Mrs. Jolley, one of the math teachers here at BSHS, has a very interesting story. On top of being a full-time teacher, she has been a wedding photographer for the past six years.
Mrs. Jolley has always loved taking pictures. When she was younger, she would take pictures with a point-and-shoot camera. “Before cameras on phones were so nice,” she says, “I always carried around a separate digital camera, and I actually still have it.”
She shares that she wanted to become a photographer to have a creative outlet while teaching and prevent burn-out. As a math teacher, she has to be very logical all the time, so she wanted something to be able to exercise the creative side of her brain.
Wedding photography, specifically, interested Mrs. Jolley because of how much fun they were to her. “I didn’t feel like I was working when I was photographing a wedding and so that’s why I stuck with weddings.” She also feels that she naturally has the attention to detail for this area of photography.
There are a lot of reasons Mrs. Jolley loves being a wedding photographer, she says. “My not serious answer is I’m always fed well…I always know I’m gonna get good food and dessert. But really it’s seeing people just celebrate their love.”
In a world that can be full of a lot of negative things, Mrs. Jolley thinks it’s cool that people can come together and celebrate something so beautiful. She also loves how personal each wedding is to each couple. “At the end of the day. It feels like I’m seeing two friends get married,” she says.
Mrs. Jolley describes getting into the business when she first started like making a snowball. “Once you get the snowball rolling it’s a lot easier but the building part of it is really hard.” She shares that it took a while to build up a reputation and become an established photographer. It started with volunteering her time with any wedding photographer who would let her shadow them, going to weddings with them and helping as much as she could. She also directly asked people she knew were engaged if they needed a photographer.
Even though she has her degree in teaching, Mrs. Jolley gained all the skills she needed for photography by teaching herself and watching videos from experts. “I call it YouTube University. That’s how I learned. I was always watching videos in the car, doing chores around the house, listening to videos any chance I could and taking notes…I fully believe that you don’t need a degree for photography.”
Mrs. Jolley has been teaching since 2017, and being a full-time teacher and running a photography business has been a challenge for her. “Work-life balance is basically non-existent,” she says. To help with this balance, she went part-time with teaching this year. Before that, though, she had to set limits for her work. “Really setting boundaries has helped a lot…For instance, Sundays are just family days and relaxed days. And so I don’t like to schedule things on Sunday.”
Despite the tough schedule, Mrs. Jolley still loves teaching. Just like with wedding photography, she loves making connections. She loves seeing students succeed, being there for them, and giving them confidence in math as well as in life.
Her inspiration for being a teacher actually comes from a negative experience she had with a math teacher. “I was miserable and hated math,” she shares, “I felt so low about my own capabilities that I decided I never want somebody else to feel that way in my classroom.”
As far as future plans go with her business, Mrs. Jolley says it’s very open-ended. She’ll be happy with whatever happens, whether she continues teaching part-time or commits herself fully to just photography.
Having her own photography business has been very rewarding, so Mrs. Jolley has a message for the students of BSHS. “If you want to start your own business, it can definitely feel lonely and intimidating, but it’s so worth it and rewarding and it’s really fun to be your own boss. Sometimes that’s a curse, but if you plan on starting your own business, I say go for it.”
