Hi there, my name is Rylie Kostreva and I am the Photographer and owner of Kostreva Images - a lifestyle photography company serving couples and families in the Greater Indianapolis area. Kostreva Images is Faith centered with the whole goal of bringing you creative imagery that feels like home!
Over here we are Faith and Marriage Focused, capturing Couples, Families and Toddlers. We pride ourselves on intimacy and authenticity - and we're a little weird!
About Me & Kostreva Images
For me, photography has always been an expression of who I am as a person and what I'm passionate about. I lived through a very traumatic adolescence as an atheist struggling with depression and feeling suicidal. The night of my intended suicide attempt, I met Jesus and have been a follower since. Forever will be. Many things held me in suicidal ideations but one was what I coined “chronic loneliness”. I never felt safe to be myself let alone accepted or loved for me. This perspective from my past has now become my calling - I have a lifelong desire to help others feel loved and seen for who they are authentically.
I also come from generations of divorce so when I met my husband we vowed to break the curse and bondage - our story would be different no matter how we had to get to “death us do us part” we committed to do that. Not only is divorce not an option, but we desire a marriage that is full of joy, health, growth and passion. Thriving. This is another calling in my life to champion the longevity and health of marriages everywhere.
I’m also a mom to two kiddos who refuse posed smiling photos with me - especially my toddler, SEE! Even a photographer can’t get her kids to cooperate! Because of my understanding of kids and how they work, I don’t believe in posed stuffy photos. We don’t force things that aren’t natural (for anyone, not just kids).
Take these three areas of my life and you get the branding for KI - I am a lifestyle photographer that desires to empower all of my clients to be themselves. At the same time I don’t revolve our session around your kids, I revolve it around your marriage, the foundation of the family. I celebrate biblically aligned marriages unapologetically. And everything I do is geared towards giving you the opportunity to experience photos in a low pressure setting so you don’t leave feeling drained because of the stress of getting everyone to cooperate - I want you to have a good time and relax. We won’t do anything to achieve some arbitrary standard, we’ll simply celebrate you for who you are as you are.
Why a Blog?
I decided to launch a Kostreva Images blog shortly after my decision to go off of social media permanently. Back in 2020 the Holy Spirit spoke to me and told me to go off social media because it was consuming too much of my life. Between 2020 and November 2021, I would go off for a few weeks here or there. In 2022, I went off for 10 months. I came back on after partnering with a local market as a means to keep building relationships in the community and to stay in the know for the market. In the meantime, a lot has been going on in my personal and professional life. If I'm being honest, it's been a really heavy season with a lot of "kicked while I'm down" kind of moments. That brings us to April 2023, I began praying differently and have felt more and more strongly that the Holy Spirit is urging me to leave Social Media in the dust - it's been a negative tool for the devil in my life more than it's been good. I've fought this hard, and yet in my heart I know I'm being compelled to be obedient. It's scary because I am at the height of my career as a photographer so to surrender this tool feels overwhelming, but the reality is - this is HIS business first and I BELIEVE that he has called me to this profession AND I believe he will continue to bless it without social media.
That being said, I have enjoyed creating content over there in all sorts of areas: New work I've done, but also sharing my faith and helpful perspectives on a biblical marriage. I didn't want to just stop this part of my life - I want to continue everything about Kostreva Images (KI) just not with Social Media. So, by writing a blog my intentions are to keep my "content creation" going. You can expect a showcasing and narrative of my recent (and maybe past) works, as well as content that is unapologetic about the GOODNESS of GOD and biblical marriages. I also hope to share more of the story of KI here as well to help you get to know our business more. There has been careful thought and intention in every detail of KI and we'd like to share those details with you.
What does this all look like?
As we move KI off-line there's a few things we want to discuss, this includes next steps, what to expect, and how you can continue to support KI. Because to be clear, it is our full intention to keep serving and loving the Greater Indianapolis Area, we just don't want to do it through social media AND we don't believe we need to. Please keep supporting KI - we love our clients and serving this area brings our family IMMENSE joy and fulfillment!
As we move away from social media we will be hosting new blog posts at minimum, monthly, but it could be more! We'll also be releasing a newsletter that you can sign up for - this will include session availability, upcoming events, travel dates and locations, as well as heads up on blogs or any other fun things we've got going on.
It is our goal to be OFF social media no later than June 1st, 2023. We will not delete the account as we hope that it will serve as a placeholder online to drive people over here, it will be inactive but still searchable. Our first newsletter will be released in June!
If you've followed KI for sometime or are just finding us, you can expect the same KI we've always tried to epitomize - both as a company, individual, and as a creative; intimate, authentic, emotional. This goes back to the branding of KI that we mentioned above, but in essence we're going to be ourselves.
Please continue supporting KI by:
PRAY for us & KI
KEEP hiring KI
KEEP tagging @kostrevaimages on social media or caption us in by including kostrevaimages.com
KEEP sharing us with your friends, your family, & your followers
SUBMIT Google reviews!
SUBSCRIBE to our upcoming blog
SIGN-UP for our newsletter
Thank you!
Last year I was going to throw in the towel on KI, but decided to pray instead and God has turned this vision and dream of ours for Kostreva Images into a reality that others enjoy! We are so blessed and so thankful for our supporters! You guys have championed everything we've done in the last year so loudly and I am in awe and wonder of how gracious God has been. We're not done yet, by the grace of God, and we couldn't do it without you! If you believe in us, please help us to keep reaching the local Indianapolis community and BEYOND. To God be the Glory.
Chat soon!
Rylie
Are you excited for the big changes happening here at KI? Let's keep growing in community! Leave a comment about what you're looking forward to seeing the most and SUBSCRIBE!
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