I’m Ellen.

Toronto. Originally from the Netherlands. I photograph the things people mean when they say "you had to be there."

A couple dressed in formal wedding attire standing on a white balcony of a white building with black shutters, under a clear blue sky.
A group of women, including an elderly woman, and a baby are gathered near a large window, engaging in conversation and sharing a joyful moment, with sunlight streaming in.

Weddings. Elopements. Portraits. Events. The same eye across all of it: honest first, beautiful second. Usually both at once.

I don't have a formula. I have instinct, and I point it at you specifically.

Some of it is planned. We'll talk before your day, on a call or in person, so I know who you are beyond a Pinterest board: what you're nervous about, what makes you two laugh, how you actually move through a room together. That groundwork matters.

But the day itself is instinct. I'm reading constantly: who needs a little direction to feel at ease, who's already unguarded and just needs me to stay out of the way. That shifts by the minute, different for every couple I shoot.

Composed and honest were never opposites for me. Instinct is just how I know, moment to moment, which one a couple needs.

A pregnant woman and a man are stretching together in a doorway, smiling and holding hands above their heads.
A woman sitting on a chair by a window, trying on high-heeled shoes, with a pair of slippers on the floor in front of her.

Twenty years from now, you're on the couch.

You open the album. And you're back in the room. Not just remembering it.

That's the only goal. Not the prettiest image. The truest one. The laugh that caught you off guard. The uncle who said exactly the wrong thing at exactly the right moment. The quiet seconds nobody planned for. These are the ones that hold.

Inspired by

The light through old windows. Cities that still have grit. Faces mid-laugh. Hands that tell you something. The moment right after the moment. Garment districts and side streets. A full room forgetting there's a camera. Two people who've stopped performing.

A woman with shoulder-length hair, smiling, sitting barefoot on a stool in a room with a green wall and wooden floor, wearing a black turtleneck, black pants, and a sheer patterned cardigan.

genuinely.

Your way is the right way.

If this sounds like the kind of photographer you're looking for, let's talk.

get in touch