PHOTOGRAPHER | Jess Living Photo

Jess Living is a destination photographer who balances meaningful emotion and artful storytelling while maintaining authenticity. With a genuine natural, film-rich, and vibrant approach, she focuses on capturing raw emotion, true interactions, and memories to last a lifetime. Jess Living is based in Southern California and travels worldwide to capture weddings.

Tell us about your business!

I consider myself a Natural Photographer - a cautious and honest balance of capturing weddings as they were in a beautiful way. I am most drawn to analog film, and most of my work is deeply rooted in my analog film photography.

Most people would describe my work as destination-editorial: balancing meaningful emotion and artful storytelling - without losing authenticity. I would describe my work as honest, fun, curated, and effortless.

What would you like couples to know about you?

I love people, and I love to have fun. My life is driven by authentic connections; my relationships with those around me are most important to me. I also am very passionate about living this life to the fullest, and feeling truly alive in every sense of the word. I believe that those strongly affect the way I interact with a wedding day, with the wedding people, and with how I document it all.

Where are you based?

I’m based in Southern California.

Do you travel for weddings?

I do! Most of my weddings are destination weddings - I love going somewhere new and being able to photograph the feeling of a location that I’m experiencing with fresh eyes.

How would you describe your style?

Honest, natural, film-heavy, and alive.

What inspires you?

Light and the colors of nature are what motivate my style and theory on photography visually. Nevertheless, my photos would be nothing if it weren’t for the humans and human emotion contained within each image. Human connection is beautiful and evolves from second to second - it’s an honor to witness and capture it every day.

Do you shoot digitally, on film or both?

While most clients hire me for my film photography, I tailor the specific ratio of film vs. digital to each client and their particular needs or desires for their wedding gallery aesthetic.

What is a favourite product or service that you offer and why?

I operate on flexible hourly coverage. A few years ago, I stopped limiting clients to the construct of an hourly rate, and started to offer only flexible coverage for the different types of celebrations (half-day, full-day, or full weekend). I’ve found that it gives my clients the freedom and flexibility to plan their day/weekend without the confines of hourly photography coverage; then I come in and document it all fully. It’s stress-free all around, and allows the complete story to be told.

Who is your dream client?

My dream client loves the balance of beauty and fun, aesthetic and party, fashion but also letting loose.

What is your advice to couples getting married?

The most successful weddings and the most joyful couples are the ones who have planned sufficiently; but then trust in their planning and vendors, and truly “let go” on the wedding day. All effort put into organization and planning will pay off on the wedding day - but invariably with each wedding day comes the unexpected. The happiest couples are the ones who trust that they did all they could, and go into their wedding day with an open mind and heart, let it unfold organically, and allow themselves to experience it fully.

Jess Living Photo

Website: jesslivingphoto.com 

Instagram: @jesslivingphoto