Today we’d like to introduce you to Candace Hensley.
Hi Candace, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey behind the lens began nearly two decades ago out of a pure love for preserving life’s raw, unscripted moments.
Over the years, I grew CMH Photography, LLC from a local passion into a highly diverse creative business and an internationally published photography business, with work featured in global magazines and showcased at the renowned Malta Festival in Poznań.
My portfolio grew to cover everything from weddings, seniors, and newborns to commercial product photography, professional business headshots, and specialized sports photography like local dirt track racing and semi-pro baseball.
A few years ago, my foundation was heavily tested when I experienced an incredibly challenging chapter due to the loss of my parents. It was a deeply painful time, and I truly struggled under the weight of that profound grief. Yet, even on the days that weren’t good, I chose to do my absolute best and always found a way to push through it. I never stopped working; I poured my energy directly into my craft and kept shooting to deliver the absolute best for my clients.
Eventually, the heavy memories of losing my mom and my old home became too hard to bear, so I made the decision to relocate to a very small town to start fresh.
Rebuilding my livelihood and getting settled here has been a very hard, quiet process of navigating my next steps while continuing to heal, but it has completely revitalized my vision.
Today, a major focus of my time is a true labor of love: renovating a 108-year-old home and turning it into something truly unique and very full of art. Taking on that history and bringing it back to life has given me a beautiful parallel to my own journey of rebuilding.
Ultimately, this chapter of my story is about stepping away from the noise and dedicating my life to a very simple mission: to live a life of peace and capture art.
Whether I am using off-camera flash as a favorite tool to sculpt high-end on-location portraits, pouring my heart into a custom fifth-acre wildflower meadow I hand-planted as an exclusive outdoor set for my clients, or volunteering trackside to give free photos to hardworking race car drivers, my work is driven by a genuine desire to make people happy.
I love quietly doing things behind the scenes and giving back to others without any expectation of recognition, because there is no greater reward than using beautiful imagery to bring pure joy to the people around me.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a winding and testing road on the business side. Rebuilding a photography brand completely from scratch in an unfamiliar area while trying to set up a new base of operations is a massive undertaking.
Balancing client sessions and keeping your artistic eye sharp during major transitions takes intense creative focus. On top of those business hurdles, I have been navigating arthritis, which can be a daunting physical challenge when you are handling camera gear, standing trackside at a dirt track for hours, or capturing a 10 hour wedding. It has also been really tough moving away from my community, and I deeply miss my photographer friends from my old town.
Navigating the move after wanting a fresh start has been definitely the hardest part of the journey. Even though I lost my parents several years ago, just making the physical move away from the home where I lost my mother to this new town brought up a lot of emotions.
While a few people in this small town have been incredibly welcoming, it can still be difficult to open up because I am still processing everything I have been through. I have been through hell and back, but I am very resilient and I am still standing strong.
To give myself the space I need, I tend to isolate myself a lot and just channel all of my quiet energy directly into my work, using my camera as a positive outlet.
The truth is, I don’t always walk away from these challenges feeling like everything went perfectly. I am incredibly hard on myself, and I constantly strive to elevate my technical and creative work.
When a shoot doesn’t go exactly as planned, I don’t just move on. Instead, I try ten times as hard to fix it and make things right for my clients. Managing those intense professional standards while building an on-location workflow has taught me exactly how to protect my creative energy, establish firm business boundaries, and keep pushing my craft forward.
Every single operational obstacle has ultimately made me a more resilient business owner, a sharper technical photographer, and a much more versatile artist who truly cares about the people in front of the lens.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What I bring to the table is a high-end, adaptive on location experience that blends sharp technical skill with genuine human connection. As a commercial and portrait photographer, my expertise covers a wide range of specialties, including graduating seniors, newborns, growing families, professional headshots, product photography, and creative model shoots.
I am also well known for my sports photography, specifically freezing the fast-paced action trackside at local dirt track racing events.
Technically, off-camera flash is my absolute favorite tool to master. It allows me to sculpt light anywhere, control my environment, and bring a crisp, dramatic, high-end look to my portraits whether I am standing out in the elements or working on an editorial assignment.
My commitment to location photography is exactly what sparked one of my favorite ongoing projects here in my new town in Brooten. I hand-planted a custom fifth-acre wildflower meadow to serve as an exclusive, breathtaking outdoor set for my clients. It gives me a unique canvas where I can seamlessly merge my off-camera lighting techniques with the natural beauty of the changing seasons.
While my work has been featured in many publications worldwide and showcased globally at the renowned Malta Festival in Poznań, what I am most proud of has nothing to do with accolades. I am proud of the fact that for me, photography is a vehicle to lift people up. I love using my time and my camera to give back.
Even though a lot of people think I’m very expensive as a photographer my pricing is very affordable, I want everyone to be able to have beautiful photos they can treasure.
I quietly donate my time and services to numerous charities completely free of charge without any expectation of recognition. I also love volunteering my time at the KRA racetrack to give the drivers free action photos simply because they work so incredibly hard at what they do, and I want to support that drive.
What sets me apart is that exact philosophy. I don’t look at a shoot as just a transaction; I look at it as a chance to bring pure happiness to someone’s life.
I love quietly doing things behind the scenes to give back to those in need and support the people I care about. There is simply no greater reward than knowing my camera helped create a beautiful moment that brings someone genuine joy.
I am also deeply passionate about mental health advocacy, which is why I serve on the legislative committee of NAMI. I work incredibly hard to advocate for systemic change, and I intentionally use my photography as a powerful tool to push that advocacy work forward. This mission ties directly into a passion project I am finally bringing to life after keeping it on my agenda for the past three years: a powerful photo series and advocacy campaign called “The Weight We Carry.”This project focuses on bullying in every single form, drawing attention to how deeply it affects people later in life and demonstrating that bullying is not just a childhood issue, but something that frequently happens to adults as well. Through raw, evocative visual journalism, “The Weight We Carry” explores the lasting emotional and psychological impact of this negativity across all ages. My goal is to give a strong voice to those who have been targeted, to foster deep community accountability, and to remind people that a bitter narrative about you does not define your truth. I am incredibly proud to turn these important conversations and my work with NAMI into a massive, constructive force for good.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
What I love most about Brooten is the absolute peace, the small-town quietness, and how beautiful, quiet, and safe it feels. As a huge introvert and a quirky artist, having a calm environment is essential for my creativity. It gives me the perfect space to focus on my art, work on my custom wildflower meadow, and quietly restore my 108-year-old home.
I really enjoy finding small ways to give back and connect here through little photography projects, like photographing the parade at Bonanza Valley Days. I also love helping out some of the local business owners around the area who have been very sweet to me.
Otherwise, I am content just keeping to myself, focusing on my work, and appreciating the community.
What I like least is simply the challenge of limited networking opportunities for a specialized creative business. Because it is a very small town, there are not a lot of local avenues to connect professionally or build a creative network, which can feel a bit isolating at times.
To overcome that, I am actively reaching out and expanding my focus beyond Brooten into the surrounding, bigger towns to build connections, share my photography work, and tell a wider range of local stories.
Moving here was also an incredibly demanding process because the historic home required a massive amount of physical renovation right from the start. Taking on that level of structural work was exhausting and actually made me physically ill at first, adding a heavy layer of adversity to my transition. But pushing through that physical toll and bringing this beautiful piece of history back to life has mirror-imaged my own personal resilience. I am proud to be putting down roots here, finding my rhythm, and creating a peaceful base of operations for CMH Photography, LLC.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.cmhphotographyllc.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cmhphotographyllc
