Meet Jessica Deleplancque | Colorado Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Deleplancque and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
There were so many reasons why I wanted to start my own business, but I think the biggest reason was just the desire to live my life in a way that allowed me to create a schedule the worked for what my family needed and allowed me to feel like I still have a creative and social outlet in the midst of motherhood. When I was in high school I was approached by a local photographer who asked me to model for her senior photo advertisements. I had no idea what to really expect from that meeting, but fortunately we really hit it off and she really took me under her wing and taught me a ton about cameras, editing, light, just all the things that go into making a session. I realized “wow this is pretty fun, and I don’t suck at it.” So it was a just a fun hobby for quite a while. After I had my son and daughter I experienced some postpartum blues and just struggling with my mental health in general with my own sense of identity. I think things were made worse when the pandemic hit and everything was shut down, so when things started to open back up and become more normal again I was desperate to find my own way in my world. I am a person that thrives on being social and being creative and so eventually I just thought to my self “it is time” haha so I just took the leap and dived all in.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The hard thing about photography, or probably most art in general, is finding what your style is. In the photography world there are always new and evolving styles of editing or shooting. My issue, is that I like it all. It can be discouraging or intimidating to set out into the world what you want to put out there and hope that others like it when there are a dime a dozen other artists doing similar things. You have to try and stand out in your art, in your experience, you have to make people feel something. My goal with the images that I produce is always for my client to be able to look back on their gallery and be back in the moments I caught of them with each other, with the details, with the location we are at. I want them to be focused on what the focus of the picture is. I also try to have each gallery capture the whole scene. Not just small parts of it. I like to capture parents having a genuine moment with their kids. I want a bride to look back and see things that she didn’t see the first time because the day was so busy. I want someone to see my images of a grieving parent and put themselves in that headspace so they can understand what others are going through. Emotion is always what I want to pull out in my sessions. Not all of them are overly emotional, but there are a lot that are, and those ones are always the ones that leave me feeling full of gratitude as I drive home after a session. You really get to know people and the challenges or successes that they face in their life when you get to photograph them. During a session of course we take pictures, but most of the time I just want to connect with my client. I think in general my desire to befriend all of my clients has lead to my success because word of mouth has been my biggest source of growth, but also, I think people really do have a good time during their photo shoot and I love that, I want them to have a great time when they are with me. It is not an easy thing to do, sometimes its actually really scary. You meet strangers on the internet, and you meet up in remote locations and that is really sketchy, and then you just hope that you can connect with them and that they love their session and then love their gallery too. Humans are human and not everyone meshes easily, and a lot of people do not like having their picture taken. So you have to get over your fear of meeting strangers, you have to overcome your anxiety about if they won’t like you or your work, you have to pull peoples confidence out of them and its sometimes hard to do that when you are trying to pull it out of yourself. I always just tell myself, these people chose to hire me, because this is what they want, I am here doing what they hired me to do so I can show up and I can give them that and I don’t need to be scared. If I am feeling anxious or even imposter syndrome, sometimes I go back and I look at my reviews from past clients, and I will put on some music that makes me feel like I am the main character in a movie. Then I can pull myself out of that headspace and say “dude, you are fine, you got this.” Unfortunately that is and will always be a challenge when you are on social media and you can see so many incredible photographers at your finger tips all day long. But I have found that there is absolutely no point in comparing myself to anyone else, just my previous work. The best thing I can do is just keep trying to gain knowledge and skill on my own to make my work what I want it to be, ultimately that is what is going to leave me feeling most fulfilled, its going to bring clients who want me specifically, and its going to make me stand apart because I am doing things for myself, and not to match what I think others want.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in the Denver Metro so thankfully I can hop on to most major highways pretty easily and get to all the goods in a matter of an hour or less. For breakfast, one of my favorite places ever to eat is Lucille’s in Longmont and its really good cajun in an old cute house. We would of course have to go through Estes park and walk the little town and make our way into the national park because I mean, Colorado right? It doesn’t get better than the Rocky mountains. Boulder isn’t far off so I would have to show them pearl street and the endless options of bars and restaurants while you can people watch and sit on patios and enjoy the mountains as well as a town. I recently went to a cute place in Boulder called Bohemian Beer Garden, really cool place and I would take them there for sure. Denver offers endless great places to eat and people watching opportunities. If I am feeling more casual I would take them to Linger and get fun cocktails, and then walk over to little man ice cream which is literally a giant milkcan where you walk up to the window and order your ice cream. In the summer sometimes they have bands playing on the patio, lots of seating, and lots of kids playing and dancing and its perfect. Its a fun mood all while sitting in Denver and the skyline off to your side. I could probably spend an entire week in Denver alone, but some of the places I would take them to eat is 801 Chophouse, Del Friscos, Ocean Prime, Happa Sushi, really anywhere in Larimer Square because I like the whole vibe of that area. We would absolutely have to catch a concert at Red Rocks because that is the best venue in the world. I am not much of a hiker, but I think anyone can appreciate the beauty of the flatirons at Chautauqua so maybe we would work our way up there, and then eat at Flagstaff house so that they could see the view of the city from the mountain. So many awesome opportunities in Colorado.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There is no way at all that my business would be possible without the help from everyone. I know that is such a blanket response, but seriously in my work this really applies. Social media is CRUCIAL to a small businesses success and it all stems from word of mouth. I am so grateful for the family, and friends, and even people I have never even met online that not only comment on my posts to hype me up, but also just those that share the posts and refer others to me. My biggest source for growth has absolutely been word of mouth and it means so much to me that others value my work enough to encourage their friends to work with me. It has landed me lifelong clients, and even really awesome business connections with other small companies. It has really been fun to network with so many different people who have different roles in my industry. My husband also deserves so much of the thanks here. We were married super young and I followed him around the country for the first few years of our marriage while he was in the Marine Corps. When we got back home to Colorado post military life and settled he dived right in to going to school full time and working full time, then we got really crazy and decided to have kids too. During all the busyness of life, I started my own part time business that sometimes doesn’t always offer the most forgiving hours. My husband is always happy to be an awesome teammate and pick up where I left off at home with the kids, the cooking, the cleaning. If I didn’t have such a supportive partner then I wouldn’t be able to have this gig at all. And I really like this gig, and I really appreciate all that he does so that I can be a photographer, even if it means life is extremely busy and we don’t have lots of down time together.

Website: jessicadelphotography.mypixieset.com

Instagram: jessicadelphotography

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jessicadelphoto

Image Credits
all images were taken by me Jessica Del Photography 🙂