I'm Jaimie. A wedding and people photographer based in Joshua Tree, CA and St. Louis, MO. Mama to Gigi. Cat person. Feminist. Houseplant collector. Metal head. Avid life-long thrifter. I dislike pants and Diet Culture. I believe that Love is Love and Black Lives Matter. I'm an OG weird kid with a pretty good sense of humor. I've always been whatever the opposite of cool is, and not in the way that not cool is cool now. But I think when I'm 80, it'll work in my favor and I'll be like, super badass. I don't really follow trends and I don't do slang or buzz words. I just say fuck a lot instead. Fuck is timeless. It never goes out of style. Kind of like a good black and white photo.
To me, photography is the most beautiful marriage of art and connection. It’s so much more than a job, and you are so much more than just another client in a gallery. Each client is close to my heart, and I can still remember details and vows and moments of every session I’ve had the privilege to witness. For a creative soul, it’s truly a dream come true to share these intimate, milestone moments and turn them into art that you can treasure forever.
To me, photography is the most beautiful marriage of
art and connection.
In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “It’s not about what you look at. It’s what you see.” I believe in photographing those little things you might not even notice that capture your flow as a couple. The in-between moments, glances, crinkle-eye smiles, goosebumps. There’s nothing more beautiful and fascinating to me than the pure joy, excitement, and comfort of two people wildly in love.
There’s no need for perfect poses, perfect weather, perfect outfits, or a perfect location to capture the perfect memory. It’s about a snapshot in time - those photos that allow you to hold a feeling in your hands.
approach
documentary
This is a fun story that either makes me sound adventurous and all real-estate investy or completely unhinged depending on which way you look at it.
Or maybe hindsight will clarify that for me.
A little backstory: My husband and I have gutted and renovated multiple houses, including one I bought when we first started dating. We're not afraid of things that need work. When I look at a space, I always see it for what it could be, never for what it is.
In January 2022. My husband and I are watching some cabin show and we were like, "Dude. Why don't we do something like that? Just find land somewhere and build something small."
And we talked about it a lot. We hated living in the Midwest. Just the weather alone.
I knew exactly where I'd go. Joshua Tree.
The desert is fucking magical. There is no other way for me to describe it. It's quiet. You can hear the wind. The scent of creosote, this kind of cedar citrusy smell, is strongest after it's rained but the desert always has this fresh, earthy, herbal smell. From the first time I stepped foot in the Mojave, I knew it was a special place for me. But the area around Joshua Tree is somewhere where I feel absolutely, completely at peace. My anxiety dissolves within a day of being here. I feel more present. More aware. Calmer. More collected. Less frazzled and frayed. The energy here feels like a part of me that I didn't know was missing until I felt it.
So one random day in April 2022, I woke up and my eyes were crusted shut from tree pollen but yet it was snowing so I called a real estate agent in Joshua Tree and got started looking for my own piece of desert paradise. A few months later, we were the proud owners of 5 acres of desert with a dilapidated jackrabbit homesteader cabin.
Because it wouldn't be a Mike + Jaimie house if it were done.
We spend a lot of time at our cabin in Twentynine Palms, CA, hiking, enjoying the desert and mountains, exploring Palm Springs, and off-roading in Anza-Borrego State Park.
Our daughter is a toddler, and it's important for us to be around family and have that support and for her to have those relationships, so we still have our house in St. Louis, MO. We have the flexibility to go back and forth.
My husband and I are both self-employed and he can work remotely. I photograph a lot of non-traditional desert weddings and adventure elopements in Joshua Tree and Vegas. I also photograph non-traditional weddings and fat neutral boudoir photography in St. Louis, MO, where I have boudoir photography studio
just across the river in historic Alton, IL.
