Hello! My name is Benjamin Jai and I come from Brisbane. My love for the drawing arts was born when at the age of seven, my mother gave me a set of felt pens. This excited me and I begun to draw. My interest in art continued through my school years and in high school, I was passionate studying Art as a subject. At the end of my high school education, I was thrilled to receive a High Distinction medal for Art. My art teacher noticed that I had a natural flair and gift for art and encouraged me to do further studies at TAFE or university. I worked for seven years in different jobs but my love for art was always there. I toyed with different options for a career, whether it be sculpture, oil paintings, graphic designer, mosaic or printing. To help me decide which path would be the right one for me, I decided to go to TAFE to study Art.
My time at TAFE was wonderful. My teachers would give everyone homework and on that homework, it asked us what type of artist we wanted to become. One day on a lunch break, I sat sipping my coffee, thinking about different options I could study for art then I spotted a billboard showing a funny advertisement about coffee. I said to myself, “Wow this looks so good!”. I really liked how the photograph looked. It had so much detail and it made people want to look at it. I wanted to do work like that. It clicked to me right there and then that I wanted to be a professional commercial photographer.
After that inspiring moment, I realised commercial photography would be a lot of hard work, so I explored other types of photography that I could do. From a list of different types of photography, I chose wedding photography. Doing wedding photos makes me feel happy and I get a lot of satisfaction from creating happy memories for people on their special day. I am a romantic and I love people telling me their stories on how they met and to see their love on their wedding day too.
Even though I am profoundly deaf, I defied the odds and went on to attain two Diplomas from my studies at TAFE, Diploma of Art and Diploma of Photography. Receiving these diplomas made me very proud of myself. I felt I finally broke through the barriers I faced to reach my goal to be a professional photographer. I communicate well with a variety of clients by using my body language, gestures with my hands as well as texting which puts people at ease. Now I am looking forward to big challenges with my wedding style photography business.
I have a beautiful girlfriend, named Katie. We both love going out for coffee, visiting art galleries, museums and to the beach. As well, we are both passionate about the environment as we want to help save and preserve the land, ocean and animals. We enjoy hiking and bushwalking as it makes us feel connected to the Earth.
We have two beautiful dogs. Mr Pumpkin is a tough 2 year old Blue Heeler deaf pup, he sometimes get sassy when he talks to us. The other one is a five year old Border Collie, named Shayda who is hearing. Shayda is a very mature dog with sensitive hearing. She picks things up very quickly and Pumpkin always looks at Shayda because he can’t hear anything. He always looks at Shayda’s expression and body language to work out what is happening. We love taking them for random big adventures such as some national parks and rivers where they love to walk on long trails, jump in the river and swim.
Even though we have digital cameras and digital photography these days, I still use film cameras. I like using both digital and film cameras as both produce different types of photography. When I photograph couples for portraits, I use film as I want it to be all about them and to capture their special time together. I find using the old fashioned way of photography produces a better quality of photographs as well. Katie is also a professional photographer and we work together and when we do, Katie supports me as an assistant second shooter.
If you are looking for intimate, dramatic, amazing and light filled romantic photographs of your special day, you will find a match in me as your photographer who loves romance and I will go out of my way to capture the wow factor of your special day and memories for you to treasure forever.
