We were lucky to catch up with Jason Veilleux recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Jason with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I get my work ethic from my time spent with my grandfathers as a young boy. Both of my grandfathers died when I was young, but I still learned what hard work was from the time that I was able to spend with them. They were both hard working men who always instilled in me working hard in life to provide for your family. They were “old school” men. I also credit my parents with giving me my work ethic. They always provided for my sister and I and we were more fortunate than many in my hometown, but they always taught me that you have to work hard for the things you want in life that things are not just given to you.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I have made a living as a professional photographer part time since 2002 and then full time since 2018. My current niche is real estate photography, but I started my professional photography career as a sports photographer and then as an aerial drone photographer.
I am a former college athlete, so when the time came for me to step away from playing sports, I sort of stumbled into sports photography by accident as a way for me to stay around the game. I brought an old point and shoot camera to a football game one night and took some photos. When the players saw the photos that I posted online, requests began to come in asking me if they could buy the photos, that’s when the light bulb went off and I decided to try and start a side hustle selling photos.
I have never had any formal training in photography or videography, I simply committed to teach myself as much as I could about photography. Believe it or not, I have learned about 90% of my photography skills from watching videos on YouTube. To this day I continue to educate myself on new techniques as much as I can. I have always enjoyed trying new photography techniques.
As much as I enjoyed photographing sports over the years finding paying jobs was always a struggle. I was fortunate enough to land a freelance job as a sports photographer for a local newspaper when I moved to Maine, but it was only a side hustle on nights and weekends and eventually I realized that it would be hard to make a full time living photographing sports, so I began to look into other areas of photography that may provide more paying jobs.
In 2015 I bought my first aerial drone and was immediately memorized by the perspective and views you could capture from flying a drone with a camera on it. I knew right away that this could be the “next trend” in photography and especially in real estate photography. So I taught myself everything I could about aerial photography and began to study to get my FAA Part 107 license which is required in the US if you want to make money using a drone.
In 2016 I passed the FAA Part 107 license test and began offering aerial photography services to real estate agents. At first I started only offering aerial photography services and left the interior photography to other photographers. But I quickly realized that real estate agents didn’t want to deal with hiring two photographers when they could hire only one who offered both aerial and interior photography services, so I began to teach myself interior photography and never looked back.
Today I am proud of the journey that I have been on to teach myself photography and to build a successful real estate photography business. In January of 2024 I re-branded and changed my business name from Mainely Aerials Photography to Maine Home Media. I have gone from offering only aerial photography services back in 2016 to today where I offer an assortment of media services.
What i enjoy most about real estate photography is the relationships I have formed with my clients. I enjoy helping them not only sell homes, but to sell their brand. Professional media has become crucial for real estate professionals to help them sell homes and build their brand which helps them win more listings in a competitive field.
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?
I have always believed that good communication is the number one skill you can have to build a successful business off of. Good communication has truly helped me advance in my professional life. It is a skill you have to work at and can always find new ways to get better at.
Time management skills are also very important in my line of work. Things move fast in real estate and agents are usually under pressure to deliver to their sellers as soon as possible, so having good time management skills is key. There are always ways to become more efficient in running a photography business and they may be different for each photographer, so I would encourage new photographers to always look for new ways to help them manage their time as efficiently as possible.
Having a strong work ethic is another important quality that will help young photographers looking to get into the field of real estate photography. You have to be willing to work hard if you truly want to succeed. I truly believe that if you work hard in building your photography business and brand that eventually it will yield a good return and you will be able to enjoy your life and free time as your business succeeds.
Finding that good balance of working hard and playing hard is important to avoid burning out in real estate photography. Spend more time worrying about how to improve your business and less time worrying about your competition.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
I think for me personally the biggest challenge I always seem to be facing in this crazy world of real estate photography and media is staying relevant and current in new trends. I think most real estate photographers are always looking for what the next thing or service to offer will be. In the early days of real estate photography, basic ground level interior and exterior photos were all that was needed to sell a home. Jump to the year 2024 and not only are photos still important, but now agents need to have a presence on social media to stay relevant themselves.
Today potential home buyers want to see as much information about a home as they can get. Most home buyers are doing their home work and searching for homes online. Potential home buyers want to see more than just basic interior and exterior photos from the ground of a home. They want to see floor plans, 3D tours, video walkthrough tours and property websites of a home.
Home buyers want to learn not only about the homes, but about the agents that they may choose to go with to help them find that perfect home. So as a real estate media provider, you are always looking for new ways to not only help your clients market the home but also market themselves. Its no surprise that in this social media world we now live in our attention spans seem to have been reduced down to 90 seconds. Thats how long agents have to sometimes win over a potential new client using professional real estate media on social media platforms. So as a real estate media provider I always have to be looking for new trends in what is “hot” at the moment. But it is just part of the daily grind in this profession.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mainehomemedia.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mainehomemedia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mainehomemedia
- Youtube: https://vimeo.com/mainehomemedia
Image Credits
Jason Veilleux, Maine Home Media
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