The real stuff

I'm the coffee drinking, stop-and-look-at-the-sunset, pizza-loving mama behind the camera. I'm full of midwestern charm and my family life includes nightly dance parties in my kitchen. 

Let me start by letting you know, I didn't grow up dreaming of being a photographer, or making this my life's work. Quite the opposite, I longed for a dream job in the medical field. But photography still found a way to land in my lap and made an everlasting mark on my life. 

Growing up, creativity was not only encouraged in our house, it was almost expected. My mom was a writer and my dad was a freelance artist. My grandpa was a freelance artist, and my great-grandpa was an amateur photographer. My brother is now an artist and I'm a photographer. I guess you could say it's in our blood. I always remember having a camera growing up, wanting to take photos on my mom's camera, and being given digital cameras at a really young age. It was just part of who I was, I loved photos. 

When I was 18, I had my first daughter, and I was simply obsessed with taking photos of her. This wasn't the norm in my family (unless you count my photo obsession), but my in-laws were photographers in the 80's and made it the norm to document everything. I absolutely loved it. It wasn't until my 4th (and final) munchkin was born that I finally invested in a DSLR camera. I took photos of absolutely everything. 

When a friend of mine suggested that I start taking photos of other people it really clicked (no pun intended), and I took the time to explore photography as a career. In 2017 I decided to see where this journey could take me and open Jessica Scalf Photography. Since then, I've worked with hundreds of families, couples and women who have helped me grow as a person and photographer. This unintentional career has been so fulfilling and rewarding that I couldn't imagine my life without it.