Today we’d like to introduce you to Cori Wade.
Hi Cori, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I first got into photography at a very young age! My parents said that I was always playing with cameras and taking photos as a kid, and my senior year of high school is when I finally saved up the money to buy myself a nice DSLR camera! In 5th grade, we had to write a letter to our future selves, and when I got it back my senior year of high school It said I wanted to be a photographer, and I didn’t even remember doing that project!! But I think it’s so cool that I’m doing something that I wanted to do as a little kid, it feels amazing to be living a childhood dream!
In college is when I got my first opportunity to start shooting different things that wasn’t my dog, or flowers lol. I went to Ohio State and took some photography classes, and then I got an amazing opportunity to photograph Ohio State Sports. I did mostly football and basketball games, but I did some soccer, baseball, hockey, etc. and I loved it!!! I thought that I was going to want to be a sports photographer, I was applying for all kinds of internships with sports teams, and then covid hit… When covid hit I moved out of Columbus and back to Youngstown, and I started to meet my friends at parks and take photos of them, and started experimenting with portrait photography, and I started to love it even more than sports. I started with single people portraits and then moved to couples, and then July of 2020 I got the opportunity to photography my first wedding, and when I did it, I knew that that’s what I wanted to do. I started second shooting with every single photographer that would have me and started marketing myself to be a wedding photographer, and I was able to quit my job in December of 2021 to pursue this full time!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road! A lot of times I would get imposter syndrome, and doubt myself and my abilities, and that was one of the hardest things to overcome. Since photography is an art form, people book you for the work you produce, so you can’t compare yourself to others because everyone’s art is different. But in a business that you’re trying to start and run yourself it’s hard to not compare yourself for others and wonder if what other people are doing is working better than what you’re doing.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
So, a big part of my business that I want to be known for and stand out from other businesses is for my engagement and couples’ sessions! I want a big thing in my business to be unique engagement sessions or couples’ sessions! For example, I love to go to places that are extra special to the couple or places you wouldn’t normally take photos. Like a Laundromat, a Taco Bell, target, literally anywhere! I like to incorporate unique things into my sessions! I also am obsessed with doing flash photography, and I think that is something that also makes me stand out from other businesses! I had a couple people book me because they liked my flash photography work, and we were able to incorporate that in their engagement session and their wedding day!
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
One thing I love about my city is the community support that all small businesses have in this are! Youngstown is a great area to thrive as a small business because so many people support local businesses and that is amazing to me! There is also a huge community of small businesses that all support each other and work with each other! I did a giveaway this year and was able to do it with so many small businesses in this area, who were so down to work with me and give back to this amazing community!
I feel like this is going to be cheesy to say but the one thing that annoys me about Youngstown is the weather lol, one day it’s snowing, the next day it’s 80 degrees, or there is no chance of rain in the morning and it ends up tornadoeing by the end of the evening! It’s literally the most unpredictable weather, so it can make it hard sometimes because most of my business is conducted outside!
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@coriwadephotography.com
- Website: coriwadephotography.com
- Instagram: @coriwadephotography
- Facebook: @coriwadephotography
