Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica Bookout. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.
I didn’t go to school specifically for photography, but I do think it’s really important for students to learn the business side off photography before jumping in and starting a career. With any entrepreneurial business you will be wearing many hats within the company and need to know how to create and send contracts to protect your company, how to market your business, talk to customers, keep track of finances, legally own and operate a business, calculate your cost of doing business, and how to successfully make a profit doing what you love. I think a lot of photographers start out not knowing these things and learn them the hard way. It would be great to have affordable education available to those just starting out to help them be successful in their photography careers.
Jessica, 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?
I am a mom of four who got my first dslr camera when my oldest was just a baby, back in 2010. I have a degree in interior design, so I knew photoshop and adobe programs really well, but didn’t know how to shoot in manual. I slowly taught myself to shoot by trial and error while I stayed home with my first. I quickly fell in love with photography and in 2012 I took a few newborn specific workshops and really honed my shooting and posing skills. That’s when I decided to niche in newborns specifically as I just loved working with new babies. I continued to learn and grow over the years and realized that aa lot of my clients were wanting more than just digital images. I also realized that with my skills in interior design I could help people plan wall galleries and started offering prints and products to my clients and became a full service photographer for my clients. A lot of people are well intentioned, but never get around to printing digitals, so I think it’s really a service to provide this for my clients who want it. I help guide them in the process of their selections, do album designs and show mock ups of wall galleries in their specific spaces While I do all types of portrait photography today, including families, branding and headshots, and children I do mainly specialize and my passion really lies within newborn and maternity portraiture.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
As an artist I like to stretch my creativity in creating unique images for each client. However, I do think it’s critically important to listen to our clients and find out what their story is and what type of portraits they are specifically looking for rather than just doing what I personally want. It’s important to remember that these portraits are for my clients, not me. I love getting to know my clients and creating something just for them!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I think the most rewarding aspect of being a photographer is that you are creating something that can truly be passed down from generation to generation within a family. Maternity and newborn stages are such fleeting stages that it’s truly special to be able to capture these once in a lifetime moments for growing families. I also love watching my client and families grow through the years as they come back to me for additional portraits. It’s so fun to get repeat newborn clients when a family has a new baby and I get to see that previous baby all grown up as a big sister or big brother.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lovelyfitzgerald.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovelyfitzgerald/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LovelyFitzgerald/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lovely-fitzgerald-photography-llc-the-colony
Image Credits
Lovely Fitzgerald Photography (self)