Today we’d like to introduce you to Mak Wutke.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
If you had told me a few years ago that I would become a photographer, I probably would have laughed at you.
Actually, I did.
For years, I worked in the wedding industry, but always on the planning and coordination side. It started with a college internship and grew into a world I absolutely loved. I loved the people. I loved the relationships. I loved the energy of a wedding day and getting to play a small part in a moment people would remember for the rest of their lives.
I was surrounded by photographers all the time.
I just never imagined becoming one.
Then COVID hit.
Suddenly, the industry I had built my career around came to a halt, and none of us really knew when “normal” would come back or what normal would even look like when it did.
And somewhere in the middle of all that uncertainty, a friend asked me a question.
“Have you ever thought about becoming a photographer?”
I laughed.
“No.”
And that should have been the end of it.
Except it wasn’t.
For some reason, I kept thinking about that question. Days passed, then weeks, then months, and it kept finding its way back into my head.
What if I did?
I started bringing it up to my husband, mostly because I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t let it go. He didn’t laugh. He did the opposite.
He encouraged me to go for it.
He could see something in it before I could. He knew how much I loved people, building relationships, being creative, and being part of weddings. To him, photography made sense for me long before it made sense to me.
So in February 2022, I stopped wondering “what if?”
I bought my first camera.
And I went all in.
What started with one question I couldn’t shake became Emersyn Grey Photography.
Looking back now, I can see that photography didn’t take me away from what I loved about the wedding industry. It brought all of those pieces together in a completely different way. I still get to build relationships. I still get to step into some of the biggest moments of people’s lives. But now, I get to preserve them.
And somewhere along the way, it became about so much more than weddings.
I’ve gotten to photograph couples, growing families, motherhood, seniors, and all of the beautiful, ordinary moments in between.
Being a wife and mom myself has made me realize just how quickly those moments become memories. The little hands don’t stay little. The senior standing in front of your camera is suddenly off beginning a life of their own. The wedding day you’ve spent months planning is over in what feels like minutes.
That’s why I don’t just want to create beautiful photos.
I want to create photographs that take you back to the moment it all happened.
I want you to look at them years from now and remember the way your toddler reached for your hand. The way your fiancé looked at you. The anticipation before your baby arrived. The laughter that happened between the perfectly posed moments.
Because I’ve learned that the seasons we wish we could go back to are usually the ones we didn’t realize were passing so quickly.
It’s funny.
One of the best decisions I’ve ever made started with a question I laughed at.
I’m really glad I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
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?
Going all in didn’t mean everything immediately fell into place.
I was building a business from the ground up, and like most new business owners, I had to learn how to do that one step at a time.
There were slow seasons. There were times I wondered what I needed to do differently. There was a lot of learning, experimenting, showing up, and trusting that the work I was putting in would eventually lead somewhere.
None of those struggles were extraordinary. They were the very normal growing pains of building something from nothing. But when you’re in the middle of them, it’s hard to see what’s waiting on the other side.
For me, things really started to shift in November 2023.
Alongside photography, I had experience in marketing. I understood how to build a message, reach the right audience, and create something that would make someone stop scrolling.
So I decided to take everything I knew about marketing and apply it to my own business.
I strategically built an Instagram ad using my work, my brand, and what I knew about the kind of clients I wanted to reach. Then I put it out into the world to see what would happen.
And it worked.
Inquiries started coming in. Those inquiries became bookings, and eventually that momentum helped me book the busiest fall season I had ever had.
But what I didn’t realize at the time was that the ad wasn’t just filling my calendar.
It was putting my work in front of people who would eventually tell other people about me.
Those clients referred friends and family. Weddings began coming in through both referrals and continued ad reach. One booking led to another, and the momentum carried into the following year.
For the first time, I could see the business I had spent so much time building, working for, and praying over beginning to take off.
And I’m still living in those answered prayers.
I think that’s one of the biggest things entrepreneurship has taught me. Growth doesn’t always happen when you think it should. Sometimes you’re doing the work long before you see the fruit of it.
There are still challenges. I’m still learning, adjusting, and being intentional about where I want this business to go next. But now I can look back at those slower seasons and see that none of that time was wasted.
The business I once prayed people would find is now a business people recommend to the people they love.
That will never be lost on me.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Emersyn Grey Photography specializes in weddings, couples, families, motherhood, seniors, and lifestyle photography. My style is warm, timeless, and true to life, but I think what I’m most known for is creating images that feel like the people in them.
I want the beautiful, frame-worthy photos, of course. But I’m always watching for what happens in between them too. The laugh right after I tell you we got the shot. The way your fiancé naturally reaches for you. Your child wrapping their arms around your leg. The look on a parent’s face during a wedding ceremony when no one else is paying attention.
Those are usually the photographs that mean more with time.
One thing that sets me apart, especially when it comes to weddings, is that I came into photography after years on the wedding planning and coordination side of the industry. I understand that a wedding day is so much bigger than the photographs. I understand timelines, vendors, logistics, family dynamics, and how quickly plans can change. I know when to step in and help, when to take charge, and when to quietly let a moment happen.
I also genuinely love people. Building relationships has always come naturally to me, and I never want someone to feel like they’re just another session on my calendar. I want my clients to feel comfortable enough with me that they can forget about the camera a little bit and just be themselves. That’s when I think the best photographs happen.
What I’m most proud of isn’t a certain number of weddings I’ve booked or how much the business has grown. It’s the fact that people trust me with their people.
They come back when their family grows. They send their friends to me. They invite me into another season of their lives. A couple I photograph today may come back to me for their wedding, maternity photos, newborn photos, and eventually family photos.
There’s something really special about realizing I’m not just photographing one moment for someone.
I get to document their story as it changes.
And I think that’s what I’m most proud to be known for.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something that surprises a lot of people is that photography isn’t actually my full-time career.
My husband and I are a little crazy in the best way because not only do we both have full-time careers, but between the two of us, we’re also building three businesses while raising our family and trying to keep up with everyday life.
During the week, I’m a Marketing Manager for a marketing agency where I lead a team that manages social media for mortgage loan officers. Marketing is a huge part of what I do professionally, and I’ve been able to take so much of what I’ve learned in that career and apply it to building Emersyn Grey Photography.
My husband has a full-time career of his own while also building businesses alongside me.
Entrepreneurship has become such a big part of our marriage. We’re constantly bouncing ideas off each other, talking through what’s working, dreaming about what’s next, and encouraging each other to take risks we probably wouldn’t take on our own.
Photography is the business I built for myself, but having a front-row seat to each other’s dreams has made the journey even more meaningful. My husband was the person who encouraged me to buy that first camera when I wasn’t sure I could do this, and he’s still the person pushing me to see what’s possible.
Our life is definitely busy, and we’re still figuring out the balance as we go. There are a lot of late nights, full calendars, and conversations about business squeezed into everyday life. But I think that’s part of what makes this season so special. We’re working our full-time jobs, building businesses, raising a family, and getting to watch each other turn ideas that once started as “what if?” conversations into something real.
Three businesses, two full-time careers, and a family between two people might sound a little insane.
Some days, it definitely is.
But I wouldn’t trade getting to build this life together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://emersyngreyphotography.mypixieset.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emersyngreyphotography/
