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

Alright, Jess thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I honestly struggled with this for awhile! Being the sentimental soul that I am, I spent months contemplating what could be powerful enough to represent mine and my soulmate clients’s core values. I wanted my business name to be clever and witty, but to feel like home.

Truthfully, my husband thought of BE photo co but I originally rejected it. He reasoned that it represented the biggest pieces of my heart: my dogs – (B)enji and (E)evee. At first, I thought that was too simple. Understated.

However, as I rooted myself more into my genre of photography (documentary), I soon realized that my main goal was creating photos that triggered emotions and memories (but in a good way!). I found myself constantly taking photos of my dogs, the biggest blessings and joys of my life. Clinging to our evening family walks as they age, the way they chose the same toy for the last 6 years, and the small behavioral traits that I know like the back of my hand.

That’s when it dawned on me: BE photo co was absolutely the right name. After all, it was THE representation of the soul behind my photography passion: to capture moments of the things we love in all their genuine glory before it’s gone. To simply BE who we are, where we’re at, with the people that mean the most to us.

Because after all, what else is there really?

Jess, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Absolutely, I would love to! My name is Jess and I’m a documentary photographer from North Fort Worth, TX! I’m super passionate about helping people remember the details of the current chapter of their life.

As a military brat (I’m actually not even sure anyone says that anymore – did I just age myself?), I moved quite often growing up. There are so many parts of my life that I just can’t quite remember because it was all a blur. While most of my childhood photos were destroyed in one of our moves, I can honestly say that the photos I do have from my childhood are sone of my most prized possessions. I’m not talking about studio photos. The photos that bring me the most joy, that make my heart swell and help me remember my childhood joy, are the photos from my walks home from school, the orange tree in my backyard, and the photos of me playing with my favorite butterfly pillow at the beach (if you were wondering why I had a pillow at the beach, I truly couldn’t tell you but I do remember how happy I was!).

Long story short, I create photos focused on feelings to help people remember their lives.

To do this, I offer long form sessions which is a fancy way of saying multi-hour sessions. I don’t book more than one session a day and we spend quite a bit of time getting to know each other beforehand. This helps me learn about where you’re at in your life, the things that matter to you and WHY they matter. I pride myself in my emotional intelligence so it’s generally easy for me to “read the room” but at the core of what we’re doing here, I need to REALLY know you. I need to know about your dogs head tilt when you say their favorite word. I need to know about the wrinkle in your child’s face from their genuine smile. I need to know that your favorite time of the day is at 1:45pm when the sun makes it way through your living room curtains, perfectly illuminating your walls.

Photography, for me, is REALLY personal. I want you be able to feel how you felt when the photos were taken, even if it’s 15 years down the road. A lot of time, that means taking photos of seemingly mundane details or unobtrusive, non-controlled moments in your home. It’s a relatively simple concept but it feels foreign in our so often curated worlds but I’m ready to share it and my heart with anyone who’s interested!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Ohhh, this is a really fun one and I actually really love it as a person and a business owner, especially in the photography industry!

So many of us are in the mindset that we don’t want photos taken of us because it feels uncomfortable. I think the main reason that is is because, historically, we’ve been taught that “photography” means standing up straight and looking into a lens. Perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect smile, perfect everything. This leans into feeling like we need our life to be “worth” photographing, that there’s nothing special enough about our life that we could possibly commemorate.

I understand how it feels to think that and I have gone GREAT measures to unlearn that. I think Albert Einstein said it best when he said “there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

I chose to see everything as a miracle.

As someone who has done a lot of shadow work, I now celebrate most all aspects of my life including making others feel seen and loved. To me, being able to love someone else and help them see that their life is worth living is the highest privilege.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

As a rule of thumb, I try to treat everyone as if I’ve known them my whole life. (Tip: If you don’t do this already, you should give it a try! It truly changes EVERYTHING). Because of that and the general nature of documentary photography, I often find myself creating deeply personal relationships with my clients who, more often not, become my friends.

I’m not a one-and-done photographer.

I am a lifetime supporter. Your biggest fan. A confidant of your memories, time and time again, through all your season.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bephotoco.com/
• Instagram: @bephotoco.tx
• Other: email: [email protected]
  phone: (850)377-5619

Image Credits

Image 3 (photo with guitar) from Olivia Ann Fall 2024 Content Day.