Meet Callynth Finney | Photographer

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

Hi Callynth, why did you pursue a creative career?
Since I was a child I’ve loved the same things: creativity, finding things, and people. I would be happy with any job that gave me the opportunity to pursue those interests and I have tried my hand at other things, but photography had the most income-producing potential.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It is a rare art to be able to draw upon appropriate lighting and color vision while setting subjects or clients at ease. I excel at this. Every assignment is an adventure; a challenge to communicate a message through imagery. My goal is to commend the essence of a business, person, product, or service, eliciting a desire to experience it.

I began by working for a non-profit, communicating the vision for the work we did to those who needed it’s services and to those from whom the organization was soliciting support through money or volunteer work. The demand for my services in our community increased organically and I began doing jobs on the side. This grew into a full time business which has established itself as one of the top-rated local photography businesses for the past decade.

I cater to a range of photography services, including portraiture, event coverage, workshops, and private instruction but about 70% of my clientele use us for commercial photography and professional headshots.

My first studio was established on Tyler’s historic downtown square in 2015. It exudes a fun, artistic, yet professional vibe, boasting hundred-year-old brick walls, 13-foot ceilings, and swinging chandeliers on pulleys. Clients are welcomed with music, and drinks from our wet bar. This space provides a warm, intimate setting for company headshots and composites, personal branding, product photography, and portraiture. This studio doubles as a small event venue.
Three blocks West, is our other location with a clean, fresh, and minimalist setting for commercial photography and portraiture needs. Opened in the Fall of 2023, this second studio is designed to offer a contemporary and sleek atmosphere for creating images that showcase businesses and personal brands. Built on a foundation of professional studio lighting, it’s most exciting feature is a color-changing, corner cyc wall, allowing for striking and seamless images. The new space is also available for hourly rentals to other photographers and content creators.
I work best, when given an assignment and the freedom to design and deliver it’s execution. My best results flow from clients fully trusting in my creativity and letting me be the artist. I will invent the wheel they need.

The experience for the client, while not as important as the end product, is pretty close. Positive interacting and relating between a client, myself, and my associates, are invaluable. While people hire us for the quality of the work we do, a positive experience and good relating add great value and leave clients feeling more positively about hiring us. This has led to word of mouth being the greatest source of our growth.

When I was 16, I was a homeless high school drop out. When I was 21, I was a struggling single mother. When I was 25, I was a single mom volunteering in non-profit work, living below the poverty line in a new state. The same creativity that brought me from those stages of life to being a successful business owner and entrepreneur, is poured into every job and project I take on.

Something Id like to share is a project that I did when I was in quarantine while having Covid. Isolated in my studio, I reached out to the community on social media, asking them to participate in a virtual project with me. I requested for people to offer a color and a feeling, allowing me to, in real time, walk away from the computer and create a photographic image to represent the color and feeling. For example: Baby Blue & Gentle, Pink & Jaded, Purple & Sinking, etc.. My assistant Hannah had recently recovered from Covid and was able to come join me for a couple of days and we had a lot of fun doing this together. It was a great way to stay busy and connected to the community while in isolation. We ended up creating 35 images based on unique pairings of suggested colors and feelings. These images are still displayed at the top of my personal facebook page and business page. I am happy to provide the images or even a grid of thumbnails for the publication.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in Tyler, two hours East of Dallas. If I were to make an itinerary for some out-of-towners it would involve arriving on the second weekend of the month. I recommend staying at one of our downtown boutique hotels- The Thomas Hotel or the Greyhound Inn.

Friday night dinner: Stanleys Famous Pit BBQ. Stay for Live music or if there isn’t any that night head over to The Grove for some dessert or a backyard cocktail or True Vine Brewing Company and Sola Bread Co for some live music and locally brewed beer.

Saturday morning: Walk from your hotel to the Foundry Cafe to grab a cup of some of the best coffee and head across the street to the Farmer’s Market at ETX Brewing Co. Be sure to check out their neighbors at Moss (Flower Shop) and Velvet Vintage. Spend the day on foot, enjoying Downtown’s Hit the Bricks community collaborative with sidewalk sales, live music, and a maker’s market. Enjoy a light lunch at Cafe 1948 while sitting on the sidewalk or inside the atrium and art gallery.

Saturday Afternoon: Enjoy a game of pool at either ETX Brewing Company or Sportz Zone Bar and Grill. Walk to Odd Fellows Wine Bar for a dimly lit and romantic interlude over a glass of wine, a chocolate truffle, or a slice of the best of the very best cheesecake in town (made by Bryan’s Cheesecake).
Head back to your beautiful room. Have a short nap and freshen up for a fun evening.

Saturday evening: Continuing with the downtown adventure, for a more casual dining experience enjoy authentic Mexican street tacos at Don Juan’s. If you like margaritas, be sure to order a Steve. For a high-end gourmet experience head over to Prime 102. Their ambiance matches the quality of the dishes they serve. It’s perfect in every way. If the Liberty Hall has a showing of any kind in the city’s historical theater, don’t miss it! At some point in the evening go find the speak-easy hidden behind the gourmet corner spot at Culture ETX. It’s called the Plaid Rabbit but don’t mention it at the door or they’ll pretend they don’t know what you’re talking about. Instead, find their Instagram and look for the secret phrase that will be your ticket to the portal. Think Alice in Wonderland. As you’re walking you will hear a live full band which is located at Rick’s. If you like to dance under the stars this beautiful historic bar is the place to go. You’ll have to go inside and then out the side door to find it.

You will never have to walk more than three blocks to find everything listed in Saturday’s adventure.

While walking, be sure to check out Callynth Photography studios which sit as bookends on the downtown square.
Callynth Photography Main studio: 117 E Erwin (Near Sports Zone and Don Juan’s)
Callynth Photography Studio C: 220B W Erwin (Next to Oddfellows Wine-bar)

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My husband for being supportive and my old boss Bev Kline. She understood my need for freedom to be creative and lifted many restraints from me in order to achieve things I may not have, had I been put it a box and given too many rules.

Website: http://www.callynthphotography.com

Instagram: instagram.com/callynthphotography

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/callynth-finney-a91b69104/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/callynthphotography/

Image Credits
Callynth Photography