happy you're here
happy you're here
hi there! i’m lena
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I enjoy slow mornings, the smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen, the way the light hits the wall in our dining space turned cozy couch corner.
Hearing my daughter call out for mama, and my partner call my name. I’m a homebody at heart but love a good gathering that involves indulging in food.
I’ll spark up a conversation with just about anybody wanting to learn who they are and what shaped them into the person they became.
I’ve always kind of loved art.
I grew up in a home filled with love, and parents who told me to chase my dreams. So I did.
And how lucky am I? To witness; to document love stories over and over.
After taking just about every art class I possibly could at my local community college, I picked up a camera in 2016 and never put it down.
Originally signing up for the photography class, which was cancelled due to low numbers, I started photographing anyone and everyone I could. I spent my first year shooting underneath a more established wedding photographer and from there I started shooting on my own and my love for creating art shaped me into the photographer I am today.
In my free time you might find me chatting up a local barista, thrifting for home goods, gardening in the sunshine, or shopping at the farmers market. Hope to see you there.
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I will never regret supporting small businesses. Whether it be eating at a small mom & pop, supporting friends with their business endeavors, buying birthday & Christmas presents on Etsy, or produce at the local farm— I will always show support.
Knowing I get to support someone, pay their bills, & help keep their dreams alive is to important to me because I am a small business. Just a girl making it happen & I thank each & every one of you for making my dreams come true.
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Trust your photographer—
We want to create with you if you allow us that room to make art. Be open to being directed & doing things that might feel out of your comfort zone. I try my best to make my clients feel as comfortable as possible during our time together. ☻
a unique and a curious soul who is often in a daze, his or her mind is always out of this world. They live in their fantasy and refuse to come back to a harsh reality.
moo͞n′chīld″
moonchild photo co. is the product of years of figuring out who i am, what my work should look like & loads of personal growth.
I worked part-time in the wedding industry for six years & began my start-up, Alena Michelle Photography.
this rebrand symbolizes growth, courage, evolution & wanting to create some seriously cool art.
In 2020, the year of the pandemic, I decided to pursue my passion for photography full-time. I hate to admit it, but covid did a lot of good things for me personally. & If I’m being completely honest, I don’t think I’d be where I am today without that much-needed step back from the reality we were all living in. Here’s what I know— I’m meant to be a creator. So, I fused my two passions of photography & appreciation of art together. A match made in heaven.
for me, photography is so much more than just capturing moments.
it’s about storytelling.
When I work with clients, I don’t want them to just be clients. We are talking about some of the most important days of their lives & for me to just show up, photograph it & leave would be doing them a major disservice. I can’t help but smile when I think about my past clients & how we’ve grown into friends. I see them from their engagement photos to the wedding day, to their first child being born- all of these major milestones that I’ve gotten the honor to witness. Creating these relationships is what has allowed me to follow their life’s journey & see them experience all of life’s pleasures alongside their partners, family & friends.
One of my favorite things is getting to know people. Everyone has a different perspective on life & I love to be that person that truly hears other people’s life experiences & the highs & lows that everyone deals with. I want to know what makes you YOU. I want to be able to portray THAT throughout the images that I’m creating for you.
The thing about weddings is…
They’re all different.
& that’s one of the coolest things about them; they reflect the couple’s personality, who they are as a couple & what kind of things they do together. I like to show the lifestyle of what happens throughout the whole day & romanticize it so when they look back, they feel all the warm fuzzy feelings & think ‘I can’t wait to show my children these pictures someday’. THAT is why this is so important to me.
