We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful James Wolf. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with James below.

James, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I would not say there was any specific ‘aha’ moment in my life when I knew I wanted to pursue photography professionally. I would say the moment I realized I wanted to pursue photography as a career would probably be when I recognized that a camera gave me the ability to capture people’s moments and freeze them into literal photographic memories with meaning and purpose. I have always had a passion for people and the story they hold. My friends often ask me how I make friends with anybody and everybody and I never know how to respond. However, I would credit it to my desire for people to feel valued, understood, and belonged. I truly believe that photography gives me the honor and privilege to do just that. To me, photography is much more than just an artistic form of documentation, but a chance to share impactful experiences and create lasting relationships. As a photographer, I am trusted to capture my clients in an imaginative and organic manner that genuinely reflects who they are and what they are experiencing or communicating in that moment, whether the setting is a wedding day, an engagement shoot, a styled portrait session, or a concert. I want my photography to tell a story, exude emotion, and evoke nostalgia. I believe our lives are too valuable and beautiful not to have photographed. Now, truthfully, I never expected photography to be a path I could professionally pursue. I was never really championed on in the beginning stages of my passion for photography. I was always told that it was a great “side hustle” or “hobby” but not a “real job” and that I would be better pursing a 9-5 with a 401k and then picking photography up as an afterthought. I began exploring photography in 2018 but I would say that it wasn’t until 2021 that I began to let myself have the confidence and freedom it took to explore photography as a career, despite what I had been told prior. And is it as unstable as they said it would be, perhaps for now, but it is far more rewarding than any 9-5 could ever be for me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Introducing myself always feels like I’m the new kid at a youth group summer camp. Hi! My name is James Wolf, I’m 24 years old, I moved to Nashville in the summer of 2021, and I am a wedding, portrait, and concert photographer. I have been in the photography and creative industry for about six years, but more seriously invested for the past three. Outside of photography, I am also a barista for a wonderful mobile espresso bar called ‘Coffee Cart Nashville’ and your occasional flirtatious cashier at Trader Joe’s. I have always had a bad habit of spending my life savings on cups of coffee, so becoming a barista was a win-win – free coffee and I get paid to make it? That’s hot. I love plants, my room is slowly becoming a jungle and the air quality in my house is amazing because of it. I love and value my friends and family and enjoy spending time with them any chance that I get. I am a huge extrovert and thrive off of meeting new people, which is why I have always found myself working in the service industry in some shape or form.

As a kid, I would use my mom’s cheap digital canon camera and take photos of flowers, birds, and literal blades of grass and think I was the most artistic guy out there. Yeah James, you were sooo unique submitting your grass photo in the 4-H contest. Can you tell I was homeschooled? In high school, one of my best friends, Sarah, introduced me to portrait photography, which sparked my interest in exploring photography as a career and not just a hobby. I eventually invested in a Canon T6i that I found on Facebook Marketplace and a cheap portrait lens and began taking photos of all my friends. The process consisted of a lot of trial and error. I watched a lot of YouTube, did a lot of research, and mainly took every opportunity I could to have photoshoot after photoshoot. I’m not going to lie, the process of becoming a photographer was at first a discouraging experience. I found, for me at least, that the photographer and creative community could be very gate-keeping and cliquey, which disappointed and intimated me and spiraled my desire to be involved in the photography industry. I nearly quit photography altogether multiple times, but each time came back more determined to make it my profession. Eventually, I stopped comparing myself to others, I stopped striving to be involved, and I began to create purely because I had a passion for it and the outcome of making people feel confident and understood.

My dream is to be a full-time Travel Wedding Photographer. I have always loved love and romance, and weddings bring me so much joy. It’s such a special day that I am entrusted with capturing and retelling through photographs. I love the sweet intimate moments I get to document, contrasted with the rowdy and energetic reception shots. However, currently outside of wedding photography, I enjoy portrait photography, which allows me to capture people either as authentically themselves or styled to convey a creative message. Couples photography fills me with joy because I get to organically capture the love of two people. It’s like watching a Hallmark movie unfold in front of my lens. Cue the sappy tears. And within the past year, I got introduced to the music industry as a concert photographer, which I surprisingly have found myself adapting to and enjoying more than I expected to. It’s such a different atmosphere to be photographing in than what I was used to. I love the fact that I get to capture an artist/band so that their fans and them may relive the show. Concerts tend to have such lively moments full of dramatic character and energy that, when photographed, just seems to jump off the image, helping it come to life.

As a photographer, I feel the obligation to help you solve any problems and resolve any concerns you may have about your session. This varies from the timeline and artistic vision for your wedding day to the creative direction of your portrait session. While I believe choices are an important aspect of life, unlike many photographers, I do not offer packages, since I believe offering too many choices can become overwhelming. Rather, I offer a base for you to build your own curated session from. This way you do not have to choose what wedding or session package somewhat fits your needs, but instead you end up with something that perfectly fits your needs. I believe flexibility is your friend when it comes to photography. I am here to serve my clients and offer them an experience that is professional, personable, and organic. I am here to partner with you to make your vision for your wedding day, portraits, or concert come to life. Your photographer should be somebody you can trust, depend on, and feel comfortable around. On your wedding day, they are with you from your most intimate and private moments, to the most unforgettable and influential. During portraits, we are focused in on you and the story you individually hold. This requires vulnerability and sometimes crawling out of your comfort zone.

I am probably most proud of my perseverance to pursue photography despite the many times I became intensely discouraged with the craft and my own work. I want any potential clients to know and remember that I love people genuinely. It excites me to be invited into another person’s life, whether its for a five minute conversation or a lasting friendship. I want clients to be able to trust me as a friend, and to understand that I view being hired as a blessing and privilege, because it means that I have become a trusted artist and valued creative, and that to me will forever blow my mind and fill my stomach with giddy butterflies of gratitude. Someone once said to me that “in life, what is meant for you will find you”, and I courageously believe in that. I trust that is why I have continued to grow in my profession of photography. I genuinely believe that if you love people freely, fiercely, and unconditionally, you will succeed in life. Overall, I appreciate that photography allows me to express love and gratitude for others and their story.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Hey, hi, hello! Absolutely. As cliche as it’s going to sound, I would say that my resilience was best exemplified during my first couple years of entering the photography and creative community. From my personal experience, I found the community to be uncomfortably cliquey, criminally skilled at gatekeeping information, and oversaturated with surface-level relationships. As someone who considers themselves a lover of people and getting to know other people’s life stories, this was disheartening to me. I found it surprising and frustrating that it was so difficult for me to find genuine organic relationships with other creatives that would champion me on in my photographic endeavors. However, I do not blame the community for the walls its built up. We are a resilient community who are too often undervalued and overworked. Protecting ourselves is what we have been nearly conditioned to do, myself included. Which is why I am now so passionate about creating a community for photographers and other creatives to feel belonged, championed, and safe to make mistakes and ask their peers questions. That is something I feel I did not have when I first entered the community, which is why I nearly quit photography several times over the course of six years. It was discouraging for me to be entering a community that would not answer questions or share advice when I asked for help. For example, I had no idea until around last year that many photographers – some of my favorites and biggest inspirations to this day in fact – buy editing presets and adjust them to their own style. As silly as it’s going to sound, I was under the impression that professional photographers only built their presets from scratch and that using bought presets was a form of cheating, which is why I have never bought a preset package in my six years of shooting. I now understand that to be completely untrue and have considered buying presets to simply see how other photographers go about creating the base of a preset so that I can adjust mine accordingly and perhaps one day sell the ones I’ve created over the past six years. With so much misinformation out in the photography community, sprinkled with the unwillingness to share knowledge, I feel the importance to be as transparent about my business and passion for photography as I possibly can be. I hate to say that I was set back in my photography endeavors because of my lack of community, but I think I would be lying if I did not acknowledge that. I admit, I am at fault for not reaching out to the right people or curating what I desired when I couldn’t find it. Which is why I now passionately live by the phrase of “always reach out, because the worst thing they can say is ‘no’.” And I’ve learned in life that out of the nine no’s you’ll receive, that one ‘yes’ is always worth it. Perseverance is going to be one of your best friends in the creative community, but just make sure you’re not persevering on your own, but with a community who will encourage you, support you, and help you.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I very recently had to pivot my entire life in many aspects. I moved to Nashville in July of 2021, which was the first pivot, then in the spring of 2022 I was invited to hop on a tour with a Christian artist as his merchandise manager and eventually tour photographer. In order to accept this opportunity, I had to essentially drop out of school and then quit my waitering job at the time to then hop on a tour bus a few weeks which I lived on for the next month. I was originally approached with the job offering of this artist’s tour merchandise manager, which I was thrilled and honored to be offered. I mentioned my photography services as well, which eventually turned into my regularly shooting each night’s show a few runs into the tour. Now, did I have any experience in concert and tour photography prior to this? No, none whatsoever. All I ever knew was natural light portraits and weddings. But I was eager and excited to learn and gain the new experience. It was so different, ranging from lighting, to environment, to camera settings. But I found it invigorating and loved every second I got to shoot. After the spring tour ended, I continued shooting and managing merchandise over the course of the summer and was picked up by a second Christian artist as well, which resulted in my being able to shoot at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, which blew my mind. Since being picked up by my initial first tour gig, I’ve been able to travel with another artist on their first headlining Christmas Tour this past December, and have been able to shoot for other local artists and bands in the Nashville area at various venues. Concert and tour photography was never a field I imaged myself entering, let alone loving as much as I have. Weddings will forever be my first love, but I have to say that concerts have a very special place in my heart now. And maybe its because of the moments I get to capture, or the new friends I get to meet, or the beautiful venues and different states I get to explore. Overall, its a pivot I never expected my life or career to take, but a pivot I do not regret finding me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/jameswolfphotography
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jameswolfphotography?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jameswolfphotography?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: https://pin.it/6kMIzrw