We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jacqueline Lehr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jacqueline below.
Hi Jacqueline, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I consider one of my core qualities to be my resilience, as I’ve been faced with one major unique challenge in my life and career. In March of 2020 I was diagnosed with a very rare cancer and I spent the following 8 months doing chemotherapy and immunotherapy. During that time period the world was shut down and everyone was shuttered inside their homes, so I wasn’t missing out on any work opportunities. It allowed me to have the time and space to do my treatment without having to explain my absence from my work community. During that time frame when everyone was “safe at home” I was able to expand on my mindfulness practice and think about what is truly important to me and my life goals. Having gone through something as rigorous and psychologically challenging as chemo, it really put my life into perspective and changed me as a person forever. Once I went into remission, I vowed to approach my life and work in a refreshed way. Beforehand I would work myself to the bone, sacrificing my health, mental wellbeing and relationships along the way. Nowadays I very rarely put myself in those situations again and I strive for a work, life and adventure balance. I find the word resilience to mean pulling yourself out of a difficult situation and bouncing back in a new form, which is exactly what I did. Cancer changed me and gave me the resilience of a warrior to bounce back from something deeply challenging and growing into the person I am today. I deeply value my work and I also deeply value my life outside of work. When I was going through treatment I had my good days and I had my bad days but looking back at that time and reflecting on it from where I’m at now is really something special. I’m a fighter, I beat the odds and will continue to do so everyday to further my career and my never ending quest for adventure and happiness in my life.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I work as an Underwater Camera Operator and it brings me joy every single job I do. I am also the business owner of my own company, Lehr Adventure Films. I started my company in order to purchase my very own RED V-Raptor 8K camera, Nauticam underwater housing and to begin renting my equipment to my film industry peers. I was nervous to make such a big step but I’m less than a year down the road since I made that decision and it’s proved to be very beneficial to my career. I work on various genres of film productions such as nature documentaries, feature films, music videos, short films, commercials, etc. I even take my camera set up out on dives with me just for fun to explore the luscious California kelp forests. I’ve travelled all over the world to places like Guadalupe Island, Mexico to dive with Carcharodon carcharias otherwise known as Great White Shark. I’ve been given the opportunity to explore different places within the USA as well where you’d never expect to fly for an underwater shoot like Louiseville, Kentucky or rural Indiana and even the mountains of Colorado.
I love showing up to set with my own camera and UW housing, jumping in the ocean, pool, lake, river, etc and creating exciting images for the storytellers who brought me on. It’s a collaborative art to say the least and I love taking the teams ideas and putting my own spin on it, sometimes literally. I shot a video for music artist SZA where she was dancing on a stripper pole underwater and I was given a freestyle moment, so I was flipping the camera upside down and having fun with it as we jammed to the music via an underwater speaker. Turns out, they liked my idea and it made the cut! Working on Hollywood productions has been my bread and butter and I’ve loved every second of it because it allows for creativity in a controlled environment however my main goals are to work on nature documentaries. I’d love to be the woman behind the camera in Tonga who’s dropped off a boat into the water to a group of humpback whales. I value the power of storytelling and I believe there’s power in many genres but I would love to spend my career shooting underwater nature footage and educating people on the importance of preserving our wildlife. We only have one Earth and I think it’s vital that we protect our environment and the animals that live among us. That’s the reason I got into underwater camera work and I’m so fortunate I’ve been able to work on various nature projects alongside the wild wild west of Hollywood filmmaking. I’m looking forward to what the future brings and I’m really hoping it’s full of wondrous ocean creatures and exciting collaborations with fellow storytellers.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Everyone has a different path into their chosen careers, which makes everyone working together in the film industry so unique. There are a couple things that personally helped me get to where I am today. Firstly, the importance of connections are very key. I was always at film industry events, film festivals, rental houses and more just shaking hands and talking with people. In college, I was the first woman at Cal State Northridge to receive the ARRI grant for my senior thesis film. Once I was introduced to the team at ARRI, I was always reaching out to them to ask for advice or to shadow their team at industry events and on shoots using their cameras. They took me to various sets using their newer camera and one of them was at Warner Brothers studios, which for me at the time was exceptionally thrilling. This eventually led to my first job at ARRI where I worked in their marketing department. When it was my time to leave, they introduced me to the team at HydroFlex where I worked for two years learning the ins and outs of underwater camera gear. Hydroflex is the leading underwater camera rental house in the world, so it was always a dream of mine to work there. My time at both of these companies were so valuable to my learning and making connections.
Secondly, at least when it comes to underwater filmmaking, there’s a big learning curve. So I spent time with my DSLR and UW housing in friends’ pools learning everything I could about what helps me achieve the best UW photo. I would also take my camera housing out on dives in Laguna Beach or Catalina to get live time experience with nature and its inhabitants. This allowed me to not only become a better diver which helped me professionally but it gave me time and experience in the water. As an underwater camera operator, you need to be comfortable as a diver first, then the camera work comes into play. So my advice is practice, practice and practice. I heard that so much when I was starting out it used to seem silly but now I realize how important it was to my career growth.
Lastly, I’d say perseverance is a huge key to success in this industry. I’ve had times in the beginning where I was eating soup and PB&Js because I hadn’t been working very much and my bank account was scary low. But if you market yourself, make connections and educate yourself then the chances of moving into the career that you’ve always dreamed of are very possible. Times will never be perfect, it’s feast or famine, but perseverance will get you through the hard times to jobs that you’ve imagined yourself working on.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
I have loved dipping my toes in all the different genres of filmmaking but the one that speaks to me the most are nature documentaries. I’ve dove with white sharks in Mexico, pilot whales in Hawaii and turtles in Thailand and these are the kinds of adventures I’ve dreamed of shooting since I decided I wanted to make movies in kindergarten. I strive to tell the stories of nature that help educate and protect wildlife. My favorite animal is the sea turtle, doesn’t matter which species, they’re all absolutely adorable. I’d love to shoot for non-profit organizations who strive to protect sea turtles. In 2020 I went to Orange Coast Community College and studied Marine Science for two years and it reignited my passion towards working on nature and wildlife based projects. During my time at OCC, I worked closely with one of my professors to shoot footage for the school to promote a dolphin sighting day. This would entail students, professors and civilians willing to dedicate their time to count dolphin populations along the entire coast of California.
I really enjoyed my time working with my professor who’s not only an educator but a scientist herself and I would love to continue working with likeminded individuals like her to educate students and civilians about ocean life. I’d also love to work with one of the larger TV networks looking to shoot documentaries about various wildlife non-profits highlighting the good work they do for their chosen species. I’m an avid traveller in my professional and personal life, so I’d love to travel the world with my camera on my back and underwater housing in tow telling the nature preservation stories that deserve to be heard. The more we educate the public about how we impact nature and wildlife, the more positive change we can hopefully inspire.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jacquelinelehr.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacquelinelehrrr/
- Other: IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5698927/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
