Meet Jeremy Rice | Professional Photographer

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

Hi Jeremy, can you share the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?
There are 3 major lessons that I have learned while working my day job and starting my own business.

The first and what I think is the most important lesson is getting out of your comfort zone. We as humans are creatures of habit, once we start a habit we get in a groove and get comfortable. When we are in a comfortable state we tend to start coasting through life and lose sight of what we had originally started working for. Starting a new job or business adds additional stress to your life that will throw you in very uncomfortable situations such as: learning new things, meeting new people, not having as much money to start out with, or even something as simple as having to drive a new route to the office everyday. In order to continue moving forward in life and in your career you have to take those leaps of faith and be “uncomfortable” for a while until you begin to get comfortable with your new role. Then it’s time to take your next leap until you achieve your dream.

The second biggest lesson I have learned feeds off of the first. Once you decide that you are ready to get out of your comfort zone and take the next big leap, you then have to overcome the fear of failure. Moving forward is a lot more difficult when you are scared to do something because you might mess up or it might not work. I am a firm believer that you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes. Your failures allow you to grow, they teach you more responsibility and accountability.

Lastly, though a more specific lesson to an artistic/creative career, but can still be applied to all is to not compare yourself or your work with others. Everyone is at a different state in their life and their career. I will use photography as an example. When starting out, I would look at all of these famous photographers and compare my work to theirs. When I would do that it was pretty demoralizing. I would always think, “wow, my work is terrible.” What I came to realize is that these photographers had been perfecting their craft for many years whereas I had only been doing it for 2 months. Of course their work would be better than mine! Not only that, but everyone has a different style and a different vision for their photographs, or their business etc. Once I changed my mindset to learn from other’s work when analyzing it instead of just criticizing my own, I was able to get out of the rut of feeling inferior and start developing and perfecting my own style.

The question is asked about lessons learned from a business/career. However, I believe getting out of your comfort zone, not fearing failure and not comparing yourself with others are lessons that can be applied to any aspect of life.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have a passion for photography. I got into photography a few years ago and continue to work on perfecting it. My mom always took photos of us growing up in sports etc. so I was around a camera my whole life. After graduating college I finally got my own camera and did not realize how much I enjoyed taking photos until then. My main focus has been on automotive photography, but I also do the occasional bridal portrait session or engagement session. I also love landscape photography, so when I get the opportunity to travel I try to take all the photos I can.

Starting out was not easy, it takes a lot of time to learn different aspects of photography and feeling like my work relevant. I push myself every day to continue to learn new techniques. One thing that helps me get out of a slump when I am feeling challenged is to go back and look at some of my first few photos and compare it with some more recent ones. Seeing the difference and seeing how far I have come is astonishing. This is where one of the lessons I have learned comes into handy, not comparing my work with others. I like to analyze other artists work to learn and grow from it. However, I do like to compare my own work (past vs current).

I think every photographer has a goal of their photos making it into a magazine. One thing I am most proud of is having quite a few photos published in Stance Auto Magazine throughout the last year.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Depending on the time of year they came, I would definitely have to take them to a Houston Astros game. I grew up playing baseball and even played through college. The Astros have always been my favorite team since I was born and raised in Houston. Other than that, I do not have a huge list of things to do, but places like the Zoo are always fun!

As far as food goes, I typically eat anything! A favorite area for my wife and I to go is down in Rice Village. There a re plenty of options to eat around there. Once you are stuffed you can go over to Coco Crepes and get a good crepe and coffee.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think the biggest shoutout would have to go to all of my family and close friends. Throughout the last couple of years they have collectively kept me motivated to continue perfecting my craft. It’s the little things that come from them that mean the world and spark an idea or jumpstart my motivation. It could be something as simple as, “hey how come you haven’t taken photos in a while?” to something more direct like complimenting my work and bragging to others about it etc. These minor questions or compliments coming from those closest to me go a much longer way than I think they realize.

Also, I would have to give a shoutout to all my clients. Without them I would truly have no work to show for myself!

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