Today we’d like to introduce you to Elana Ho.
Hi Elana, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I had an uncle who loved photography and I think in another life he would’ve been a photographer for national geographic. He gave me my first camera, taught me about aperture and iso and framing and I just fell in love with the medium and the idea that I could hold on to moments or people or places and look back at them.
My business originally started because I would make and sell greeting cards and prints of my artwork and paintings. Photography was still very much on the side for me, mostly landscapes and buildings. When I got to high school I had a few friends that would go out and take photos together, and I met a family and portrait photographer who was incredibly gracious to let me shadow her and learn from her right before Covid hit. I took on some weddings for her when she was on maternity leave, but covid ended up being an incredible gift in a weird way because I shot my first wedding with like 5 people in it because of all the restrictions and it ended up being a slow on-ramp to the wedding industry. At the time I was also getting really involved in journalism, so I had a mix of storytelling documentary work, high action sports, and then creative and small intimate weddings.I was 16 and had no idea what I was doing but I LOVED it and somewhere in there I found that the reason I love photo is because I love people. It eventually became a full-fledged business as I started to get more clients from word of mouth and I still kept up with it all throughout college and am still doing to this day 🙂 I am currently branching out more broadly to more experimental and creative work aside from just weddings, whether it’s photographing an artistic process or another creative etc.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This is an incredible question because I’m really curious if anyone says it has been a smooth road and if so what their secret is. It certainly was not an easy thing, I think I was blessed to start out and not feel the same kind of pressure of having to “make it” in the earlier years because I was still in school at the time. The main struggles in my work have really been the commitment and grit of running an LLC while being a full time student, managing workload, and also fighting comparison and insecurity in your work while you figure out who you are as a creative and an artist in a really saturated industry, wondering why you have seasons of no bookings even though you’re “doing everything right.”
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I always say that before I’m a wedding photographer I’m an artist and a storyteller. I specialize in weddings and intimate family portraits, but I think my artistry and eye for detail and ability to tell stories visually through intentional images and assembly of a gallery set is what sets my work apart. I want my images to feel nostalgic and full of real-life, not just well-curated. I don’t always remove the “clutter” on a table or pose people a certain way because I care a lot about the experience of producing the work, not just the work itself which I’ve found is incredibly sweet for a lot of my clients for whom the process of being photographed is memory-making in and of itself. Some of the work I’m the most proud of are photos that I’ve taken as personal work – whether traveling and taking portraits of people I strike conversations with or photos I’ve taken in the process of making art for myself; I think I love those images because they remind me why I love photo as a way to connect with the world or my work, or a new way to see things.
How do you think about happiness?
Probably a lot of really random things — a good cup of coffee, really lovely morning sun and shadows in my kitchen, a great film, being around people I love and laughing with them about something stupid. I find that I am most happy when I’m creating something that I’m not thinking too much about – I feel near to God when I’m creating, even if it’s just baking banana bread with good music on, or working on a painting or sitting in a cafe knitting. I’m not sure why these things or experiences uniquely bring happiness but I’m sure it’s something to do with the fact that they help me be present where I am and feel deeply content in the moment.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.elanakhphotography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elanakh_photography/?hl=en
