Exploring Life & Business with Allie Coldiron of Coldiron Photography

Today we’d like to introduce you to Allie Coldiron. 

Hi Allie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When my husband Marcus and I first got together, we loved (still do!) going on adventures and traveling, especially in our Jeep that we had at the time. We were constantly taking landscape photos with our phones & Marcus got quite the Instagram following posting photos of our Jeep in these landscapes. He even got hired to do a commercial shoot for Jeep in Moab! We soon came to realize how much we loved taking photos in beautiful places but we seemed to be missing something–real-life subjects. In 2015, we decided to invest in a new camera (I already had a beginner Canon from my college photography days) and we did some shoots here and there for some friends. We weren’t even engaged quite yet, but decided to start our business, Coldiron Photography, not sure where it would lead us! I designed our logo at the time (thanks to our brother-in-law for our current design!) and Marcus created our website, we got our LLC, business cards, the whole deal and shot our first wedding at the end of 2015 (right after we got back from walking El Camino in Spain!). In 2016, we had more weddings booked with couples who trusted us without us really having any experience and we learned so much. We also got married in 2016! 

In 2017, we doubled the amount of weddings, along with lots of engagement sessions and some family sessions. It’s also when we started to really nail down our editing style. We got to travel out of state and the country in 2016 and 2017 and by 2018, we were traveling for weddings quite a bit. 2018…that was quite the year! We had 24 weddings & elopements (out of state and country too), many engagement sessions, and other little sessions in between. What most people didn’t or don’t know, is that we also worked (and still do!) our full-time day jobs. Marcus, at the time, was a Building Inspector for the City of Fort Collins (he is now Chief Building Official!) and I was managing a therapy center for Eating Disorders in Fort Collins (now currently the Director of Admissions!). After the year we had in 2018, we had to make the decision to either take our photography business full time or slow it down a bit because phew, that was a stressful year! 

We decided we wanted to keep working our full-time jobs and take on less weddings because we didn’t want to feel burn out with our business. We love what we do and want photography to keep fueling that passion. Giving 100% to our clients and also our growing family has been super important to us and I think we have finally found a good balance! Since the start of our journey, we have kept up with upgrading our cameras, our lenses, all of our gear, etc, have spent countless hours editing photos after work, and have managed to keep each other sane, while working our full-time jobs, traveling for weddings, having a kiddo at the beginning of 2020, with another on the way in a few short weeks! 

Marcus and I shoot every engagement session and wedding/elopement together and I have taken on family, maternity, branding, portrait, and newborn sessions. We are scaling back on weddings (we are still doing them–just not as many!) to give more time for our family on weekends, but next year I will be taking on a lot more other sessions, which I’m super excited about! We have worked hard over the years to get to where we are today and I am super proud of us:) 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Owning a business is never easy! We have definitely had our challenges, but it’s been so great to have each other in this whole process. We really work so great together! I think the biggest challenge for me personally, was (and still is) finding time for editing. Because we work full-time jobs, editing was only possible at night, after a busy day at work. Then, once we had our son, it got even more challenging because I was limited to editing after he went down for bed. It’s so hard to get motivated to open the computer at 8 pm after a crazy day of work and being a mom! 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Coldiron Photography?
My husband and I own Coldiron Photography. Coldiron is our last name:) 

We used to mainly specialize in weddings/elopements but have recently been doing more family, portrait, maternity, branding, newborn and commercial sessions. We are a husband-and-wife team and if you book us for a wedding, you will always get the both of us! If you book us for any other type of session, it will usually be me, Allie! 

How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
You can reach out through our website, www.coldironphotography.com, through our Instagram @coldironphotography or @allieneedislove, or send an email to coldironphotography@gmail.com for any inquiries. We are based out of Fort Collins, but travel all over Colorado and really anywhere you want to take us! 

Contact Info:

• Email: coldironphotography@gmail.com
• Website: www.coldironphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coldironphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColdironPhotography

Image Credits
Coldiron Photography