We had the good fortune of connecting with Alexa Dearing and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alexa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Originally we were just a group of friends who gathered every once and awhile to take photos of eachother, we had so much fun with this concept that a friend of ours sky, decided to create an Instagram page where we could share the photos that had been taken, announce new photo meetups happening in the area, etc. Sky would organize dates & times, and eventually we became a pretty large group. When Covid hit, we had to all take a step back, and take a break from gathering together, post-covid Sky’s career as a wedding photographer kept her super busy so she handed the Instagram account over to myself (Alexa) after a couple months of hosting “walk and shoot” style photoshoots with friends, I decided that I wanted this to be bigger, and better. December 2022, we took azphotomeetups through a complete rebrand, obtained an LLC, and started hosting the events as we do now- one event in a photography studio, and one “walk and shoot” style photoshoot. Since December we’ve budded into a full blown company hosting 2 events per month, designing sets for our events & one set seasonally rotating set for our home studio Dream Factory, and we’ve partnered with local anime convention uwucon to create sets for cosplayers to use during their convention.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Getting where we are today has been a tough road. With the pandemic bringing our original brand to a total standstill we never thought that we would have the opportunity to come together again like we do now. Looking to the future we are hoping to work with more anime conventions, partner with a ton more local businesses to collaborate on events, and host 2 charity events next year, as well as host more awesome events across the valley. This journey has given us a real sense of community, a community that is such a creative and freeing space- having a community that is so supportive, creative, and willing to take on any artistic challenge we throw at them has been the mist rewarding aspects of our brands journey. We are a safe space for Content Creators of all types from models and cosplayers to photographers and videographers, we work with all types of skill levels from beginners to masters- and no matter your level of experience there is always something more that can be learned, or someone new to meet at our events!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would definitely direct them to Dream Factory Studios for one of our events! Dream Factory is our home studio where we host one of our monthly events, it’s located off of McDowell and the 202- right near Tempe town lake, so there are plenty of awesome food options near by! When we travel, it’s all about the food and experiences for us, thankfully the location of our home studio offers both!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Amanda Sweeney AZPM Co-Owner, she designs all of our artwork & promotional material, as well as helps design& constuct sets.

Tae.the.archer AZPM Senior Brand ambassador- helps with set ups, tear downs of sets, promotion of events, and overall our #1 cheer leader

Website: Www.azpminfo.com

Instagram: Azphotomeetups

Linkedin: Azphotomeetups

Facebook: Azphotomeetups

Youtube: Azphotomeetups

Other: Find us on eventbrite at azphotomeetups as well! This is where we have all of our ticket information

Image Credits
Tae.the.archer Fadedstar95 Azfireshots Lexxtc.tv Drunkpanda72 Billy.taylor.visuals I.m.t_media Tjstravelingtales Emmasymanski Vikkitcreates Brandonmichaelphoto The_mighty_tamarawr_cosplay Thetonygist Moonglowcosplay Azdennislarson_official Courtney0amber Highduhhh Julianybarraphotography

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