Hi, I’m Jess.

Photographer smiling while holding a camera during a relaxed indoor portrait session.

I’m not looking for perfectly posed families or children who follow every direction. I’m looking for the little things already happening between you. The way your child reaches for your hand, how they curl into you when they need a minute, or the glance that passes between you and your partner when no one thinks I’m watching.

I’ll gently guide you when you need it, but I’ll also leave plenty of room for your family to simply be yourselves.

Before starting Jess Palmer Photography, I spent over a decade as a high school math teacher. That experience taught me patience, flexibility, and how to meet children exactly where they are. Those qualities continue to shape every session I photograph today.

When I’m not behind the camera, you’ll usually find me somewhere with my two girls. During the week,
we’re bouncing between gymnastics, dance, swimming, and softball, which I coach. My husband is a firefighter, so our schedules aren’t always predictable, but this full, ordinary family life is one I’m incredibly grateful for. And I think living it myself is part of why I care so much about documenting yours.

I know how easy it is to be caught up in getting everyone where they need to go, making dinner, and moving on to the next thing—only to look up and realize your kids have changed again.

I’d love to get to know your family and document what life feels like for you right now.

Becoming a mom changed everything.

Suddenly, time felt strange. The months seemed to fly by while some days stretched on for what felt like forever.

My phone was full of snapshots, and I treasured them. But I realized I wanted something more.

I wanted to preserve my daughter’s childhood in a way that didn’t just help me remember what she looked like. I wanted photographs that could take me back to what our life felt like then.

And somewhere along the way, I remembered that this desire to document life had always been part of me.

Growing up, I brought disposable cameras on family vacations. In high school, I felt at home in the darkroom developing photographs I’d taken of my little sisters. My pie-in-the-sky dream was to become a photojournalist.

Turns out, I was always drawn to photographs that told a story.