Photographs by Mallory Jo is now Mallory Kiesow Photography!

What’s in a name? Don’t worry, that’s pretty much the extent of my Shakespeare knowledge. What I DO know, however, is that I’m super excited to share that Photographs by Mallory Jo is officially Mallory Kiesow Photography! Here’s a little bit about where I’ve been, where I’m at, and how I’ve been wanting to make this transition for my business for sometime now.

Photographs by Mallory Jo has had quite the evolution over the past 8 years. I told Matt the other day that I can’t believe we have only been married for 5 years (not like OMG IT’S ONLY BEEN 5 YEARS!?) But more like, wow our lives are 100% different than they were 5 years ago, pretty much EVERYTHING has changed. The transition from boyfriend/girlfriend/fiance —> husband/wife/mom/dad with 2 kids and a house. Yep, that’s a lot! I’d be lying if I didn’t include my personal life here too because, let’s face it, it’s a huge part of my story. So let’s take a trip down memory lane and see the evolution that is the, now, Mallory Kiesow Photography.

I didn’t set out to be a photographer. My higher education training is in Marketing (although I DID call my mom in a stressful academic moment (probably econ class) and tell her in a sobbing mess that I wanted to drop out of college and become a photographer. She disagreed and gave me a class-A-mom pep-talk to finish my business degree, which I, being a straight up RULE FOLLOWER, of course, did). After college I dabbled in the advertising and marketing industries, eventually landing in a fortune 1000 company’s marketing department bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to change the world.

While seeing the (very large) corporate ladder ahead of me that I’d have to climb to gain some traction in my career, I started doing photography for family and friends as a creative outlet from my corporate job and sharing the photos on my lifestyle blog. I got engaged and sort of accidentally fell in love with the wedding industry as I planned my dream wedding (to my dream guy), and in July of 2013 I officially became Mallory Kiesow. We bought a house in 2014, and were pregnant with our first child in 2015.

Over the course of these two years I continued growing my photography business side hustle and slowly but surely saw my time in corporate coming to an end. I yearned for more freedom, more say, more influence, more creating, more happiness. Entrepreneurship ran deep in my veins and it was something I couldn’t ignore. In the midst of my first pregnancy I took on a photography internship to learn firsthand wedding industry experience and, fell in love with documenting the beginning of couple’s forever lives together. I shot long hours, with swollen pregnancy feet in humid weather and even under those conditions knew that yes, this is what I wanted to do.

After welcoming our first child, Vera, into the world in 2015 I knew that part B of my career calling had begun: stay at home mama. Now, I have MAD RESPECT for ALL mamas. Natural birth, medicated birth, c-section, stay-at-home, career, breastfed, bottle-fed, babywearing, stroller-loving, and any and everything after that. In this world I believe so deeply in supporting and cheering on one another through parenthood as we are all doing our very best for our kids that we love. I grew up with a stay-at-home mom, and have always known it is what I want to do. So upon this incredible life event I officially resigned from my 8-5 office job and became fully self-employed as a photographer and stay-at-home-mama.

Since 2015 going full time photographer I have had the opportunity to work with the most amazing clients whose ongoing support means the world to me. What started out as simply taking “photographs” for people has evolved into so much more. My business name “Photographs by Mallory Jo” presented challenges for me in a few ways. First, I got married and have a new last name, one that represents a marriage I am proud of. Second, what I set out to do for all my clients is provide SO much more than just photographs. I pour my heart and soul into my work, I love getting to know my clients. For wedding couples, I love sitting down with them over coffee, hearing about their love story. I love documenting the beginning of their lives together as they say “I do” in front of their family and friends that mean the world to them. After the wedding I love cheering them on in their marriage and following along with all the fun and amazing things they are experiencing together. Being my client’s wedding photographer is SUCH an honor that I never take for granted and I’m eternally grateful to have been a part of their story together.

I love that I’m now doing family sessions with little ones for the couples whose weddings I photographed, and it is such an honor to continue to document their growing families. Family sessions have my heart in a completely different way. Prior to having children myself, it was honestly challenging for me to find passion in family sessions. Now, after having my own two littles, I have a newfound love and passion for documenting these seasons of life, because as a mom, I literally see it myself how fast it all goes. It tugs at my mama heart strings seeing families, no matter what season of life, because delivering photos that I know will be cherished forever means so much to me. And as a mom, who is always the one taking the photos to preserve memories, well, it’s so important to have those memories documented with MOM in there too! The interactions between the ENTIRE family is such an amazing thing to see in a photo. It’s like the ease and real raw love that you guys experience everyday, but never get to see from an outside perspective.

I am so proud of everything Photographs by Mallory Jo has been and am just as excited to march forward as Mallory Kiesow Photography serving my clients in the very best way possible with all my heart in both weddings and lifestyle sessions. Thank you to all my family, clients, friends and followers for all your continued support. I would not be where I am today, or be able to live the fulfilling life I’m living, without you. Cheers to new beginnings and exciting things ahead!

*Past clients: your blog posts are still on the website, just via a new URL! So if you’ve saved the post from before, just search on the blog page to find your posts! :)