Today we’d like to introduce you to Michaella Jelin.
Michaella, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I originally grew up in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. My first love in life was music – I spent my childhood playing classical piano, cello and spending pretty much every bit of free time devoted to it. I was fully convinced that was what I wanted to do with my life until I stumbled upon a digital imaging class in high school. I got my first camera when I was 16 and started taking photos of everything and anything. I quickly became the designated friend taking photos of parties and gatherings. I had my camera with me everywhere I went. I made all of my friends model for me in our photo studio at school and spent all of my free time tapping into my creativity, planning out shoots and learning photoshop through experimentation. I am forever grateful for those classes I took in high school – they were what got me into photography and design, then gave me the freedom to experiment and learn at a younger age.
I moved down to Atlanta, GA my senior year of high school. I really fell in love with Atlanta and decided to stay in Georgia for college. I debated between majoring in photojournalism and graphic design and ultimately decided on a graphic design. I studied graphic design at UGA for 2 years before transferring to Georgia State and finishing out my degree there. In the midst of design school, I got an internship the summer after my freshman year for two wedding photographers. At this point in my life, I really didn’t know much about a career in photography or that wedding photography was even a thing that existed. I was able to shadow and learn from those photographers that summer and started second shooting and learning everything I could. I really fell in love with documenting stories. I had a few friends the next summer who were trusting enough to ask me to photograph their weddings and things just really kicked off from there. I really felt like Atlanta was where I needed to be at that point and ended up, moving back to Atlanta from Athens at the end of my sophomore year of college. I started my business, Yellow Bird Visuals at that point, in 2014.
Throughout the rest of design school, I was running Yellow Bird Visuals, working as the photographer and graphic designer of a local company, So Worth Loving and doing other freelance design work. It was throughout college that I really learned, hey I can do this – I can run my own business and do photography and design full time and make a living doing what I love. I graduated from Georgia State in 2016 with a BFA in graphic design, and have been continuing to pursue photography and design full time via Yellow Bird Visuals.
Has it been a smooth road?
For me, pursuing a creative career, especially a self employed creative career, will never be a smooth road. I think it will forever be a series of ups, downs, detours, curves and road bumps – but I think it’s the unsmooth road that makes things interesting & helps me continue to grow and evolve. There are a lot of sacrifices. Especially, when I was starting out and was trying to grow a business, while in design school full time and while working for another company in addition to all of that, it took a lot of hard work, lots of sleepless nights, lots of coffee, lots of missing out on things and lots of pushing through the times when I wanted to give up.
From the outside a lot of times being self employed can be glamorized. And while being able to create my own schedule and make a living off of creating and doing what I love is such a gift, I wouldn’t trade for anything, there are so many more behind the scenes things that are huge struggles and a constant learning process. Business and marketing myself, all of the behind the scenes things aren’t my strong suit. Asking for help also isn’t my strong suit, but I’ve definitely learned I can’t always do it all on my own and getting help with the things that aren’t your strong suits will ultimately help you grow the most. Another big struggle I have as an artist and really just as a human is a self-doubt and insecurity.
Especially in the age of social media, it can be too easy to compare what I’m doing and the work I’m creating with everyone else’s highlight reels. It’s vulnerable putting yourself and your work out there and being able to get instant feedback in the form of likes or comments (or lack of likes) can be tough. Especially, when you’ve poured your heart and soul into creating things that feel like pieces of you. But I’m learning more and more, how damaging comparison can be to create and to your soul and how important it is to keep staying true to yourself, to keep creating, to keep putting yourself out there and to stop the comparison game. Another struggle is finding balance. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a perfectly balanced life, I think there are seasons for everything, but I’m learning how to say no more. A constant fear for me being self employed is that if I say no to something, something else won’t come around or that I’ll let someone down.
Owning your own business is risky for sure, but until you start saying no to the things that aren’t in line with who you are and the work you want to create, you won’t have the space to say yes to the things that will take you where you really want to be. I think these song lyrics from a Broken Bells song really sums it up – “There’s no shortcut to a dream, it’s all blood and sweat and life is what you manage in between.” The reality is, no matter what you do in life, it’s not going to be perfect, there are going to be learning curves, struggles and hard times – but if you really believe in what you’re doing and it makes your heart beat a little faster, all of the struggles are more than worth it.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Yellow Bird Visuals – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My business is Yellow Bird Visuals and I specialize in wedding photography in addition to fashion, lifestyle and commercial photography as well as graphic design. I am most known for my wedding work, mainly because it’s what I share most and what a lot of my marketing is devoted to, but I definitely do almost as much other commercial photography work as well as graphic design work. I love being able to work in several creative mediums because everything I do is constantly influencing my other work and making it better. My background in design constantly is helping the way I see the world around me and the way I capture photographs and vice versa. I used to think having too many creative interests was a bit of a burden but now, I really believe it’s what helps set me apart from others. Whether I’m photographing a wedding or creative directing a commercial shoot or helping design a brand, I think they all play off of each other in the way that I see the world around me and create from that. In the way that you’ll walk away from watching a movie, feeling so moved by the beauty of the story, that is constantly my goal with everything I create. To tell a story, to make you feel something, to make you stare a little longer and to walk away with a new perspective of beauty and the world around you. In my wedding work specifically, I try to stay away from the industry trends and am always striving to use light and color in a unique way to tell intriguing stories that captures connection, human emotions, the honesty of moments and the magic of all of the in between to give people timeless, tangible memories in the form of photographs.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I’ve got so much love for the city of Atlanta. Although I didn’t grow up here, I’ve lived here for about 7 years now and fall more in love with Atlanta daily. Atlanta truly feels like such a small city within a bigger city. I love that there are so many people in this city, but you can pretty much always run into people you know when you’re out and about. It feels so homey. The community here is amazing and is what will personally make it nearly impossible for me to ever leave. Everyone is so supportive of each other and does such an amazing job of supporting and cheering on local artists and businesses. Atlanta is constantly evolving and growing and it’s so amazing to get to witness it first hand. The love, pride and devotion people have for this city are so beautiful. Atlanta is growing on the daily & I love how much personality and energy this city has.
The thing I like least about our city is probably what every other Atlantan likes least about the city – the lack of solid public transportation and the traffic. I love Marta and my husband takes it to school every day, but I’m dreaming of the day you will be able to get to more places and have to take a car less. A girl can dream. But this city is magic and is still worth all of the long car rides stuck in traffic.
Contact Info:
- Website: yellowbirdvisuals.com
- Email: hello@yellowbirdvisuals.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/yellowbirdvisuals
- Facebook: facebook.com/yellowbirdvisuals
Image Credit:
Jillian Bowes, Yellow Bird Visuals
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
