I was seven years old when I picked up my first camera. It was a Kodak disposable, the kind meant to last a week of vacation, and I burned through it in a day. My family thought I was being reckless. Then they got the photos developed. That moment, more than any class or camera upgrade that came later, is where my photography career actually began. What started as a kid's obsession on a Florida road trip eventually took me from the Minneapolis suburbs to LA, Phoenix, New York City, and onto sets with global brands. This is how that happened.
The Kodak Disposable That Started Everything
Every year, my family drove down to Florida. Same trip, same rhythm. One year I was handed a disposable Kodak to document the week. It was gone by day one. I wasn't being careless. I just couldn't stop. Everything felt worth capturing: light on water, strangers in the background, the way my family looked when they weren't posing. My parents were somewhere between baffled and annoyed. Then they picked up the developed prints. They were kind of good. Even at seven I had something, some instinct for a moment before it slipped. Nobody called it talent yet. But they kept buying me cameras.
Growing Up Creative in a Town That Didn't Quite Get It
I grew up in suburban Minnesota where being creative was treated more like a personality flaw than a skill. I was called weird a lot. I never really felt like I fit in, and honestly, I still don't always. That outsider feeling turned out to be fuel.
In high school, a photography class gave me access to my first real camera. That class cracked something open. For the first time, seeing differently wasn't a problem. It was the whole point.
When my parents splurged on a DSLR for my birthday, I shot a ketchup bottle. I know. But I spent hours staring at those two images. The way the light hit the glass, the shadows, the color. I thought they were the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.
That ketchup bottle was my first real photograph, and I was completely hooked.
Finding My People in Minneapolis
By 2012 I was shooting constantly, always with a camera on me, always looking. I was 50/50 film and digital, fully emo, and spending more time in the woods or exploring abandoned buildings than anywhere else. I also found something I didn't expect: community. Through a Facebook group I connected with photographers, models, and creatives all over Minneapolis. We'd have big meetups a few times a year, a real mix of ages and backgrounds, all brought together by the same obsession. I hadn't known any of them before. We became genuinely close. We were always outside, always collaborating, always helping each other execute whatever concept someone had dreamed up. It was peer mentorship before I had the vocabulary for it. Those years gave me both the practice and the foundation, even if I couldn't fully see it at the time.
Meanwhile, I was up late teaching myself Photoshop (torrented, naturally), watching YouTube tutorials and making self-portraits that were almost certainly inspired by album covers. Learning entirely on instinct.
The Accidental Business
Before I knew what was happening, I had clients. The friend photos turned into senior portraits when everyone started graduating. Senior portraits turned into family photos and weddings. I hadn't planned any of it. The work just evolved with my life.
When it came time for college, I had a problem: I was already doing photography. So I worked retail full-time for a year, saved everything I could, and at 19 moved to LA.
LA was scrappy and real. Still picking up retail hours, but finding band portraits and fashion lifestyle work through friends I was making in the city. I shot Paris Fashion Week. I landed a part-time photography job off Craigslist at a prop house, photographing famous costumes from films that got sold on eBay. I thought I had made it. What I had made was $20,000 that year. It was a start.
Learning Strobes and Going Full-Time Freelance
A relationship brought me to Phoenix, which turned out to be one of the most formative moves of my career, even if that wasn't why I went. The market there was heavy with corporate work: headshots, local magazine features, billboards. To survive it, I had to learn strobes.
It was terrifying at first. Strobe lighting is a completely different skill set, powerful and precise and unforgiving when you get it wrong. But I learned it, and once I did, the work got consistent enough that I made a decision: full-time freelance. No safety net. Just the camera.
That's also when I started attracting consumer brands. Still shooting portraits, but now with a product in the frame. Those clients needed clean white-background work alongside lifestyle content. My skill set was expanding in real time to meet the demand.
Coming Home, Assisting, and Leveling Up
In 2021 I moved back to Minnesota to be close to family. It felt like a pause. It turned into one of the most strategically important years of my career. I started helping at a friend's photography studio, handling other rentals that used the space, in exchange for 20 free hours a month to use the gear myself.
Once I had enough studio time to actually know what I was doing, I started cold DM-ing commercial photographers on Instagram offering to assist. That move changed everything. Assisting put me inside shoots I never would have had access to otherwise. I was watching how professionals ran sets, managed clients, solved problems on the fly. It accelerated my development faster than any course could have.
The clients followed the trajectory: local small businesses became regional brands, regional became national, national became global. I relocated to New York City, where I've built the practice I always imagined.
What I Know Now That I Wish I'd Known Then
Looking back, the path makes complete sense, even when it didn't at the time. A few things I've carried forward:
Community is the curriculum
The Facebook group in Minneapolis, the cold DMs in New York. Every real leap in my career came from connecting with other people in the craft. You learn faster from being in the room than from any tutorial.
Being weird is the work
Every time I tried to fit a mold, shoot what was safe, do what the market wanted, it felt off. Every time I followed instinct, the work got better and the right clients showed up. The thing that made me feel like I didn't fit in growing up is exactly what makes my work distinct now. The craft has to come first. I've never chased trends or shortcuts. The ketchup bottle taught me that. I fell in love with light and composition before I even had words for what I was seeing. When the craft comes first, everything else eventually catches up.
Still Living the Childhood Dream
From a burned-through disposable on a Florida vacation to shooting campaigns for global brands. I genuinely never expected to get here, not because I doubted the work, but because the dream was so specific and so personal that it felt too good to be real life.
And yet. Here we are.
FAQ
How did Jillian get into photography? Jillian started at age 7 with a Kodak disposable on a family vacation, burning through it in a single day. What began as pure instinct evolved through high school classes, self-teaching, and a tight-knit Minneapolis photography community into a full-time professional career.
What kind of photography does Jillian Lenser specialize in? Jillian specializes in brand, product, and commercial photography, working with everyone from indie startups to global brands. Her background spans portrait, fashion, lifestyle, and studio product work, giving her campaigns a versatile, editorial-quality edge.
How did Jillian Lenser go from freelance to working with global brands? Through intentional skill-building, cold outreach to commercial photographers for assisting work, and consistent client projects that grew from local to regional to national. She relocated to NYC, where she now works with brands on a global scale.
Is Jillian Lenser self-taught? Largely, yes. While a high school photography class gave her early DSLR access, most of her technical knowledge came from self-directed learning: YouTube, peer mentorship, assisting working professionals, and years of hands-on practice.
Where is Jillian Lenser based? Jillian is based in New York City and works with brands locally, nationally, and globally. Her career has taken her through Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and NYC, each city shaping a different part of her photographic practice.
If you're a brand looking for a photographer who brings that same obsessive attention to your campaign, or just want to see what two decades of loving this craft looks like in practice, take a look at my portfolio or reach out directly.
Read more
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External
Sigma / Travel the Alps with SIGMA’s Lightweight 18-50mm & 10-18mm Zoom Lenses
Sigma / Behind the Scenes on a Fashion Shoot with the Sigma BF
Sigma / Why I Choose SIGMA Zoom Lenses for Studio Photography
Sigma / A Fresh Look at Berlin Through the Sigma 12mm F1.4 DC Contemporary Lens