Check Out Cori Averett and Kayla Serr’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cori Averett and Kayla Serr.

Hi Cori and Kayla, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
We are Cori Averett and Kayla Serr and together, we make up Whim + West. We met at The Aveda Institute in 2012 and instantly became best friends. Over the years, it has always been our dream to work together in some capacity, and after both becoming stay-at-home moms, we both felt it was the right time to bring our dreams to life. Although we had both left our careers as hairstylists, we wanted to continue doing work in the creative field – we just didn’t quite know what that looked like for us. After experimenting with many different options, we began styling photoshoots for friends and our own personal families. After doing this a few times, we wanted to take our work to the next level and decided to try our hand at hosting the photoshoots ourselves – allowing us to not only style the shoots, but to be behind the camera as well. This past winter, we held a handful of mini holiday sessions for some friends to test the waters, and after gaining some confidence, decided to pursue photography as a team. Over the last few months, things have really fallen into place for us and we have been able to expand our skillset and portfolio and are so excited for where our career is headed!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Working together as a team has been absolutely incredible and we couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else. Our biggest struggle has been aligning our schedules because between the two of us, we have four children, which means lots of extra-curricular activities to work around. Between having spouses, swim lessons, softball, football, basketball, band, robotics club, and a very active toddler, extra time for investing in our careers has been something hard to come by. Mom life is BUSY. We are definitely adjusting and making sacrifices and learning as we go. Luckily, this opportunity allows us to make our own schedules, however, we always want to be responsive and available for our clients.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are a creative photography team who does anything from photoshoot styling, headshots, family sessions, maternity, couples, creative shoots, babies, and branding. We love creating a positive and safe environment for our clients to feel comfortable and confident in no matter who they are. We love photographs that create memories, evoke emotions, and become special moments in someone’s life. For us, photography sessions feel really intimate and anytime we get the opportunity to work with a client, we treat it with the utmost gratitude. We feel like being able to work as a team and having both of our eyes and creativity in the mix is such an asset to our business. We both set creative visions for each session, we both take turns behind the camera, we both assist with posing, styling, and direction, and we both participate in the editing process. From start to finish, we are both involved and contributing to every aspect, which has really made us what we are.

How do you think about luck?
We feel extremely lucky to both be in the position to be in the same phase of life and have the opportunity to do Whim + West together. We have a really beautiful friendship and partnership and having the stars align to both be able to pursue our creative passions has been a dream.

Pricing:

• 1 hour session – starting at $250
• Seasonal minis – starting at $150
• Headshots – starting at $150
• Business Branding – starting at $350

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://www.instagram.com/whimandwest/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whimandwest/

Image Credits:
All images by Whim + West