PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — As the economy continues to rebound, we caught up with a Port St. Lucie business owner, who decided to take a leap of faith.
3 year-old Anthony doesn’t know it now, but it was his birth that led mom Bridget Emelianchik to change course.
A long time middle school teacher, Bridget couldn’t take enough pictures of Anthony.
“I wasn’t liking the quality of them. This could be sharper, this could be brighter, I could do more,” said Emelianchik.
She reached out to her wedding photographer, who mentored her and after a while, Emelianchik saw she was improving and decided to make photography a career.
A few weeks ago, she held an open house at her new studio space to announce the creation of Silly Moose Photography.
“I was just at the point where I wasn’t making enough money to have a space, but I couldn’t make more money because I didn’t have a space,” said Emelianchik.
While she prefers shooting outside, she’s set up a number of backdrops indoors for her day care and young school clients.
Bridget realized she didn’t have to go very far to get some of the things she needed, she just asked the neighboring businesses.
A decal of a boy dressed as Spider-man, was made two doors down by the Sign Guy.
A photo on a mug was done by another neighbor.
“Bridget came to me to have some custom tumblers made for her for the holidays,” said Debi Raychok of MSR Creations.
It’s this ‘locals helping locals’ concept that have given Bridget the confidence to invest and succeed.
“I just have that faith that they will make sure we’ll all get through this.”