Today we’d like to introduce you to Kylie Machia.
Hi Kylie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been someone who preferred reading and artistic activities over parties and sports. As a kid, I’d photograph things all the time, on disposable cameras, little digital cameras, and finally a Nikon.
I began taking photos of everything I saw beauty in–clouds, flowers, the moon, and all kinds of things in nature.
A few years ago, I realized I loved to take photos of dogs playing on the beach–my biggest passion in life is animals and the rescue community, so this year, I’ve been able to move that passion forward and began photographing adoptable cats and dogs for a local rescue, ADORE Pet Rescue. I love it, and I love being able to showcase their emotions and help get them adopted to good homes.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been! When I was sixteen, I was diagnosed with mild-severe depression. Over the next few years, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, anxiety/panic, and OCD–all of this caused me to lose a lot of my passion for just about everything. I stopped writing, reading, photographing, painting–all of it. It took a lot of work, advice from doctors, and some really good friends to get me back to where I am today.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am doing a number of creative activities right now which I am hopeful to turn into a career one day. For example, I run a blog and social media for book reviews, which is so fun, and I write fiction that I’m looking to publish one day; but my biggest passion, and the endeavor I put most of my energy into, is still my photography!
I have things to learn still before I can start a business, but getting experience volunteering with ADORE has been amazing and so, so fun. I love every minute of it and everyone at the rescue is so wonderful.
I am most proud of the fact I am able to use both of these activities to spark joy and help animals. Animals have always been a passion of mine. Ever since I was a kid, I was visiting zoos and wanting to learn more about every species, take their photos, and tall about them.
In the last couple years, I’ve earned about the rescue community, and have a number of friends who work in that field. I’ve been able to name kittens who were rescued after being abandoned in boxes, watching they grow up through social media, and earn how to help them. Then I learned about Adore and am learning about all of these things in person now, too, getting hands-on by helping at events and being one of their photographers. I get to show the public the beauty and kind hearts that these cats and dogs have, specifically bully breeds like pit mixes who often get looked over due to the bad rap the media gave them over the years.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
If you’re looking to support my photography, you can find me on Instagram @kyliemachiaphotography, where I post photos of the adoptable cats and dogs at ADORE Pet Rescue. I am interested in working with other rescues as well and offer my photography services completely free to rescues/registered non-profits in the Greater Orlando area.
If you’re here to find out more about my time spent as a reviewer, or how you as a writer/publisher can work with me, my Instagram handles for this is @kysbookcase.
I would love to discuss either with you and get to know you! I’m more passionate than most when it comes to things like, for example, animal rescue because animals have *always* been there for me and made me happy. When I was seventeen, it was a dog that helped me not be depressed anymore. At eighteen, I was in a very rough place, and it was a hamster that made me feel alive again. Even now, at twenty-three, my spark is lit so often by inspiring stories about rescue, and the animals I get to know through my volunteer work.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kyliemachiaphotography?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Other: www.adorepetrescue.org
