Meet Jessica Grace

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Grace a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.

Generosity, empathy and a service-oriented heart are all qualities I witnessed and developed through watching my mom. She’s the most caring and giving person I know and I’ve seen her move mountains to help others for decades.

I think when you experience people’s genuine surprise at being treated with compassion, it just reinforces how much it’s lacking in our relationships with others and encourages you to continue cultivating a tender heart.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m a family photographer who is setting herself apart by making professional photos more accessible to families in the metro Atlanta area. Over and over again I hear from families who cannot afford photography; who have accessibility or mobility issues and haven’t had pictures taken in years; who are fearful that their neurodivergent child will not be understood; who are simply too uneasy in front of a camera to risk spending the time and money on something they’ll look back on and hate.

My approach to photography begins with understanding what barriers your family has to getting professional photos taken and helping to remove them. For expecting mamas who are really struggling with self image, this may look like styling help and specific posing guidance; for families with low-demand children or mobility issues, this may look like very limited posing guidance, really leaning into to my child-led approach or providing location options suitable for loved ones in wheelchairs.

Before I started my photography business, I started my family. And being a mother of two small children provides me with endless opportunities to develop a patient and tender approach to nearly every situation, including preserving memories for families in my community.

I’m really diving into in-home newborn sessions in 2025 and am absolutely loving it. My approach is different in that it is slow-paced, more conservatively priced and accessible, plus I combine wrapped and posed baby photos with lifestyle images of the entire family, It’s been such a learning experience and I’m just so honored to be walking alongside so many families, ever so briefly, during this sweet season of their lives.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I’m still a relatively new photographer compared to many professionals in my area, but my best advice would be to stay focused on your “Why” and not compare yourself. It’s really hard when creating social media content is so important to building your brand. It’s super easy to see amazing photographers, most of whom have been in business for years and years, and think you aren’t good enough, you aren’t as talented or that it will take forever to be where they are.

This doesn’t serve you.

By focusing on my why — serving people in my community with compassion, making professional photography more accessible and being a little bit better tomorrow than I was today — I’m able to keep my head up easier…most days!

I also think patience and intentional continuing education are key. Very few people build a thriving business from scratch in months or even a couple of years. And once you’ve spent some time in the business and start to see where your love in it is, buy those courses; find those photographers and learn from them; start tailoring your connections to support you in that area. For me, this year, that’s been lighting education and newborn photography workshops. We’ll see where that takes me!

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m always looking for people to build community with, photography related and otherwise. I believe when we support each other and lift each other up, we’re all more likely to experience success.

I’d love to connect and collaborate with people who support mothers and family growth. Midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, leaders of postpartum support groups, churches that offer groups, support and programs for moms. As a mom myself, a huge part of my heart as a photographer is for mothers and helping them get in front of the camera to celebrate this hard and beautiful season.

I also donate sessions to schools, charities and churches in my community and am available to help provide affordable and accessible photography services to these institutions. I’d love to give back more!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jessgracephotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jgracephoto
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessgracephotos/