Meet Melissa Minichini | Elle Austen Photography

We had the good fortune of connecting with Melissa Minichini and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Melissa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The biggest part of my life & my heart are my daughters. Everly + Emmy. But a big chunk of my life is being a heart mom. A medical mom. And when my first daughter was born with a life-threatening heart condition, my life + my world stopped. Everything + anything that brought me joy was put on hold so I could be everything I needed to be, for her. After Everly had open heart surgery at 6 mos old, I began therapy + my healing process. The first thing therapy instilled in me was that I needed to find “Melissa” again. Not the mom or medical mom but just me. Prior to kids. Prior to our family trauma. The person who loved adventure, traveling, concerts, girls nights out, photography, the ocean. The person who was a complete romantic for everything love + life. So with some more therapy and a little liquid courage, I took the plunge back into photography because I want my daughters to grow up with a happy mom. A person they can look at and say “Wow she went for it.” Or “I am so proud of her.” Or even “What a badass soul mama is.”

I put my heart + soul into my business; every person who has invested in me, I am invested in. Genuinely. I want to know everyone. Their why’s. Their love story. Their family story. Their journey to a family story. Their life story. Their business story. Every last bit of it. I want to be able to intentionally tell everyone’s story through photos.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Oh my gosh where do I even start. Truthfully, I wish that I had some extravagant reasoning of what sets me apart from others. But the truth is, my field is saturated with incredibly talented individuals and all I can really say for myself is that I go into all my work with a grateful and passionate heart. Because without the support of others, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do something I genuinely, LOVE. I love capturing the organic, in-between moments for my clients. That’s where the storytelling is.

I didn’t get to where I am today on cruise control. It’s been a lot of lessons. A lot of trial and error. I’m also a wife and mama so work, life balance is extremely important to me which sometimes complicates things. But at the end of the day, I’m honestly just extremely proud of my work, my growth in my business and my growth as a person and I think that shows in my art.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was visiting the area, as much fun as the touristy things are, the little things have the most meaning. We’d start our days at the local coffee shop. Go to my favorite beach for sunrise, grab brunch at Raymond’s in Montclair. Spend a day in the city where Gray Papaya is an absolute must. Take a ferry ride, cruise the highway with music blasting. As wonderful as the extravagant things are, they aren’t always realistic and I find the most fun usually comes from the simplistic moments with ones you care most for.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Without a doubt one of the easiest things for me to do is give credit where credits due and here, that would be my husband, Steven. I was terrified of jumping into the deep end and starting my photography business. I had serious doubt and imposter syndrome and just the all in all, what the heck am I doing?! He gave me the push I needed. He believed in me when I didn’t have the courage to do it for myself. He saw the talent, the passion and all around love I had for capturing the in-between moments. He’s supported me and had my back from day one.

Website: www.elleaustenphoto.com

Instagram: @elleaustenphoto