Today we’d like to introduce you to Christy Wallis.
Christy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My love for photography started when I was about 11 years old when my oldest sister gave me a small Kodak camera for my birthday and a bunch a film. I remember taking lots of photos of my cat. I wonder what happened to all those cat pics.
Fast forward to 2000, when I gave birth to this beautiful baby girl with her bright red fuzzy head and the most amazing milky white skin. I was fascinated by her and wanted to document every moment of this very special time, so I always had my camera or video camera going. Maybe a little too much haha. Either way, I got a lot of practice photographing children at every age, especially after my other two kids were born. When she entered kindergarten, I was always the camera mom or the mom that took the photos for the yearbook or gala projects. My friends started asking me to take their family holiday photos and I did but realized it was so much work editing so I had to start charging them. That was really when my business was born.
In 2010, we moved our family from Houston to San Diego. I shared with some new friends that I had a small business taking family photos and they introduced me to a family that had a new baby. With fertility issues that had gone on for 8 years, they decided to use a surrogate to have their daughter. The mom had even taken hormones so that she could breastfeed the baby herself. I didn’t even know you could do that! They asked me to take photos of their sweet baby girl, who happened to be a redhead like my own daughter. She was the first newborn I ever photographed. We took that photos at their house using baskets and quilts they had in their home and the mom helped me take them. They weren’t amazing but to this family, they were the most beautiful images ever because it was a documentation of the happiest moments of their lives with their family now complete.
Well, I thought that might be a one-time experience, but it turns out that this family had a million friends, many of whom they had met through fertility support groups. So one after another they kept referring families to me that had finally been able to have their baby, either through IVF or adoption. And after photographing a few more newborn babies, I knew this was what I was meant to do – capture this very special time when a family is first meeting their child. I was hooked and have never looked back. I have specialized in newborns and maternity for almost 8 years now. And I love every minute of it.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For me, it really happened so organically that there wasn’t much a struggle business-wise. I guess the hardest thing has been the last two years that I’ve had to work a lot because my husband sold his business and we’ve relied totally on my photography income since then. So a lot of editing which is a lot of sitting. Which is not ideal. But this is temporary.
Christy Wallis Photography – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I specialize in creating timeless portraits of newborn babies using natural textures and soft lighting. I’ve taken a lot of workshops from some of the top newborn photographers in the world to get to this point with my images. I think what sets my images apart is that I do my best to capture the baby’s face in a way that the parents will want to remember it, capturing the details and the expressions that make them unique and beautiful. The same with my maternity photos as I want the mom to see how beautiful she was in full bloom with her baby, so I try to make her glow in every way in the images.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Honestly, I’m proud every time I turn a gallery over to my clients. I feel very honored to have been chosen by them in the first place. And when I present the final product to them to hang on their walls, it really makes me happy. I’ve received some awards which are nice too. I was selected as one of the top 10 newborn photographers in the state of California in 2016 by Photography Magazine. This kind of recognition makes all the long hours worth it.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7407 Cortile Bellaza
- Website: www.christywallisphotography.com
- Phone: 8583711722
- Email: tradestar2@gmail.com
- Instagram: @christywallisphotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christywallisphotography
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/christy-wallis-photography-san-diego-2
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