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

Jessica Shea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

To my Dad, I credit all of my entrepreneurial spirit; he owned his own interior painting and construction company for almost 20 years and succeeded almost entirely from word of mouth/referral business. This is a testament to his customer service and immaculate ability to build a rapport with any client, exceed expectations and leave behind an experience, not a product. He emphasized frequently how important the golden rule was, and I would often seek his advice on how to handle tough situations. He’d usually segue into a funny anecdote that was also somehow a life lesson. It was his film camera, after all, that I borrowed for my first photography class. It is because of him that I, too, work off of mostly referrals. I want people to enjoy their sessions and to remember how I made them feel.

To my Mom, I credit my work ethic, professionalism and attention to detail. She rejoined the workforce after my sister and I were born, working her way up the corporate ladder at a mortgage company to eventually become an SVP. As a new mom myself, I can appreciate her work/life balance and how incredibly difficult it is to juggle motherhood and a career…but she made it look easy while putting dinner on the table every night. I’ve sought her wisdom many times when it comes to business management, finding my inner voice and balancing it with etiquette.

I was absolutely set up for success because of the invaluable skills they both instilled in me from a young age. From overseeing garage sales, to having my sister and I set up a lemonade stand in our neighborhood, right down to our weekly chores to get an allowance, I am truly lucky to have been raised by them both.

Jessica Shea, 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 won’t sit here and tell you I’m the best photographer you’ve ever seen–because one, that’s subjective, and two, it’s simply not true.

I WILL tell you, though, that no one will work harder to get to know you first, before you ever step in front of my camera. I do not impose my style onto you; instead, I seek to learn how I can translate you into a series of photographs. I hear people constantly tell me they’re not photogenic, to which I reply, ‘you just haven’t had the right photographer.’

You see, I firmly believe that there’s an element of matchmaking to finding the right photographic style for your needs. If you love colorful, candid photos, I’m your girl! But you won’t find a ton of monochromatic, moody images in your gallery. At the end of the day, I want you to be happy with what you paid for. And I believe I can make that happen if you give me the chance!

I pride myself on being able to adapt to most any situation you put me in, because life is unpredictable. I understand most people are not trained models who are comfortable with a lens pointed at them. I’ve been in business since 2010 but have had a camera of some sort in my hand since I was 13. After interning at several magazines in college, I became hooked on this style of photography that’s more documentary and real. It got me in the habit of stopping and watching life as it unfolded around me, which taught me to find ways of telling the story unobtrusively.

With a background in photojournalism, marketing and product photography, I’d like to think of my style as a melting pot of “magazine cover meets real life with a hint of OCD-like attention to detail.” Think: me asking you to remove that hair tie around your wrist (I know it’s on there, ladies) or suggesting a subtle pose that’s most flattering for your body type…and then letting it unfold into a natural one that’s truly you.

I so enjoy working with people who can get swept up in a moment and let me make a fool of myself to get genuine smiles—and who aren’t afraid to laugh at themselves in the process. The kinds of people who appreciate the little things in life–because that’s what you’re going to see a lot of in your proofing gallery; those things you might not have even noticed before. That’s what I love capturing! And that’s why I call myself a lifestyle photographer. Most of my shots are candid, in the moment, not posed.

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

I live life every day hoping to meet a potential new client. I consider this with every interaction I have, and it helps reframe my mentality. Even brand-new clients are still not usually complete strangers; they’re neighbors with a business owner I photographed or a friend of the mom whose senior I worked with years ago and now their daughter wants theirs done too. That’s a big reason I love where I live in Virginia Beach, because there’s a lot of overlap in folks who are at the events I cover, or business owners or publications I work with. A very small percentage of my business is completely out of the blue. The highest compliment I could ever receive is a referral from an existing client that results in a new one.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I think every business owner can relate to having a moment in time where they questioned whether or not they were destined to fulfill their dream. I’ve had quite the array of random jobs, to include a cashier at Fresh Market and even an associate at Sears Portrait Studio back in the day.

I was about four years into my business as a side hustle when I got a full -time job as the Corporate Photographer for Dollar Tree. I’ve grown my business side by side with my corporate career for 10 years now, and there were many 14+ hour days where I’d leave one to go do the other, and spans of time where I didn’t have a day off for weeks…but I love the experiences I’ve had as a result of pursuing both. At Dollar Tree, I enjoy elevating $1.25 product to look more like Pottery Barn, and a couple of years ago I was promoted to Manager and now oversee a whole team of photographers within the Marketing department. Around that same time, my business won the Coastal Virginia Magazine’s Best of Hampton Roads Gold Award for the first time.

It makes me smile thinking that I’ve got a little bit of each parents’ careers going on simultaneously.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jessicasheaphoto.smugmug.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jsheaphoto22/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JessicaSheaPhotography/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicasheaphillips/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/jessica-shea-photography-virginia-beach