Today we’d like to introduce you to Sherina Ellis.
Hi Sherina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always been drawn to photography, even as a little girl. Growing up in Alaska, beauty wasn’t something you searched for, it surrounded you. The scenery, the light, the people, the culture. My mother ran a clothing store, and watching her build something that served our community stayed with me. Traveling across Alaska for work only deepened that pull to document what I was witnessing, the landscapes, the faces, the stories unfolding in small towns most people never see.
Alaska shaped the way I see color. Not just the color of nature, but the color of people, their warmth, their depth, their complexity. I learned early that the stories worth telling are often the ones being quietly lived, not loudly announced.
For over a decade, I worked for Alaska Airlines and that career handed me a front-row seat to some of the most beautiful human moments I have ever witnessed. Some of it happened at 30,000 feet, somewhere over the tundra, where a stranger would open up in a way people rarely do on the ground. But some of the richest stories came right at the check-in counter, before anyone ever boarded a plane.
I would meet people who had spent years, sometimes their entire life savings, dreaming about Alaska. They finally made it. You could see it on their faces. Hunters would come through with such pure, uncontainable excitement, heading into the wilderness for the experience of a lifetime. And when the trip was over, I would help them package their moose antlers to fly home, enormous, precious to them beyond measure. That image alone tells you everything about what Alaska does to people.
Then there were the fishermen. Men and women who had been out on the water for months, sometimes on a boat with only their crew for company. When they finally touched land and walked up to me at that counter, there was this particular kind of joy in them, the glow of someone who had been in their element and was now ready to connect with the rest of the world again. They wanted to talk. They had stories saved up, stories only the sea had heard. I listened to every one.
And woven through all of it was Alaska Native culture, rich, layered, and alive in a way that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Growing up surrounded by that culture taught me something that has never left me: storytelling is not entertainment. It is how a people survive. The stories of the northern lights, the mountains, the elders, you pass them down because they matter. Because they carry truth. Because they connect people across generations and across distance.
I didn’t know it then, but every one of those encounters was training me. Teaching me to look for the light in a person before I ever reached for a camera. Teaching me that ordinary moments, a moose alters carefully, a fisherman laughing at the gate, are anything but ordinary when you know how to see them.
Over the past couple of years, I have fallen deeply in love with weddings and proposals. I have always loved a good love story, and to be chosen as the person trusted to tell someone’s love story is everything to my soul. Proposals move me every single time. Knowing how much thought, planning, and love someone has poured into creating that one perfect moment for their person, and then being the one standing there to capture it, I never take that for granted. I always feel incredibly lucky.
And weddings, my heart just screams with happiness. To witness love come together, to see two people surrounded by everyone who has ever rooted for them, to watch strangers to me become people I am genuinely overjoyed for, there is nothing like it. Every single wedding reminds me why I do this work.
Sherina The Storyteller is built on those same principles. Whether through photography or film, I want to capture the stories that deserve to be seen, the love stories, the brand stories, the everyday moments people are too busy living to stop and preserve. A business owner who built something from nothing has a story that can make people fall in love with their brand. A couple sharing a quiet moment carries a love that deserves to last beyond memory. That is what I want to share with the world.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth ride, not even a little bit. I want to be honest about that because I think too many people present the highlight reel and leave out the part where they were terrified, broke, and questioning everything.
I left Alaska and came to Texas, and one of the hardest things I have ever had to do was learn how to navigate people and the business world in a place that was completely foreign to me. The culture is different. The way people operate is different. And I had to figure that out mostly the hard way, through experience, through mistakes, and through moments that genuinely shook me.
I learned early that not everyone is going to come to the table with good intentions. I have had people sit across from me, hear my ideas, and walk away to use those ideas for themselves or hand them off to someone else. I have had people try to cut my prices and treat my craft like it was something they could bargain down. I have had collaborations that cost me time, energy, and hope without producing a single dollar in return. Those lessons stung. But they also sharpened me.
One of the hardest balancing acts has been learning to keep my emotions separate from the business side of things, while also knowing that this is deeply personal. This is not a product I am selling. This is something I am building with my own hands, from the things I love most. So when someone disrespects it, it hits differently. I have had to learn to hold both of those truths at the same time.
There have been so many rooms I have walked into scared. Networking events, markets, spaces full of people who all seemed to already know each other and how everything worked. I had to learn that showing up anyway is the job. I also had to learn that a big name does not automatically bring you clients or income. Credibility is built slowly, and there are no shortcuts that actually hold.
But the biggest leap, and the one that still sits with me, is that I left a guaranteed paycheck because I was called to storytelling. That is not a decision you make lightly, and it is not one that gets easier just because you made it. The ups and downs of entrepreneurship are real. There are days when going back to a company with a steady check sounds like relief. But I did not come this far to go back. I know what I am building. I know why it matters. And I do not have time to waste, which means I have had to become very intentional about who and what gets my time and energy.
It has broken me in some ways. Navigating this world, learning that some people will do anything for their own gain, that is not something you walk away from unchanged. But at the same time, being broken in those places taught me things I never could have learned any other way. It made me build my business differently, more carefully, more intentionally. It taught me to never just jump into anything, to slow down, to pay attention, and to protect what I am building with the same love I put into it.
As you know, we’re big fans of Sherina The Storyteller. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Sherina The Storyteller is a Dallas-Fort Worth based photographer and storyteller built on one belief: that every person, every couple, and every business has a story worth preserving.
I am here to tell people’s stories. Whether you are getting married, building a brand, or you simply want to share your story with the world, I want to be your storyteller. I am passionate about going deeper into documentary work and storytelling interviews, showcasing the kind of stories that move people, heal people, and remind us all of what connects us. I want to tell those stories through my lens and share them with the world.
I specialize in brand storytelling, wedding and proposal photography, and portrait and lifestyle sessions. I also create cinematic love story films and documentaries. What ties all of it together is not the camera. It is the way I see people.
I am known for creating images and films that feel lived in. Not stiff, not posed, not generic. When someone works with me they walk away with something that actually looks and feels like them. That is intentional. Before I ever pick up my camera I am already paying attention, learning who you are, what your story is, and what you need people to feel when they see your images.
For couples, I am the photographer who genuinely loves love. Being chosen to document a proposal or a wedding is something I never take lightly. I show up to those moments fully present because I understand what is at stake. These are the images you will pass down.
For businesses and brands, I help people fall in love with your story before they ever fall in love with your product. So many business owners have powerful origin stories and beautiful missions that never get told visually. That is the gap I fill.
What sets me apart is the combination of where I come from and how I work. Growing up in Alaska, surrounded by a culture where storytelling is survival, and then spending over a decade in the airline industry listening to thousands of people share their most meaningful moments, I developed an eye and an instinct for human stories that I do not think you can learn in a classroom. I bring all of that into every shoot and every film.
What I am most proud of is that this business is built entirely in my truth. I left a six figure career because I was called to this work. Every offering, every image, every film reflects that. This is not a side project. This is my life’s work.
What I want readers to know is that whether you are a bride, a business owner, a family, or a brand, if you have a story, I want to tell it. And I will tell it beautifully.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success for me is not defined by numbers or accolades. It is defined by the body of work I leave behind and whether it is real.
We live in a world where so much of what we see, especially on social media, is curated, filtered, and performed. I want my work to stand apart from that. When someone looks at an image or a film I created, I want them to feel the truth of it. I want people to say that my work helped them see something clearly, understand a story they had never considered, or connect with a part of life they had forgotten. That is what success looks like to me.
I also want my photography to feel like a warm hug. Not something people post once and scroll past, but something they return to. A place they can go back to and remember exactly how that moment felt and know it was worth preserving. I want people to print their images, hang them in their homes, and feel the love of that moment every single day they walk past it. Not just for social media, but for themselves, for their families, for the days they need a reminder of what matters most.
That is the kind of work I am here to make.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sherinathestoryteller.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sherinathestoryteller
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sherinastoryteller
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sherinathestoryteller
