Hi there, I’m Elissa.

I’m a Portland-based documentary wedding photographer who’s here to preserve the way it all actually felt. The way your hands shook. The breath you took before walking into the room. The way your person looked at you that way.

Those moments don’t need staging. They need space.

One of my favorite late poets, David Berman, penned, “Souvenirs only reminded you of buying them.” This must have so many meanings, but the one I take from it is that the photographic evidence of an organic experience is vastly more important than the posed photo that took you out of the moment.

I feel that any photo spotlighting human interaction, emotion, a truly lived experience is much more interesting than a stiff, posed one. Posed photos have a place, they are important and purposeful, however I’m much more drawn to the moments that occur, for instance, when a family is interacting while they get arranged before and after the few seconds they look at the camera and say ‘cheese’ rather than the ‘cheese’ moment itself. The in between moments are where the real stuff lives, those are the smiles that will offer a glimmer into a personality, that will show you who they are. This is why candid photos will always have my heart. I do love a photo that has been purposefully set up as well, so when the time calls for it, I guide and direct to create something beautiful and artistic with you. Though one key will always be the leading force and inspiration: it should look and feel like you. You should see yourself and feel what you felt.

I photograph your day the way it actually happened—messy, magical, tender, unscripted. So when you look back, you don’t just see what it looked like. You remember how it felt.