Today we’d like to introduce you to Abigail Hundley (Olive & Aura Imagery).
Hi Abigail, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I picked up my first camera in high school. Just a 16-year-old wanting updated Instagram pictures and prioritizing an aesthetic VSCO feed. I photographed my first wedding for close family, alongside my younger sibling. The most stunning venue, I still remember the layout to this day. This was 2019.
After having my first child at 20, battling pretty deep postpartum depression, my now husband was very persistent on my finding a hobby. Something to do, something that could get me out of the house. I remembered how photography made me feel. It truly did help me get out of my head. I ended up with one of those camera kits, which was pretty affordable, and I was photographing anyone who allowed me. I spent the summer of 2024 doing all sorts of free sessions, aiming for more couples, families, maybe an occasional wedding here and there.
I’ll never forget the first time a couple approached me for a wedding. It was September of 2024, and the couple was in a bind, with their wedding a month away. I was as straightforward as can be. I stated I was brand-new and didn’t have much experience, but I’d happily do it for free. With my Nikon 3500, the cheapest flash I could find online, and a 50mm lens, I photographed a 4-5-hour wedding for the first time.
I shared all my favorites of the wedding; they weren’t all that terrible. With that, a childhood friend approached me and asked if I could photograph her wedding as well. I had my first camera upgrade in November of 2024, a Canon R50. I found myself growing rapidly on Instagram, shouting from the rooftops about other photographers and networking as much as I could. Trying every style that caught my eye, truly finding my path in this field.
A friend from Instagram (a girl I had never even met) invited me to a styled shoot/mock wedding she was leading at The Meadows in Raleigh. With nothing to lose, my R50 and I made the trip.
The photos I got from this experience became my first magazine publications. I was overjoyed. This turned into *real* wedding inquiries, with couples actually feeling drawn to my work and trusting me to capture their wedding day. I created a price list for weddings, all but one under $1,000. In 2025, my first year in business, I worked about 7 weddings, had over a year’s worth of weddings scheduled for 2026, and had over 120 sessions. I outgrew cameras yet again and invested in something real.
But nothing really spoke to me the way weddings did. The raw emotion, the love, witnessing two souls becoming one. I decided to make 2026 the year I committed myself to just photographing weddings and couples. This “hobby” has taken me to parts of the country I’ve never seen. It’s allowed me to meet the sweetest of souls, and create bonds I never would’ve had outside of this.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t like to view anything on my path as a struggle, but rather as a learning experience.
This road has been filled with so many learning experiences. Spending endless hours getting to a style I felt proud of, finding what was meant for me, and which niches weren’t, and really taking the time to sit and decide what I wanted my photos to tell.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a wedding & couples photographer. With my storytelling, cinematic approach, I prioritize capturing real moments between the couples I work with.
I focus on as many details as possible. The way couples look at each other while they’re face to face, the way they laugh together as I get them to run around and play airplanes, or the way their hands fit like a puzzle.
Truthfully? I have no idea what I’m known for in my work. I don’t know what really sets me apart from others. All I know is the universe has allowed me this path of capturing all sorts of love stories in very different chapters of life, and I’m so delighted that couples keep allowing me and trusting me to keep their moments breathig.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Ride the path that you feel called to. Allow yourself to learn, as you’re never done learning. Let yourself grow, try every niche that interests you.
Pricing:
- Weddings starting at $1100 +TAX
- One and done sessions starting at $175 +tax
- Engagement Packages starting at $195 +TAX
Contact Info:
- Website: https://oliveandauraimagery.mypixieset.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliveandauraimagery/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@oliveandauraimagery
