Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Mcintyre.
Jennifer, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been a US Army Officer since 2004, fresh out of college. However, by the time I was deployed for my second combat tour to Iraq, I was leading my own Soldiers into combat and I wanted to ensure I captured images of their lives away from home for an entire year. I thought it was incredibly important to have pictures of my Soldiers for their families and the memories after my experiences in Baghdad during my first combat tour. That’s where it started.
Over time, like all photographers, we go through a journey of finding our specialty – what really lights our fire and keeps our interest. I settled upon beauty. Most photographers shoot “everything” – I shoot beauty from the shoulders and up and I enjoy it a lot because I’m really interested in cosmetics as well. While I do other genres of photography, it falls within another division of my business – my portrait work and I like to separate the two into separate portfolios. I think I’m known for the realism in my beauty photography and not over-retouching my images. For my portrait work, I’m known for my work featuring military women in uniform. #militarywomensproject
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Definitely not a smooth road. I spent 12 years of active duty military and never thought that I would do something in the creative arts after I decided not to become an architect in college. I left active duty in 2016 for corporate America thinking that was the “road to success” or what I thought was success by all standards. I was very unhappy ultimately. I made big plans in late 2017 to go independent and focus on building my small business in Seattle but the Army came calling and I found myself in Afghanistan in 2018. So, life and reality put a halt to a lot of endeavors. Everything happens for a reason though.
In retrospect, that was a good thing. I don’t think Seattle was my market at all and I was unhappy there. I believe staying there would’ve forced me into work that doesn’t make me happy. So, the year I spent in Afghanistan, I worked with an image consultant in Los Angeles who is my mentor and I’ve revamped my website, worked on more direct marketing and ultimately made the move to Florida upon my return home. So far, all those lessons learned and goals I’ve been harboring have slowly taken on life and it has rather quickly in my short time here in Florida.
Even though I had this hiccup and worked to align my work into a new business here in Florida, I did decide to re-enter active duty service and take on business with a very limited scope giving myself the room to fail and work on building a business slowly over time. I’m pursuing my retirement and I’m less than five years from achieving this goal. With this goal in mind, I promised myself that I needed to take my time and work on the business properly.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
Well, I have a new home base now at The Station Salon in Downtown Tampa that I can now call a studio. I have been working with a lot of lash salons and educators in building their brand and campaign imagery. I’m really happy to be a source in my area for beauty as it’s a very niche market yet beauty and beauty services surround us daily.
I like the realism in my beauty photography and not over-retouching my images. This era of over-retouching and making women look perfect is winding down, in my opinion. The art of photographing realistically and showing beauty in its original state is here to stay and I truly love it. I think that’s what sets me apart from others. I think the other thing that sets me apart is my background – I have a very diverse background in planning and operations and it sometimes throws clients/individuals off when they first meet me. Not many military officers are also beauty photographers I guess.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Interestingly, I mapped out this very topic of success. For me, given that I’m pursuing my military retirement, I have given myself more room to fail and to try things differently. My time is divided so I have to accept that I can’t expect success to be instantaneous, nor should I ever set myself up for that mentality. I did map it out over time and if I have to say one thing I deem as a near term success is making myself known throughout the industry – locally first and then regionally. Awareness takes time and perseverance. Finding the right recipe and rhythm to accomplish this task is important to me as I’m a very systems and logically organized person (blame it on the military). In the long run, I hope that once I retire, I’m able to make up half of my current monthly salary creating art for others. I call that success in my book. Small steps add up to larger successes.
Pricing:
- Senior Portrait Beauty Sessions, Headshots, Portfolio Sessions – Booking a Session is $395.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jennifer-mcintyre.com
- Phone: 813-334-1910
- Email: jennifer@jennifer-mcintyre.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/jennifermcintyre__
- Facebook: facebook.com/jennifermcintyrebeautyphotographer
Image Credit:
Photographer/Retoucher: Jennifer McIntyre; Makeup Artist: Various; Models/Agencies: Various
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