Check Out Olesya Alferenko’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Olesya Alferenko.

Hi Olesya, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am that mom who wears her camera backpack everywhere she goes. Originally I was born In Siberia, Russia and moved to the US when I was 15. I now live in the South Bay, Los Angeles with my sweet middle school-aged twin boys and my beach sports-loving husband. I love to hike and explore nature, dance it up wherever good music is playing, travel the world, practice yoga and laugh with my boys.

Photography is my true passion, which I have turned into a profession four years ago as I left a corporate job to chase sunsets and sunrises with my families. After completing a graduate school of business degree, for many years I worked with big consumer packaged goods brands as a brand marketing professional designing strategies and marketing programs to drive brand growth. My favorite part was always the creative side of my job. I loved collaborating with advertising agencies to create and launch TV, print and digital campaigns.

My career shift happened after I got diagnosed with a chronic illness and could no longer work or lead my normal daily life. The illness gave me an opportunity to appreciate the beauty of simple everyday moments. I noticed how the soft light streamed through the window of our bedroom in the morning. How the leaves slowly changed colors in the fall and glowed in the evening light. How tightly my boys hugged each other as they rolled around playing on the floor. Picking up my camera and capturing these stories was something I could still do every day and it filled my heart with immense happiness.

It took me several years to beat the illness and emerge with a new mission to capture authentic family stories full of joy and love. The joy that comes from playing with our family, snuggling our loved ones, and interacting with nature. The deep love we feel when we hold our babies tight against our chest and our partner’s hand in ours.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Creating a successful photography business takes time to build, and I seriously doubted if I would be able to develop a customer base while continuously raising my prices in order to run a profitable business. I am glad to see that my clients value the service and art I provide and appreciate the time and effort that goes into a photo session. From scouting locations to styling clients, working on custom photoshoot ideas, the shoot itself and the travel, and many hours of editing…and not to mention continuous marketing and business back-end, the work is many hours of labor of love. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything else!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a storytelling family artist passionately capturing honest moments full of love and joy for families all over Southern California. My family sessions are more than just photo sessions. They are experiences designed especially for your family to enjoy your time together in a memorable way based on your interests and preferences. My families hike, surf, climb rocks, run in the ocean, play on swings, camp, go on picnics, dance on city rooftops, ride horses – your name it! – with me. I help to beautifully style everyone for our chosen adventure to make sure that they look and feel amazing. On the day of the shoot I follow the family around and capture beautiful, real moments that tell the story of the day and the way you connect as a family. I strive to create work that is more than just photos, but art that makes you, and anyone else who looks at the photo, FEEL the love and joy.

I am proud of continuously evolving my art and being chosen for the third year in a row (out of 45,000 submissions every year) into the Click Magazine Voice collection. This year I even had a first place/category winner and was accepted into the Click Pro Elite community. But I am most proud when families choose me over and over again to document their story and fill their walls with our art.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: http://www.olesyaphotography.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/olesya_alferenko
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OlesyaPhotographyLA
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/olesya-photography-manhattan-beach?osq=Olesya+Photography

Image Credits
Images by Olesya Photography