Hi! I’m Ilyssa Maisano and I’d love to tell you a little bit about me and my passion for photography!

First and foremost I am a mom of four amazing kids! Our family began through the gift of adoption and ended with the gift of giving birth, I have done it all! I love children and love to photograph them. They grow so quickly and I love to freeze moments in time of different stages in life so that I can always hold on to them and I love to do that for my clients as well. Photography is always evolving and so does my business. My focus is newborn and family photography. I offer many different types of session so be sure to check them all out and decide what is right for you! I have a very organic style and like to focus on emotion and moments over anything else. Picking a photographer is a very personal decision so be sure to look through my portfolio to make sure we are a match!

A little about me!

Prior to becoming a photographer I was a special education teacher for grades K-5. I took care of an autistic boy while in high school and he inspired me to get my masters in special education and make a difference in children’s lives. I loved my students and felt extremely proud to teach them how to read, stay organized, and love to learn. My classroom was always a safe space that the kids enjoyed coming to.

I also founded a non-profit organization called The Growing Hearts of Africa Foundation. We have thus far built 14 elementary schools throughout Ethiopia and most recently, Uganda. All of our students in Africa attend school for free. The parents are incredibly thankful and pitch in to help when they can. It is a community wide effort to keep it running and the students learning. We also fund life-saving surgeries throughout Africa and have provided hundreds with free surgery they otherwise would not have been able to have. My children have also become passionate about helping the children in Africa and one of the schools is named after my third child, Nahla, after her efforts of raising enough money for a well for the school. She couldn’t understand how children did not have any clean water within miles of their home and immediately got to work, we were very proud of her!

We LOVE to travel! We have been making it a mission to take the kids to a different country each year, we want them to be worldly and experience all different types of cultures. In our family alone we have several different races and ethnicities so it is important for children to learn acceptance and we have instilled that in our children as well.

Photo cred: Trina Cary Photography