Hi there

I think it's finally time that I introduce myself to the people who are following me. My name is Elena and I have been designing and taking pictures since 2011. Born and raised in Germany, I came to the states as an Au Pair. Going to school while taking care of 3 kids, I found what I was passionate about pretty quickly! DESIGN.

Attending the Art Institute in Philadelphia, I realized I did not want to graduate with a lot of student loan debt. I went back to the Community College I had gone to before and graduated in December of 2010. By January of 2011 I had a job as a graphic artist in an in-house team which was one of the best jobs I have ever had. I found mentors and life-long friends.

In 2013, my husband and I decided to move south and we’ve been calling Atlanta our home since then. It came with lots of challenges, having to find new jobs, a new place to live, new friends, and starting all over again. Through training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Borges BJJ we instantly found a new family and a new network of people from all sorts or backgrounds. Over the last few years, we have been lucky enough to be able to buy a beautiful house, adopt a dog, buy a new car, and I have travelled back to Germany fairly often to see my family.

Work wise life has been great. I'm working full-time for a small agency and love my job as well as the people I work for and with.

Doing photography on the side is something that brings me a lot of joy. Whether it is horses, dogs, clients' headshots, or snapping away while people are doing what they love doing, it is all exciting to me. I love the process, I love the editing, and the sending off to make clients happy.

In 2020, I would like to spend a little more time on promoting my business and connect with new people for some fun photoshoots.

My First Blog Post: The Awkward Stage

So… having been at a stage in my life where I feel I have to decide whether to keep rolling with corporate America or just dive in and really focus on my own business, I have submitted my email to so many different business advice sites, I can’t even count it anymore. 

But there is this one that I stumbled upon in my email account. Having had not such a great day, I thought I’d give it a try. Her name is Jenni Maroney (hey  @jennimaroney, here the first post I promised to tag you in ;) ) and she had some great input regarding websites. How bots scan websites and how you can get to be the #1 on the Google list when people are searching for photographers. My web knowledge is limited, but I do know how to figure a few things out here and there. I followed some of her steps while listening to her, and edited some of the meta data and whatnot on my website. One of the first things though, Jenni talked about, was BLOGGING… oh gggaaawwwddddd. I gave blogging a chance a few years back, but did not think or expect people to be interested in reading what I have to say. 

Now, feeling that I have reached this aforementioned weird phase in my life, I have to decide to go left or right. Since I don’t want to always be in the situation where I have to ask an employer for permission to take time off in order to spend a few days with my family in Germany, I have made the decision to give this blogging thing another chance, give those bots something to scan, and boost my website which will hopefully help in bringing in a little more business on the side. 

Be prepared to see and read a little more right here and hopefully you’ll enjoy it. If you have been where I’m at right now, please share some advice. Thank you kindly in advance. :)