Hayley Moore: Small-Town Photographer

Growing up in a small town can make it feel like there is shortage of hobbies outside of
high school sports and visiting family friends. Boaz, Alabama is known as the small town where
everyone knows your grandmother and first cousin. There a several fast-food restaurants, car
lots, boutiques and a local Walmart. There are not many places for a young girl to spend her
spare time to do something recreational. So just like many other young teens, Hayley Moore
had to find her own way to express herself.
A spit fire of a red head, Hayley is energetic and had no shortage of friends and activities
in school. Hayley was involved in softball in high school and excelled in the classroom. Excellent
grades and soft ball were not enough to fill her free time. She started searching for a hobby but
never realized that her interests were right in front of her for years. The first job she worked in
high school was at a local paint-your-own-pottery and art gallery store named Groovy Gallery.
Groovy Gallery allowed local artists and photographers to display their work monthly. Although
she admired the art and hand a crafty hand, she admired the photography the most. The
photographer displayed awe inspiring portraits of different subjects each month and Hayley
found herself gazing at these portraits quite often. She decided photography would be a great
place to start for a hobby.
A “hole in the wall” art studio allowed Hayley to find her interest and she shared her
interest with her family. For Christmas during her senior year of high school, Hayley’s parents
gifted her a photography set. This gift came with all the works for taking photos. It included her
first camera, a tripod, two lenses and other accessories. She began asking close family and
friends if she could photograph them for practice and even started photographing landscapes.
This small-town girl had fell in love with being behind a lens and the hobby grew throughout
her senior of high school.
 Senior year swiftly came to and end and Hayley was faced with the issue of moving to
her chosen university, Auburn University. Auburn is over three hours away from Boaz and she
knew there was no way to continue her hobby if she was so far away from the people that she
used as subjects. Her heart would not allow her to leave her new-found passion behind, she
carried her camera with her to Auburn and grew her platform. She decided to start a business
Facebook to get her name out there and officially started Hayley Moore Photography. Inquiries
about pictures started to flood in. Her work was phenomenal, and it was evident to her faithful
Facebook followers.
She began to use photography to escape from her university class work. But even after
her career at Auburn came to end, her business had grown exponentially with repeating
customers. Hayley graduated with a Bachelor in Science in Animal Science with a concentration
in meat science. Her job that she landed after graduating is highly demanding and requires a lot
of her attention. To this day, she still looks to photography as an escape. Hayley says,
“Photography is so different from what I do daily, it is relatively low-stress and its almost
therapeutic. It is good for me to be able to make art for people and for it to be something they
can always have to look back on a certain time in their lives. I think it’s very special.” Her hobby
that she fell in love with as a senior in high school is the hobby that helps her deal with the
stress of adult life.
There are many things that Hayley enjoys about her small photography business, but the
main thing being the people she has got to meet. Couples and children are her favorite subjects
to photograph, along with weddings. She says “My favorite part of photographing kids is all of
the sweet candid photos that you get. It’s almost always hard to get many posed photos of kids
because their attention span is so short but snapping quick photos of them in the moment
when you’re trying to get them to smile, and laugh are more genuine than poses anyway”.
Below is an image from her first child session.
 The photographer also loves capturing the chemistry between couples. Hayley has shot
multiple weddings and engagements. She feels that it is an honor each time to be entrusted
with someone’s memories that are so fragile. Below you can see two images from Hayley’s
most recent couple session and wedding shot.
 Hayley is well known in Boaz, Alabama for her excellent photography skills. She has
captured many moments for families in her small community. Although she has came a long
way with her small business, not every experience with her camera has been dream worthy.
During her first wedding shoot, the couple had planned a large exit with sparklers. This was one
of the main events that they wanted to remember. While snapping shots of this moment, her
camera froze, and she lost all her images. This sparked a motivation in her to work harder at
each shoot. She could only learn from this experience.
Hayley Moore Photography is a staple to many people in the town. She hopes for her
small business to grow and that she will continue to meet people through her business. The
business has the potential to be huge, but she says “I think I’m happy with my small business
just the way it is. I love photography, but I also love my main career in the poultry industry. I
would love to photograph as much as I can, but I definitely want to keep the balance I have
right now between both jobs and my personal life”. Photography is a first love for Hayley, and
she wants to continue to enjoy it as a fun hobby.