Meet the Photographer!

Hi there! My name is Jacquie. I am the face behind the camera, website, instagram, Facebook, emails and everything in between. It’s a one woman show over here!

I live in the capital region of NY with my Wife and our 4 cats. Yes, I know four is a lot, trust me. It just happened and we’re rolling with it! I love meeting new people and trying new things. Last summer, I even got my motorcycle license! Anyone who really knows me, knows that is totally out of my comfort zone. So when I tell people to get out of their own comfort zone, I know that it is scary, but it is also pretty kick ass after you do it.

I started my photography journey a longggg time ago, in my high school days. Believe it or not, we were still using film cameras. Hard to believe that high school was 15 years ago! Anyway, I was able to learn a film camera and all the basics about the art. This is mainly where I got my appreciation and why I am so fond of black and white images. To start, I was honestly terrified of posing people. I would always take images of things, buildings, flowers, etc and get all different angels of it. Remember, there was no back of camera or instant gratification to see if you got the shot. I was a lot of shoot and pray. Then developing the film is a whole other process. When I first started it was a frustrating process, sometimes realizing that you wasted a whole roll of film bc your settings were wrong or it came out blurry, or not the way you imagined.

The good old days, am I right?!

Now we’re all digital, while a whole lot easier, it was still a lot to learn. I was just lucky enough to have the building blocks from film.

So a little after high school I decided to start taking pictures of people. Friends, family, animals, friends of friends. Literally anyone who would let me. I got a lot of practice and learned so so much along the way. I had a lot of people refer me to friends and their friends and I could not be more grateful.

Back in the day (2013/2014) I was working at Victoria’s Secret. A new one, where they had all the beautiful images all over the store. I always looked at them and thought “I wish I could take photos like that!” Just beautiful images of women. Not too long after that thought, I was scrolling through instagram one day and I stumbled onto a (local) Boudoir Photographer’s page. Boudoir?? Never heard of it. I started to creep and I was like OMG this is a thing! So then I dove in head first and found out more and more info. The more I found out, the more I was determined to do this.

Don’t get me wrong, I love photographing families and kids and people in love. I just felt like something was missing. Like I wasn’t really making a difference for the people that I was doing all these sessions for.

I wanted to take photos that felt like art, that was powerful, meaningful and just nice to look at. I also realized that this isn’t just a regular photoshoot, it is very personal, a challenge, and even frowned upon by a lot of people. It’s definitely accepted more now!

My first session was with a co-worker (and bestie) from Vicky’s. We were talking about how I wanted to start doing these types of sessions, but didn’t know how or where to start. Without missing a beat she said “omg let’s do it!” So we did. In a church. For 3 or 4 hours.

- That’s a wholeeee story for another time -

From that photoshoot, I was HOOKED. I was so nervous to show her the photos, but once I did….her reaction was exactly what I needed to keep going and make this, not just a thing, but my thing. I decided to toss the idea out to any of my friends that were willing to do one.

Unfortunately, it was not that many…

So the more I talked to my friends, they started to talk about it and I was able to grow my portfolio, even had some people I had never met! Looking back at the journey I have been on to get where I am today was full of lessons, laugh, stress, celebrations, and so much more! I am so grateful for all of the amazing people I have met along the way and continue to meet!

Some even feel like friends!

I can’t wait to keep growing and meeting all of the amazing people that I do and create beautiful images for you all to cherish!