
Sculpture, lit like sculpture
- KeyBare speedlight, 30° grid, camera left
- BackgroundTwo speedlights, cyan gels, on the seamless
- Exposuref/11 · 1/200 · ISO 100
Editor's letter
A studio in Maple Grove, twenty-five minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Black seamless, a wall of gels, and speedlights shaped by grids, snoots and softboxes.
Commissions from the Twin Cities, the Upper Midwest, and brands who ship their product in.
Selected spreads, 2025–26
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Disciplines
Garments built to be seen. Hard light for structure, gels for attitude, and a set run tight enough to shoot forty looks in a day.
Macro work under a beauty dish. Retouching keeps skin texture, so the product reads as true on a phone and on a billboard.
For founders, artists and anyone who wants to look like the best version of who they already are. One light, sometimes two.
Masthead
Elliot Strand trained as a painter before he picked up a camera, and still thinks in color first. He assisted fashion photographers in Chicago for five years before opening his Maple Grove studio in 2019.
He works almost entirely with speedlights: small, fast, and precise enough to put a single stripe of color exactly where it belongs.

Send the idea, the date and the deliverables. A written quote follows within two working days.
A 30-minute call to agree references, wardrobe, and a lighting diagram for each setup.
Tethered capture, so the team sees every frame land. Gels and setups changed in minutes.
Proofs in 72 hours, retouched files in ten days, with usage terms in plain language.
Quote desk
Every project is quoted to its scope. A rough idea is enough to start.
Inquiry received
Elliot reads every message himself and replies within two working days.