My Story | The History and Vision of Rob Jinks Photography

Big thanks to my friend Stan for this family shot! Instagram.com/stan_dng

One of the things I love about what I do is that I get the chance to tell incredible photo stories. Each and every wedding, family session, life event, portrait; they are all opportunities to share stories and I absolutely love that this is my job.

However, I think it’s long past time to share my story! I think it’s important that you know who is behind the camera and who it is that will be shadowing you for your photo session. If you don’t already know me, I’d like to take a few lines to tell you a little about myself, my family, how I got here, and what this thing is that I get to call “my career.”

The Backstory

When I think about my childhood I think about my Dad and the two big things he did in my life. Those were introducing me to the outdoors and bringing me along in his work as owner of a plumbing business. In his business I learned attention to detail, how to interact with clients, and how to replace a toilet! In the outdoors we did everything from hiking and backpacking, to biking and kayaking and even caving. Through our adventures in the outdoors I got curious with my Dad’s two-megapixel camera, wanting to capture the views and the fun we were having.

I continued with photography as a hobby through high school, not getting serious until college when I joined my school’s PR department as an intern photographer. While I was getting degrees in music (saxophone) and business I was also shooting multiple times a week for four years, capturing every event imaginable at a college. Right after college my wife and I were married and here we are five years later with two boys in our family, Nathaniel and Reuben! I’ll share more about them in a later post, but in short, it has been an absolute blast to share with them the things that we love, mainly, music and the outdoors.

The Vision

The business started full-time in late 2014, but my first wedding was in 2012. Now 130+ weddings and two kids later, I have come to realize that life is one big adventure filled with many small adventures. It’s full of big life moments like newborn kids, marriage, and college graduation, but it’s also full of every day beauty. These moments are stories worth capturing. Before kids I didn’t understand this as well as I do now. But as soon as we had kids, life took on new brilliance. They are amazed at the most “simple” things, things I had long taken for granted. They were captivated by leaves, ants, throwing rocks into a pond, and later we discovered, printed photos! They quickly grew able to recognize and name the people they loved in a photo. As a Dad I love being able to capture these moments of wonder.

That same spirit of adventure, storytelling, and wonder are things I bring to each wedding, family session; each and every shoot. Yes, I love it when I get to hike the mountains with a couple, or do something we all love together to get epic portraits. But I also love the quiet moments, moments with each other in your home, or playing with your new child.

Having kids taught me in an even deeper way that life is all about the people around us. We only get to experience this life once with them, but capturing those life adventures with images allows us to hold on to that beauty for much longer. It’s a thrill to be able to capture those kinds of moments for my clients.

I hope you enjoyed this quick look into my story and why I do what I do! Did it spark any questions? Leave a comment below!