Wed Feb 08 2012
For 12 years, Jason Oney worked at Lexmark, climbing from the company’s call center to positions in sales and marketing.
He sold printers on QVC and moved to Paris for two years on a coveted international assignment.
But at the age of 34, Oney was burned out. As he sat on the edge of the bed one morning, dreading another day of the corporate grind, his wife suggested a way out.
“Why don’t you just quit?”
So he did.
Despite the recession, Oney quit his job and opened jasperfish, a photography business based in his Frankfort home. He says a tough economy has actually helped – he’s working harder to book photo shoots and find ways to operate on a shoestring budget.
Business, so far, has exceeded his expectations. He even has five weddings booked for next year.
There are moments in life when people want professional photos, he says, even when money is tight.
“I think what really helped me, honestly, was the fact that I knew the economy was tanking,” he said, sitting at a desk in his living room last week.
“You can still thrive in the business world, you just have to change the way you do things.”
Oney focuses on senior portraits and wedding photography. He says it allows him to get to know his customers.
“I get to be a part of someone’s life, for a very brief moment, capturing something that is going to stay with them for a lifetime.”
He saves money by working out of his home instead of a studio. Frankfort landmarks serve as a backdrop for outdoor photo shoots, and he even re-painted his living room for a senior portrait session.
With a home-based business, there’s no payroll. His wife, Robin, helps him manage and brainstorms creative ideas.
He partners with outside companies for inexpensive Web site management and photo prints, and he advertises through free social media like Facebook and word-of-mouth.
Customers get their prints and CDs in gift box packaging he and Robin build in their living room.
“It’s doing the little things, and doing them well,” he said. “But you don’t have to spend a lot of money to do it.”
But there are some expenses he can’t sacrifice. He has splurged on digital camera bodies and lenses, a computer and editing software.
“But other than that, I try to save every way I possibly can,” he said.
Robin’s job as a speech-language pathologist at Golden Living Center gives the family money to live on and health insurance coverage.
“I don’t expect to get rich doing this,” Oney said. “I’m doing something I love, I get to be home with my kids.”
Oney first picked up a camera in 2001, when his division vice president at Lexmark handed him a digital SLR and asked him to shoot print samples.
“So I went out and started playing around with it, and really fell in love,” he said.
A few years later he bought his own camera and practiced by photographing his kids, Cassia and Quinn, now 8 and 6. When he moved to Paris, he took full advantage of the photogenic City of Light.
Besides a few photography seminars, Oney is self-taught.
“It’s always just been taking lots of photos,” he said.
Oney, who holds a bachelor’s in communications from the University of Kentucky, has been interested in art since kindergarten. He’s the type of person who doodles in the margins of paper, he says.
“This is just an evolution of pen and paper, except now it’s a sensor and a lens,” he said.
Still, a drastic career change in his mid-30s was intimidating at first. Working from home was quiet and lonely, he said, and he missed the camaraderie of coworkers.
“I started at Lexmark thinking I’d be there forever,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine leaving.”
His morning commute shrunk from 45 minutes to a quick trip to Collins Lane Elementary to drop off his kids.
“It felt really weird at first,” he said. “I spent a lot of time looking at my basset hound and saying, ‘What do you want to do?’”
As business increased, Oney had plenty of work. Senior photo shoots often take two to four hours, and a wedding can last all day. He also spends hours editing photos.
As business slows this winter, Oney will craft a marketing plan for the spring. He’s working to book more weddings and encourage high school seniors to get their portraits done early.
“I never want to get stale,” he said. “I think you always need to push your creative boundaries and try out new things, even if they don’t work.”
Oney and his wife hope to move into a studio within three years. They are looking at properties in Franklin County where they could live and work.
He credits his faith with the success he’s had changing careers.
“I think a lot of it’s having faith, and trusting that everything will work out,” he said. “We really have been blessed – it’s worked out better than we thought.”
To book an appointment, visit jasperfish.net or call 352-3076.
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