The 22-year-old from San Clemente, California has found herself behind the camera — capturing love and life. Ava Crossan is a photographer, aspiring to pave her own path for her dreams and ambitions in the industry.
She first learned how to take photos at a summer camp in Texas in 2022. The summer before her junior year of college, Ava decided to work on the camp’s media team. She “doesn’t know why they hired her with zero photography experience,” but she says that it ended up being a huge blessing, as she had the urge to keep learning and taking photos. She began organizing her own photoshoots and fell in love with this new-found passion of hers. During the spring of her senior year, Ava had multiple graduation shoots a week. This is when she realized she could truly make a career out of this hobby.
“I still am not working full-time in photography, but I hope to get there one day,” Ava states. “I'm slowly starting to take on more weddings as the lead photographer and jumping all-in to what the industry has to offer.”
Ava says she “looooves love.” Documenting stories and authentic emotion of each unique couple and wedding day is what makes her heart sing. From the grandparents to the curious flower girls to the unique community that’s brought together on the special day, the use of her creative eye to capture each moment and how it feels excites her and is a driving factor for her to keep going.
“I believe I was created to create,” Ava remarks. “All creation sings of God’s worthiness, and I was born with the gift of creativity and the ability to document how truly beautiful all of creation is — and I can’t even begin to do it justice.”
And while living in the Orange County/Los Angeles area can be a fairly saturated place for creatives, Ava reminds herself that, as easy as it is to shrink back, everyone has their own story.
“They, too, were in my position and only got to where they are because they weren’t afraid to jump,” she states. “So that’s me, jumping, even though I have no clue where I’ll end up.”
As Ava pursues her photography career, she works at her home church in communication and photography where she gets to do a lot of what she’s passionate about. She explains that this has helped her work her “documentary, fly-on-the-wall, event photography muscles.” Outside of her 9-to-5, she takes on photoshoots to help keep things fresh and push herself creatively.
Ava Crossan is only just getting started on her journey to pursuing this passion full-time, and she’s on a roll.
“A camera in my hand and all the time in the world is my dream… It’s so exciting and such a mystery at the same time,” she exclaims. “I’m eager to see what the Lord has in store for my future career.”
You can find Ava’s work and keep up with her on Instagram! (Also she did all my artist photos for my new “era” and they are FIRE.)