I’m Lea Austen, I specialize in family portraits, senior sessions and intimate wedding ceremonies. I’ve been photographing professionally for two decades now, from Charleston, Kiawah and Seabook islands, to Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and overseas. My approach is calm and down to earth. I like to use humor to put my clients at ease and make each session a fun and natural experience. Think of me as of a friend with a camera, no fake smiles or awkward posing. Just you and your loved ones spending time together, sharing stories, laughing and being fully present in the moment.
I am an artist at heart. A real creative. I have lived and loved and worked in the arts most of my life. There was a short time where I taught elementary school which was loads of fun and certainly helped me as a photographer! My passion is to see my photography on your walls. Working together to create and plan a photography experience to capture a moment in time with you and your family. Your family is your most precious, most profound work of art. That is what I want to see in your home. Cute baby smiles and little toes and fingers, the silly faces those kiddos make and the challenge of making those awkward teen years something special. And for those special senior sessions and milestone birthdays, creating treasured art they can carry with them into adulthood.
My dad was our photographer. He took pictures all the time and we loved getting the package and sitting down to look at the photos he took. Then my mother would put them into photo albums. We had well over 100 books before I left for college on a special bookcase in our den. My brother, sisters and I would love to pull them off the shelves and look at them together and even alone. They brought so much joy.
My mother would also frame them and I didn't realize until much later in my life what those framed prints meant to me and the love I felt.
In this age of digital prints where you enjoy them on the computer (if you remember to look at them) or a few prints or a USB in your desk drawer, that feeling is lost to this new generation. I am on a mission to get that back!
I can't wait to meet you, to plan with you and to create beautiful art together.