Meet Life Portraits Founder, Lead Photographer and Hype Woman, Emily MacDonald
Hi, I'm Em.
What does it really take to build a photography business over 15 years? Determination, discipline and a dream were just the start. This is the raw, unedited journey behind my career, the setbacks, and scaling a resilient brand — so grab a coffee and swipe (or scroll) through to hear the real story.
The Beginning: It Started
in the Country
I grew up in Clermont, QLD. My family owned a property near Rocky, and I spent most of my childhood exploring and playing with my nieces and nephew — sliding down dirt piles, swimming in the dam, making friends with the cows, and "helping" Dad build rock walls with the supervision of my cat, Sheila. Can't take the country out of the girl!
I finished Year 12 in Clermont as School Captain, rocking the nickname 'Red.' Then I moved to Townsville for uni, studying New Media Arts and double majoring in Digital Media Design, Imaging & Marketing at JCU — living the full college life along the way. My entire focus was excelling at uni and building my first business, EMbrace Creations.
Stepping on Stage: The Photoshoot I Never Had
While side-hustling EMbrace Creations and working as a corporate image and design specialist, I found the gym — and my love for health and fitness exploded. Inspired by my work friend Jenna, we decided to compete together. From there, I fell headfirst into the world of bodybuilding. I loved the discipline and the challenge.
At the time, I was so caught up in the intensity of competing that I missed celebrating my own milestone with a photoshoot. That regret sparked a realisation: your journey needs to be captured. Photographing my incredible friends in the health industry showed me my true niche. It was never really about the photos — it was about giving others the celebration I missed.
And So, Life Portraits Was Born
In 2015, Andy and I met, combining our skills and becoming business partners to launch Life Portraits. We started our journey capturing the stories of families, weddings and commercial photography, building our foundation as the LP team. We also travelled Queensland delivering photography workshops for rural communities.
We later rebranded into two brands — Life Portraits for consumer photography, and LP Commercial Photography for corporate work. In 2018, our hard work was recognised with a top 5 win at the Telstra Business Awards. After nearly ten years, this year we went our separate ways with the two brands, but we still work together regularly. The Andy & Em duo will always be alive, haha — Andy is like family to me.
The Year That Tested Everything
In March 2023, my life was turned upside down by a serious car accident. I was very lucky to come out of it alive, with just a couple of broken bones and two surgeries — the start of a 12-month journey back to using my wrist fully again. I stayed committed, motivated and positive about returning to my previous strength.
As a photographer, it was devastating. This is where the true strength and support of our LP team, my husband, and my family and friends shone through. While I focused on recovery, everyone held the fort for me — they were my left hand on shoots, and the rock that allowed the business, and most importantly my life, to keep going while I healed. That experience cemented our purpose: we are here to inspire and empower you through your own journey — the highs, the lows, and the strength you find along the way.
Finding Our Niche
As the Life Portraits message spread and our social media presence grew, I made it my mission to help people document once-in-a-lifetime achievements and empower them with confidence. That meant documenting the story of businesses, as well as weight loss transformations, team celebrations, birthdays, health milestones and self-love.
My passion shifted, and I moved from shooting families and weddings to specialising in branding, fitness and boudoir photography. Andy and I continued to run both brands, but as the Life Portraits brand kept growing, we expanded the team.
Your Personal Hype-Woman
My goal on a photoshoot is simple: to be your personal hype-woman. My bubbly, energetic personality is all about making you feel comfortable and confident. My mission is to create empowering photography for your life and brand — photography and mentoring is a fulfilling platform that allows me to live true to my passion, my legacy.
These days I set goals doing fitness photoshoots for my own health and wellbeing, as a form of accountability to my own goals — and I use that as behind-the-scenes content to educate and inspire our clients. Wellbeing is one of my values, not just a service I offer.
Looking to the Future
As I continue to grow, my passion for education is leading me to the next chapter: developing training, workshops and mentoring for aspiring photographers and business owners. I'm narrowing my focus to photographing just fitness teams, portraiture, boudoir and branding, so I can make time for this next chapter — educating our future creatives.
Thank you for being a part of this journey!
Merry Christmas from Life Portraits: Reflecting on 3 great years of business and many laughs!
With the Christmas and New Year period just around the corner, Andy and I wanted to say a huge thank you to our clients, friends and families for your support in making 2018 a successful year for us. We hope you enjoy the festive season with your loved ones and we’re looking forward to what’s to come in 2019.
Every year we like to reflect on the past 12-months and celebrate our successes. 2018 saw us:
Being named in the top 5 and a finalist in the Queensland Telstra Business Awards - Emerging & Energised category
Being commissioned to travel to Japan for a week to photograph new Suntory whisky and gin products to be launched in the Australian market
Successfully capturing the Australian Commercial Radio Awards and Radio Alive Conference for 2018 and booked again for 2019
Growing the LP Fitness Brand to a new level with double the amount of bookings than the previous year
Bringing on a host of high profile new clients including one of the biggest brands in the global hotel industry, Accor Hotels, and a major South Pacific civil Engineering and construction company Fulton Hogan.
We treasure our time with every one of our clients from our individual private photoshoots to our campaigns for large multi-national brands and thank every one of you for being a part of our journey in 2018. It's been a busy and enjoyable year with a lot of hard work and a lot of laughs along the way. We look forward to working with you all again in 2019
Thank you for being an integral part of Life Portraits’ success. See some of our behind the scenes fun below.
Andy & Em
Brisbane Portrait & Commercial Photographers: Life Portraits
Life Portraits is a top 5 QLD finalist at the 2018 Telstra Business Awards!
It is with great honour that we announce that Life Portraits was named one of QLD's top 5 finalists in the Emerging & Energised category at the Telstra Business Award for 2018. Even though we didn't take out the big win, it was an unforgettable night for us and this recognition is an indicator that our hard work, passion and vision is paying off. This in-depth and thorough process of the Telstra Awards application has been an amazing learning experience for us and helped us refine our processes.
See our full gallery of the awards here.
We want to take this moment to thank YOU, our clients, for your support during this journey, without you, there would be no Life Portraits.
We were so overwhelmed by your support on your testimonials that we wanted to share with you part of our submission for the awards. We were asked to provide a video showing how we are unique to our customer, so we asked..... and this is what you all said!
Our Story
Our business success rests on a solid tripod consisting of 3 brands;
Our consumer brand Life Portraits
Our commercial brand LP Commercial Photography
Our educational & mentoring brand LP Training.
Each leg stands alone in it’s own right, but together they support our future growth.
We pride ourselves on providing high quality, creative imagery; in teaching the best photography practices and mentoring those new to the industry; and above all, delivering fun, personalised and memorable client experiences.
Being a finalist in these awards is momentous to us and is recognition of our hard work, dedication and passion for the photography industry.
Andy & Em
Brisbane Portrait & Wedding Photography
www.lifeportraits.photography
Brisbane Commercial Photography
www.lpcommercial.photography