About Ayla
I picked up my first camera — my mom's old 35mm film Nikon — when I was sixteen, and I haven't put one down since. There was something about the way a photograph could freeze a feeling that hooked me immediately. Not just the way things looked, but the way they felt.
I studied fine art at UT Austin, where I learned to see light the way painters do — as something alive, something you work with rather than control. I started shooting weddings to pay for school, and somewhere between the first dance at my third wedding and the quiet moment a father saw his daughter in her dress for the first time, I fell completely in love with storytelling.
Ten years and over 200 weddings later, my approach hasn't changed: I believe in documentary-style photography, natural light, and real moments over posed perfection. I want to capture the way your partner looks at you when they think nobody is watching. The laugh that makes your whole face change. The details you chose because they meant something.
“I cry at every wedding. Every single one.”
My work has been published in Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot, Brides Magazine, and Style Me Pretty. I've been honored with the Junebug Best of the Best award and featured on Two Bright Lights. But honestly, the thing I'm most proud of is the text I get six months after a wedding that says “we still look at our photos every single day.”
When I'm not behind a camera, you can find me in East Austin with my rescue dog, Finn, hunting for the best tacos in the city (current favorite: Veracruz All Natural), or shooting rolls of Portra 400 just for the joy of it. I still shoot film alongside digital because there's something about the grain and the color that digital can't quite replicate.
Published In
- Martha Stewart Weddings
- The Knot
- Brides Magazine
- Style Me Pretty
Awards
- Junebug Best of the Best
- Two Bright Lights
