APPLETON (NBC 26) — The photography business is an industry that is constantly evolving.
For one Appleton couple they’ve had to adapt and grow their clientele.
The couple met back in 1997 when Heidi De La Teja met her husband Gerry.
Heidi, who was from Wisconsin was living in Mexico at that time when she met Gerry, a Mexican native who was also a photographer.
“We both we worked for a different hotel chain and did photography for that hotel,” Heidi said.
The two eventually combined their passion for photography and emerged their business to “De La Teja Studio”.
The couple live and work between the two countries, covering weddings across the Midwest during the summer and fall and then returning to their home in Mexico City to cover events in the winter.
One of the things they specialize in is traveling for destinations weddings.
Their photography business has led them to Paris, Rome, Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, London, Venice, and many other locations around the globe.
While they photograph weddings, along with other events they’ve just recently added equine photography to keep up with the ever changing times.
“When I first started out in the late 90’s there were very few wedding photographers in Appleton and since then not only has that market grown but other forms of photography have come up such as boudoir, obviously family and babies. Maternity, maternity boudoir," Heidi said.
Heidi says especially in the last year, that’s a new market they’ve seen grow.
She says she often has a lot of adult women calling to book appointments.
“For the past I’d say year, year and a half we’ve had an overwhelming response from adult women. I would say over 30, over 40, and even 50 who have horses as a friend. I mean this is part of their family,” Heidi said.
As of now she says she is one of just a few photographers across Wisconsin offering something like this, and one of just a few across the country.
“Just as a car collector will collect cars. Some people have a beautiful equine family. We would go out, I would photograph their entire stables. Everyone is a little bit different. Depends if they’re into dressage or Western Saddle,” Heidi said.
The couple say their business is not just a job, but a passion.
They say they do everything they can to cater to customers the best experience.
“A lot of women in this area have been loving my idea of dressing up vintage period outfits like 1700’s 1800’s, something different, very romantic, very storybook-esque,” Heidi said.
With their world wide travels and constantly being exposed to new things, they say this has been one of the ways they’ve been able to continue developing their creative skills and learning new things that can help grow and expand their business.
“By us doing different things keeps us fresh when we come back to doing weddings, keep us fresh when we do boudoir photography because we are doing different things all the time,” Gerry said.
