Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Scheiner.
Liz, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Ever since childhood, I have been interested in art. It runs in my family; both of my parents and grandparents on both side of my family paint. My parents have numerous home videos of me as a child playing with paints and smearing every color on a single piece of paper with my hands, making a finger-streaked brown mess – but always with a smile on my face!
Art class was always my favorite subject in school, but it wasn’t until middle school, around the age of 12 or 13, when I began to move away from traditional art techniques and into photography. I bought disposable cameras from the drug store and would run around my neighborhood, taking photographs of trees and flowers or my parents working in the garden.
In high school, I took every photography class available and used my mother’s old 35mm Pentax film camera and learned how to develop and process my own film. At this point, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my photography, just that I loved doing it. I knew I wasn’t very skilled at traditional arts, but photography was something that I could see myself improving in as I learned new techniques. I made online accounts on websites such as Deviantart and Flickr, where I made friends and started to wrangle ideas together, slowly figuring out that I loved portraiture.
In the fall of 2009, I enrolled at Columbia College Chicago to get my Bachelor of Arts in Photography. Living and working in downtown Chicago was an amazing experience and I’m so lucky to have had the opportunities that I’ve had. During my 4 years at Columbia, I worked hard to develop my skill and found my love of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle photography, which is what I like to continue doing today.
Has it been a smooth road?
For me, the hardest thing is building a client base. I’m lucky to have some great friends in my life who have referred me to others looking for photography work and I get most of my work from word of mouth, but it isn’t always easy. It takes a lot of planning and thought to keep up with social media and expand your business. I knew from a young age that I wanted to work in art; I just didn’t realize then that that also meant running your own business. There’s definitely been a learning curve, but I love it.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Liz Scheiner Photography centers around portraiture. I love working with people and building a happy, fun environment to shoot in. I enjoy trying new photographic techniques and experimenting with post processing. My absolute favorite things to photograph are fashion and lifestyle editorials, and I am drawn to romantic, beautiful imagery and themes. I love the entire process: starting with an idea, building a mood board, finding the right people to help my vision (hair and makeup), and executing it – really seeing it come to life. I am proud of how far I have come since I first began picking up a camera, and I am excited to see where the future takes me!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lizscheiner.com
- Email: liz.scheiner@gmail.com
- Instagram: lizscheiner
- Facebook: lizscheinerphotography
Image Credit:
Headshot taken by Christian Brady & edited by Liz Scheiner
Behind the Scenes taken by Erin Shea
All other photos copyright Liz Scheiner Photography
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