Today we’d like to introduce you to Eli Chavez.
Eli, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
To be honest, it wasn’t until recently that I really started tracing back how I got started in photography. It was always something that I was interested in, but I never realized just how deeply those roots were planted. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was at home going through some old boxes and I found some DVDs that had old videos on them that had been converted from VHS. On these videos there was Christmas videos from when I was a little kid. I’m a very nostalgic person in general, so naturally I really wanted to see what was on these videos and what I found was very eye opening.
I guess I should mention that My name is Eli and I grew up in the Whittier/La habra area of Southern California. I had a great childhood and the most amazing family. That is truly why I am the way I am today and I owe everything to my Parents and My wonderful sister. They have taught me what it truly means to be loved, the value of hard work, the determination to see things through, to follow your heart, to live everyday to the fullest, and to be kind. I don’t know where I would be today without them. Throughout my school years, I was always that kid involved in sports. As a child, my family each played sports, especially my dad. Because of this, I was involved in everything from Basketball to Soccer to Cross Country & Track and Field growing up. That is what I poured a lot of my time and effort into. I love to compete! I can say without a doubt that I am a very competitive person. It could be a simple board game or rock paper scissors. You name it and I want to win.
When I was in high school cell phones were still coming of age. More and more kids started to have this new amazing piece of tech in their pocket, but nevertheless they were a far cry from what they are today. Even if they had a fraction of the tech we see today there was still barely any platforms to support them. Then this thing called Myspace came along. Suddenly for a kid in high school like me I had a place to really display different parts/interest of my life such as photos, music, and movies that I really liked. Myspace truly started as a platform where I could be myself. From that you had other platforms that came along in that era such as Facebook that allowed you and in some ways forced you to take and share photos.
The point and shoot. It wasn’t until I graduated high school that one of my friends introduced me the point and shoot camera. These are still around today, but not nearly as popular as they once were. These were cameras that basically had one lens mounted to them and you could literally turn it on, point and shoot. Then there you would have a pretty good photo. Plain and simple. My first point and shoot Camera that I owned was a Canon. I honestly loved it. One feature that it had was this ability to isolate colors in a photo. I don’t know what it was about this feature, but I loved being able to see a photo in black and white with a hint of one color. This was a big increase in photo taking for me. I miss my point and shoot camera.
The iPhone. This is what in so many ways and for so many people, simply changed everything. But I can say the thing it changed the most for me was in regards to photography. Suddenly EVERYONE was a photographer. It didn’t have the best camera in the world, but like they say, the best camera is the one you have with you. And that, it definitely was. Then the iPhone 3g came along. Did it have a better camera? Sure. Did it have a better design, debatable. But what made it great was the software, specifically the App Store. This birthed so many of the amazing companies and apps that we know and love today. The main one for me being Instagram. Now just like Myspace years before I had a place to really share some of the nostalgic and fun memories that I have made along the way AND now I had a camera in my pocket all of the time because of the amazing phones coming out. It was a great and beautiful time in my life.
2017. This in many way was the year that changed it all for me. Technically it was that Christmas 2016, but we will just say 2017 because thats when it all happened. Late 2016 something very interesting happened. Its something that a lot of people go through at one time or another in their lives, but thats when it happened to me. My mom joined Instagram. And who do you think is the first person she started to follow? You guessed it, ME. Suddenly my mom’s eyes were opened to all of the random, funny, emo, and interesting photos that I had been posting on Instagram over the last few years. When I looked at my page, I simply saw some random photos that basically explained my life. Nothing out of the ordinary. I took photos simply for fun. Me being in the IT field I enjoyed the tech specs and the capabilities that phone cameras were starting to have. But when it came to photography it was simply a fun little hobby for me on my phone. But for my MOM that simply wasn’t enough. She looked at my photos and immediately realized that was she was seeing was not normal.
Not necessarily because the photos were leaps and bounds better than everyone else’s but rather because she could see the love I had for taking photos coming through in them. And for a parent if they see that their child truly loves something and it makes them happy they will do everything in their power to support them. So what did my mom do that fateful Christmas 2016? She bought me my first digital camera. It was a Nikon d3400. I was truly speechless. I couldn’t believe what she did and at first I was thinking that it was such a nice gift, but I had no idea how much I would use it. Then I took it out of the box and held it. I honestly knew right at that moment that I was home. I immediately went outside and started taking photos of anything that interested me. Different flowers, leaves, benches, you name it. It’s such an interesting feeling when you find what you truly were meant to do. Nothing and I mean nothing makes me feel how I feel when I have a Camera in my hands. Within a few months, I had started my own company, shot my first wedding, and was doing a shoot almost every weekend. I was the happiest I had ever been. 2017 was truly one of the best years of my life. The amount of growing I did that year as a person I might never see again and I owe that to my mom and my family.
So here I am a few years later, its 2020 and my journey has truly been amazing in photography. I have a wonderful little following on IG. I still shoot almost every weekend. I have made some amazing friends and I have even been able to be given the opportunity to inspire some new photographers starting out, which I love to death. I’m sitting in my room looking at these old movies and it hits me like a ton of bricks. There I am Christmas of 88, my mom behind the video camera, me in frame looking right back at her, but not with my own eyes, instead I have a little toy camera in my hands saying…. “Smile”. It wasn’t until now that I realized maybe, just maybe, I was always meant to be a photographer.
Has it been a smooth road?
I think the biggest challenge when it comes to my photography career is finding time. One thing that everyone has is the same 24 hours in a day and you can do whatever you chose to do with that 24 hours. Unfortunately, I cannot yet afford to do photography full time so I still have a full-time job. All of my free time goes towards photography.
So the challenge has become finding a balance between work, photography, and spending time with people that I love. Not the most difficult challenge in the world, but a challenge non the less.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I love all different kinds of photography. When I first started out, I would have said that my favorite kind of photography would have been landscape and architecture. But over the last few years, thats changed to portraiture. There is something about looking into someone’s eyes and telling a story. People and animals give photos life.
Now when you combine the two that is truly something special. 🙂
As far as my business goes, I honestly can shoot everything and like to shoot so many different things. I specialize in natural light shooting and thats just because I love that the most. But I can shoot studio and LED lighting. I have shot everything from weddings, fashion shoots, portrait headshots, to family shoots. I like it all.
I don’t think my photography is anything special, I’m just hard working. I love photography, I love making memories, and I love telling stories. For anyone who shoots with me I hope they can feel that and look forward to being a part of my journey and memories because I look forward to being a part of theirs. I think if there was one thing special about my photos is that they are shot with love. And I hope that comes through in every picture.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think Los Angeles is one of the best places in the world to start as a photographer. There is so much history here that I feel people simply overlook. I highly recommend people not only explore LA but actually learn about what they are looking at.
Also, Southern California is such an amazing place to begin as a photographer. Think of all of the different places you can shoot. You can literally have a morning shoot in the mountains and a sunset shoot at the beach. Not many places in the world you can do that.
Best advice I can give a new photographer starting in LA is explore, explore, explore. Get out there and make some memories, don’t be afraid to get into a little trouble for the sake of an amazing photo. “Adventure is out there!”
Pricing:
- Portrait Headshots: ($500-$1000)
- Lifestyle/Fashion: $150 per hour
- Edits: $20 per photo
Contact Info:
- Address: 1840 Pine Dr. La Habra CA 90631
- Website: www.eliasphotographyco.com
- Phone: 562-569-5402
- Email: eli@eliasphotographyco.com
- Instagram: @eliasphotographyco
- Facebook: @eliasphotoco
Image Credit:
Kira Lawrence, Aly O’brien, Brittany Cox, Valeria Gomez, Heather Neeld, Safari Park, Dawn Dafgek
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