Today we’d like to introduce you to Jackson Whalen.
Jackson, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hello, my name is Jackson Whalen. I was born in Ukraine and at the age of one, I was adopted into a family from Savannah. I originally got into acting when I was about eight years old. My dad and me, with a couple of our friends, were riding bikes on Tybee and the Last Song were here filming and one of the casting crew came up to us and asked if we wanted to be in a film as extras. Of course, none of us had experienced it, but we still accepted the challenge.
After that first day of filming, I and my dad enjoyed it so much we ended up filming for the whole summer and after filming we both became much more active in the film industry. Eventually, going to the Scads Film festivals and did more film projects. My all-time favorite film I’ve done was for the Foo Fighter’s Bridges Burning music video. That was a crazy experience and got to meet the band. Along with other film projects I’ve gotten to meet different actors/actresses in the industry. I’ve met Will Smith, Miley Cyrus, Alec Baldwin, Armie Hammer, and many more. I then eventually decided to stop acting in middle school and just focus on school.
The next big thing I found myself into was photography. It was about my junior year of high school at Savannah Arts Academy. I had a friend come into town who was a photographer from North Carolina named Parker Sauder. He asked me if I wanted to model for him in these clothes from a company he was shooting photos for. So we both head down to Tybee Island and start taking photos. I eventually start to become more curious about his camera and how it works. At the end of the day, I get home and start looking around on Instagram for photographers and find myself stumbling across Joe Goldberg. Photographer from the Washington area. Scrolling through his feed just wowed me and crazy to think how creative and artistic his feed was.
So my curiosity grew more and I just DM him on Instagram and he replied back. I asked him for camera suggestions and just had a nice conversation with him which made me more inspired to get a camera for myself. Before then, I would use my iPhone 8 to take photos. Not realizing the difference it is having a real DSLR camera compared to just simply click the one button on my phone. Christmas rolls around and I end up seeing my dad get me my first DSLR Nikon d3500 camera. Came with two lenses and man, I was hyped. A couple of months later, I got to work with my friend Devon Moore on his film project in taking BTS photos for him. At the time, I didn’t really have much knowledge of the camera’s settings and really what ISO was, etc.
So, I just set the camera to auto thinking it would go well. Afterward, I took about 600 photos, and man those photos just made me feel less satisfied than I was. There were probably a few good ones and just overall decent quality. After that, I knew I needed to practice more. So, I would go downtown with a friend and take photos of them along with some landscape. Then the next challenging part was learning to edit photos. All new to me but eventually came over time. My first ever paid photoshoot was the most nervous thing ever for me. Having the thoughts of messing up and the client won’t like the photos was the stressful thing ever.
Turns out it went well and gave me more confidence in myself. After that, kept working and worked with the local artists here in the Savannah area. Doing my first ever BTS photos for a music video, shooting photos for a friend who does custom shoe art, our Senior Motorcade graduation, and portraits for people. Over time, I could see my progression, which makes me proud and glad I never gave up. I graduated during covid which was a huge challenge and not know really what I wanted to do from thereon.
I continued working with photography but not as much since covid really locked us down. The next big thing I find myself doing is real estate, which is my main current goal. Overall, photography and Real-estate are my two big focuses in life, and just can’t wait to see what the future brings.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Overall, I say it’s been a wild one. It’s had its ups and downs. Mainly Covid being the biggest hit, and just coming straight out of high school. I really never knew what I wanted to do after and photography has helped me get through those times until I got my interest in real estate. The challenging thing with each photoshoot is the lighting and weather and for me wanting to give my best work. But without these challenges what’s the point. It’s nice to see myself learning during each photo shoot.
My real estate path has been a rough ride. But with time I know, I can accomplish it and will be grateful for those challenges knowing they are there to help me learn. I’m glad to have friends of mine and my family being supportive of what I choose to do.
We can’t please everyone in the world and it seems like most people after high school go straight into college and follow a path there but I wanted something different and here a year later I’m slowly creating that legacy and finding the path that works best for me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
With my photography, I mainly work best with portraits. Portraits are my favorite types of photos along with landscapes. Each photoshoot is a whole different adventure. Meaning, whatever happens, happens, I learn something new dealing with photo conditions, locations I never knew about, and new photography techniques. That’s what I love about photography, it’s nothing the same. One of my favorite photos I’ve taken was in New York’s China Town.
There was this festival going on and I captured this photo of the festival and just amazed me how unique the environment was. Like capturing a moment in time that you can’t go back to, New York was an amazing experience. I’m really proud of my growth over my journey with photography. Just to see my photos from junior year compared to this day. I would never have thought I’d gotten to this point. Another great experience I had was with the motorcade graduation for Savannah Arts. My friend, Devon Moore was filming a documentary called, Where This Flower Blooms, which was covering our senior year during covid and the graduation.
I had the role of taking photos of BTS and taking photos of the graduates and just overall amazing how it all turned out. It was a nice way to end my senior year and to contribute to the class of 2020. What sets me apart from others is my creativity. I come up with creative ideas for photoshoots and just am always thinking of different projects I can do.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Overall, the city is great, plenty of opportunities and I’ve got to meet other artists/creators here.
Pricing:
- Photoshoot: $75
Contact Info:
- Email: jwhalen688@gmail.com
- Website: https://jackson-whalen-photography.square.site/portraits
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackson__whalen__/
