Photography is how I help people tell their stories
Everyone has a story. No matter how many stereotypes or categories we can be sorted into, no one in this world has the same unique story as you or me. Sure, there’s some overlap. It’s why we all find movies and music so compelling— we relate to pieces of it. There are little bits of me in every show I binge, every song I add to my favorites playlist, every movie scene I cry over. These stories and the way they are told feel like they breathe life into me, they wake me up, they touch my heart.
That is my aim for my photography. That is why I picked up a camera and started this journey in creative photography.
You might not know this, but even though I’m a full time creative photographer, I have a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. I initially pursued a writing career in hopes to tell my story and help others feel all those feelings I spoke about before. I wanted to help people feel seen, represented, and like they weren’t alone. When I bought a camera on marketplace just for fun, I quickly realized that I could use this new tool to help people tell their stories directly. Rather than give them some story of mine to relate to, I started taking photographs of other people. In this, I started helping people show the world firsthand what they loved and who they are. Creative photography is my way of reaching into someone’s soul and helping them bring forward their favorite pieces of themselves, even if it’s not what the world might expect.
Photography is an artform, and each artist paints their stories a little differently. We all know the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but often people forget the true meaning of old sayings like that. Every photograph is a story. Just one thousand-word story is nearly four pages in your average-sized book. Four pages. For every single photo in your phone gallery right now. How many photos do you have in your phone? How many stories? How many pages would that be?
Personally, I have 13,019 photos on my phone. Don’t judge me, I’m a photographer. (That’s a really good excuse.)
13,019 photos, not counting videos by the way, and for every single one I really could tell you a story. The photo of my fiance driving us in his truck to his military base, where later I would kiss him for the last time before his deployment return in nine months. The photo of my best friend cuddled up with my dog in my home in Georgetown, Texas, where I had been lonely and missing my familiar community in Oklahoma for weeks. The photo of my coffee, filled to the brim and spilling over the sides of the pink mug it’s in, enjoyed with a fellow photographer over conversation about the industry’s difficulties and joys. The photo of my grandpa leaning over a campfire, barely even visible in the dim light except for the glowing outline of his cowboy hat and the first s’more he had ever tasted in his life.
Thirteen thousand stories, some more cherished than others, but all parts of me— photographs that make up who I am, like a collage of my soul. And all of that is simply moments captured quickly on my phone. Creative photography by McKale Visuals is even that much more impactful because I painstakingly plan every detail, guide every pose, and talk through every emotion with my subjects. The creative portrait experience with McKale Visuals is curated to tell the story in your heart exactly the way you want the world to experience it. Powerful, authentic, and uniquely you.
