Conversations with Joe Pyle

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Joe Pyle.

Hi Joe, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I was working at different skilled-labor jobs in southeast Iowa (where we are from), which didn’t give me much meaning. Kari was homeschooling both of our boys at the time (she has her teaching degree, so scheduling comes quite naturally to her).

We struggled to make ends meet and didn’t really have a good quality of life going for us. Once we realized that this lifestyle wasn’t really working we decided to take some risks with a few different entrepreneurial endeavors. A couple of them turned out well, and we quickly realized that being self-employed was what we wanted.

At about this same time, my sister and her husband moved to Estes Park to be closer to rock climbing, mountain biking, and other outdoor adventures, which was something we had all been doing for many years already. Since we now could make our own schedules and fill our calendars according to what was important to us, we made several trips out to Colorado to visit.

We quickly realized that being in the mountains suited us all really well and wanted to see if we could make it work. This was when I (Joe) picked up a camera for the first time and started to play with it. My good friend asked me to shoot some portraits for his website and do some architectural photos of his office. I thought it was fun and wanted to pursue it a bit more. Not only was it something I was interested in, but it was really a fun, creative outlet that I hadn’t had in my life.

Kari’s cousin asked me to shoot their wedding, and I said, “EFFF THAT! I hate weddings!” which was only a response to the stuffy weddings that I had attended growing up.

Since I “owned a good camera” and had been shooting for a bit, and with a lot of prompting from Kari, I decided to do it. The way she said it then: “Joe, you love everything about weddings! You love style, people, parties, and you’re sentimental… you would totally love it”. She, like most of the time she looks at the big picture, was right. I totally loved it, and it opened up a new world for me to consider.

Her cousin’s wedding was out in the woods, with only about twenty people. It was small, intimate, and magical. I fell in love with being there and feeling the emotion and raw tension that a wedding presents.

Most people don’t realize this, but Estes Park is typically within the top five destination wedding locations in the United States, usually number two, next to Las Vegas. We found this out when we were visiting Colorado, and we decided to start marketing ourselves as wedding photographers in the Estes Park area. Kari had been a photographer during the “days of film” and knew the basics of composition, but we both were very new to the scene. We started to take online courses from several photographers we admired, emailed many different pros in the area, and started to understand what it meant to capture someone’s day from start to finish.

This was when I (Joe) started “Joe Pyle Photography,” and that name, according to Google, stuck. I would change the name, but there is a lot of background work behind our presence online, and it would spiral poorly if I did. Everyone reading this should know that Kari and I both are this company, and we never have hired anyone to help us.

Once we made the decision to market to the Estes Park destination scene, we quickly started to book weddings there. At this time, we were still living in Iowa City, and we would travel for thirteen hours to photograph a wedding, stay for a day or two at my sisters’ home, then drive back to Iowa. It was absolutely absurd, and we knew it wasn’t sustainable. We sat down with our boys, who were nine and fourteen at the time, both homeschooled and said, “Hey, we are thinking about moving to Estes Park. We want you to both think on it for some time and let us know your thoughts.” Without hesitation, they looked at each other, then back at us, and said LET’s GO!

We put some things in motion, downsized our home to a small “fixer,” and started the search for a home in Estes Park. This process took about three years to complete and ended when my sister told us that there was a house around the corner from them that was for sale. In 2013 bought it, without seeing it, and moved as quickly as we could. We signed the papers at the beginning of September of 2013, just before the flood. Needless to say, the flood of mid September 2013 happened and we had to drive our Penske truck about sixteen hours to get to our new home. I can still remember hoping that it would make up some of the dirt and back country roads we were forced to drive.

(Understand that our home in Iowa was a four bedroom, four bath, 2,000 plus square foot NEW home. The same home in Estes Park would be worth a fortune!). The home in Estes Park needed “some” work, but it was worth it.

Once we were here and settled in, we started to become close to a lot of the vendors in the area by reaching out and letting them know that we were local to Estes Park and could meet for coffee to chat and get to know each other. Many of the people we chatted with then are still our contacts today.

Our photography has absolutely “taken off” since then, and we’ve photographed over 400 weddings/elopements in the Estes Park area in the last eleven years. We’ve also been honored by couples who have taken us to Iceland twice, Hawaii, Alaska, and Cancun. Usually this has happened after we photograph their engagement session in RMNP, they love the photos and how easy we are to work with, and then hire us to come along for their destination wedding.

We all face challenges, but would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Picking everything up and moving to a new state has it’s downsides, mainly not being around the family that you love. Moving to the town that my sister and her husband, who we’ve been close to for many years, has been great though. Also, for Kari, the challenges in gardening compared to Iowa- she is constantly battling the deer and elk in our yard along with the short growing season and high elevation.

In the photography business, it is in flux as to how many weddings we want to take on in a year and working around our two sons’ activities – Estes Park High School mountain bike and a Boulder climbing team for the other. Some years, the dates line up in a really convenient way, and in other years it seems everyone wants a date that is already booked or the date next to another wedding.

We block off the day before and after a wedding so that we can be fully rested and focused for each couple’s once-in-a-lifetime date!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Joe and I photograph every couple’s session together – whether engagement, elopement, wedding, or anniversary! We love working together with other couples, and it seems to put them at ease to enjoy one another’s company, knowing that we also have each other. Some love to interact with us and some are very focused on each other – either way is good with us!

Joe and I work very efficiently as one of us will have a vision for certain images, and the next one will look at the colors/lighting around us and envision the next shots with some guided activity. We have lived near Lake Estes in Estes Park for 11 years now, so we are very familiar with the town and Rocky Mountain National Park. We’ve spent countless hours exploring the park for our own enjoyment and also finding some unique locations to take our photography clients. We are known as the photography couple who owns the gray sprinter van that is decked out for our couples to ride along with us into RMNP.

We have a leather loveseat with a picture window, a mini-fridge with drinks, snacks, and room to stand up inside. Our couples love planning a mini-escape on their wedding day or a separate day RMNP session. We love to incorporate the vast landscape with our couple’s portraits. Whether at a venue or in the park, we are always looking to photograph human connections and capture images from your day that will give you wonderful memories as well as maybe some interactions that you might not have noticed.

Clients also comment on loving our use of true color, light and shadow. We are most proud to hear from our clients that they LOVED their gallery and can’t stop looking at it!

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Work it like a paid job, even if it’s not yet. Learn and practice as much as you can to build your portfolio.

Network and go to conferences – there will be people of all skill levels there. Be willing to try different forms of your craft, as you may surprise yourself with what you love the most!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joepylephotography.com/
• Instagram: @joepylephotography

Image Credits
Joe Pyle Photography