Elles Photography Studios

On Jefferson Street in Athens, Alabama, Elles Photography Studios has been photographing newborns, families, and seniors since 2011, when owner and principal photographer Danielle Collins opened the studio’s doors. Over more than a decade, the business has grown into two studio locations, the original in Athens and a second in Panama City Beach, Florida, at 7014 Thomas Drive, while keeping its roots firmly planted in Limestone County.

The Athens studio handles a wide range of sessions: newborn portraits taken in the first days of a baby’s life, maternity sessions that document the final weeks of pregnancy, milestone sittings for babies hitting the six month and one year marks, and family portraits meant to capture a particular season rather than a generic backdrop. Seniors make up another significant part of the business, with graduating students booking sessions that range from traditional cap and gown portraits to more relaxed, personality driven shoots around Athens and the surrounding countryside.

Weddings and engagements round out the studio’s calendar, along with headshots for professionals who need a polished image for a website or business card. Both the Athens and Panama City Beach locations offer on-location sessions as well as work inside the studio, giving families the option of a beach backdrop on the Gulf Coast or a familiar field or barn setting closer to home in North Alabama. Collins describes her work as centered on newborn and baby photography alongside wedding, maternity, and family sessions, and the studio’s approach leans toward relaxed, unposed moments over stiff, formal portraits meant to capture genuine emotion rather than a stiff, staged look.

Clients booking a session at Elles Photography Studios go through a password-protected online proofing gallery, so families can review, order prints, and download digital images without a return trip to the studio. The studio also sells eGift cards, a straightforward option for anyone buying a session as a gift for a new parent or a graduating senior, and it maintains a partnership with Peekaboo 4D Boutique, a maternity ultrasound imaging business, extending the studio’s reach into pregnancy related portraiture alongside its newborn and family work.

That kind of infrastructure, an online gallery, gift card sales, and a cross business partnership, is usually associated with larger metro studios, and it is part of what has let the Athens location keep pace even as digital photography and phone cameras have changed how many families think about hiring a professional for portraits. The studio also runs seasonal mini sessions, shorter and lower cost sittings built around a holiday or a particular time of year, like fall foliage or spring blooms. These sessions tend to book quickly among Athens families looking for an affordable way to update a family photo without committing to a full length session.

The connection to the Panama City Beach studio gives North Alabama clients an option to combine a portrait session with a coastal trip, booking a beach session through the same photography business they already know from home. What keeps a studio like this running for more than fifteen years in a city the size of Athens usually comes down to consistency and word of mouth, and Elles Photography Studios has leaned on both.

Collins has stayed personally involved in shooting sessions rather than handing the camera entirely to associates, and the studio’s repeat family bookings, generational photographs of the same children year after year, point to a business that has become a fixture for local families marking birthdays, graduations, and new babies. For anyone in Athens searching for a photographer who has stayed local rather than being folded into a larger studio chain, Elles Photography Studios represents one of the longer running independent options in Limestone County, still run day to day by the photographer whose work built its reputation in the first place.