Amboy photographer has her eyes on marriage ceremony moments – Shaw Native

DIXON – A pair’s marriage ceremony is among the most unforgettable days of their life, and an Amboy photographer desires to assist them maintain it that means.

Callie Shrimplin is the individual behind the lens who makes a speciality of placing purchasers’ weddings entrance and middle, by preserving the moments and recollections of a day when all eyes — together with Shrimplin’s — are on the completely satisfied couple.

Shrimplin owns Callie Jo Photo and Film in Dixon, taking her cameras to weddings to doc moments massive and small, surprising and candid, actual and relatable.

More than only a career, it’s a ardour for Shrimplin, who’s an enormous believer that simply because we stay in a day when pictures are a faucet away on everybody’s cellular phone, we shouldn’t lose deal with what pictures need to say. Taking an image is one factor, however telling a narrative? That’s the place expertise makes a distinction.

Her work isn’t nearly documenting who was there or what occurred, however about recognizing the emotion in small gestures and the fleeting expressions that always go unseen. There’s quite a bit happening throughout a marriage. Hundreds of visitors, 1000’s of moments and one million issues to recollect — and no two moments are the identical. Details could make the distinction.

“Photographers are a huge part of your wedding day, and it’s really the only thing that you have that you’re able to walk away from your wedding day with you besides your memories,” Shrimplin mentioned. “Your DJ, food and decorations, all that’s gone, but photos and video are the things that you can take and re-look at 20 years down the road.”

She rebranded her enterprise from its former title of Callie Jo Photography in early December — to Callie Jo Photo and Film — to replicate her a foray into video, and he or she moved her studio from rural Amboy to Dixon’s downtown at first of the yr.

That swift, hectic and completely satisfied emotional rhythm of a marriage day is what Shrimplin leans into. Her position, she says, is much less about standing nonetheless and extra about anticipating motion; it’s about studying a room, holding her eyes open, looking ahead to shifting expressions, and creating pictures that talk volumes, within the language of affection.

“My eyes are always moving,” Shrimplin mentioned. “I’m always looking at the crowd, and I’m always looking at the couple. You never know on a wedding day when moments are going to happen. There’s surprises left and right, there’s emotions left and right. As a photographer, you really have to keep your eyes moving and be aware of your surroundings.”

That intuition leads her to hunt out the unscripted moments in the course of the occasion, whether or not it’s a grandparent wiping away tears of pleasure or a pair catching their breath between occasions. The trick to getting a superb picture? Know when to step up and when to face again.

She prefers to remain far sufficient away to protect the honesty of the second.

“You’re not going to get that candid moment if the person knows you’re near them,” Shrimplin mentioned. “You have to look at them at a distance and catch them off-guard. Normally when guests see you with a camera, they stop and they pose, and you’re not going to get candid photos when they do that. Posed photos are great for reception photos, but you can really only have so many of those.”

“I love the storytelling of a wedding day,” she mentioned. “Every wedding is different. Every couple is different. There are no two days that ever feel the same. I love watching the couples’ personalities unfold throughout the day. I love the creative part of it. I try to create something that they can look back on and it tells the story of their day picture by picture, from beginning to end. They freeze moments that you’ll never forget.”

Shrimplin shouldn’t be solely capturing a brand new chapter in {couples}’ lives, but in addition writing a brand new chapter in her personal. She plans to cut back from her full-time job at Ortho Illinois in Rockford to do extra media work. She additionally hopes her images work will attain new heights within the coming yr: The video provides one other layer and extra texture to what she does.

“With video, it’s great to hear that laughter come back to life, see the movement and relive the emotion,” she mentioned. “I used to second-shoot a lot, and I’ve found there are a lot of fine photographers around the area, so my mindset is that if they choose someone else as their photographer, I’m still not out of the game and can still be booked as a videographer. I feel that video is something that people overlook, but the No. 1 thing I hear from past brides and grooms that have not had a videographer is that, ‘Man, I wish I really had a videographer.’

“It’s something that brings those moments back to life. When you look at a photo, you try to think of that moment and try to relive it, but video brings it back to life. You can relive that emotion.”

Her purchasers usually keep together with her even lengthy after the marriage. They return for maternity classes, new child portraits, milestone pictures and first-home celebrations. Some even plan their marriage ceremony date round her availability. And as her workload grows, so has the house she works from, together with her transfer to downtown Dixon.

The path thus far in her profession started lengthy earlier than Shrimplin photographed her first marriage ceremony. She began capturing pictures throughout her sophomore yr at Ashton-Franklin Center High School, getting into 4-H picture contests and experimenting with anybody prepared to face in entrance of her lens.

Her sister Emily turned her first mannequin.

“It was my sister’s senior year and my sophomore year, and I asked her: ‘Can I take your senior picture?’ She said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ and she was my model,” Shrimplin mentioned. “At first I was just doing free shoots or super cheap ones with my sister as a model, and then I started doing seniors for my class, the year above me, and a lot from Amboy and families around the area.”

By her senior yr, she was second-shooting weddings, and it was throughout that fledgling picture career that she started to essentially take pleasure in weddings.

“It just kind of clicked for me,” Shrimplin mentioned. “There was something about the wedding day and the storytelling, the emotions, the fast-paced environment that I just really fell in love with.”

She launched Callie Jo Photography in 2018 however paused her momentum throughout school whereas finding out for a healthcare profession. She didn’t suppose she may make a profession out of images then, she mentioned, however then she began to choose up the digicam once more, and her love for images grew much more.

“Eventually at the end of 2024, I wanted 2025 to be the year to put photography as my focus, and push healthcare to the side,” Shrimplin mentioned. “It was a year of rebuilding and regrowing. It was my first year back into everything, and it’s been nothing short of amazing.”

She shot seven weddings in 2025 and has roughly 25 scheduled for 2026, together with some video-only dates, with just a few weddings already on the books for 2027.

Shrimplin says the previous yr has been transformative, not solely in professionally however personally. Weddings have helped her see what she will construct in her enterprise and who she will develop into as an individual. The loyalty of returning prospects has given her the reassurance she as soon as lacked. Now, with video increasing her choices and {couples} more and more planning their dates together with her in thoughts, she feels the shift from part-time ardour to full-time career unfolding naturally — a change she as soon as doubted she may ever make.

“Photography’s going to be my full-time thing,” Shrimplin mentioned. “I just feel like the camera landed in my hands and I never really let go. Photography’s always been in my back brain, but I felt like I could never make a career out of it; last year really told me that I can, and I’m super excited to make it my full-time career and really get out there because weddings are what I really love doing.”

Callie Jo Photo and Film’s studio is positioned at 93 S. Hennepin Ave. in Dixon. Find it on Facebook or Instagram, or e-mail calliejophotographyy@gmail.com for reserving or extra info.