Meet Christina Engle | Owner, Photographer

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

Hi Christina, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Creating and Encouraging Relationships. Patchwork Photography, and now Photo Fusion Studio, exists to create an authentic, life-giving and fun photography experience in order to create images that allow people to be encouraged in who they are; images that strengthen their relationships; and images that over time connect their many small moments into a lifetime of images that creates the story of their life.
When thinking about what is behind the success of my business, I think it is found in recognizing that not everyone is my client! I am not, nor do I have to, appeal to the masses! I can only give what I am equipped to give. I can only serve the people who are open and desiring what I have.

I work with authentic, loyal and honest people who value experience, fun, and quality. My clients are social and well connected, care about creating a home, and are proud of their work and family life. That being said, I don’t typically work with people who are just looking for the newest shiniest item or just out to get a good deal. My clients are people who are interested in relationships.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
History, where I started and now – . . . one wedding, then two . . . then 18. In a way, I had gotten into business by accident. I was a mom who was working as a campus missionary and homeschooling her kids. My heart, the core of who I am, had never been about creating a business – if I’m honest, not even really about photography. From the beginning, it has been about building a family. It has been about feeding this need in me to be with people, to encourage and love others. It has been about giving myself freedom. I needed days that were very diverse and relaxed in their schedule, allowing me the ability to be a mom and a wife, and be a part of ministry.

Ultimately, though, the autonomy that I thought I had quickly disappeared as I became a slave to working a business – doing photography. I have always been two steps behind. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the largest is that I never have had good systems in place. I was too busy, too fast – so busy that it became full time . . . building on anything except a solid foundation. I was spinning my wheels, but not moving forward. And at the same, feeling unsatisfied with my work, and in what I was giving my clients.

Some people can go to work, do the same thing every day, go home, eat, sleep, and repeat it all again the next day. This is difficult for me. I want to feel like I am contributing something to the world. For many years, raising my kids, supporting my husband, building this life that we have, brought satisfaction to my days. In recent years, though, as my kids become more independent of me and my husband is settled in his career, I realized that I have really only been living for the present moment – not building a future for myself, for our family, for the world as a whole. I had been living moment to moment – survival mode, so to speak, and I hadn’t counted the costs.

I had been doing a lot of work but leaving nothing behind. This brought me to a place in my personal life and in my career where I wanted to build a business that didn’t just pay the bills but was life-giving. I wanted to be a part of helping create something that would last – not just pretty pictures, but an experience, a relationship, helping families hold onto memories.

S0, who are we now? What are we about?

We are about CONNECTION -connecting people, connecting moments, making connections with the past, connecting in the moment & connecting with the future. We are about an experience – genuine, authentic, comfortable. We are about an investment – in relationships, in your future, in your time

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If money were no object, and we had a week . . . the Phoenix valley is so diverse! we moved here from Montana about 10 years ago, and whenever friends come to visit, we have to spend a day at the spa. The Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Montelucia is one of my favorites. I miss the green of the Northwest, but the desert has its own beauty. We would definitely go hiking and spend some quiet moments at the Desert Botanical Gardens.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My husband! We got married just two weeks out of high school! Over our 23 years of marriage, we have worked together, supported one another through college, first jobs, as parents of 6 . . . the list is endless. Who I have become as a person, as a business owner, and even as a mom would not have been possible without his support, encouragement and sacrifice.

Website: www.photofusionstudio.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photofusionstudio

Facebook: https://facebook.com/photofusionstudio

Image Credits
Christina Engle & Photo Fusion Studio