About Me
"One day all of us will lose our sight. The surest way to learn to see is to savor what we have now. Savor every marigold, every mountaintop, every cloud, every color, every farm, and every face."
- Chris Orwig
Jamie "JJ" Gum
Hello! I'm Jamie. I'm a Colorado native, born and raised in the Evergreen/Conifer areas and I LOVE the mountains. Someday I hope to live in them again... but for now Littleton is home and I love it here too! I have a very cool husband (I mean, look at him!) who really is my best friend and we are currently expecting our first kiddo in January of 2023. That lucky kiddo gets to join us and our pup Murphy in this wild ride of a life and we are so excited!
We love good food, hiking, an occasional video game and of course I love photography!
"JJ Gum Photography" is relatively new and I took the plunge into my business in 2020. It was a long time coming but I realized that I would always regret not at least attempting to make this hobby of over 15 years something more serious. My more personal 'why' for doing photography comes from my past experiences and is tightly connected to the beautiful quote above.
This quote was one I read a at a very personally vulnerable time in my life. I was several years into trying to manage an auto-immune eye disease and having to make significant sacrifices to do so. I lived in Boise, ID while my team of specialists were located in Salt Lake City, UT. I was in a difficult place personally and needed something to work towards. I became determined to try and resume my photography, which I had put aside for several years. I picked up Chris Orwig's Visual Poetry for some needed motivation.
In his book, the quote above follows a touching story about a photographer who slowly lost their vision. The dimming light was visible in their work and eventually became nothing but dark shadows. Chris then reframes the experience in a more metaphoric view with his lines about savoring the beauty around us as we will all lose some form of "sight" (artistic or physical) over time. Little did I know, my difficulty with vision had not reached it's peak. 18 short months later after 2 emergency surgeries my vision was rapidly declining. While I was fortunate that my vision loss was reversible through additional procedures, I did spend the next year legally blind with limited capacity in all aspects of my life before these surgeries could be completed.
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Now if you're still here and still reading - you're a champion. I share this difficult experience to highlight the purpose behind my work. It is my goal to not only savor the views and adventures of this life for myself as long as I can see - but to support you in preserving your own memories too. Due to the nature of my blind adventures, I have a unique appreciation for the details I couldn't previously see. The way the the light hits a wall, the texture of a leaf or the subtle shared look between life-long companions.
With my unique perspective and artistic experience, your vision and beautiful self - let's create timeless photographs that authentically chronicle who you are today.
