Fashion, beauty and portrait photography, shaped with studio light.
Fr. 001 · Octabox, camera left · Maple Grove, MN
The studio
A private studio in Maple Grove, Minnesota, twenty-five minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Seamless paper in six colors, a rack of speedlights, and a modifier for every kind of face.
Clients across the Twin Cities and the Upper Midwest, with location work when a project calls for it.
I build light around people the way a tailor builds a jacket: carefully, up close, and never in a hurry.
Practice
Three ways of looking
Every commission starts from the same place: considered light, real skin, and a calm set. Each project is quoted to its scope.
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Fashion01
Campaigns, lookbooks and editorials with movement in them. Garments shot to fall and breathe, never pinned flat.
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Beauty02
Skin, makeup and jewelry at macro distance. Retouching keeps texture and pores, so the product reads as true.
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Portrait03
Unhurried sittings for founders, artists, families and anyone who has never liked a photo of themselves.
Selected work
Contact sheet, 2025–26
Speedlights · Shaped by modifiers
Light first. Then the person. Then everything else.
How a shoot runs
- Step 1 · Day 0
Inquiry
Tell me what you are making, when, and roughly what it can cost. I reply within two working days.
- Step 2 · Week 1
Light call
A 30-minute call to agree the mood, references, wardrobe and the lighting plan.
- Step 3 · Shoot day
On set
Small crew, quiet set. Tethered capture so the team sees every frame as it lands.
- Step 4 · +72 hours
Selects
A private online gallery of graded proofs. Pick favorites and leave notes on each frame.
- Step 5 · +10 days
Finals
Retouched files delivered for print and web, with usage terms written in plain language.
About Elliot
Twelve years of shaping light
Elliot trained as a painter before picking up a camera, and still lights like one: a big soft key, a careful fill, and patience. He assisted fashion photographers in Chicago for five years before opening his Maple Grove studio in 2019.
His sets are small and quiet on purpose. Most people relax within ten minutes, and that is usually where the real pictures start.
- Cameras
- Full-frame mirrorless, medium format for campaigns
- Lenses
- 35mm, 85mm, 100mm macro
- Light
- Speedlights with octaboxes, beauty dish, strip boxes and grids
- Backdrops
- Seamless paper in cream, blush, grey, sage, white and black
Bookings
Book a shoot, or just ask.
Weekday and weekend sessions available. Share as much or as little as you know; every project gets a written quote within two working days.
- Studio time and lighting setupIncluded
- Private online proofing galleryIncluded
- Retouched finals for web and printIncluded
- Usage licensingWritten per project
Inquiry received
Thank you.
Elliot reads every message himself and replies within two working days.