Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaitlin Leavitt.
Hi Kaitlin, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Oh man… Our story is kind of wild. Mitchell and I actually met in elementary school, started dating in high school, went through college together, and got married right before we finished college in 2018. After college, I had a tiny part-time photo gig (like 3 shoots a year maximum lol). We also had what we call “normal people jobs” (where you work for a company and clock in and out). We worked in those jobs for under a year and… well, in February 2020, being some of the newest people at our companies, we were the first people let go when all of the COVID-related job loss happened. We were living in an apartment, with our two dogs, with nothing going on. I know it was wild for a lot of people, but for us, it just felt like a black hole of time. We did a lot of self-discovery in this time and we actually decided it would be good to move in with my in-laws at the time. We had no idea what our next move would be, so having the freedom to not be in contract with an apartment or condo complex was big for us. So, while we lived with Mitchell’s parents, we CLUNG to our side gigs while applying to jobs all over the country. Of course, nothing was hiring lol so ALL of our time became about photography and videography. I took education courses from online photo educators and I briefly shadowed the most brilliant local photographer, Beth Young (Lady Brio Photography). I started to get the hang of posing, photographing and editing a little more and I started offering more variety of shoots. I know a lot of photographers lost a lot of business because of COVID, but that was our first year in business. In June, I had Mitchell switch gears from photography and join me as a videographer for a wedding to do a highlight film. That got such positive feedback that we started offering it as a regular add-on to the business. And from about July-November 2020, we were busier than I ever imagined we would be. Like literally less than a year earlier, we had no idea that this job would exist, and by November we were giving it full-time energy.
Well, the photography world slows a little between late November and early April, so we did a lot of business revamping. We remade our website, we updated pricing, I started making experience and style guides for my clients, and then all of a sudden in February of 2021, I had a massive number of inquiries. I have no idea why aside from the fact that we had been preparing for the next year and really refining our online presence. Well by the end of February, we went from 17 to 36 weddings booked for 2021. And I had plans for mini sessions and growth on top of all of that. So, we knew it would be wild. This job went from basically non-existent, to our full-time jobs that have supported us, helped us purchase a home, and create real meaning for our lives in a matter of a year.
We are ALWAYS learning, always growing, and it seems like we are always upgrading lol. We know this is our future and we want nothing more than to continue to work together to help celebrate life with people. We feel so incredibly blessed. I mean… who else gets to work their dream job just 6 feet from their best friend (aka Mitchell). We have a very VERY full year planned this year and we cannot wait to share our journey with people!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We have definitely had our challenges, and they have changed as we have grown. At first, it was always not established. Getting our name out there. Determining a style. Deciding what equipment, we want to use. Then the business side of things started to get more and more challenging. Figuring out taxes, deciding how much work we can take on, coming up with when we should upgrade equipment/the website/experience guides/etc.
For a long time, it also didn’t feel real. There are a lot of people who assume that this can’t be a real job. At first, we got a lot of the “so when are you going to get a real job?” or “what do you do during the week?” questions from people around us. It created a feeling of insecurity in the job for a while. I would feel on top of the world, knowing what we were providing for ourselves and our clients… and occasionally I would wonder what the heck we were doing. And when people would ask us what we were planning on doing next after our photography phase, I would wonder what they know that I don’t know. Or I would wonder if I was good enough to make this my full time forever. That was probably my biggest challenge. Sometimes I will still wonder how we got here. It feels like just yesterday we were scared and wondering what was next for us. But we are so much more confident in our present and our future now! We know exactly who we are and what we are good at.
But right now, our biggest challenge is determining how much work we can take on. We are both really good at keeping busy (and I am really good at keeping us almost too busy lol) so deciding on a balance of work vs. personal is the main navigation right now.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Mitchell and I are a photography and videography team who specialize in capturing weddings for unique and deeply in love couples. I am super proud of a lot of the things we do, but the thing I am the most proud of is our customer experience. I think as creatives, it is really easy to look at the picture or video and worry about only the composition or the lighting or the way things are framed. But we like to balance that with recognizing, appreciating, and celebrating what makes each of our couples unique. The people and their story matter just as much as the picture itself.
I feel like we are different than other capture teams for a number of reasons! First, we are a husband-and-wife team. We work together very well and are able to cover weddings uniquely because we both know how to cover both photography and videography. Second, we care so genuinely about our clients. We feel like that is why we are good at our jobs, because we care that our clients are actually happy. I believe part of the reason we make such a great team is because we share the same passion for capturing our couples’ love story! There is a huge reason why we have this shared mentality – When Mitchell and I got married, we trusted our wedding photographer to take care of us and be an “expert” in his field. We paid (what I consider to be) a lot of money and saw some of his work which was excellent and made us feel safe in our decision! But when he came to our wedding, it was very clear his goal wasn’t to make sure he was helping us. Being a 21-year-old bride who hadn’t been too many weddings, I had no idea what it meant to be “taken care of” by our photographer. I had no idea what to look for in a photographer to make sure we were getting what we paid for. I should have done better research to make sure I knew what was expected, but I just had no idea. I had some feelings on our wedding day that we weren’t getting what we paid for, but I figured he would take care of us. . When we got our gallery back, to say I was disappointed is kind of an understatement. I was upset for a while. But when I found out what an experience with a wedding photographer should look like, that “upset” grew into anger. Anger at myself, anger with the photographer … Over the past two and half years, I have worked really hard to turn that anger into PASSION. Our goal is to make sure that brides and grooms are taken care of to the fullest extent of our capabilities. We want couples to get MORE than what they know they could get with a photographer and videographer. We want to take care of couples so fully that they can look back on their wedding and think “I remember everything so beautifully because of how thoroughly, elegantly, and true to our story everything was captured.”
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
Well although we specialize in weddings, I also capture families and boudoir! So, I would love to work with anyone who is looking for beautiful, candid photos that capture them authentically.
Or, honestly, getting word out about us is huge! So, following us on social media, liking and sharing our work, or even just mentioning it to family and friends they know who are looking for a capture team is incredibly helpful!
Contact Info:
- Email: capturedbykaitlin@gmail.com
- Website: https://capturedbykaitlinandmitch.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captured_by_kaitlin/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapturedByKaitlinPhotography/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLPNEDPt7ho1aYS7LOc8UQ
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@captured_by_kaitlin
Image Credits
Captured By Kaitlin
