Check Out Sarah Swanson’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Swanson.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
A lot of us said we would be something cool when we grew up. At least something we thought was cool at age eight. A doctor, police officer, dancer, popstar, pro basketball player, or a fashion photographer. I am delighted that I didn’t just dream it, I became my ‘something cool.’ I chased after my eight-year-old dream relentlessly and am proud to say I wake up every day hungry for more, motivated to keep chasing my creative dreams as a fashion photographer. My journey to get where I am today was just that, a journey.

Thanks to my grandmother, Dottie, my first exposure to a camera was a throwaway Kodak 24 mm film camera in the 90’s. I was around six years old when she handed me my very own throwaway camera to shoot my brother’s birthday party. I don’t believe it can be said I was a child photography protégé, but I can safely say I took my camera duty very seriously from the word ‘go.’ I took so many photos as a child, teen, and young adult that to this day I have tubs full of printed photos.

I was fifteen, a freshman in high school when I convinced my parents to let me enroll in my first-night photography course at the junior college in my hometown of Joshua Tree, California. No surprise- my first subjects were Joshua trees. I had a desire to document everything and no idea what to focus on until my very cool aunt Susie exposed me to the action sports fashion industry. She worked for several surf and skate brands in Orange County, and I was hooked. Surf photographer, fashion photographer or magazine photographer; one of those would do!

It was not a straight shot from there. I had to overcome my fear of going to college and graduating, as I would be the first out of my three older siblings to do so. I had to overcome my fear of ‘wasting a degree on photography and becoming a starving artist with no future’ which was planted in my head by my loving father figure, who truly meant well in asking me to consider a computer science or business marketing degree over my photo-communications degree. Not to mention, I did not know a single professional photographer and I sure as heck had no connections to help me break into this highly competitive field. I was just a little Joshua Tree gal with big city dreams tackling one wave and then the next that life pummeled at me.

Thankfully, I overcame all my fears and persevered, though not completely on my own. I have countless amazing influences, mentors, and cheerleaders I have collected over the years that connected my dots to where I am today in Austin. Looking back the pivotal moments in my journey all led me to one huge leap of faith that landed me my dream opportunity as an in-house brand photographer in San Francisco in 2017. That opportunity eventually led me out to Austin, Texas in June 2020.

There are four pivotal moments that lead me to where I am today. First, when I was in college, I landed an unpaid published photography opportunity and separately got accepted to the CBS Entertainment Tonight Internship Program. Honestly, reflecting on that time, getting accepted into the California State University Fullerton TUSK Magazine staff proved to be more challenging than acquiring my internship for CBS, ET. I had to literally chase down the professor and pitch to him in an elevator on campus why he should reconsider accepting me after he had already denied my initial application due to “not having any professional experience prior.” A spot opened and I was in. I covered more stories than any other photographer in his course that semester. The stories ranged from the rock band T.R.I.C.E., performing at the Hollywood Palladium to a tragic story involving the death of a 22-year-old Anaheim Angels Pitcher and two other CSU Fullerton students. My second pivotal moment was getting my first paid photography opportunity shooting youth sports in Orange County. My third pivotal moment was creating and launching my first online portfolio under the startup brand name ‘Swantography’ a clever play on words, using my last name and the word ‘photography.’ Swantography did not stick, I ended up changing my brand name and still obtain the rights to and operate under SJLife.Photography. My fourth pivotal opportunity was getting accepted to work in the studio for the La Jolla Group, the end-to-end operational solution for active consumer lifestyle brands such as O’Neill Surf, and at that time, Metal Mulisha Motorcross. While there, I gained my first exposure to a brand lifestyle shoot with O’Neill surf and was super HOOKED!

I remember seeing the images in the O’Neill store from the shoots I was a production assistant on and thinking to myself, “someday I will walk into a mall or store and see my images up there, someday that will be MY work.” Fast forward to 2019 and my images from a Hawaii lifestyle shoot I did with Chubbies Shorts for the Spring 2019 line were blown up to billboard size in the Santa Monica Promenade Mall displayed for all to see, including me. I have also had my images digitally printed on several notable websites such as those for Nordstrom, Maxim, and Austin American Statesman due to Chubbies Shorts being highlighted for their disruption in the men’s fashion industry with their 5.5-inch short shorts.

‘What am I up to today’ in Austin? By title, I am the Manager of Photography for Chubbies Shorts. What I do day to day, I am the Head Photographer and own both the lifestyle and editorial photography output for the brand. I manage and grow a new content team. Additionally, I oversee building the new studio in Austin and manage the creative process for shoots from starting pitches to the VP and C suite level team members, all the way to final delivery asset pass offs for campaigns and line launches. That is my ‘9-5’ If you will, but my work doesn’t end there. No, I am not crazy. Yes, I am a workaholic, but not out of a need, out of a want. I have maintained operations of my personal brand, SJLife.Photography, as a side hustle since its birth in 2009. I never want photography to feel like a ‘job’ and truthfully, it never has. It is my true-life passion, and I will always identify as a ‘Photographer.’ It is in my DNA now.

The projects, collaborations and shoots I look for and take on with SJLife.Photography are sometimes personal to me and vastly different to Chubbies Shorts. They stay in line with my focus of brand, product, fashion, and commercial work, for the most part. This helps me continue to diversify my portfolio outside of the abundance of spectacular imagery I have created solely of men’s thighs in short-shorts and help me continue to sharpen my creative sword. It’s no secret every professional artist has a side hustle (unless they are Annie Leibovitz). I like to think of my style as uplifting, intentional, bright, bold, and relatable. At Chubbies and at SJLife.Photography my style is uniquely mine, but always a reflection of the brand or end-user I am creating for. I truly love a challenge and am always interested in new projects.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Of course, there are many struggles I faced along the way, but the main ones have all helped me grow and become a more valuable contributor to a creative team and brand. I feel the bumps that have been the most career-defining for me are within my years at Chubbies. I am happy to share some of the bigger moments with you.

It started with my move to San Francisco early 2017. I took the largest leap of faith in myself to chase my dream of becoming a full-time professional photographer, truly risking it all. I sold my car, ironically, quit my full-time tech sales job in San Diego, packed up what little I owned, had no job lined up, not to mention had very little savings, all around a very unsound decision indeed, but still I leaped. From the second I stepped foot in SF, I was under pressure and limited to very little time to make this dream happen. I read books, self-taught, worked out of coffee shops and wine bars to ‘network,’ and I took online courses in photo editing. I upgraded my equipment, worked any paid photography job I got and marketed the heck out of myself. It was not long before I met several strong creative humans who generously started to help me connect dots and I landed a creative agency to represent me three months into my move. Through LuLu Artist Collective, a kick-butt female-owned and operated creative agency, I started working on sets with big box brands in the Bay Area as a part-time freelancer. I compiled a list of brands that were still considered a ‘startup’ but were fashion, not tech. One caught my eye, Chubbies Shorts. They were a fun, bright, living for the weekend, men’s short-shorts brand that had a lot of “creative freedom” going on but lacked consistency and quality throughout a lot of the product pictures on their website. I applied for a junior level position I was overqualified for in order to get my foot in the door and landed it. I was only there for one month before getting a full-time offer for Old Navy’s production team. Within my short time at Chubbies, I still made enough of an impression on key individuals about my interest in helping their photography team, which back then was one brave soul. I ended up landing an opportunity to apply one month after I left Chubbies for Old Navy to come back as their in-house photographer. This was my moment, my opportunity, the reward for all the risk taken, and there was NOTHING that was going to stand in my way. I nailed the interview, which consisted of setting up a studio in my kitchen to shoot Chubbies shorts as a flat lay and then knocking out the background of the images in post to prove I could edit in Photoshop. The second part of my interview, I would go into the Chubbies HQ studio after working at Old Navy for eight-plus hours to shoot products of the Chubbies cofounders to prove my ability to use studio lighting.

I have been with Chubbies for just over four years now. I have traveled domestically and internationally for the brand to over 25 locations covering up to 160 products per traveling shoot. That is not counting the 100s of local, smaller production shoots I have completed for the brand on an almost weekly basis for the past four years.

Of course, we all know COVID-19 caused a list of issues for everyone including myself. When Covid sent SF into a strict lockdown in March 2020, I made the choice to move the entire studio set up and majority of the photo samples into my apartment to ensure a continued production of assets for the brand. As you may imagine, it was challenging to continue operations within a 700 square foot one bedroom apartment. Therefore, I made the decision to move cross country to Austin in June 2020, following the brand as they had already established our HQ there prior to the pandemic.

It been a WILD few years of obstacles and change, but I survived and adapted. All that said, I would like to acknowledge how extremely fortunate I have been to have not only my job at Chubbies but the additional growth I have gained in my personal brand, SJLife.Photography. I am tremendously grateful for both the wildly supportive culture Chubbies Shorts cultivates and the new clients I have helped survive the darkest hours of the pandemic.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
It is so hard to narrow what I am ‘most proud of’ into a single thing. As I reflect, what puts the biggest smile on my face is the foundation I have built. The community and network I have established, the reputation of my work ethic and loyalty, and, most importantly the creative work I have had the opportunity to put out into the world that lives on, hopefully putting smiles on others’ faces, too. I believe what sets me apart from others is my empathy, passion, loyalty, and expression of creativity in the detail of my work. I treat every budget I build as if it were cash being spent out of my own pockets. I research and go above and beyond to ensure creative direction is aligned with the brand’s ethos and mission. I bring positivity to work every day and genuinely care deeply about each one of my colleagues, direct reports, models, clients, and customers I get to work with. I continue to self-learn and grow and stay hungry. Every day I truly wake up hungry for more. I am proud to say I am living my dream. If you are struggling to take a leap or create a change currently in your life regarding a career path, I want you to think about this. The average person spends one third of their lifetime working, approximately 90,0000 hours. If we are not doing something that brings true joy, money aside, just true joy, what is even the point?

Contact Info:

• Email: sjlifephotography@gmail.com
• Website: https://sjlife.photography/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sjlifephotography/