Rich Elis was born in Greenville SC. His love for photography started at a young age in his dads make shift dark room. He was given a old polaroid camera for his birthday and photography became his passion.  At the age of 17 he moved to Atlanta, GA where he attended the Art institute of Atlanta. He graduated with a degree in photography. From there he went on to do freelance photography work in Atlanta. Rich worked at several different custom printing houses and loved doing fine art printing. In 1996 he went to work at a large studio. There he learned to shoot large format digital imaging.  While shooting his own art projects at night. Now he shoots freelance automotive and action sports photography.