We recently connected with Jasmine Loew and have shared our conversation below.

Jasmine, appreciate you joining us today. Is there a lesson you learned in school that’s stuck with you and has meaningfully impacted your journey?

Oh man, School. I had always had a relatively easy time with school as a kid, teenager… It never really challenged me. In fact, I learned that I could get straight A’s doing the bare minimum. And that trend continued until my last year of high school. This is when the world started to feel oppressive and unforgiving, unfriendly and my dreams for the future took a hard 90 degree shift in a direction I had not planned long on going. During this time, my mom had re-married, quite quickly after a long drawn out divorce. New husband had 2 kids, my mom 3, so we managed to cram into our small 3 bedroom house. This started my first year of high school. It was fine until it wasn’t. The first year was mostly fun. Seeing my mom enjoy herself and have someone who seemed to love her and make her feel good was fun, and I was the oldest of the 5 kids and always enjoyed being an older sister. However, this high lasted only a bit. By the time I was finishing my sophomore year of high school, we were begging my mom to leave the relationship. It was intolerable, so much chaos and moving in and out. Loud and aggressive arguments, breaking up, getting back together… this pattern wasn’t something any of my friends could understand. I grew up in a small town in Arizona with a large mormon population, those families don’t go through what we went through. So I began devising a plan to get out of the house as soon as possible. I ended up finding a group of friends who could feel my heart, who had also experienced the bitterness of life and could understand what I was going through at home. Up until this point, I was ‘planning’ on college after high school. I say ‘planning’ because I had no example of what that would look like. All my friends were doing it, but nobody in my family had gone to college and I didn’t know how to make it happen and neither did my mom. I did end up graduating high school a year early, I took summer school and after school classes to meet the minimum requirements necessary to graduate. Soon after graduation, I packed my bags and moved to Seattle with my then boyfriend. This experience produced an exponential shift in my worldview. Growing up in small town Arizona. I was so sheltered from how big the world was. I was a late bloomer in every sense of the word. Showing up in Seattle on that day was altogether revelatory. The smells, the buildings, the Sound, the sounds, the people, the busses, the trains, the evergreen trees, the moisture, the Emerald City. This was school now. The school of life.

We forged through a couple of years pinching pennies, working any job we could find. I recall my first job, I had a copy of The Stranger, a Seattle weekly publication featuring counter culture content/editorials and music promotions. Just inside the back page were Help Wanted ads. I found a help wanted ad for cleaning help. I could do that, I love cleaning, I had a crappy little Volvo and could drive from cleaning site to cleaning site. So I called and was asked to meet at the public storage building on Capital Hill at 6 am. No problem. I managed to drive my clunky manual transmission ’89 volvo sedan up and down the streets of down town Seattle, stopping at stoplights where the road felt like it was at a 60 degree angle, praying that the car behind me was far enough away, that when shifted into first gear, I wouldn’t roll backwards and right into them. I managed to get to the public storage location on time. This was 2008 and I still had a flip phone. Looking back, it was quite an accomplishment for an 18 year old small town girl in a big metropolitan city.

I parked the car and walked into the Public Storage building. It was eerie and the fluorescent lighting was flickering and it could’ve been a scene from a horror movie. I heard the voice of my mother saying- what in the hell are you doing here alone? But before I could think twice, I was at the unit looking in at a tall figure who was facing away from me, grabbing cleaning supplies off of a tall shelf. She had red stringy hair under a ball cap, broad shoulders and very long legs. I said hello and she turned around. I had never in my life met a transgendered individual. Like I said- the small town where I grew up was not a hub of culture and diversity. She greeted me enthusiastically, extended her hand which was worn, probably from all the cleaning chemicals, and in all honesty a good amount f drug use. She had makeup on, red lipstick and one tooth. I was in a state of shock, and awe. “Maggie!” She said as she introduced herself. I felt like I had walked onto a movie scene. I quickly came to and realized that if I didn’t myself under control, I would risk offending her, and I had always made an extreme effort to make anyone who was in my presence feel accepted and cared for. This was no different. I quickly got busy helping her load things into my car and before too long we were on our way to our first house to clean. We shared stories, and took turns tuning the FM radio to different stations. She tuned me to KEXP, a local station playing local and underground music and that’s where we left it from then on.

I soon found a job that paid better and left the cleaning gig. I spent some time there before realizing that pinching my pennies and being hard up for bus fare was not the most enjoyable way of living. I had slowly began to come to terms with the reality that I would need to go back to school if I wanted to have nice things. The one thing I was really hoping to get was a digital SLR camera. I had a dream of being a photographer, since I was very young but I had to come to terms with the reality that hobbies, especially photography, can be quite expensive. Especially for a kid making 7$ an hour living in Seattle.

I started taking some courses at the community college, living off of ramen noodles, Dicks cheeseburgers (you could get one for a dollar) black coffee and cigarettes. A habit I picked up from being in love with an emo kid in the late ’00s. And of course I see the irony in having money for smokes but scraping for bus fare, the irony is not lost on me. Even more ironic was my growing interest in herbal medicine. I had picked up a job at a tea store and began learning extensively about where different ‘tea’ was grown, how it was processed, how the processing brought out different compounds, tannins, caffiene, how these processes destroyed the antioxidant qualities- then started asking, what’s an antioxidant? What’s a tannin? What is caffeine?! These questions began coming at me and I needed to have some answers.

I got some prerequisite classes out of the way, english, environmental science. But I was quickly realizing, in my 3rd year in Seattle, away from home and help, that if I was going to get anywhere in school, I needed to be close to home. Few weeks later I called my dad. He flew up to Seattle, helped me box up my apartment and sent home what I could. Months later I was enrolled full time at the University of Arizona where I planned to study Chemistry and Biochemistry. I was however, not qualified. I had the math competency of a 3rd grader and had no idea how to add fractions. I started out taking math 84. This was a pre-pre algebra. Sigh. You have to start somewhere. I hopped on the math train and got through math 84, then 92, then 96 and then finally college algebra, trigonometry… then calculus and finally calc 2. This was so humiliating,

I was further humiliated when I finally made it to my first chemistry course at the U of A. It was general chemistry. I had taken the first semester of gen chem at community college, I got an A, it was easy, however, I managed to learn absolutely nothing. When I got to the University and I was expected to have absolute fluency with the period table and absolute fluency with the application of mathematic functions to solve and understand kinetics and thermodynamics, I was floored with complete and total inadequacy. I had never struggled with learning before. I had never had to meet expectations, I had never been in a position where my charm and humor and kindness would not satisfy some part of the academic requirement. There was no sliding by here, there were no excuses. There was just one reality- I had no idea how to learn. I had found myself hopping on the bandwagon that so many immature students were on- the bandwagon of ‘well I didn’t pass the final because they were a bad teacher’ ‘they taught me nothing’ ‘they were so confusing’ ‘I just dont’ get it’… I tried this approach too. It was the only approach I knew. Nobody was teaching personal responsibility 101 to entitled college kids. I also felt like I was genuinely not entitled! I felt like I really put in so much work to get here. At the end of my first semester at the University, my gen chem professor said to me- I think you need to reconsider chemistry as your major.

I just about left my body. I had never felt so slighted. Excuse me? You’re not going to understand that I am having a hard time and help me find a way to turn my D into a C?! Nope. Not a chance.

I had to really wrestle with this. I was so offended, ego was so blown out. I really did not see the struggle coming at me as hard as it did. Until this point in my life, my half-assed work was always good enough, good enough to get me A’s in public high school, good enough to get me A’s in community college. But it wasn’t cutting the cheese anymore. I had to, in a moment, ask myself if I was going to take her advice and bow out of something I really wanted? Say, yea, this just wasn’t my thing, it was too hard, I wasn’t cut out for it, I just don’t get it, not my thing. I could not bring myself to say those words. I could not bring myself to accept that there was something I wasn’t good at and couldn’t do. I said, maybe not this time, but next time. I got my ass to the registration office and enrolled in Gen Chem 1. University level, back to the beginning. With the same professor who failed me the prior semester in Gen Chem 2. I sat at the front of the 400+ auditorium and made certain that every single class, I did not leave without knowing exactly what I didn’t know. This period of time was so transformational for me. I would get my exams back and focus unwaveringly on the content that I got wrong. I didn’t care about what I got right, I wanted to make certain that I was moving ahead not on a 70% understanding of the material, but on a 100% understanding of the material. I spent every day in the tutor room, working on my homework. When I would get stuck, I would have someone there who could help me. I made sure that every concept was deeply engrained in my head and in my heart. I was not going to be someone who scraped by and graduated with c’s and d’s. I wanted to know this, to understand how chemistry applied to my life, to the environment, to drug development, to the processing of tea.

I made it through college. I had my daughter a year before graduating. This added another unbelievable challenge. But this is how I developed my most prized character trait- True Grit.

No one is going to do it for you, no one is going to come to your rescue. You have to find a way, by any means possible, to take responsibility for everything that you are and everything you are not. You must be willing to have someone tell you- hey sis, you ain’t all that, you have a lot to learn, you ain’t sneaking by. Either take the bit, or go find something else to do until you find where it gets too hard.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my professional career in clinical trials. After getting through college, I found stable, high paying work in the realm of clinical trial work. I pinched myself every time I got a paycheck. The idea that money was a renewable resource is something that I am still trying to not be amazed by.

This provided resources for me to explore what I loved. I loved photography since I was a small kid, and now, I had a job that created an opportunity for me to improve my skills, develop some fluency and talent, and acquire the tools I needed to do what I loved to do. Up until this point, I had worked with a long out dated dSLR that I ran into the ground for 10 years. the same camera and the same 50mm lens, For those new to photography, the d90 sold for 1500$ in 2008. This was more money than I knew what to do with at the time, and the 50mm lens you could get for 150$. This was the most affordable photography package I could get at that time in my life. It took me a year to save the money to make the purchase. Now, I have so many lens options and have upgraded to full frame digital cameras, I have 2. But am still far behind the tech trend. Now it’s all about mirrorless cameras, and I am not ready for that investment yet!

So long story short, I started just taking pictures of whatever I could, family, friends, pumpkin festivals. I was fortunate enough to have a family who owned a ranch that would host weddings. The business started really growing around 2012 and I was able to piggy back off of the business and take shots of the wedding for my family to use. My uncle made me second shooter on my first wedding in 2014 and then booked another wedding soon after that, Then things started to pick up and I’d book a few weddings a year prior to the 2020 pandemic. After the pandemic, it seemed to slow down a great deal, things shifted from large weddings to more micro weddings, more intimate events with fewer guests. This was actually amazing. It gave me more time with the clients and more opportunity to have real intimate time with them and deliver more editorial style choreographed images, more fairytale, more romance, more love story.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I am so fortunate in this way. My family has always been so supportive, they would give me referrals before I had the confidence that I could really deliver. My family owns the Agua Linda Farm in Amado, Arizona. Amado means ‘beloved’ or ‘loved one’ in Spanish and our little family farm sits right in the heart of Amado. They were awarded Arizonas Best Wedding Venue two years in a row. I think it’s easy for clients to default to me when they have booked with the Agua Linda Farm because it’s easy- and when planning a wedding, any opportunity to simplify things, is good. However, people really want a photographer who can just completely nail it. Who they have total confidence in, and so I think that simplicity isn’t always the most important factor to a client looking for wedding photography. I think they need to be reassured that they are going to be happy with the outcome. Simple and easy does not always translate into ‘thrilled’ when discussing outcome. So my strategy is to never take a client for granted. These people who choose me to shoot their wedding are literally putting new tires on my vehicle, paying for my daughter’s lunches and my son’s childcare. This is not small to me. Being trusted with this task is an honor that I cannot find words for. If I do not feel that I have poured my heart and soul into photographing this wedding, I am not satisfied. I want my clients drooling over their photos, looking over them for hours, unable to choose their favorite. I want them to feel beyond satisfied, like they got so much more than what they paid for. I am looking to provide nothing short of mind blowing service. Anything less does not meet my standards. And when I am referred by my family, there is added pressure to ensure that the client’s experience with me is INCREDIBLE. I want to see their wedding business thrive and grow and I want to make certain that the client’s experience with me reinforces the incredible experience they have with my family. We also love working together. Some of my favorite memories with my family are laughing or crying or laugh crying after working 20 hours straight.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I would have to say that the mission/goal driving my creative journey would be more or a recognition. The recognition being that this life is one, non repeating, completely new moment. And someday, it will end. We are mortal and remembering this truth every single day has helped me to make sure that what I’m doing with my time, my life, is important to me. And not just what I am doing, but HOW I am doing it. I strive to engage every task with the same enthusiasm, whether it be something I want to do, or not. I have a personal challenge with myself- I am not going to suffer this, I am not going to suffer. I am going to enjoy this, this challenge, this pain, this struggle. Whatever life presents me with, I will work from a place of joy, trusting that it is here for a reason, it has come for a purpose.

We so often live as though life will never end. And then we get to the end of the road, and realized we never fully lived, we thought we’d have the time, more time.

It is one of the most heartbreaking, if not THE most heartbreaking truth that I see.

And the most profound realization I have had as an adult is that someday it will all be over, no more time to sing, to play to kiss, to create. We actually don’t have all the time in the world. So get busy, stay busy, keep working, keep improving, wake up and hit the ground running. Don’t look back- keep focused ahead and where the path is unfolding, do not suffer this one, non repeating, completely new moment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theloewlight.com
• Instagram: the_loew_light or lady_loew_life
• Facebook: Jasmine Elaine Loew

Image Credits

All photos have been taken by me.