About the Photographer

I've been fascinated with photography since my tenth birthday, when I received my first camera. The camera was a Canon Sureshot, and the first picture taken with that camera happened to be of an English Springer Spaniel named Brandy, my best buddy growing up. Not a lot has changed. Animals are a joy to me, and I revel in the opportunity to capture them in true portraits. I became more interested in photography over the years as I attended concerts and live shows, where the action on stage propelled a sense of real emotion that captured my attention.

I graduated from Lake Land Community College with an Associates degree in art and transfered to Columbia College Chicago, where I received my Bachelor's degree in fiction writing. It was during my time at Columbia that I enrolled in my first photography courses and fell in love with the photography process, learning how to develop negatives and print my pictures from scratch. I also thoroughly studied films during this time, and it can be deduced that my photos have a 'cinematic' quality, in turn. I have since been published in Photographer's Forum's college anthology of "Upcoming Photographers," winning an honorable mention for one of my portraits, and my work has been displayed in public places of business. My photos have also been published in the Champaign-Urbana weekly arts and entertainment newspaper, The Hub Weekly and the online community paper for C-U, Smile Politely.

My goal is to shoot images of people, animals, places, landscapes, and occasions in their truest form, to express the fleeting feeling of the moment the picture was being taken. I like my photographs to tell a story.

I am based in Champaign, Illinois, but I love traveling all over the country and will come to you! Please do not hesitate to contact me about my rates. E-mail me at jamienewellsdarkroom@yahoo.com for more information or call (217)460-1398.