“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever. It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything”
Aaron Siskin
My name is Jodie Baker and I am an Australian living in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. I have a special interest in Photo Journalistic sytle of photography which uses images to tell a story. My goal in every shoot is to capture a moment in time, of people, places and things that tells a story and cherish forever.
My images have been featured in “Woman this Month” and I was also a finalist with 2 images in the GCC Food Photography Awards 2016 along with being a finalist in a number of locally run competitions around Australia and online (see my “Accolades” page for further details).
When I am not shooting I can be found spending time with my husband and 11 year old daughter. We love to have adventures around Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the world, meeting new people and of course taking photos!
I found my passion for photography in my early 20s when I left Australia and started to travel the world. Leaving my homeland and being a stranger in strange land, I found myself wandering, observing and experiencing new sights, sounds and smells! With so much diversity and new environments I knew I just had to somehow capture moments and memories in time; and so my photography journey began.
After 4 and half years of travelling the world I returned to Australia where I met and married my true love and together we had our daughter.
Having experienced my own wedding, my daughters birth and milestones of my own family, my passion expanded and I found myself needing to capture these moments for my own family and there after – my clients.
I love photographing both weddings and families and I look forward to being apart of important, cherished moments in a persons/families life.
I don’t consider myself “a photographer” but more a “photographic artist” as I spend time after a photoshoot editing my images to give them that artistic touch.
I am a person that thinks outside the box and photography gives me an outlet to channel my “out of the box” creativity.
I really enjoy working across all different genes of photography, from weddings, to births, to newborn babies, to families, cake smashes, to ballerinas, to sports and cultural events, to live bands, to scenery and sunsets, to headshots, to food photography, to commercial and product photography.
I like to collaborate with my clients to understand their vision and what they are wanting to achieve and inturns makes that vision a reality.
Working across different areas allows me to remain fresh and continually improve my photographic and artistry skills. I love the challenges that each genre gives me. It allows me to constantly expand my creativity and not get complacent.
I have a passion to photograph the diversity of the life we live. I love walking around my community and events and capturing the essence of the people and places – that specific moment in time.
I am inspired by people living their every day life, that could be the man collecting cardboard outside the cold store, the man sitting on the corner selling his fruit and veg, a bride and groom on the most special day of their lives, the birth of a new baby, seeing that baby celebrate their first birthday, a woman who want to create personal images of their pregnancy or when they have worked hard to transform their body, the fishing men with their leathery skin from years of working in the sun, families capturing a memory of their lives, a business that is wanting to brand or advertise product.
I love that I often get comments about my work of “I have been to that location so many times and your image makes me see, feel and smell it again – the image transports me back there!” or “Your images capture the absolute essence of the moment/person” – these are the comments that really makes my heart sing and that inspire me.
Every shoot I undertake inspires me in its own way, as every shoot is completely different and unpredictable, regardless of how much planning is undertaken you cannot predict things like weather, wind, children (having an “emotional” day), the hick ups at the wedding etc. Not knowing with certainty of what will/could happen, and a lot of what I do, happens in a split moment – it’s a matter of me grabbing the opportunity in a split second and capturing it,
I love capturing the essence of the moment – the place, the person, the family, the wedding, the event, the product.
To me it’s not just a “photograph”, every image tells a story and projects more than just the ink on the page.
I absolutely adore seeing the look on my clients face when they receive their images but equally I loves the messages I get from all over the world thanking me for the images I have shared as people who lived in the community, that country or the people I had photographed has captures it perfectly – they feel like they are there again.
When people ask me what my favourite is, I can honestly say that I cannot pick a favourite genre to photograph, as all of them makes me think about my work in a different way and allows me to be creative in different ways.
I can confirm however, that bringing joy to the client I am working with is a wonderfully addictive feeling, there is nothing better than seeing a clients face when they see the end product.
Ultimately my favourite thing is, no matter the genre, is to capture an image that projects a insight into the essence of the persons/family/community/business life and how their life is different to yours.
