ASAD 2024

2024 brought me lots of good times with my friends (old and new), family, and my favorite animals (old and new). This year also gave me time to explore through good food and travel. 2024 also started me down a path of figuring out who I want to be, and what I want out of life.

This year’s traveling was off to a slower start than usual. I didn’t go out of town until May. In May, I went to Nashville for a wedding. We stayed at Opryland, went to the museums, and I knocked out another state from my list of riding a horse in every state. My next vacation was to my home, Ohio. I came in to help my best friend Sam, prep for her baby shower. It’s so fun for me to watch my people succeed and I love standing by them as they grow. I am now a very proud auntie to a baby Enzo. While I was in Ohio, I reconnected with some other friends I hadn’t seen a long time, and I am so grateful for my time spent in Ohio this year. In September, I went to Chicago, and while in Chicago I saw a broadway play, completely fan girled in museums, and of course, hung out at the bean. The last place I went this year, was to West Virginia for Chris’s grandfathers Funeral. Under the circumstances, it was nice to spend the with his family, and meet some new faces.

I also gained an orange cat, named Coyote. Chris was out on a run, and had a little kitten follow him. Coyote had a collar on, so he brought him home. A few days later, we took him to the vet to check for a chip. The good news is he had one, the bad news was that it was connected to our local animal shelter. Coyote was supposed to be in foster care. We were asked to bring him in the shelter for a neuter appointment the next day. So, I asked about him when we dropped him off and they called me back after his surgery to tell me the foster parents surrendered him, and I went to pick him up the next day! He is a very sweet, playful, crazy boy and I am lucky to have him. I also have been feeding a few stray cats in the neighborhood, trying to get them acclimated to people, So that I can re-home or send them to our local shelter to be adopted.

I’d like to give a special shoutout to my horse family and trainers at the Equestrian Center. They help me everyday to be a better rider, and a better, stronger version of myself. My buddy Brigand is getting older and more injury prone. This summer while riding, he became lame and unfortunately hasn’t fully recovered. He has lots of good days, and a few days that hurt my heart. Im grateful to be riding with him on all of the days he is feeling well enough. However, I am now riding multiple horses more often, and learning to like different things about each of them, which is pretty cool. I still make sure Brigand gets the attention he deserves, and a big bucket of banana mash when I am done.

I hope you enjoy watching a glimpse of my year. If you want to see more, below you can watch this years video. The links to my other ASAD videos and the blogs to go along with it. Be on the look out next year for 2025!

If you cannot see the video this blog, click here.

Links to other blogs in yearly order are here!

2023
2022
2021
2020
2019

ASAD 2023

Every year I try to fill my days with friends, family, travel, laughter, and good food. 2023 brought me these, and new growth opportunities for myself, and my art.

At the beginning of the year, I was in the process of moving to a nicer apartment, closer to my work. I would like to extend a special thank you to my friends that helped get me here! It was a long and stressful two months made much easier by Mikaela and Vincie.

This year’s traveling started in the beginning of the year with a mini vacation about an hour a way with my family in a town called Alys Beach. This was not my first time coming here, but it was nice to get a little ways out of town to relax after moving. Then in May, I went to my friends’ wedding in Denver. I am on a mission to ride a horse in every state, so of course I did that, as well as going to museums, such as Meow Wolf, I also make sure I go to a zoo or aquarium on my vacations. In October, I went to Phoenix, and in December, I traveled to Raleigh for a family wedding, and then Greenville to visit my parents.

I typically use the phrase “he's a dream” when I talk about my buddy, Brigand. He pushes me to be better, work harder, and also to expect the unexpected. I am truly grateful for my trainer and friend, Janet, and the entire equestrian center. They help me everyday to be a better rider, and a better, stronger version of myself.

I hope you enjoy watching a glimpse of my year, below are links to my other ASAD videos and their perspective blogs in order, as well as this 2023’s! Be on the look out next year for 2024!

If you cannot see the video this blog, click here.

Links to other blogs in yearly order are here!

2022
2021
2020
2019

Banana Bart

This is Bart. Bart meant a lot to many people. She was laid to rest in October, at the age of 36, due to a tumor growing in her nasal cavity. She belonged to my trainer, and in her prime, was one of the best horses she ever had.

WHEW. Enough with the heavy. When I found out where her future was heading, I set off to do something special. This project is important to me not only because it was a way to honor her memory, but I knew that my trainer deserved to see her favorite horse all done up one last time. These images were taken in secret right under her nose with the help of a couple friends. I’m grateful for it. Not only because of their turn out, but because this was the first time I ever attempted to photograph a horse.

I am awfully proud of this set, I hope you enjoy them as well!

2021 ASAD Video

Wow. I cannot believe its has been a full year already. 2021 was a year full of loss and heartache. 2021 also brought some amazing memories and an abundance of laughter with some of my closest friends, animal snuggles, a little bit more travel Than last year, and of course, good food that I love to showcase throughout my videos. I always like to explain the things I did well, and the things I wish to improve in the next year.

Due to the world events, I kept my social circle small this year as well as the previous. Which was nice because I got to spend another year surrounded by only my closest circle of friends, who are also family. With them, I got to have many mini adventures such as county fairs, dinner dates, beach trips at all hours of the day, and I even got to help participate in bringing a hometown best friend in to the city to surprise one of my besties for her birthday!

Unfortunately, with the good comes the not so good. We lost some very special animals, and I lost my grandfather at the end of the year. Molly, the Hunters’ horse, was the first one this year. If you know me personally, you’d know that horses are my favorite animal, I absolutely adored Molly. The last time I saw her, before I went down I bought an entire bag on mints. Mints were her favorite treat and though it meant she’d have to let me get on her back for an hour or so a day she gladly accepted. If you were not fast enough though, shed dig through your pockets herself. The next was the Hunters' dog buster, who I think only Chris was fond of, he was known for getting into messes, the stinkier the better. Last but certainly not least, after a long year filled with family stresses and struggles, we suddenly lost my grandpa to the flu and pneumonia. I am grateful for him and the time we got o share. If my family had to choose one thing to say about him, I think it would be that he made life interesting, just not always in the best ways.I am grateful for the two voicemails on my phone from him, especially since I don’t have anything from my other passed grandparents. It’s been about a month and it still doesn’t quite feel real.

I am very excited to be traveling again, Although I am still doing way less traveling because of the pandemic, I did fly to Denver this year, and I had to make in back to Ohio at the end of the year. Denver was fun, I ate lots of good food, went to lots of museums, and of course did a little bit of hiking. My trip back to Ohio was a little bit more stressful. The plan was to fly back to my parents house in South Carolina and then drive to Ohio from there for my grandpas funeral.Then things got a little bit more stressful when I went to check in for my flight, and saw that it was cancelled four hours before I had to be at the airport. Naturally the airline booked me on another flight instead. Since it was just about midnight on New Years eve, and my flight left in the morning I had to wake up my parents to see what they thought was my best option. Long story short, I ended up buying day of plane tickets on New Years day. Luckily in the end, I made it to Ohio and the service was wonderful. It also let me see my family some of which I have not seen since I was in middle school.

Even though i’m not posting as much, I’m still working as you can see in my video, and I am so excited to show you what I have coming. There will be a wedding blog, and at least five product shots coming your way soon.People have also been asking me about showing my before and afters for some of my images because sometimes I really change a lot of things. I think this is a really fun idea because it helps show off one of my strengths, photoshop. I am just unhappy with my coding options for it with my website. I may try it a different way and let you decide if its readable, or if you like it.

There are a lot of things that I consider to be strengths and improvemnets this year. I chose to change the background track from the up beat and tropical tunes that i typically use, because of my losses this year especially near the end, it didn’t feel right. So in the end I swapped out the ukulele and switch it for a nice, still happy just more subdued piano and strings track. I think I also improved my editing and workflow this year, so hopefully I can just keep building onto it. If you want to see my workflow progress, feel free to check back and look at my previous blogs that are down at the bottom of this post. MY workflow consists of a yearly folder. Within that folder I have twelve folders with the month names. This year I added number of days as well as a color system so know when I have put all my videos per month in them through out the year. This is helpful to me because I am a little bit sporatic with my video uploading.

Ofcourse, if i’m going to talk about my strengths, I need to talk about the details i’d like to improve in the next year. I do this video project as a look back through my year like a scrap book, but also a way to stay learning and focused. I would have to say that writing about myself, and my process is one of my biggest on my list of “needs improvement"“ Im just really not good at it, but im trying to better to get out of my own head to improve it. Also, I would say I wish my video was all horizontal frames, although I have much less in this one than my previous, I still have room to improve there.


My 2021 video is here, and below are links my other videos.

***If you cannot see my video below here is a link.***

Thanks for watching, and be on the look out for 2022!

Links to other blogs in yearly order are here!
2020
2019

2020 ASAD Final Video

     The hardest part of posting new content for me, whether it’s my photography or my videos is writing about them. Although a close second is showing anything I create at all. One of my college professors once told me, that if I liked my work, and saw no need for improvements, than I was not a real artist. I haven’t even posted my work or my life on social media sites lately because I do not think I have anything of importance to share. With that being said, I am sorry for the silence from the last year.

     This year has been a lot for everybody. Myself included. The pandemic has been hard in many different ways, some I cannot even imagine. For me, it brought my household down to me, as the only earning member for 3 months, halted all future traveling plans, and added to my anxiety as a whole. The last time I left my beautiful beach city was in February to go to Atlanta right before everything started to lock down.

    In addition to the world events, one of my roommates moved out, and with that, he took his cat, which after two years of living with, I was quite fond of. Although, this lead to the addition of my boyfriend’s sister, who I have called my sister for years. She later left again, due to a fight with her brother; however, while she was living here, I was able to help her through a really hard time, which brought us even closer than we were before. I have gained her back as a roommate recently in this current year. 

     Not all things this year have been hard times though. When my roommate left, I lost a little buddy, but it also gave me the opportunity to gain my cat. I got him from the shelter when he was 3 and half months old. His shelter name was Tutti Frutti, but I call him Lemon, among other names. A great thing that has happened this year amongst the pandemic and life hardships is simply being able to spend time with my family and friends. This just became trickier to make sure everyone was safe of course. I also turned 26, and witnessed my second hurricane.

     Also this year, my grandpa became ill, more mentally than physically. My family and I had to spend all year only hoping for the best possible outcomes for him and the rest of us involved. My dad also became ill this year, but is expected to make a full recovery. However, my family did lose my Great Aunt Phyllis. Who will truly be missed. The last time I talked to her on the phone she told me I was spoiled for living at the beach, and to take advantage of it.

    Now that I have given a little background for my video, let’s get to the technical skills. There were many great aspects that made my life easier while creating the final, like creating monthly bins to keep all my clips organized instead of the mess I had the first time around, where all 365 videos were all in the same folder.

      When there are good parts to a project, there are always ways to improve. Some of the things that I will change for this current year’s video are taking all the videos on one device, instead of having them spread across three. This is helpful when ordering the videos because it’s much easier to keep track of the dates. Rather than scrolling through three devices at a time trying to sort through the order. I would recommend not waiting until near the end of the year to put the videos together because it becomes very overwhelming. Lastly, I need to remind myself to make all my videos horizontal, and with better lighting all the time.

     This is incredibly long, maybe one of my longest blogs ever. With that being said, please enjoy my A Second A Day video for 2020, and be on the lookout for new images, and next year’s video. If you liked the sneak peaks I did last year, let me know and I will bring them back.

This link below, will send you to last years blog post to my ASAD 2019 video.

ASAD 2019 video here

2019 ASAD Final Video

Hey everyone, I am excited to say, the final project is here! I have Learned many things about myself, and about my techniques, and processes.

Let me start by telling you a few things I would like to improve upon for next years video. Ive already talked about organization in a previous blog, but I have to tell you, it was one of my biggest mistakes in this project was not having my monthly videos organized! My other biggest concern was simply, I wish all of my videos were shot horizontally through out the video. This would have kept the video more consistent. Now These are only a few things I wish I did better on, but I know I will get better, and I am proud of this video.

Since I have told you some of my struggles, let me talk to you about some of the things I really enjoyed about this project, and why I want to continue it. Honestly, one of my favorite aspects of this project, was to remember, and look back at some of the moments, from my everyday life no matter how big or small. The next reason I enjoyed this project was simply because it helps me with my video editing skills, since i only knew the bare minimum of premiere when I started. Video is a very popular skill to know as a photographer in this market, so I like to keep my skills well rounded and sharp. Making this video has been a lot of fun, and a lot of work. I am glad to see it all come to gather. It makes me even more excited for next year!

Without further ado, Here is the ASAD 2019 video!

Below are links the the other A Second A Day Sneak Peak videos and the blogs to go with them just incase you ever miss one, or want to rewatch/reread them.

Links to the other sneak peak videos in order:

1. Exciting Projects in the Work/ ASAD January Sneak PeaK

2. February’s ASAD Sneak Peak

3. March’s ASAD Sneak Peak

4. ASAD April Sneak Peak

5. ASAD May Sneak Peak

6. ASAD June Sneak Peak

7. ASAD July Sneak Peak

8. ASAD August Sneak Peak

9. ASAD September Sneak Peak

10. ASAD October Sneak Peak

11. ASAD November Sneak Peak

12. ASAD December Sneak Peak

ASAD November Sneak Peak

Wow! This holiday season flew by way faster than I expected. November was a month full of beach day get aways while the water was still just warm enough to enjoy, including finding my new favorite spot to read in my down very rare times. This is the first thanksgiving that I have ever spent away from my family. It was very strange, but luckily working into the late hours helped take my mind off of it.

Theres only one more sneak peak in this years video until I get to show you my progress so far! i’m very excited to show you the longest video project I have ever done. If you have fallen behind, the videos are still in order on the bottom of the blog.

Below are links the the other A Second A Day Sneak Peak videos and the blogs to go with them just incase you ever miss one, or want to rewatch/reread them.

Links to the other sneak peak videos in order:

1. Exciting Projects in the Work/ ASAD January Sneak PeaK

2. February’s ASAD Sneak Peak

3. March’s ASAD Sneak Peak

4. ASAD April Sneak Peak

5. ASAD May Sneak Peak

6. ASAD June Sneak Peak

7. ASAD July Sneak Peak

8. ASAD August Sneak Peak

9. ASAD September Sneak Peak

10. ASAD October Sneak Peak

ASAD October Sneak Peak

In my last blog, I mentioned things were going to be written a little bit differently. This one is going to be co-wrote with my boyfriend, Chris, and his experiences with the video process though the year so far. If you like the change of pace, let me know!
*The next three paragraphs were written by Chris.*

With the year winding down, this project is almost complete. I have contributed a few videos here and there, like the video of Elise bowling, but overall less than one percent of this video has been done by me. Elise has spent many hours choosing videos, editing, and much more. On a typical day it usually is pretty easy for her to choose a video because we both work full time and she tries to include everyday activities in the video as well. We also like to travel quite a bit so when we are visiting areas such as Miami, it can be much more difficult for her to narrow down what video she wants to use for that specific day.

Another thing I would like to point out is the equipment she uses. Almost all of the filming has been done just using an iPhone so naturally she wanted to find creative ways to use it. Something that has really helped with this has been the wide lens and waterproof case. She takes them every time we go near the water, and has used both of these numerous times. Since we live beside the Gulf of Mexico, it has really added some unique footage.

Finally, I would like to encourage anyone to do this sort of project. Even if you think you don’t do much day to day, it will be something that you will look back on and consider worthwhile. This project isn’t easy as it forces you to stay motivated and organized for it daily but I know she is going to be happy with it, even when it has caused her some stress in the past. I also know she enjoys this sort of video project because it gives her an opportunity to use her creativity to show you her everyday life.

Thanks for reading! as always here is the sneak peak of the month, and below it are the previous sneak peak blogs! enjoy!

Below are links the the other A Second A Day Sneak Peak videos and the blogs to go with them just incase you ever miss one, or want to rewatch/reread them.

Links to the other sneak peak videos in order:

1. Exciting Projects in the Work/ ASAD January Sneak PeaK

2. February’s ASAD Sneak Peak

3. March’s ASAD Sneak Peak

4. ASAD April Sneak Peak

5. ASAD May Sneak Peak

6. ASAD June Sneak Peak

7. ASAD July Sneak Peak

8. ASAD August Sneak Peak

9. ASAD September Sneak Peak

ASAD April Sneak Peak

As promised, here is the monthly a second a day sneak peak for the month of April. This sneak peak so far is definitely one of my favorites.
April was filled with lots of adventure, friends and laughs. the month started out with a trip to New York, and ended with priceless times with my great friends.

I’m sorry but i’m standing by my “no sound in sneak peaks rule”. you will just have to watch the final product for the full experience! The video below is the sneak peak for April. I also have the links to all the previous months sneak peak blogs below, in order.

Links to other blogs in order:

1. Exciting Projects in the Work/ ASAD January Sneak PeaK

2. February’s ASAD Sneak Peak

3. March’s ASAD Sneak Peak

February's ASAD Sneak Peak

So just in case you missed my first post (link below) I am working on a new project that will last me the entire year. Its a video project called A Second A Day or ASAD for short. I have been working hard to stay updated on this project to keep it from being a daunting folder of 365 videos at the end of the year. Since I am keeping up with the editing of the videos, I am also abled to look through each month and pick out some of my favorite moments from that month and share them with you.

So far I’m learning a lot about myself and video editing from this project and I can’t wait to see how the final project turns out. I have been getting lots of great questions about this project, and my blogs. One of the most frequently asked questions was “why is there no sound in the video?” and my answer to you all is simply I have not yet picked out music for it yet, and I don’t want to give everything away in these sneak peaks. Since I am letting you see some of the seconds ahead of time, I need to have another element for your engagement in the final video at the end of the year.

Thanks for watching this sneak peak and all the ones to come!


Link to previous video: January Sneak Peak/Full Explaination

One Year in Florida!

Hey everyone! As the title of this blog post says, on this day last year, I moved to Florida. Wow! Time goes by way too quickly. As I was thinking about this, I realized I never posted a blog to tell everyone that didn't already know I moved, that I moved! Let mr explain why we left Michigan, and chose Florida in the first place.

I have a lot to catch you up on! First things first, I moved out of Michigan almost a year ago. I ended up in the Florida panhandle in a city called Destin Florida, right along the gulf coast in that small part of Florida that has the different time zone. In the last year, i’ve been settling in and getting to know the area. I also bought my first car, celebrated Chris and I's 3 year anniversary, celebrated my 24th birthday, Chris’s 26th birthday, survived my very first hurricane, traveled to many cities, (Atlanta, New Orleans, Pensacola, Pittsburgh, Ripley, Van Wert, etc.) but I have also been shooting lots of new work, networking, and brainstorming. As some of you may know, I even started to better my video skills. (link to my video project blog below)

One of the most common questions we got while fulfilling our moving process, was simply why did we decide to move. Well the truth is we had many reasons why we wanted to move. Firstly, we wanted to explore a new area. The town we were living in was called Midland, Michigan. Midland is a nice area, but it was really small. I think the main reason we stayed for so long was because Chris’s college was based out of Midland, and because I was so sick the previous year. (Check out the blog post an overdue life update for more information. blog link at the bottom.). Secondly, we decided to leave to help me branch out in a new area and find an area with more fashion photography opportunities. As you can imagine, living in a small town only consisting of family run retail portrait studios was not the best job environment for me. Although I was still abled to make some pretty great connections, we felt it was time to move on. So as soon as Chris was abled to get into all online classes, we started talking about what we wanted in the next place we lived. So we made a list and as part of our criteria, we wanted warmth, fun, and job opportunities. We first decided on Tampa. So Chris moved down first in January to apartment hunt for us starting in Tampa, but we didn’t see anything we could see ourselves in. Luckily we have a friend who was looking for a new roommate in the Destin area so Chris went up to visit , and I came down in March.

I can’t wait to show you all my new work that will be coming up on the website soon. but for now, im going to show you some of my candids, personal milestones, and a few trip images that I have taken this past year to show you around my new area the only way I know how to. I hope you enjoy them!



Blog links:

http://www.elisebakerphotography.com/blog/2019/1/17/exciting-projects-in-the-work

http://www.elisebakerphotography.com/blog/2017/11/18/an-overdue-life-update

Exciting Projects in the Work / ASAD January Sneak Peak

I have quite a few new and exciting things planned for you this year!

The project I want to tell you about today is called A Second A Day. It’s a video project which is pretty self explanatory, but I am filming a second (or two) a day of my life. I decided to do this to help me get motivated to think differently on a daily basis, and not just while on set doing a photoshoot. Another reason I chose to do this project is so I can better my video editing skills. Many photographers this day and age shoot video and still photographs, as most of you know I have done a few videos here and there, but this I hope will help me really learn a lot more techniques and also to better myself in the job market.

Every few weeks (probably once a month I’ll show little sneak peaks of my project so far. These sneak peaks will be about 8-10 second videos of my favorite moments captured per month! i’m really excited to show you all and see how it turns out at the end of the year!

Don’t worry i’m still shooting and working hard to show you my next photo project, so be on the lookout for those too! without further ado, here is my some of my favorite January moments!