Today we’d like to introduce you to Vera Pashkevich.
Hi Vera, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Belarus and grew up as a military kid in Germany. My family moved around a lot and never stayed anywhere long enough for it to feel permanent. My dad always had this little point-and-shoot camera with him, documenting everything, but I never paid much attention to it (until it was time to get the film developed, at least).
Germany was the closest thing I had to a home back then. When I was sixteen, we were about to leave, and I felt this sudden urgency to hold onto something of my life there. I bought the cheapest camera I could afford. Far from anything fancy, it met my needs enough to take a few photos of my town before we left.
That’s when a switch flipped in my brain. I can’t fully explain it, but the second I started taking photos, the world looked different. It was more vivid somehow. For a kid without a lot of control over my surroundings, being able to control my perspective felt important.
From there, capturing the world became my everything. I borrowed cameras, found a mentor (a wildlife photographer who happened to live next door after our move to the US), and practiced obsessively. I went to The Evergreen State College and studied art history, photography, and creative writing. After graduating, I moved to Seattle and officially started Vera Pash Photo.
That was over fifteen years ago. I’ve been running the business ever since: capturing weddings, taking portraits, cultivating personal projects, working with companies big and small. And somehow, that sixteen-year-old’s instinct to document the world as I experienced it never faded.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been smooth, no. One challenge I didn’t anticipate was this: succeeding in business meant giving up photography as a hobby.
I love the process, still, but there was a moment where I had to split the art from the business in my head. For a while, I tried to make it literal. I started a separate creative brand before eventually merging everything back into a single identity. That strategy didn’t work; I had to compartmentalize in a different way.
The business required me to do a lot of left-brained thinking. Prioritizing savings and receipts. Maintaining vendor relationships. Knowing when my liability insurance needed to be updated. Figuring out if I can justify new equipment. Marketing. Advertising. Social media. All of that. I don’t believe my job is creating 90% of the time, although there’s nothing wrong with that.
The portions that are creative are completely worth it. I tend to pull in the right people. Clients who see my personal work and think “I see myself in that.” I still have a creative branch that’s 100% me: my vision, my budget, my concepts, my execution. But I only explore that several times a year, and it has to be intentional.
What helped was stopping thinking of photography as a hobby at all. It’s a job, a passion, and my business, my livelihood. Having unmonetized hobbies, like drawing, helps too. Framing it this way took the pressure off needing photography to be everything for me.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Before I answer that, a quick anecdote. I once worked with a man at a craft store who liked photography but only photographed landscapes. I asked him why not portraits. He said, “I get bored. There are only so many ways you can capture a person.” I remember freezing as every neuron began misfiring in my bafflement. I had never disagreed more.
To me, there are billions of combinations of pixels, infinite ways to compose a portrait, endless stories to tell with humanity at the center. Twenty years after picking up my first camera, I’m just as excited as ever to upload an SD card, develop a roll of film, or see the back of my screen for the first time after a shoot. That’s never gone away.
I’m a portrait and documentary photographer based in Seattle. I specialize in weddings, engagements, family sessions, and creative portraiture. But what I’m really known for is my style: showing humanity in a way that feels atmospheric, reflective, and maybe a bit ephemeral. I love landscape photography too, but I’m most interested when there’s a human element in it. I call it “atmospheric,” though I’m not sure if that’s the right term.
That stick-with-it-ism and an effort to never stop learning is what sets me apart. The curiosity about each human I capture. Trying to catch the microexpressions, the nuances in every subject. Learning what they see in themselves.
I’m proud of this business, and I’m proud of how clients respond to my work.
What’s next?
No big changes, and I’m learning to be okay with that. Stillness isn’t always comfortable for me, so I want to lean into appreciating it. Small things though, for sure.
I’m letting myself prioritize different types of creative work. I’m sketching with ink and experimenting with watercolor again. Having a creative outlet that stays a hobby has been surprisingly freeing.
I’m looking forward to my annual creative retreat with friends. A destination wedding in Chicago this year (the city where we first landed when we came to the US, so there’s something full-circle about that). Meeting up with one of my favorite collaborators in San Francisco. Getting more comfortable with drone work. Going back to shooting film manually.
But unlike other portions of my life where I did a lot of planning, I’m trying to stay more grounded now. Learning to appreciate what’s in front of me instead of always reaching for what’s next.
Pricing:
- Elopements starting at: $1825.00
- Wedding starting at: $3795.00
- Portraits starting at: $525.00
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.verapashphoto.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verapashphoto/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VeraPashPhoto
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/verapashphoto/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/vera-pash-photo-seattle
