We recently connected with Jess Buttermore and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jess, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

There’s no short answer to this question, but it’s a great one and I’m excited to share how the professional within my personal life played such a significant role in the evolution of my career. Because before I was a mother, a gardener, a folk herbalist, even before I was a wife, I was a photographer.

Photography has been a part of my life since I was a young girl. I asked for a film camera for my seventh birthday, a hot pink one to be exact, and I’ll never forget the smell of opening my first roll of film. My father helped me load it into my camera and then handed it to me to capture whatever my heart desired with no restrictions. It was one of the most freeing memories I have from my childhood. I would save my weekly allowance and do extra chores to be sure I had enough money to get my film developed (printing doubles of course!) and buy a new roll too. Things only escalated from there.

I share this story because back then, I didn’t have anyone telling me what was on trend or how I should shoot. I didn’t have other photographers to compare my work to and, goodness, was that ever empowering. No presets. No Instagram. No reels. Just me and my camera. I loved what I created. I was content with it. It brought me pure joy and that was enough for me. A few years ago, I decided I wanted to feel that way about photography again. So I set out to take control over my style and find myself in my craft again. I wrote about my process in Click Magazine and the article went on to be featured in a 10-page spread entitled Here I Am in Issue 42. I created a space for myself. For my work. For my creative voice.

My professional photography career began about 15 or so years ago, as a wedding photographer. Back then, I was engaged to be married and found myself in the thick of wedding planners and engaged friends and colleagues, so it was a natural fit. A year after my husband and I married, my first son was born and we found ourselves packing up our home in Michigan and moving across the country to Seattle, were we still reside today. Over the next 5 years, my life evolved into raising a family, and so my professional life evolved in much the same way, moving away from weddings (those long days away and late nights are not conducive to difficult pregnancies and newborns at home) and began focusing my business on photographing families and newborns. This was a great fit for me and my business soared to new levels of success in those years.

In 2019, our family, now with three children in tow, were ready for another change. We wished for a bit more space than the condensed neighborhood we lived in, so we bought a old cedar cabin in the woods off a private drive, renovated it, and began to re-establish the land to make it our own. A few months later, in 2020 and in midst of the pandemic, my husband built me a garden. With no construction background, he took a sketch of my dream garden and turned it into a reality. Every square inch was made with his two hands. Without the luxury of heavy machinery, this project was truly a labor of love. We have learned that making things with our hands and hearts makes them so much more valuable. It is not just about the cost of materials. It is about the time, talent, and care taken. I now spend my winters planning the next year’s garden and sowing hundreds of seeds in my old greenhouse. With each seed, I am putting down roots on our land, creating backyard garden memories for our children, a quiet place of solitude to gather my thoughts, and a focus for my camera, my pen, and my business. It was with this move to the mountains, that solidified my business shift from newborn lifestyle photography to botanical fine art photography. And where the development of both my books took form.

So, you see, I allowed my business to evolve alongside my life. If those reading this interview take anything away from it, I hope it is to be open to allowing their lifestyle, their homesteads and daily surroundings, and the communities they choose to surround themselves with to guide their creative heart.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My family and I live in a small town nestled in the mountains outside of Seattle, Washington. Our homestead, Cedar House Farm, is home to a backyard flower and herbal garden. I am a wife, a mama, a maker, a writer, and a photographer, and am most at peace when I’m surrounded by botanicals with my family and camera within arm’s reach. Through my business, Cedar House Living, my mission is to provide beautiful, insightful and approachable educational resources and in-person workshops where flower and herb lovers of all ages and experience levels can learn to grow and create with botanicals. Through my books, (The Love Language of Flowers and my newest book, Seasonal Living with Herbs), blog, workshops, annual seed sale, and social media presence, my goals is to inspire others to incorporate flowers and herbs into your daily life in a mindful way and share that love of flowers and herbs with those around you.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I touched on this previously, but with so much suffering and hardship in the world right now, my social media presence, website, books, and workshops are meant to be safe place where you can go to focus on something joyful or to find inspiring ways to spread joy into the world through botanicals. In everything I do through my small business, this is my overriding focus.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I build my social media audience in a slow, steady, and organic manner. I completely recognize that building a following on social media has become an increasingly difficult and daunting task and I often hear of talented artists feeling that their work isn’t good enough because their reach and post statistics (followers, likes, engagement) are low. For those who find themselves in this boat, you’re not alone. Chances are, your work is not getting seen by the majority of your own following and it is very disheartening, indeed. Instead of blaming the algorithm, here are few tips for how to work with the ever-changing world of Instagram to build an authentic following and increase your overall engagement:

1) Utilize Hashtags to Find Your Community. Hashtags are one of the best ways to increasing your reach on Instagram. Not only do they fundamentally label and categorize your content, but Instagram uses them to categorize your posts and reels on their explorer page. These hashtags also directly impact your place in the algorithm, and Instagram uses them to determine who to show your content to (and what to show you!) Follow accounts that you find during your hashtag search and engage in their content. Likeminded accounts will see your comments, which may lead them to visit your feed. In addition to using your new list of hashtags in your own posts, you can also choose to follow these hashtags so new accounts that are specific to your interests begin to show up in your feed.

2) Engage and Participate. You can’t expect people to just begin knocking on your door. In order to create friendships of any kind anywhere, you must engage with people. I know this is not always easy and requires an investment of your time, but if you want that time returned, you must put in the effort. Be supportive to like-minded accounts who are there sharing their hearts and talents with the world. It is a scary place and your messages mean a lot to them. Remember, we are all real people behind these squares and reels so commenting on posts and sending a private message to say hello can go a long way in building friendships and ultimately a following.

3) Post Meaningful Content. When posting images or reels to your feed, edit them using editing software so they are more eye-catching AND, and this is important, provide a caption that either shares meaningful/relatable information, teaches something, or is very eye-catching. A good image will stop a scroll and good content will keep them reading and encourage them to like and comment. School us, baby!!!!

4) Be Authentic. Keep your reels REAL. Don’t be afraid to show both the highs and lows of your specific craft or trade. It helps people to know you are not just an account of flawless squares, but a human who has fails alongside successes just like them. Be you because it is enough.

I share all of this because I believe your time is valuable. I want the time you put into creating social media content to be worthwhile to you by getting reach within your community and being seen by your followers. But I have one other important reminder, one that is more important than anything else I’ve written in this blog post: YOUR WORTH IS NOT MEASURED BY LIKES AND FOLLOWS. Please keep that in mind when using any social media apps.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cedarhouseliving.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cedarhouseliving

Image Credits
All photography by Jess Buttermore