AE History

The history of Amra Elle Photography

There once was a girl named Kim Gamez who used to be Kim Haise, who used to take pictures 'on the side' with the name of Photography by Kym. That girl knew she wanted to take pictures since she was a young girl of 8 years old when her mom gave her her very own camera. It was a hand-me-down with the long rolls of film that took pictures with the resolution of probably 2 on today's scale. But it took pictures. She upgraded (when her mom next did) to a disk camera. Still a pretty low resolution/quality but a camera still indeed....She grew up taking pictures of everything - from dressing up her dog to her cousins with the stuffed animals and dolls because they were there & they posed so well.

Well the girl grew up, took a ton of classes to improve her skills, trained on the job with numerous photography studios and photographers and here she is now. Working for other photographers was good for awhile, also working regular 'office hours' because photography was too much like 'play' so it seemed like she should have a regular day job. She finally realized that working at a desk doing the same thing every day wasn't very exciting, so she ventured out to open up her own studio.

Her dad said she could use his office (Liberty Tax Service on Van Dyke just south of 19 Mile Rd.) because most of the year it wasn't very busy. Tax season is during the slow season for photography so it works out perfect ~ especially since she knows how to do people's taxes too! So she works for him during tax season while still taking pictures too. It gets interesting when there's tax clients and a photography session, but that's why she offers on location sittings for a discount during tax season.

So there you have it in a nutshell ~ the history of a studio in the making. From other studios to Photography by Kym to Amra Elle Photography.

What would a history page be without the meaning of the name since so many people ask. It's pronounced aaahhhhmmmm rrrraaahhhh eeehhhllllll. The first part stands for her slogan ~ 'a moment relived anytime.' and is also the name of a lion from a movie that her husband informed her about (the lion was the first mascot of the studio and also stood for where she donates to in Florida - Big Cat Rescue. The "Elle" stands for the first part of her daughters name~El isa and the last part of her other daughters name ~Ariel le.

Thanks for taking the time to read! It's always nice to get to know your photographer just a little bit before you make the plunge to make an appointment!

The pictures above are when she was a kid and some pictures that she took back then. The one with more people are her family now ~ between her and her husband, they have 4 daughters and 3 grandsons. It's really hard to get a good picture of everyone & this has been the best yet! Hopefully they'll be able to do it again soon. And the one the right (or below, depends how wide your browser is) was one taken recently ~ a 4 generation picture with Kim's grandma, mom & the kids. Pictures like these can be looked at for many generations and it's much more personable than reading in a book about people's birthdays and other important dates. Dates are important too, but putting a picture to the name is priceless...