About Us

A family.
A calling.

Violet Crowned Media is a small, family-rooted studio. We build films and photographs the way we live — with patience, with faith, and with attention to what matters.

Violet Crowned Media was founded by Joe and Amy Strong in Celina, Texas — a husband-and-wife team building a studio rooted in something bigger than the work itself.

We chose the name carefully. The violet-crowned hummingbird appears in our logo because Amy has loved them since childhood — quick, deliberate, fully present, doing remarkable work with quiet wings. It became a metaphor we couldn't shake: be small, be precise, be present.

Above the hummingbird sits a crown — not of gold, but of thorns. It speaks to the conviction that anchors everything we do here: that real love is patient, and patient love endures suffering. It's a reminder, every day, of what kind of work we're here to make and what kind of people we're here to make it for.

The Mark
The Violet Crowned Media mark — a violet-crowned hummingbird beneath a crown of thorns

A hummingbird.
A crown of thorns.

The hummingbird is small, fast, and fully alive — a creature that hovers in the moment and gives the moment its full attention. That's the discipline of our craft. Showing up early, watching closely, pressing record when the moment is honest, holding still when it isn't.

The crown is a deliberate inversion. Most brands choose symbols of triumph. We chose the symbol of suffering borne with love — because that's what every meaningful story carries underneath the surface. A wedding. A home being sold after forty years of memories. A documentary subject sharing what they've never said out loud. None of it is light. All of it deserves reverence.

"Love is patiently enduring suffering."

That line shapes how we work, who we work with, and what we say yes to.

The Team

The people behind the lens.

A small team by design. Family by blood. Bound by what we believe stories are for.

Joe Strong, Founder of Violet Crowned Media
01 · Founder

Joe Strong

Filmmaker · Photographer · Lead Producer

Joe leads every shoot — directing, filming, and editing across weddings, real estate, brand work, and documentary. He's a Tier 1 Shoott photographer with a 4.91★ rating across 234+ sessions and zero negative incidents.

Before the camera, there was a different kind of storytelling. Joe spent eight years as a missionary in Italy and Bosnia, and toured for three years as Jesus in a stage production seen by tens of thousands of people. He's the oldest of ten siblings, was homeschooled, and graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers Business School in Supply Chain Management and Marketing Science. Careers in operations, logistics, project management, and construction shaped how he runs a set today: plan ruthlessly, then leave room for what's real.

A USA Gymnastics Licensed Photographer and FAA Part 107 certified drone operator, Joe shoots cinematic films across DFW and travels worldwide for documentary work — including recent projects in Calabria, Italy.

8 Yrs Missionary Rutgers · Summa Cum Laude FAA 107 USA Gymnastics
Amy Strong, Co-Founder of Violet Crowned Media
02 · Co-Founder

Amy Strong

Co-Founder · Owner · BTS & B-Roll

Amy co-founded Violet Crowned Media and serves as owner of the LLC. She brings the business its operational backbone — handling accounting, partnerships, and the steady judgment that keeps the studio grounded.

By day, Amy is an executive at Dude Perfect, one of the most-watched YouTube channels in the world. The standards she holds in that environment shape what we expect of ourselves here. She also shoots behind-the-scenes and B-roll on select productions — and the violet-crowned hummingbird in our logo exists because of her.

Dude Perfect LLC Owner BTS & B-Roll
AS
03 · Collaborator

Anna Strong

Second Shooter · Storyteller

Anna is Joe's sister and a trusted second shooter on select projects — particularly weddings, where her instincts for human moments have a way of finding the frames most photographers miss.

She spent eight years as a missionary across Peru, Bosnia, Italy, and Africa, and speaks three languages. The patience and attention she brings to people — especially people in unfamiliar circumstances — is the kind of presence you can't manufacture. It shows up in every frame she captures.

8 Yrs Missionary 3 Languages Second Shooter
Why We Do This

The films we wish we had.

Joe lost a brother to an overdose. Amy lost a brother recently, too. Neither of us has wedding films of them. Neither of us has long, slow interviews with our grandparents — the kind where you finally hear the story you didn't know to ask about until it was too late.

We didn't know we'd want those films until we couldn't have them.

That's the quiet engine behind this studio. Every wedding we shoot, every estate we document, every grandparent we sit down with on camera — we're not making content. We're making the thing somebody will be grateful for in twenty years, when the room is quieter than it used to be.

Joe started out shooting weddings and quickly noticed something: the parts that mattered most weren't the staged ones. They were the unguarded interviews with grandparents. The brother giving an honest toast. The mother who finally sat still long enough to be photographed.

So we built the work around that. Real people. Real moments. Real stories — captured well enough to outlast the people in them.

There's a long-term reason we charge what we charge. Premium client work funds the work we feel called to most: documentary storytelling for marginalized people — the elderly, the overlooked, the families who would never hire a filmmaker but whose stories matter every bit as much as the ones who can.

When you hire Violet Crowned Media, you're not just paying for your own film. You're funding someone else's, too.

"Love is patiently enduring suffering."

We're a small team. That's the point.

Violet Crowned Media · Celina, Texas
Let's Talk

Tell us about your story.

Weddings. Real estate. Brand campaigns. Documentary. Whatever it is, if it deserves to be remembered well — we'd love to hear about it.

Inquire by Email View Our Work
Tier 1 Shoott Photographer
★★★★★ 4.91/5
234 Sessions
Worldwide Travel Available