Alexis Smith
The Moments We’ll Miss Most
October Spotlight Artist | Lex-Leigh Photography Norfolk, Nebraska
Our monthly Spotlight Artist selection brings the community into the process. The wider She Shoots community votes to choose the top three artists, and Society members then cast the final votes to select the month’s winner. Through that process, Alexis was chosen as October’s Spotlight Artist—a chance for our readers to get to know the woman behind the work, the experiences shaping her photographs, and the life she is building alongside her business.
For Alexis Smith, becoming a mother changed what she wanted a photograph to hold. The ordinary moments began to carry a different weight: a child growing into his own personality, the familiar closeness of family, the small pieces of a day that pass before anyone thinks to save them.
“It made me want to preserve those ordinary moments because someday those ordinary moments will be the ones we miss the most,” she says.
That belief sits at the heart of Lex-Leigh Photography, the Norfolk, Nebraska business Alexis has grown from a hobby into a deeply personal creative pursuit. It is also the heart of the story we’re celebrating as we welcome her as She Shoots Magazine’s October Spotlight Artist.
The Life Behind the Lens
Alexis is married to her high school sweetheart, Damian, and describes herself as a proud boy mom and corgi mom. Family and faith are central to how she understands herself, and both influence the reasons she creates.
Outside photography, her days include time with family, coffee or a Bubblr, chasing her little boy, being outdoors, and finding another opportunity to do something creative. Her identical twin sister also appears as a model in some of her photoshoots—a personal connection woven into the work itself.
Motherhood has sharpened her awareness of how quickly a familiar stage becomes a memory. Watching her son grow has made preserving everyday life feel increasingly meaningful. That awareness informs what she hopes to give the families who step in front of her camera.
“That's what I want to give my clients, photographs they can look back on years from now and immediately feel that season of their life all over again.”
For Alexis, the value of a photograph is closely tied to that feeling of recognition. She wants someone to return to an image and remember the relationships and rhythms that belonged to that time.
Making Room for the In-Between
When choosing images for her Spotlight Artist feature, Alexis selected work that reflects this approach to memory. She describes photographs rooted in warmth, natural connection, nostalgia, and love, with attention to the moments that happen between more deliberate poses.
“I love all of the little in-between moments, the laughs, the hugs, the movement, the way people naturally interact with each other.”
Those interactions matter because they reveal something familiar about the people being photographed. A laugh or an embrace can carry the feeling of a relationship into the frame. Alexis is interested in preserving that feeling without asking every moment to become perfectly arranged.
“I'm not looking for everything to be perfectly posed,” she says. “I want people to be able to look at their photographs years later and remember exactly what that season of life felt like.”
Developing a recognizable style has become another source of pride. She wants her work to feel like her own, while leaving herself room to learn. For Alexis, growth and creative identity can exist together; being a photographer with a clear point of view doesn’t require having every answer.
A Beginning Close to Home
Alexis didn’t pick up a camera with a complete business plan or a clear picture of where photography would take her. She started by photographing the farm around her, drawn to making pictures and curious about how to make them better.
“I started with a camera simply because I loved taking pictures around our farm and wanted to get better at it,” she explains. “I had no idea that the little hobby I started would turn into a real business and something I would pour so much of my heart into.”
Turning that interest into a business meant learning far more than how to operate a camera. Editing, posing, and the practical responsibilities of running a business all became part of her education. Alongside those skills came a quieter challenge: learning to trust herself enough to keep going.
She began small. As people started trusting her with their memories, that trust gave her something to build on. Today, looking back at those beginnings allows her to recognize progress that can be difficult to see in the middle of the work.
The early hope that someone might give her a chance has become a growing sense of belonging in the business she has created.
“Now I have people coming back to me, sending their friends and family to me, and trusting me with some of the most important seasons of their lives,” she says. “That to me means so much.”
Learning to Trust Her Own Timing
Building confidence has also meant examining the comparisons that can make creative work feel smaller than it is. Alexis knows how easy it is to measure a business against someone else’s bookings, social media engagement, or editing style. She has experienced the doubt that follows.
One of her most significant lessons has been deciding what success means within her own life.
“That I don't have to be everyone else's version of successful,” she says.
Her faith helps her return to that perspective. Rather than seeing another photographer’s progress as a measure of what she lacks, she is learning to pay attention to her own direction and the opportunities in front of her.
“I've learned to trust my own eye, my own style, and my own timing. The more I stopped trying to be like everyone else, the more I started feeling like myself.”
Photography has given her a creative part of herself to nurture alongside being a wife and mother. It has also changed what she believes she can build. Through the uncertainty and responsibility of running a business, she has become more confident, creative, and willing to take chances.
When that responsibility feels heavy, she returns to her reasons for starting: her husband, her son, the life she hopes to build for their family, and the people who have trusted her with their memories. Sometimes the next step is simply taking a break, getting coffee, or spending a little time outside.
“God has reminded me over and over that I don't have to carry everything by myself.”
A Community That Shows Up
Support has taken several forms throughout Alexis’s journey. Damian has watched the business grow from its earliest stages. Her family helps and reminds her that they are proud of her. Her sister, Alisha, shares her social media work, models, and encourages her when self-doubt returns.
Within photography, one friendship has become especially meaningful: her connection with Marissa Mann of Sunflower & Sage Photography.
What began through their shared industry has grown into a close friendship, supported by wedding adventures, editing conversations, and the common experience of being boy moms while running creative businesses. They exchange ideas, help each other, and make room for both celebration and the harder parts of the work.
“We can share ideas, encourage each other, celebrate each other's wins, and be there when business feels hard.”
That relationship shapes what creative community means to Alexis. In an industry where comparison can feel constant, she has found someone who understands the demands of the work and wants to see her succeed. She also credits her clients for the role they play in her growth and in the photographs they create together.
Room to Keep Growing
Alexis’s hopes for Lex-Leigh Photography are grounded in the same values that brought her here. She wants to continue growing, improve the experience she offers clients, and make meaningful work while protecting the heart behind the business.
“I'm dreaming about continuing to grow Lex-Leigh Photography without losing the heart behind it.”
One dream is a creative space of her own: somewhere warm and cozy where she can photograph, create, meet people, and make memories. She hopes to have the land to bring that vision to life someday. For now, she is continuing to learn and allowing the next steps to unfold without needing the entire future mapped out.
As October’s Spotlight Artist, Alexis wants readers to leave with a sense of who she is beyond her photographs. The wife, mother, sister, friend, and woman of faith are all part of the artist. Her business has grown through those relationships, and her work returns to the people and moments that make them meaningful.
“If someone walks away from my feature feeling like they got to know the real person behind the camera, that would mean so much to me.”
In the photographs she hopes families will return to years from now, Alexis is preserving the kind of life she knows from the inside: people loving each other, children growing, and ordinary moments becoming the things they will want to remember.
Follow Alexis: @lex_leigh_photography
Creative community acknowledgment: Marissa Mann with Sunflower & Sage Photography, whom Alexis credits as a significant part of her photography journey and a close friend.