Today we’d like to introduce you to Abra Zawacki.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Hi, I’m Abra Zawacki, owner of AZ Photo Jax. Let me start by introducing my name – it is pronounced with a long “A,” sounds like Abraham (minus the ham!). I’m a portrait photographer and art educator (MFA) who believes in the power of photography to help people (and pets!) feel great about themselves, and their accomplishments.
I have worked in professional photography for over 15-years, with the last ten of those years in my current role, as owner of AZ Photo Jax. Like many photographers, my love for the medium began when I was quite young. I learned photography working with black & white film in the darkroom and shooting primarily with 35mm and Medium Format film cameras. I did this for many years before I even picked up a Digital Camera in college! This statement certainly dates me – but digital camera technology was in its infancy when I was introduced to my first Cannon DSLR camera.
I’m from Nashville, TN, and a few places in between. Growing up, my dad served in the Air Force, so we traveled a bit, but eventually landed in my family’s home-state of Tennessee, which is where I attended high school, completed my Undergraduate work and began my career. After earning dual fine art and business degrees from Belmont University in Nashville, I worked in Advertising for a national food brand, which was great fun and provided me with unique experiences working on the design-side of food marketing. I’m still amazed by the creative food hacks I learned working alongside food stylists – a blowtorch can really work wonders on a pepperoni pizza!
A little over five years into my advertising career, I was ready for a new challenge. The academic in me was yearning for the classroom – to further my craft and try-on teaching for size. So, I went for it! I quit my job, sold my home in Nashville, TN, moved to Savannah, GA and went back to school full-time to pursue a Master of Fine Arts Degree (MFA) in Photography at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD).
Whatever I thought the MFA experience would be when I entered, it was not quite that. It was a turbulent two-plus years. The experience stripped me down, completely challenging my confidence as an artist, only to build me back up. But I believe this was the point! Without adversity there cannot be meaningful growth. So, I climbed out of the funk I had sunk into, embraced a radical shift in my art thinking/making, and found my footing again. Along the way I gained invaluable experience in studio lighting, retouching, art critique, fashion photography, portraiture, and so much more. I eventually finished my time at SCAD working on a one-year photo documentary project in Hong Kong.
The icing on the cake for this whole experience is that I met my husband Logan while at SCAD. As a fellow photo student and MFA graduate, it was our mutual love of the arts and desire to work in higher education that brought us back to Logan’s hometown of Jacksonville, FL in 2012. We both worked full-time as photography and graphic design instructors at local universities before pivoting into new careers around 2016.
So once again, I found myself jumping feet-first into a new challenge – creating a new portrait photography business, something I knew a lot about “in theory” but had zero practical experience in!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has been twisty, bumpy and sometimes nauseating! But the journey has certainly taught me the value of persistence.
The transition from photographic educator to full-time portrait photographer came with a steep learning curve. I was no longer creating research-based work for galleries, I was now creating and selling work to everyday people, which believe me, was scary! Just the word “sales” gave me ick at the onset, and I was deeply uncomfortable with the idea of having to take on certain genres of photography just to make ends-meat. Trial and error helped me realize what I didn’t want to pursue, but also allowed me to test the Jacksonville market, and see where I could fill-in some meaningful gaps. The challenge then was how to parlay my interests and abilities into something the public would want to invest in, while not compromising my personal standards – and I really needed to figure this out!
You see, when Logan and I left academia in 2016, it was not out of desire for career change, it was out of necessity. In April of 2015, and exactly one day after closing on our first home together, our employer The Art Institute of Jacksonville, announced its impending closure. Which meant both of us, were soon to be out of jobs. With limited full-time opportunities available at area colleges, and the inability to just pick up and move on a dime, we each made the decision to move-on from teaching. This decision was devastating, it felt like we were giving up on our dreams.
So, what I’m going to say next may sound nutty, BUT I highly recommend losing your dream job (maybe just once)! Experiencing and overcoming this disappointment was a gift, because it forced me to examine my expectations, feel more grateful for my support systems, and it opened my eyes to new possibilities.
What I loved about teaching, was helping students bring out the best in themselves. It all clicked when I realized I could achieve the same goal through my approach to portrait photography. By creating meaningful experiences, really listening to individual wants and needs, and highlighting my clients’ best qualities, I could provide a confidence boost and help clients celebrate some personal milestones along the way.
Best of all, it’s fun, and I’ve met so many amazing people over the years! I could recount the financial obstacles, and all the other challenges related to starting a new business, but my story is one of personal faith. “Staying the course” (for me) did not mean staying on the path I originally set out to navigate, it meant staying true to my pursuit to help others through photography.
(And in case you were worried about Logan, he now works for Sally Dark Rides – another dream job, for a theme park loving, big kid like him!)
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My company, AZ Photo Jax, specializes in high-quality Headshots, colorful Pet Portraits, and High School Senior Photography experiences. I niched-down to these specific areas of portraiture because they allow me to work one-on-one with most of my clients. I’m at my personal best when I can converse with clients, set a relaxing pace, and focus on capturing expressive details. I’ve explored many genres of photography over the years, but as a professional, I have found portraiture to be the happy place where my technical acumen and interpersonal skills intersect.
I would say that I am most well-loved for my work with pets and their people! My goal when I started photographing pets was to bring the same level of high-quality studio light, color and emotional detail to portraits of pets, as I do for my human clientele. Over the years I had developed a style of studio shooting, that lent itself well to capturing a lot of movement and energy without sacrificing quality of light, so, it just occurred to me that pets would thrive in this environment – and so they did!
Over the past ten years we have worked with all kinds of pet personalities, at every stage in life: puppies, elder dogs, big dogs, little dogs, disabled dogs, and even some that are a bit wild! Along the way a few cats have graced us with their presence, and we recently photographed rabbits and prairie dogs for a new pet food company.
Photographing people with their pets became a natural extension of my service offering, from the get-go. I was always meeting people who said, “I don’t have kids, but I want cute family photos!” So, I would say, bring your dogs to the studio, they are your family! It doesn’t matter if you are single with four dogs, or two adults with a couple of fur-babies. I’m always going to encourage clients to get in on the action. Pets really turn on the charm for their humans, so it’s often hilarious to see what kind of moments unfold! I always say, “there is no time like the present to celebrate your furry family members.” And quite honestly, I’m humbled, proud and still a bit surprised to be doing this for a living.
The photographic experience for both myself, and my clients is steeped in emotion. So often we are laughing along with our clients at the silly moments during their photo shoot, and there are plenty of “ooohs and aahhhs” when puppies are bouncing around the studio and licking their owners’ faces, but there are also photo shoots that occur during the last few days or weeks of a beloved pet’s life. Those are hard but also healing for a pet’s family members. There is nothing worse than learning that your pet is at the end of their lifespan, only to realize that you have just a few halfway decent cell phone photos of your furry best friend. Documenting a pet, and the love they share with their humans, is like creating a time-capsule for each family. The deep gratitude clients express to me once they receive a beautiful piece of wall art, or an album commemorating their pet photography experience, is absolutely the best reward.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
The teacher in me can’t help but leave a few encouraging words for those who are amid change, whatever that may look like; a mindset shift, new business venture, or just moving on from the same-old, same-old. My advice is stay malleable – stretch your capabilities, challenge your existing perspectives, and surround yourself with community who want to see you thrive. These may not be other people who are in the same profession as you. The more diverse your community the better. When you find the heart, or the “the why” to your efforts, follow-it, don’t allow distracting or harmful influences to alter your purpose. Instead, continuously seek out new ways to share your talents with the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.azphotojax.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azphotojax/
