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.

Showing face?

So, never really having thought about not showing faces in photos but rather take pictures from different angles to where you can’t see a face has only become more of a thing for me since I have a little niece. I started taking pictures of her when she was first born and I remember thinking ‘Do I really want to show her face or would I rather keep it hidden and not reveal what she looks like?’ (she is the cutest and most perfect little thing, but that’s beside the point). I then proceeded to think ‘Oh what’s the big deal, everyone is doing it’, but then thankfully my sister mentioned that she would like to not show her little girl’s face all over the web. I respect that  and I think that’s how I might be with my own children as well (but I can’t really say that for certain just yet). I have also been noticing more and more that some of my friends who are new parents do not show their children’s faces online. 

Now I’m guessing this is for all of my photographer friends out there. Have you had families ask you to not post pictures of their kids’ faces? If so, how do you go about it? I, personally, am a huge fan of detail shots such as the little fingers, feet, or just the fresh, golden locks of a little one. 

But I’d love to hear from you and also from parents who have decided to keep their child’s identity private. Have you tried to keep it private and in a weak moment posted a picture of your cute, funny kid which opened the flood gates?

My Second Blog Post: The Learning Stage (one of many)

Starting as a graphic design student at a community college in New Jersey, I very quickly found that stock photography can get very expensive. ‘Well,’ I thought,’ it can’t be THAT hard to take some pictures and use them for projects’. I invested in a digital camera and soon found my passion for photography. Animals were the easiest (and also the most beautiful) models and since I was a very active equestrian at the time, I took advantage of the beautiful and magnificent creatures at the barn.

Just sitting in the pasture for hours was not even that terrible. Out came some nice and some not so nice shots, but you don’t learn unless you do. So I kept on going and after about two years, I invested, after a lot of convincing from my now husband, in my first DSLR camera. Now, I had to figure out shutter speed, ISO, aperture, different lenses, and whatnot. It was a little overwhelming at first but, as often, the internet makes everything easy. I googled, read blogs, found tutorials, watched videos, etc. Through my old job, I was able to go to Scott Kelby’s Photoshop World workshop (thanks to one of my best friends @bigjoeski) and it just catapulted my passion for photography to new heights. If you ever get a chance to go to one of those workshops, DO IT!!!!

Always wanting to get better at photographing people, I would bring my camera to random events, birthdays, and farms. I slowly became more and more comfortable taking pictures of people. Pinterest was great for inspiration and I was also able to find some advice on how to tell people what to do and how to awkwardly hold their head in front of the camera in order to show their best side (in German, we say it’s our chocolate side ;) ). 

Today, I love taking head shots of people. If I could just do that all day, that would be great. Hopefully, I’ll get there one day. Until then, let’s just keep on blogging. :)