Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Kelly.
Hi Melissa, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My earliest memory is not a memory. It’s a photograph.
I’m fourteen months old, and I’m tottering around the skeleton of a house, weaving through the ribs of a load-bearing wall. It’s my young parents’ first home, a built-to-order genetic twin to all the houses that surround it. They are twenty-one and terrified; this home is the second most exciting-but-frightening thing they have ever done. New adults. New baby. New house. Everything about our young family is new, new, new.
I know the details of the frequent trips by the house because I’ve heard the story so many times. I know that blue Camaro because it still lives in my dad’s garage. I know I am fourteen months old because the words “August 1985” are written on the back of the photo in my mother’s looping, undemanding handwriting.
This particular photograph is one of many thousands from my lifetime, and it lives in July 1985 to December 1986 album with its contemporaries. That album is aging on the upper left of the bookcase full of albums. Its adhesive has long since become un-stuck, plastic pulling away and freeing photos to slide down the page and collect along the bottom. It is not a memory (I think?), but it is so firmly a part of my history, that the two cannot be disentangled — photograph from memory or memory from the photograph.
Between my shutter-bug grandfather and my scrapbooking mother, photography and family histories run deep in my veins. My grandfather bought me my first point and shoot film camera for my 9th or 10th birthday, and the rest is history. A decade later, I was pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Photojournalism at Temple University in Philadelphia, and have been shooting professionally ever since.
I believe in photography. I believe in capturing our lives for our future selves to remember, and for our future generations to discover. I believe in cell phone photos of our biggest and smallest moments, AND professional versions of highly orchestrated family portraits. I believe in photography — after all, photography is proof for eternity that we lived, we loved, and we were loved in return.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Photography and working with people are something that has always come somewhat naturally to me.
Right out of college I worked for a few different businesses as a staff photographer while I built my own on the side. After almost a decade of working for others, it was time to strike out on my own. Fortunately, by that time, my side hustle had some very solid footing, and I was able to step into full-time self-employment without too many setbacks.
2020 was a different story of course. COVID lockdowns made events very scarce and my work plummeted nearly 80%. It was definitely a time to reassess and pivot where necessary, and while the business last year was back to maybe 60% of where I was in 2019, I’m feeling very optimistic about 2022!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
More than anything, I’m a photographer of people. I thrive on making connections and capturing people in ways that reflect them back to the world. My primary niche is higher education marketing and event photography.
I have a wonderful roster of colleges and universities that I am very fortunate to work with. From graduations to Alumni Magazines and other marketing efforts, I get to meet a wide variety of passionate, energizing students and educators. Working on college campuses is incredibly invigorating — everyone you meet is working on something interesting, and it’s my job to help tell their story.
The other part of my business, of course, is traditional event and portrait photography — engagements, weddings, newborns, and growing families. It’s a wonderful balance to the commercial work, and it’s a privilege to be a part of my client’s lives as they embark on so many life-changing adventures.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
The best lesson I learned in the Covid-19 years is that nothing is more important to me than people and relationships.
Compassion will always come before profits in my world. I had many clients who had to reschedule or outright cancel their weddings. Many had difficulty with some of their other vendors regarding deposits and rescheduling fees. While of course, I am trying to run a business and provide for my family, I decided in many cases to refund deposits and move dates without charging extra fees. At the end of the day, I believe goodwill and empathy will come back to me in spades.
Pricing:
- Weddings start at $4900
- Family portraiture starts at $440
- Commercial work is custom quoted
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.melissakellyphotography.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/melissakellyweddings, www.instagram.com/melissakellyfamilies, www.instagram.com/higheredphotographer
- Facebook: Facebook.com/
melissakellyphotography
Image Credits
Isabel March Photography and Melissa Kelly Photography
