Personal Bio

Hi, Ian Jenkins here. I was born in ‘84 in the small city of Seattle (it grew a lot over the years!). My father was a photographer for the MLS at that time, back when you could only post a single black and white picture for the front of your listing. As a child I remember spending days driving with my father to go to houses in different areas of Seattle as well as other close cities. There was never a day when I didn’t want to be in the dark room in the basement of my father’s house. “Ian don’t open that door yet” ha-ha, who knew you could ruin a photo if the light went into the dark room before it was processed?

  Being around cameras always intrigued me, but I never thought I would follow in that career path. Years later after high school I was delivering pizza and attending community college in North Seattle when my father (who at that time was a solo small business owner who provided HDR photography for listings) approached me and said, “I do not have time for other clients, would you be interested in learning this field?” I said “Yes” it is a decision that changed my life and opened my eyes to the profession of photography.

To be honest, after years and years of experience – I am still learning and becoming a more complete photographer. Technology changes, requests and needs of clients fluctuate over time, and new techniques emerge in the vast world of photography.

In 1998 I was lucky enough to make my first trip to the place we call Paradise Valley and the small town of Livingston. My stepfather and to this day, mentor and loved one – had a cabin near Chico Hot Springs. I spent the years visiting Montana, paradise valley and Livingston and the greater area as often as I could manage. I spent most of the time fishing the rivers and getting sunburnt (my parents told me to wear sunscreen, I just always forgot or refused politely). We would spend time at Chico and explore different areas of the region. But my favorite thing to do was shoot clay pigeons at the skeet range that was located over the hill near chico.

  Over the years, I brought my lovely woman and first-born son out to explore the area and stay at the cabin. Every time we returned home it seemed as if the stay was not long enough. Year after year, visit after visit that feeling of longing persisted and only grew worse after each time, we visited. At one point a few years back we stayed about 16 days at the cabin. Which was long enough to make it feel as if we were living in the area (secretly we were both looking at long term accommodations just to entertain the idea of moving). On the day before leaving, I said, “you know I could live out here” She responded “Ya, me too” I said “seriously, I could live out here for real” she responded “no really, me too!” Four months later we were lucky enough to call this wonderful place home. We had our second son here at Livingston Healthcare and have a third on the way at the time of writing this, who is due in July.

  I would have pursued a faster transition into starting my business here in Montana, but I was lucky enough to take care of my sons while slowly building the blocks on my own LLC. When my first-born came, I was younger and spent too much time working, missing time that does not come back. So, when the opportunity came to be able to focus on my family, it was important to myself and loved ones to do so. I don’t regret it one bit and am so lucky to have been able to watch my sons grow older, yet the time has arrived where I am able to take on clients with no sacrifices.

The way I see real estate photography is that every project is a blank canvas. I arrive at a site that I have never seen before and try to achieve through my lens a sense of familiarity for a potential buyer as well as them fully understanding the way the house comes together as a whole when being viewed online. The biggest feather in my cap is when a sale happens, and the realtor or client says the photos helped a ton on the sale. Knowing that I contributed to a moment in time that is such a large part of someone’s life is a great feeling.

A client once asked me “If you were rich would you still work?” I told them “Definitely, I love what I do, so honestly, it’s not really “working””. Driving to a property with the music on, talking to a client or homeowner who tells me all kinds of cool experiences in their lives, taking photos of a place someone lived their lives and can tell stories of the past, finding that one angle that represents an area of the project in the perfect light, it all culminates to something I have come to love in the 20 or so years in this line of work. I can only hope for another awesome 20 years or more of being part of the amazing world of photography.

Yours truly, Ian Jenkins.