May 17, 2017

Meet Aubrey Jimenez of The Three Photograpy in Farmers Branch

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aubrey Jimenez.

Aubrey, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am a Dallas girl born and raised. I went to school in Coppell and then got a BFA in Graphic Design at Abilene Christian University. Since a very young age I have always had an interest in design and photography. When I was about 10 my sisters and I made a clothing catalog for my mom for Christmas. Complete with photos we took, descriptions and prices of each item. We thought it was so fun! Once I graduated my sister and I worked together at a call center where we planned our business The Three. Originally the business was owned by my mom, sister and I and we wanted it to be a one-stop wedding shop where you could get invitations, signage, and photography. That business plan struggled to get by for a few years because photography was growing rapidly while the other two categories were getting left behind. A few years in we switched solely to photography and then a few years after that my mom and sister decided to focus on other things. I have been the sole owner now for about 4 years and it is such an amazing blessing in my life. God has provided for me in so many ways because of this business. Getting to shoot people’s most precious moments is a gift that never gets old. My personal favorite and I believe my gift is photographing families, children, and babies. These moments that I capture are so fleeting. After having a child of my own I know just how amazing it is to have maternity, newborn and milestone photos of your child. Getting to stay home with my own son is the greatest blessing of all. Running a business, a household and taking care of a 1-year-old has its challenges, but I wouldn’t change it for the world! Everything I have and everything I have done is because of God and my Family who has helped me in too many ways to count. Who passed down their love of God, creativity, photography, and entrepreneurship.

Has it been a smooth road?
I have had too many tears to count getting my business to this point! Perseverance builds character and that is what will make a business succeed. In the beginning, the biggest struggle for us was valuing our work, and I think that is why we had a hard time with Invitations and signage because we didn’t price ourselves correctly for the amount of work involved in those categories. Deciding to let that part of our business go was really hard for us. The decision to buy my mom and sister out was probably the hardest. I miss them every day. We had the best creative brainstorm sessions. We are a very close family and we worked together okay, but it was clear it was putting a strain on our relationships that wasn’t healthy. Now that I have to do the business side of things as well as the creative side everything is a lot harder. Taxes have kicked my butt a few times, but with each failure, I have learned and grown into a better business owner. I feel like the key is to change when you need to change and learn from every bad review, mistake and everything you do good as well.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the The Three Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
I am a photographer and I specialize in families, children, and babies. I love to capture honest candid moments that aren’t too cheesy and make sure my clients have fun at the same time. I am most proud of how I have grown as an artist and as a business owner. I have learned so many things in the past 7 years. I never took any business classes and I only took a handful of photography classes since my degree was graphic design. I am self-taught or family taught I guess since my dad showed me how to run my books and my business, and I got the creative bug from my mom and her dad, and grandmother who were both photographers. I am known for my love of kids and my beautiful studio location in Farmers Branch. My grandparents are saints and let me rent out a small part of their home that sits on 11 acres of land at 635 and 35. It is a photographers dream! I also love to style my sessions. I arrange fresh flowers and bring our furniture and props! I will even do a little video of a child’s session so parents can remember those adorable little things there baby did at that stage.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Photography has just exploded in the past 10 years. I remember the shift from film to digital and how everything changed so rapidly after that. Every single thing has to be documented and hiring a photographer for even the small things is becoming more and more common. Kids’ birthdays, monthly milestone photos for babies first year of life, and even more personal things like giving birth, breastfeeding and boudoir are now being captured more and more by professional photographers. With social media people now have a place to share and compete with their photos, so I think photography is just going to continue to grow. I just traveled to Colorado to do a maternity session that was epic! The session was obviously costly, but to this family, the photos were more than worth it. They now have a photo of a very personal moment that is also a piece of art. Something you would hang in your house even if it wasn’t you. The posed family photo is still necessary, but I think photography is shifting to these incredible once in a lifetime photos people are willing to do anything for, and everyday candid photos of life happening. People want to remember these moments.

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