Life and Work with Elyse Whitt

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elyse Whitt.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I always loved photography as a kid. My family and I would travel every year to different locations and I would bring along my camera. When we would get home, my mom would develop the photos at our local Marc’s. I always loved taking pictures but never saw it as anything more than a fun hobby. Since I was in middle school, I have wanted to be a teacher. I always worked with kids for summer jobs at camps, preschools, and daycares throughout high school and college. I love working with kids and knew I wanted to teach math. I graduated college with a degree in integrated math, certified to teach 7-12 grade. I still messed around with photography but nothing more. Once I met my now husband, he pushed me to keep going with photography. He bought me my first real camera and anywhere we would travel together I would take it with me. Once I had kids and “retired” from teaching, my husband bought me another camera with all the fancy tech. My husband encouraged me to learn how to use the camera and really start taking photos, so I did. I watched all kinds of YouTube videos and learned about the camera, then I installed Lightroom and watched more videos on how to edit. After a while of posting our family photos online, I had a friend reach out to me to take some pictures of her family and actually pay me. It was after that first shoot I realized photography is something I would love to do as much as teaching. After that, I put an ad out online for photo shoots. I had some wonderful families that referred me to their friends and family. I have a great community of families I have seen over the last five years and met new referral families weekly.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My biggest struggle is my own confidence in my work. I was and still am nervous about posting pictures from my shoots and the best way to advertise as a photographer is by sharing your work… I hope one day to get over it and post more photos, I love the families I work with and get so excited over their beautiful photos.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a photographer for happy people 🙂 I started off taking fall family photos. I have since been pushed to take preschool photos and am so happy that a wonderful mama client of mine pushed me to do it. I now have two preschools I work with and I LOVE every moment of being at those schools taking kids’ photos. Last year I started taking more senior pictures and have fallen head over heels for these sessions. I get to take fun photos in cool locations and talk with the students and learn about their plans for the following year, I am having a blast with these sessions!

What was your favorite childhood memory?
As a kid, we would travel to Cook Forest. PA every year for Thanksgiving. The family would come from multiple states and stay in one big cabin. We would play card games all night, hike during the day, eat and go snipe hunting. I can not name one year that was an all-time favorite over the others, all of the years we uniquely fun.

Pricing:

• Family sessions 20 minutes, 10 light edited photos $150
• Senior Sessions 30 minutes, $125, $15 per photo

Contact Info:

• Website: www.AcuteAnglePhoto.com
• Instagram: @AcuteAnglePhoto
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acuteanglephoto