Hey readers!

I am Elizabeth Collins and I am the owner and photographer for Elizabeth Collins Photography. I am a wedding photographer in New Orleans, LA, but I also love to photograph seniors and families!

Let’s start with a few things about me. I was born in New Orleans, LA, but spent most of my early life away from the city (Dallas, TX and Carmel, IN to be exact). It was in high school that I found my love of photography. I became a photographer for my school’s yearbook, just for something to fill my extracurricular requirements, and fell in love with it! By the end of high school, I was the proud owner of my own DLSR camera that I used mostly for hobby photography. After high school, I started college at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL (Roll Tide!). College was busy and I, unfortunately, didn’t get behind the camera as much as I had wanted to. But in my senior year I again found myself needing to fill a course requirement and stumbled upon a digital photography class. I was so excited to be able to finally use my camera and I learned so much about shooting and editing my photos.

So I bet you’re reading all this about my rekindled love for photography and you’re probably thinking that I graduated and immediately started working on building my photography business. Right? WRONG! I graduated from Bama and moved back to Indiana to go to graduate school. Those 2.5 years were filled with classes and clinical rotations and balancing a social life that photography slipped into the background of my life. Not forgotten, just not a priority at the time. To be honest, it wasn’t a priority for another 2.5 years even after graduate school. Real life hits you fast; it’s a lesson I learned quickly. We can skip completely over grad school. No stumbling upon photography classes there!

After graduation, I came full circle and moved right back to New Orleans.  I was starting my first real job and living with my cousin. Three months later, my boyfriend moved from Indiana to New Orleans and we bought a house together (I told you life came at me fast)! Once it settled down a bit , I found myself with so much free time on my hands. No more studying for exams or football games on weekends, so now what? So I figured I needed a hobby. I thought back to all the years in school where people asked me what my interests and hobbies were. Reading. Shopping. I decided a lot of reading would be lonely and I definitely didn’t have enough spare cash for a shopping addiction! Then I remembered photography. I got the ol’ camera back out (no joke it was old, like Canon didn’t even make that model anymore) and dusted off my skills.

It wasn’t until I got engaged that I truly became interested in pursuing photography as more than a hobby. When looking for a photographer, I was truly blown away by all of the portfolios and websites I came across. Each image made me feel the emotions of a wedding ceremony; love and joy and excitement. The idea of being able to capture these memories for people was so enticing! I wanted to do that. I could do that! In the hasty research that ensued, I came across Amy & Jordan Demos and their online course. It was expensive, but I considered it an investment in myself and my creativity. I took notes and re-watched behind-the-scenes videos from the shoots; I truly wanted to understand the process and apply it to my own photography. I finished the course and my mind was made up. I was going to start a photography business.

And that brings us to today. I have a budding photography business. I have mostly been doing portrait and family photography, but have been really excited to start getting into weddings! It wasn’t until my wedding, and watching my own wedding photographer, that I understood that wedding photography was my end game. The wedding photography business is competitive and my competition is good. But I have loved the experiences I have gained networking with other wedding photographers and was so excited when I started booking weddings of my own.

If you’ve gotten this far into this post then THANK YOU! Putting my life online seems daunting but I think it is a critical part of my photography journey to let potential clients get to know me. I am so happy you have taken the time to read it!

Stay tuned for more updates on my growing photography business, some great advice for your wedding day photography, and some awesome blog posts about the wedding days that I have been so lucky to get to capture.