We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jake Schneider a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jake, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I learned by the works of other photographers, and even artist. Looking at prints of famous photographers like Mary Ellen Mark, Larry Burrows, and Jill Freedman really helped me learn more about composition and framing than taking courses online or reading textbooks. I also found that attending workshops really helped progress my photography skills!
In the beginning, I did not have a lot of people to share my photos with. I was lacking critiques which I found really helped me progress and find a style that I’m enjoying!
I found that having a very outgoing and great customer service skills are what are essential. I found that taking the photos is important, but having a great time and talking to people really makes the whole experience great for both the client and photographer!
Jake, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Absolutely! I’m a professional photographer in western Ohio. I’ve been taking photos since 2017, but professionally since 2019. I’m mostly a 35mm film photographer, using a Leica M3 as my primary camera. I got into film photography specifically due to reading old LIFE magazine and wanted to replicate that style into my work. I also felt that film really captured this raw feeling, and keeping with the analog style, really attached me to each photo I take. This eventually led to looking at other photographers works, which then led to a expensive hobby of collecting my favorite photographers books and going to see their collections at galleries.
In 2024, I had my first big contract with the Darke County Parks District as their event photographer. I also sometimes do side jobs like portrait work, photojournalism, and corporate photography.
I think what sets apart my photography compared to others in my local area is the style, I try my best to use equipment used by my inspirations and I think that makes you think a different way to capture an image. Most of the people back in the day used prime lenses, which made it tricky to capture specific moments as you either have to move closer or farther away instead of zooming. I feel moving closer brings you into the moment and captures more of that raw feeling of being present. I believe that is why these LIFE magazine photos are so iconic today.
I’m most proud of the support I’ve received, both from my parents, but also my partner and friends, it has been incredible, things are looking up, and I’m excited to see where it’s going to take me in the next year or two!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
I’m not a photographer that goes out of my way to showcase packages or that I’m for hire. 100 percent of my clients have been through word of mouth. I want my clients to find out about my work through looking at it themselves instead of getting bombarded with photo packages and other stuff.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Yeah! The goal is to have a gallery space to showcasing my collection of photos that I’ve been working on of Greenville. This has been a personal assignment for the last year and I hope to have it completed either next year or 2026! It’s a personal assignment to document Greenville and it’s people! It’s been a wild ride so far, looking forward to see what it has to offer in the next year or two!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/view/jake-schneider-/portfolio?authuser=0
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakesphoto_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563766810776
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobschneiderphotographer/
