Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Jones.
Hi Jamie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m from San Diego, I’ve lived in Atlanta for about three years now, and I travel the country doing time-lapse photography and freelance Cinematography. I moved from San Diego to Los Angeles when I was nineteen and never really looked back! After film school, I found my way into the commercial and music video industries, which were both fun to work in for a few years while learning the ropes, but became (financially) unreliable over time as I started building a family.
I met my wife, Erica Jones (Powell) on the set of a cheap cheesy fun horror flick; she was an sfx makeup artist at the time, and we hit it off pretty instantly. As time went on, we continued working together in various capacities. She’s produced, directed, done sound, done makeup, edited, synced sound, color corrected, done DIT, pulled focus, humped cable, struck lights… You name it, she’s done it! She’s truly my companion and cohort, and we decided to start shooting together when we came here to Atlanta. This is a far nicer place than Los Angeles to raise our family, and although many in our community don’t identify as being from Atlanta (which is peculiar in my opinion!), we often find ourselves in the heart of Downtown and feel perfectly safe and at home!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The road hasn’t necessarily been bumpy, but it’s had a lot of twists and turns! When I really started my career about six months after graduating, I formed a core group of people with different talents (as most people in collaboration-based creative industries do), and we all worked well together and made pretty decent names for ourselves for several years. But with that attention comes lucrative deals, and as time goes on, people part ways and sign on with other studios or production companies. That’s when you find yourself forming a new core group, and then a year later, guess what? Those people dissolve into the woodwork, too. And after a few years, you kind of realize that you won’t ever have people that you see every day. You’ll have friends, but they won’t ever really KNOW you. Some people are cool with that; some people enjoy riding around their carousel of set-buddies, but not me. I’m very passionate about my work, and I feel like I perform the best when the people around me are passionate about what we’re doing. That’s why I realized after many years of working long underpaid hours with people that were cool, but I didn’t really know, that I should start working side by side with my wife!
Also, I used to love movies. Then I worked in the movie business and made some b-rate films and a lot of car commercials, and now movies just look like work and I don’t really enjoy them anymore. But I’m sure you know this story, people like me are a dime a dozen!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a Photographer and Cinematographer, and I specialize in time-lapse. I will go any time, any place, and stay for however long it takes to get whatever the given scene has to offer. Things like the way the Milky Way moves behind clouds or how the shadows of skyscrapers move across a busy downtown intersection. Everyone experiences moments like this. You move through time and see the world around you and smell the street food and hear thunder in the distance; you experience the moment, but that time will never repeat. It may be naive and/or pretentious for me to say so, but I feel as though I’m capturing time; like I’m holding on to certain beautiful things that I see and experience, and not only do I get to keep them forever, but I also get to share them with others! They’re like little brackets of life that I experience with people that I care about, and whenever I rewatch them, it takes me right back to the exact time and place, and it’s a wonderful feeling!
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
The world feels horrifyingly empty without people on the streets. I felt kind of stupid when I realized that, but then again you can think about or know that something would hypothetically be a certain way, and then to actually experience it and see it for yourself is kind of shocking. Especially in a huge city like Atlanta!
Pricing:
- 8K Daytime Time-lapse Download (10sec.) – $60-$80
- 8K Overnight Time-lapse Download (10sec.) – $80-$100
Contact Info:
- Email: jamie@sugarpoppictures.com
- Website: www.SugarPopPictures.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/sugarpoppictures
- Facebook: facebook.com/sugarpoppictures
- Other: https://www.pond5.com/artist/jamiejones113
Image Credits
The girl in the lower right corner of the picture in the Redwood Forest is Erica, my wife. Also the tent-box-thing on top of our car is called a Tepui Tent, we got it specifically for going out into the Mojave desert to shoot overnight time-lapse (lots of Tarantulas = don’t sleep on the ground!)
