Ellie Koleen is a California-based wedding photographer but loves to travel the world for destination weddings. She's been all over the world, from Jamaica to Italy to Ireland. Her eye for design is evident in all that she does and her ability to capture emotion in each photo is remarkable.
Ellie has deep roots in photography. Her dad has been a commercial photographer since she was young, so photography runs through her veins.
"I was always super inspired by him and by how he got to do something so fun that he was passionate about for work."
Listen to Ellie's Episode on The Wedding Day Podcast
After graduating from high school, Ellie took time to explore before she decided what was next. She spent the summer working as a photographer at a summer camp outside of Fresno at Hume Lake.
She moved back home when the summer ended to work with her dad. As her friends started getting engaged, they would ask her to photograph their weddings. Being mainly a commercial photographer, her dad was never fully invested in doing weddings, so he pushed Ellie to take it on, on her own. In 2013, Ellie Koleen Photography was founded. The dynamic duo still works together sometimes as each other's second shooter.
What's a wedding trend you're loving right now?
"Unplugged ceremonies. Not using phones during the ceremony. I love how that's become a thing."
What's your favorite aspect to shoot on a wedding day?
"I really love the moment right after the ceremony because I feel like that's the most emotionally charged moment. I always get really excited and giddy behind the camera when there's ton of emotion present."
Ellie's ability to capture emotions in such a raw form is evident specifically in her portraits.
She loves to pull couples away from the craziness of their wedding day to give them "a few moments to themselves to be focused on each other" while she takes their portraits.
When Ellie's not shooting weddings she's cycling, playing guitar, hanging with her pups, working on an episode of her podcast, Photographer Life, or restoring her mid century modern 1960's home with her husband.
Ellie recently rebranded her website to expand her horizons and photograph weddings across the state and beyond.
In the near future, she hopes to have kiddos of her own and to travel the globe with her family to shoot destination weddings.
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