Jai Long’s initial introduction to photography was when he picked up a camera to curb his boredom while working in the mines in Western Australia in 2010. Long found his calling as a wedding photographer after dabbling with a number of other business endeavours. The move provided the perfect vehicle to both run a business and have an outlet for self-expression.
A self-taught photographer, Long realised early that understanding his subjects would be the key to his success. “I didn’t even know how to use my camera in manual mode. It wasn’t important to me. I started reading body language books and started to study people,” he says. “I knew if I could understand them and make them feel comfortable, I would be able to take great portraits.” Success came quickly for Long, and by 2015 he had been named in Rangefinder’s 30 Rising Stars in Wedding Photography list and was the runner-up in the Wedding category of Australia’s Top Emerging Photographers in 2016.
For Long, learning business didn’t start with photography. He left school after Year 10, and by age twenty owned a café. By his mid-twenties, he owned an electrical contracting business. The unconventional move from electrician to wedding photography did have its parallels. Using film, he stripped back photography to learn from the roots up. Long has found that shooting and interacting with his clients has been even more rewarding than viewing the final product.
The decision to start his wedding photography business, Free the Bird, in 2013, was an act of submission to his inner romantic. A driving force for the foundation for his photographs is the emotional energy of his clients. “I like intimate, moody, whimsical photography. I like how you can transport someone to another place or another world with an image,” he says. Long has been a speaker at difference conferences around the world – most recently WRKSHP in New York City and Field Trip in California. He is currently running his own workshops teaching creative business to photographers and others in the creative industries.
www.freethebird.com.au
