We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christelle Eloi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Christelle, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Being a photographer was totally an accident. One day, my uncle asked me if I wanted to second shoot an engagement with him and I said yes. After the session, he told me I had a great eye and he continued to teach and encourage me. I continued to practice with family and friends and eventually I started shooting with strangers. Shooting made so happy and it was a way of expressing myself artistically. After a while of practice, everyone was telling me that I should stop doing it as a hobby and actually charge for my art. I was intimidated by that aspect of starting a business but I decided to really get into photography at that time and the rest is history.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Christelle and I am a photographer and content creator. I am the person that makes you feel your most beautiful, your authentic and your most powerful self. I know sometimes it’s intimidating being in front of a camera but my niche is shooting beautiful women and making them look and feel like a million bucks. I’m most proud of shooting amazing people who include celebrities.
My work had been featured in Vogue Italia online and Health magazine (April issue)
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
There were so many times I wanted to quit because things got hard, clients didn’t come but because of God, I didn’t quit. I know that this is one of my callings and if He gave me the gift, he will supply. During Covid everything shut down and I was forced to go back to work. I didn’t want to shoot anymore and took a crazy long break. I wish I didn’t do that but I came back stronger for it. Never give up on your dreams.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn perfectionism. I realized that the more perfect I wanted my photos, the more time it would take me to post/share them. I realized that being excellent is great but being perfect is not realistic.
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Image Credits
Personal photo of me with the white top holding flowers was taken by Té