Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Jester
Hi Daniel, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Looking back, I can’t say that I always wanted to be a photographer, but visual arts and mechanical cameras were always things I was drawn to. After a pretty bad experience with a newborn photography company when my oldest was born, I decided I wanted to try to make photography a career, and I assumed that would mean shooting family portraits and weddings.
One day I discovered that my company where I worked as a merchandising coordinator had a photo studio and was looking for a new photographer. I’d honestly never even considered that commercial product photography was something a person could do. One of the merchandising managers I worked with loaned me some product and I went home and used my dining room as a product photo studio and shot a portfolio. I ended up getting the job.
After a few years of shooting for both web and print, most of the time in a studio by myself, out of the great recession came the idea for flash sale sites like HauteLook, Gilt, and MyHabit. These companies built high volume product studios and one of them was opening near where I lived. I move over to HauteLook (owned by Nordstrom) and thats where things really took off. From HauteLook I went to Amazon where I launched and managed a small studio for them. In 2018 I joined luxury fashion retailer Farfetch as photography supervisor for their LA studio, and then spent a short time with a boutique product studio in Boyle Heights shooting for Kendra Scott Jewelry just before COVID closed down LA.
Around 2018 I started getting invited to speak at conferences about photo studio operations, and that led to being offered a role as Chief Evangelist for the photo product management platform Creative Force. As part of my role with Creative Force, I launched a podcast focused on the e-commerce niche of commercial photography, and travelled all over the US and Europe speaking at conferences and recording podcast episodes in front of live audiences.
I left Creative Force in late 2023 and have been consulting with commercial photo studios, teaching product photography at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Ca. and shooting fine art still life projects in my home studio.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s definitely had its ups and downs. E-commerce photo production was already a very volatile industry, and COVID really exacerbated that. Recent years have seen many rounds of layoffs and dismantling of creative professional teams throughout retail, and now in the age of AI, creative teams are seen as less needed than ever.
I don’t see AI as a big threat to photography. Theres little evidence throughout history that new technology or tools has ever been a death blow to a visual art or communication medium. It certainly might change what companies and retailers prefer to use, but photography is firmly established as a visual art form, and that won’t change.
I think being any kind of creative professional, whether that be a designer, copywriter, photographer, etc, comes with challenges. For some reason, creative works is always seen as frivolous or superfluous to a companies operations. The truth is, especially with e-comm, creative is the only way to sell your stuff. Period.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My career has been as a product photographer, and followed a pretty linear path from photographer, to lead photog, to photography manager, to director level roles. I feel like I have two specialties. One is still life photography (which includes product photography), and one is a strong mind for process and operations. I think my success in my career largely lives in my ability to marry those two sides of myself.
Nowadays, I would love to be known more for my work as a visual artist, primarily with my still life photography work. Over 15 years of shooting table top product, particularly at a studio that shot hard goods like fixtures, tools, equipment, etc. Studio lighting has become second nature to me. That allows me to light my projects quickly, and spend my time meticulously placing the objects in my scene to tell my story or convey my message.
I’d like to share two projects I’m most proud of, one commercial and one personal. I’m so very proud of my product launch images made for Ember. If I hadn’t spend so much time shooting reflective and mirrored objects in my career, this would’ve been a much more difficult shoot to accomplish, especially during active COVID times. For my personal work, I’m so proud of Grip, my still life featuring studio grip equipment. This is a concept I had been working on for years, and finally found and harnessed the inspiration I needed to make something I was really proud of. Both of these projects are truly culminations of the work that I put in over the years, both in terms of technical skill, and personal discovery.
How do you think about luck?
I think luck has played a HUGE role. I often think that luck is predominately responsible for most of the good things. But at the same time, I’ve learned to embrace the idea that I’m good at recognizing good luck, and a good opportunity. I’ve learned to give myself a little credit for that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.danieltjester.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danieltjester/
Image Credits
All images were shot by me, and I hereby grant myself permission to give them to you to use. 🙂
