✨Been raised by a single mother till I was in middle school who taught me the art of perseverance, dedication and hard work!
✨Studied Africana Studies and Marketing at CSULB.
✨Out of college, I worked at the local PBS station writing grants for community engagement and outreach.
✨Received my TEFL certification.
✨Taught English in Tanzania, Costa Rica and South Africa.
✨Became a certified yoga instructor who taught yoga in Tanzania, South Africa and the United States.
✨Award-winning international photographer for 12 years.
✨An entrepreneur for 8 years.
✨Personal development junkie.
✨I am a seeker through intentionally living, readings, pulling cards and connecting to spirit.
✨Mama for the past three years to our sweet growing girl Orion, my greatest teacher and guide.
✨Married to a South African immigrant firefighter who I met in Tanzania while volunteering teaching English in a small village to 132 students while he was running a whale shark conservation camp, we made love in a tree house and spent three years getting his K-1 Fiancé Visa approved to come to the States, now we live our dream life, every single day.
✨Mountain dweller.
✨Nature-lover.
✨Curious soul.
✨Courage Coach.
✨Studied Africana Studies and Marketing at CSULB.
✨Out of college, I worked at the local PBS station writing grants for community engagement and outreach.
✨Received my TEFL certification.
✨Taught English in Tanzania, Costa Rica and South Africa.
✨Became a certified yoga instructor who taught yoga in Tanzania, South Africa and the United States.
✨Award-winning international photographer for 12 years.
✨An entrepreneur for 8 years.
✨Personal development junkie.
✨I am a seeker through intentionally living, readings, pulling cards and connecting to spirit.
✨Mama for the past three years to our sweet growing girl Orion, my greatest teacher and guide.
✨Married to a South African immigrant firefighter who I met in Tanzania while volunteering teaching English in a small village to 132 students while he was running a whale shark conservation camp, we made love in a tree house and spent three years getting his K-1 Fiancé Visa approved to come to the States, now we live our dream life, every single day.
✨Mountain dweller.
✨Nature-lover.
✨Curious soul.
✨Courage Coach.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enamored by two things —
1. The power of documenting, stopping, ultimately encapsulating a moment in time
and
2. Understanding myself in the deepest way possible, what most people would call “a personal development junkie.”
I grew up in the incredibly diverse and chill beach city of Oceanside, California. My first job experience was working at the local scrapbooking store where I sold supplies and taught classes on preserving memories in the most creative way possible.
I anxiously went away to college at Long Beach State, riding my skateboard from class to class where I studied Africana Studies and Business Marketing. My last year of college was spent interning for the local PBS station, where I was offered a job immediately after graduation.
For the next three years, I spent my days writing grants and hosting community engagement events and the nights and weekends, pursuing myself and my passions of photography and personal development.
One very loud and unforgettable day in 2012, while sitting in my cubical on the 4th floor of a brightly lit office building, a question came into my existence, shook me up and immediately changed every aspect of my life. “Am I really living or am I simply existing?” At that point in my life, I was simply existing.
I immediately brought to life a lifelong dream, teaching and living in Africa. I applied for and got accepted to teach English on Mafia Island, Tanzania with World Teach. There, I feel in love with myself, with life, with a sensationally sincere South African man, who is now my husband.
Upon completing my teaching assignment, I came home and immediately got my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and Hatha Yoga certifications to teach around the world - which brought me to living and teaching in South Africa, Costa Rica and back in Tanzania. All the while I was falling in love in these exotic and inspirational places around the world, so too was my camera guiding my heart and encapsulating that which I was witnessing.
When returning to the States in April of 2015, I made the bold commitment, with $700 and a junky old car to my name to launch my photography business, Ashley Strong Photography. I went full in where I spent my days in my parents spare bedroom, reaching out to everyone I knew, scanning the “Book of Lists” for nonprofits who needed a photographer, building my website, connecting with other photographers and entrepreneurs, attending seminars and classes and soaking up every bit of knowledge to be both a photographer and a business owner.
Little my little, my client base started to expand, my commitment to creating an intentional business started to grow and before I knew it, I was documenting weddings around the world, inspirational entrepreneurs in the town I grew up in, families expanding and every expression on love in-between. In 2018, I incorporated as Strong Smith, Inc and started to grow my team.
As my business grew, so too did my commitment to better understanding myself, this world and ultimately my admiration and longing for connection — deep, intimate connection. You know, when you actually get below the surface and want to know the making of someones heart and soul.
After the pandemic, my photography business came back bigger than ever as souls were marrying and families were growing at exceptional speeds. Even with a booming business, that voice, the same one that spoke so loudly in 2012, got even louder in 2021. Was I living or merely existing? Truth is, I started just existing again. Being the soul searcher that I am, I went back into the inquiry.
What was missing?
I mean I was a new mama to the most inspirationally rad, unique, adventurous, loving little girl, a wife to a sincerely passionate South African immigrant fire fighter, a new home owner in the San Bernardino mountains, a very passionate friend. All was absolutely inspiring.
What more would I want? Did I need?
My immense truth in expanding my connection, my knowledge, my passion for all things — personal development, photography, family, intentional living, connecting to spirit, entrepreneurship, turning my dreams into realities time and time again. It was time to share it all, to connect with and serve women even deeper than ever before. This is when Ashley Strong Photography turned into Ashley Strong Smith : Courage Coach & Photographer. A new space to hold women’s hands across the bridge from dreaming to doing.
Today, you can find myself and my little family nestled in the mountains. My daughter is 3. My husband is now a U.S. Citizen and fire fighter (after a very lengthly and exhausting 3 + years of long distance and K-1 visa applications, another 5 of being in the States). We have two siamese cats and a German Shepard/ Border Collie mix puppy. I live intentionally daily, spending my weeks shining lights on the powerful women I coach, documenting sensational human beings and my nights and weekends are spent making memories in our backyard with my family.
Everyday, I am beyond blessed to live a life of realized dreams.
1. The power of documenting, stopping, ultimately encapsulating a moment in time
and
2. Understanding myself in the deepest way possible, what most people would call “a personal development junkie.”
I grew up in the incredibly diverse and chill beach city of Oceanside, California. My first job experience was working at the local scrapbooking store where I sold supplies and taught classes on preserving memories in the most creative way possible.
I anxiously went away to college at Long Beach State, riding my skateboard from class to class where I studied Africana Studies and Business Marketing. My last year of college was spent interning for the local PBS station, where I was offered a job immediately after graduation.
For the next three years, I spent my days writing grants and hosting community engagement events and the nights and weekends, pursuing myself and my passions of photography and personal development.
One very loud and unforgettable day in 2012, while sitting in my cubical on the 4th floor of a brightly lit office building, a question came into my existence, shook me up and immediately changed every aspect of my life. “Am I really living or am I simply existing?” At that point in my life, I was simply existing.
I immediately brought to life a lifelong dream, teaching and living in Africa. I applied for and got accepted to teach English on Mafia Island, Tanzania with World Teach. There, I feel in love with myself, with life, with a sensationally sincere South African man, who is now my husband.
Upon completing my teaching assignment, I came home and immediately got my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and Hatha Yoga certifications to teach around the world - which brought me to living and teaching in South Africa, Costa Rica and back in Tanzania. All the while I was falling in love in these exotic and inspirational places around the world, so too was my camera guiding my heart and encapsulating that which I was witnessing.
When returning to the States in April of 2015, I made the bold commitment, with $700 and a junky old car to my name to launch my photography business, Ashley Strong Photography. I went full in where I spent my days in my parents spare bedroom, reaching out to everyone I knew, scanning the “Book of Lists” for nonprofits who needed a photographer, building my website, connecting with other photographers and entrepreneurs, attending seminars and classes and soaking up every bit of knowledge to be both a photographer and a business owner.
Little my little, my client base started to expand, my commitment to creating an intentional business started to grow and before I knew it, I was documenting weddings around the world, inspirational entrepreneurs in the town I grew up in, families expanding and every expression on love in-between. In 2018, I incorporated as Strong Smith, Inc and started to grow my team.
As my business grew, so too did my commitment to better understanding myself, this world and ultimately my admiration and longing for connection — deep, intimate connection. You know, when you actually get below the surface and want to know the making of someones heart and soul.
After the pandemic, my photography business came back bigger than ever as souls were marrying and families were growing at exceptional speeds. Even with a booming business, that voice, the same one that spoke so loudly in 2012, got even louder in 2021. Was I living or merely existing? Truth is, I started just existing again. Being the soul searcher that I am, I went back into the inquiry.
What was missing?
I mean I was a new mama to the most inspirationally rad, unique, adventurous, loving little girl, a wife to a sincerely passionate South African immigrant fire fighter, a new home owner in the San Bernardino mountains, a very passionate friend. All was absolutely inspiring.
What more would I want? Did I need?
My immense truth in expanding my connection, my knowledge, my passion for all things — personal development, photography, family, intentional living, connecting to spirit, entrepreneurship, turning my dreams into realities time and time again. It was time to share it all, to connect with and serve women even deeper than ever before. This is when Ashley Strong Photography turned into Ashley Strong Smith : Courage Coach & Photographer. A new space to hold women’s hands across the bridge from dreaming to doing.
Today, you can find myself and my little family nestled in the mountains. My daughter is 3. My husband is now a U.S. Citizen and fire fighter (after a very lengthly and exhausting 3 + years of long distance and K-1 visa applications, another 5 of being in the States). We have two siamese cats and a German Shepard/ Border Collie mix puppy. I live intentionally daily, spending my weeks shining lights on the powerful women I coach, documenting sensational human beings and my nights and weekends are spent making memories in our backyard with my family.
Everyday, I am beyond blessed to live a life of realized dreams.
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