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

Hi Brandy, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My Birth Photography business was born through a long journey of circumstances. After graduating from college with my Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing, I took the NCLEX, got my RN license, and started practicing as a nurse….my lifelong dream. After a few years of nursing experience in both Labor & Delivery, and Infertility Nursing, we finally conceived our first child through IVF. At the age of 2, he was diagnosed with Autism and was already in Speech therapy due to being nonverbal. Our son was needing a lot of attention and different therapies at that time, so I needed to step back from my nursing career in order to stay home with him. During this time, I picked up a couple of different MLM businesses to bring in some money for our family, which were unsuccessful to say the least. I was feeling pretty down on myself about the failure of these two businesses, but was still unable to return to nursing (and honestly didn’t really want to return to nursing at that time either). My husband had been encouraging me for years to pick up photography. I’m always taking photos of literally everything in our lives with my phone. And he had bought me a DSLR camera a couple of years prior, but I’d always been too intimidated by it to really learn how to use it. However, by this point I was more in a time of desperation for anything to be successful and bring in money for my family, that I felt I had nothing to lose. I love photography, I love being creative….so why not? I started taking courses to learn how to use the camera & to learn lighting, composition, editing, and more. I slowly started doing model calls, and then taking on some clients for small family photo shoots, maternity photos, seasonal mini sessions, and then eventually did my first birth story session. Once I did that, I was hooked. I loved the creative nature of photography, but being back in the birth space was just the perfect fit for me. It meshed two huge passions of mine: birth and art. I had found my life passion. Ever since then, I have been marketing myself, making connections within the Dallas birth community, and I haven’t looked back. I’ve also recently become a Certified Birth & Fertility Doula, and am loving adding that to my list of skills and education, for another way to serve the DFW Community and its expecting moms.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My photography business centers around the expecting mom. I photograph your journey from “Bump to Baby”, capturing your beautiful pregnancy through Maternity photography, your Birth Story, and your adorable little newborn baby through a variety of different Newborn Session options. My maternity & newborn photography is often described as beautiful, dreamy, and authentic. I love to make a woman feel her most beautiful, in a time where it’s very easy to be hard on your physical appearance & all of the changes your body goes through during pregnancy and postpartum. My birth photography is often described as real, raw, emotional, and vulnerable. I love to capture this day in an authentic, photo-journalistic way, while also making it aesthetically beautiful & capturing the amazing range of emotions felt on that day. One of my favorite statements from a past birth client was that it “was like a mother’s eye capturing everything you might not notice, but would want to remember from the day your baby was born”. I am most proud of just the way I have pushed myself outside of my comfort zone in order to pursue my passion. It has not at all been an easy journey. Leaving my nursing career behind, after all of the work & stress I went through to achieve that goal was very, very hard. Putting myself out there within the community, and being vulnerable enough to show my own art, was extremely tough as I struggle with severe anxiety, depression, and am a very introverted soul. I can only attribute my success and ability to push back against these obstacles, to God and my family. Without them, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today.

The lessons I’ve learned have been mostly revolving around patience and perseverance. It’s not an easy journey when you are an entrepreneur and small business creator. You will lose money before you make money, and you will learn to make money & be successful through a lot of mistakes and hard lessons. This was not my first attempt at running my own small business, and my others were most definitely considered failures by the end. However, this by far has become my biggest passion in life. And I have truly enjoyed most every moment of the journey. I feel it’s my true calling in life, and am so glad to be where I’m at today. And I have only have the highest of hopes of where it will take me in the next few years!

What I most want the Dallas community to know about me & my business, is that you will never feel like just a number with me. You will always be treated with the utmost respect, empathy, compassion, kindness, and love. You will always have my utmost attention, and feel like a VIP. I always go above & beyond for my clients to educate, love on, pray for, support both them & their partner, and provide them with the best memories of the day they met their longed-for baby boy or girl. Birth & infertility are my two biggest passions in life. And my clients definitely can feel my passion, knowledge & love for the field. And I just love that I can combine my biggest passions, with beautiful photographic art. I have supported hundreds of moms through their birth journey, and I’m looking forward to supporting thousands more throughout the rest of my career.

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.
Gosh, what a tough question. It’s so hard to pick a favorite spot in DFW. There’s so much that I still haven’t even gotten to explore myself since we moved here a few years ago. As for nature, there are SO many beautiful scenic nature preserves and parks throughout Dallas like the gorgeous Dallas Arboretum, or the beautiful waterfalls & wildflowers at Prairie Creek Park. the fields and biking trails in McKinney’s Erwin Park, the nature & walking trails throughout Arbor Hills Nature Preserve, or all of the many gorgeous parks throughout Highland Park in Dallas. The Dallas Zoo, the Aquarium, or LegoLand are all really great places to take to entertain kids. There are so many amazing restaurants of any food genre throughout DFW, including wineries, fondue, hibachi, authentic mexican cuisine, and more. My family and I are homebodies, and mainly stay within our bubble of NE Dallas, but you don’t have to travel too far, to find most anything you could dream of for entertainment, food, sporting events , or other exciting activities within DFW.

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?
My family, honestly, deserves the most recognition. My husband has been my biggest support & backbone throughout all of my failed & successful small business endeavors. He has been the one to push me through the difficult times, to encourage me to go outside of my comfort zone to market myself, to pursue more education in order to make my skills & my business stronger, and he has just been by my side through it all. Even when it wasn’t looking like I could make it a profitable, successful business for our family, he never lost faith in me.

Secondly, I attribute it to God. Without Him, I don’t think I would have met the people who have not only helped me to find my passion in life, but have helped to further my small business within this large community.

Website: www.birthbeloved.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/birthbeloved_doulatog

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirthBelovedByBrandy

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutDFW is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.