Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Radunske.
Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My love for photography really started in high school, developing film in the darkroom. I still remember watching an image slowly appear on the paper and feeling like it was a tiny miracle every single time. I loved the idea that you could capture a moment that would otherwise be gone and turn it into something you could hold onto forever.
I went on to Michigan State University, where I earned my bachelor’s degree in business management, and spent a few years working in the business world. Not long after, life took a completely different turn when my husband’s professional hockey career moved us overseas, first to Germany and then to South Korea.
While we were living in Korea, my husband bought me my first DSLR camera. Our daughter was a baby at the time, so naturally she became my first and most photographed subject. I wanted to understand everything that camera could do, so I enrolled in photography classes and quickly became completely absorbed in learning the craft.
Photography also gave me something I hadn’t expected while living so far from home. It became a way to connect with people. I started photographing other families and slowly began building a client base and a business of my own. At the time, I wasn’t sure if photography was something I wanted to pursue full time, so for about eight years I balanced photographing clients with teaching ESL in Korea. Looking back, those years gave me the space to learn, experiment, and really figure out the kind of photographer I wanted to be.
When we eventually moved back to the States, I knew I was ready to give photography everything I had. We landed in Aspen, Colorado, and it felt like the perfect place to begin that next chapter. I was completely inspired by the beauty here. The mountains, alpine lakes, wildflowers and changing seasons still fill me up creatively, even after years of photographing them.
As my business grew, I found myself naturally drawn toward photographing couples and the connection between people. I love being able to share the places that have become so special to me while documenting some of the most meaningful moments in my clients’ lives. What started all those years ago in a high school darkroom has grown into a business I’ve built entirely on my own, and I still feel a little bit of that same magic every time I capture a moment I know someone will be able to keep forever.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Of course there have been struggles along the way. In the beginning, one of the biggest challenges was starting over in a completely new place and figuring out how to get people to find me. Moving to Aspen meant rebuilding my business from the ground up, learning a new market, finding my people and establishing myself in a community where I didn’t have an existing network.
As the business has grown, the challenges have changed. Over the last few years, one of my biggest struggles has actually been learning how to find balance again. Our wedding and engagement season here is incredibly busy for about six months of the year, and during that time it can be very easy for work to take over. I love what I do, so sometimes turning it off is harder than the work itself, especially while also wanting to be present for my family.
I think the struggles are always evolving when you own your own business. You solve one problem and eventually a new one takes its place. But I’m incredibly grateful for where I am and for the fact that the thing demanding so much of my time is also something I genuinely love doing. I don’t take that for granted.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in photographing weddings, proposals, engagements and families throughout Aspen and the surrounding mountains. A lot of my work revolves around people coming here for really meaningful moments in their lives, and I love being able to give them not only beautiful photographs, but an experience that feels special from beginning to end.
I think what I’m most known for is creating images that feel natural, romantic and full of the beauty of Colorado without losing sight of the people in them. The mountains are incredible, but I never want the scenery to become more important than the connection between two people. I want my clients to look at their photographs years from now and remember how that moment actually felt.
Living and working here has also given me such a unique knowledge of the area. I’ve spent years exploring locations, watching how the light changes throughout the seasons and finding those little pockets of Aspen that photograph beautifully. I really enjoy sharing that with my clients, especially when they’re visiting and trusting me to help create the entire experience for them.
What I’m most proud of, though, is the business and reputation I’ve built here on my own. So much of my work now comes from referrals, past clients and people who have followed my work for years. Having families come back to me, or photographing a proposal and then being asked to photograph the wedding, means so much to me. There are so many talented photographers, especially in a place as beautiful as Aspen, so I don’t think setting yourself apart is necessarily about doing something no one else can do. For me, it’s about the way I take care of my clients, the experience I give them and creating photographs that feel like them. I think that personal connection has been the biggest part of growing my business.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I think the photography industry is going to change quite a bit over the next five to ten years, especially with how quickly technology and AI are evolving. There are already so many tools available to photographers that make the behind the scenes part of running a business faster and more efficient, and I think that will only continue.
At the same time, I actually think all of that technology is going to make people crave something real even more. We are surrounded by perfectly curated images every day, and now we’re entering a time when it can be difficult to even know if an image is real. I think there will be a shift back toward photographs that feel genuine, emotional and a little less perfect.
I see that already in weddings and engagements. People want the beautiful portraits, of course, but they also want the movement, the laughter, the wind in the dress, the imperfect in between moments that actually tell the story of what happened. There has also been such a resurgence of film and that nostalgic feeling, which I think is part of that same desire for something tangible and authentic.
Pricing:
- Weddings start at $6400
- Elopements start at $2300
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kellyephotography.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kelly.elizabeth.photography
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/LittleLimeTreePhotography
Image Credits
Kelly Elizabeth Photography
