it didn’t make them magically go away. I’ve had to do a lot of personal reflection and analysis to figure out what works and what doesn’t; there’s still a lot of trial and error with some days that are super productive and great while others that are less so. Learning in my 30s that I am neurodivergent wasn’t something I expected but it’s definitely given me a new perspective and even confidence that if I can run my business successfully during the harder times, I can do anything.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in elopement and lifestyle photography which includes families, couples, and newborn sessions. For elopements, I often find myself working with couples looking to spend their wedding day in nature which gives me the opportunity to work in places like Yosemite National Park, Redwood National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, and many other incredible scenic outdoor spaces. For both elopements and my lifestyle sessions, I really try to focus on capturing the small moments, the intimate details, the shared smiles, the laughs—all of it. I love capturing really organic moments for people so that when they look back in 20 years, they are transported right back to that memory.
One of the things I am most proud of is my ability to help my clients have a great time during their elopement or session. My favorite review from clients is, “we had so much fun!”. Knowing how to take great photos is only half (or less) of the equation; being able to create an environment for my clients that is not only fun but also conducive to them feeling confident in being themselves and relaxing in front of the camera isn’t easy. I take a lot of pride in being able to do that and it’s something I hope to build on even more looking into the future.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
As I mentioned earlier in the interview, I recently started shooting 35 mm film again after purchasing a Nikon FM2N and a Nikon point-and-shoot. I hadn’t shot film since the early 2000s and had forgotten how much fun could be had in shooting and not knowing exactly what you are going to get back. It’s nostalgic, something I lean into while editing my digital work, and really brings you back to basics. Learning which film stocks work best for which environments and lighting situations have been really critical to understanding the intricacies of film and getting some really awesome photos. I’ve been shooting analog for all my personal trips since late summer and have been testing incorporating it into elopements and lifestyle sessions. It’s still very much in the trial-and-error phase right now but I am hoping by later this year it is something I can offer my clients as an add-on to their packages!
Pricing:
- Adventure elopements and intimate weddings starting at $4,000
- Courthouse and urban elopements starting at $1,600
- Lifestyle sessions starting at $500
Contact Info:
- Website: www.summitandsur.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/summitandsur
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/summitandsur
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/summitandsur/
Image Credits
Meg Gamez Photography
