ABOUT
Hello!
My name is Katie Distefano! I photograph fun, joyful seniors and couples here in Durham, North Carolina and the surrounding triangle area. A little bit about me and how I got into the biz: I picked up photography in 2020 as a quarantine hobby and have since fallen in love with the craft. As I photographed friends and family, I saw the looks of joy on their faces when they felt confident and beautiful and loved the way they looked in the photos. Since then, I’ve made it my mission to take pictures that not only preserve timeless memories but also capture people’s true personalities.
You’ll learn very quickly that I am 3 parts silly for every 1 part serious…
I promise we will have a good time together!
“Katie is truly an artist behind the camera. She took what I wanted and made it better than I could imagine. Katie is a joy to be around and brings out the biggest smiles in everyone, especially those in front of the camera.
Katie Distefano Photography is the only photographer that I will use. Forever.”
— Caroline C.
A little more about me —
I am from Clayton, North Carolina. I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Dramatic Art and Linguistics. I’m currently pursuing my Masters of Divinity at Duke Divinity School, but I am a Tar Heel born, bred, and dead!
Fun fact about my educational journey so far: I actually wanted to be a speech-language pathologist for most of my life and spent my undergrad at UNC preparing for a career in speech-language pathology. It wasn’t until the middle of my senior year (yes, you read that right! I changed my entire life plan 7 out of 8 semesters in!) when I realized that as much as a liked speech-language pathology, I really loved ministry. After many long conversations, a few pro/con lists, and lots of encouragement from classmates and colleagues who had known I was called to ministry for years, I applied to just one divinity school because it was all I had time for that close to the application deadline instead of the four MS SLP programs I’d been researching for two years. It was definitely scary, but it is so clear that this is where I’m meant to be! What comes next? I honestly have no idea. But I’m excited to see what adventures God has in store for me in pastoral ministry.
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart…”
— Jeremiah 29:11
This is my fur baby, Esther. Supposedly I rescued her, but I think she rescued me. Esther is equal parts snobby and sweet and I love her so much!!!! You are more than welcome to include a furry friend in your portrait session; just let me know when you submit the contact form.
I don’t shoot Nikon anymore (#TeamSonyMirrorless) but I still love this photo of me and my first camera!
And of course, I wouldn’t be who I am today without my kind, selfless, and supportive fiance, Thomas!
Thomas and I have the cutest lil rom com of a love story and I love sharing it :)
Thomas and I grew up together in Clayton, NC where we first met in elementary school. We really became close in middle school and the rest is history! Except, not quite… I had the biggest crush on him since 6th grade but it wasn’t until the end of 8th grade that he realized he felt the same way. We dated for a few months (if you can even call it that in middle school haha). We remained friends throughout high school and of course I was back to crushing, but it wasn’t until the summer after our first year of college (at separate schools, not seeing each other every day for the first time ever!) that we really got serious. You really don’t know what you have until it’s gone, I guess! We started dating in July of 2017 but we were so nervous that we were going to somehow ruin our friendship so we actually kept it on the DL for three months before telling anyone we were dating. We knew that once people found out, the “OMG FINALLY” comments would never stop (not so secretly, I loved those comments hehehe) but we wanted a chance to figure things out for ourselves.
Since then, the rest really is history, though! Thomas is the best partner I could ever dream of. He is my favorite adventure buddy, the one who figures out how to make my big dreams a reality, my personal chef, and a man whose heart so closely resembles the generous, hospitable, welcoming love of Jesus. And he is actually the one who was interested in photography first! He started to dabble in landscape, architecture, and car photography and he was the one who began showing me the ropes when it piqued my interest in 2020. I keep trying to get him to second shoot with me, but he is much more interested in film than digital photography, and I don’t think he’ll ever be interested in posing people. However, he is very patient when I ask him to take some pics of me so I can get in front of the camera every now and then.
We got engaged on May 10th, 2022 and this summer will be 5 years together. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for us as we embark on our next adventure together!
