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Meet Jonathan Kohlwey

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Kohlwey.

Jonathan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Well, I guess it all started when my dad found a camera on the side of the highway in Granby, Colorado. He put the camera in the paper but nobody claimed it. A little while later, I wanted to start taking photos of my friends and me at our local terrain park. My best friend and I were just hired to build the terrain park and very proud of our work. I found the camera in storage and started playing around with it. Living up in Granby, I had Rocky Mountain National Park right in my backyard. I started taking photos of the scenery and occasionally selling prints. I loved it but it was just a hobby for me.

 Then something happened to me that shook my world. My best friend had taken his life. Unfortunately, it’s somewhat common in the mountains. Ski bum life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After his death, I found myself drinking myself to sleep alone most nights. I was still working at the ski resort, but this time I was booking weddings as their sales coordinator. Talking with a friend, I decided I needed to break the cycle. And I did in a big way. I got a job teaching English in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Two weeks after accepting the job, I was on a plane. While I was there, I had plenty of time to talk to others who were like me. We were all running away from something. This is when my passion for photography really kicked in. I lived in Argentina for a short four months and came back a new person. I promised myself I would never let the sadness of life overtake me like it did my best friend. And I would always put passion into everything I did so I could be successful.

 When I got back to the states, I returned to the ski resort to build the terrain park again but did as much photography as I could on the side. A friend from high school, Tony Mason, introduced me to some of the music industry’s big players and I shooting concerts with IheartRadio and Ultra5280. It was an unpaid gig and I was still living in Granby at the time, but I needed the experience. It was a bit of a sacrifice to drive down for a concert, but I loved it. One night while celebrating a friend’s birthday in Denver, I randomly met a wedding planner and after talking for a bit we were planning a styled shoot at the resort I worked at so I could get into photographing weddings. A few months later, my time at the ski resort ended and I took my last paycheck to buy a better camera and set off to live in Denver.

 Moving to Denver was harder than I thought. I worked many jobs. Delivering flowers, worked for a couple of wedding planners, worked at a golf course, and I started driving for Lyft. All these jobs left me time to focus on my photography. I started booking more and more weddings, which eventually caused me to ditch a few of these jobs. One of the first weddings I shot was in Mexico where the couple paid for my trip on top of my fee. That was such a wonderful feeling to know someone believed in my work so much. I also started getting into real estate photography with the help of a couple of friends. One a realtor and one a marketing director for a construction company. I also moved from shooting shows and concerts for free to shooting for clubs for an actual check.

 I started my photography journey in 2011 and by 2016, I was solely shooting photography full time under my own company. Truly a blessing to turn my passion into a career.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. My biggest challenge was keeping jobs that would put food on the table and trying to do my photography at the same time.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a photographer who started my focus on weddings but I have now branched out to clubs, concerts, and real estate. Real estate is not something I pursued as much but I am really liking it now. I mostly shoot in Grand County. I lived up in Granby for 15 years, so I have a lot of connections up there with both people in the wedding industry and real estate business. As a company, I am proud of the work I do. Anyone can take a photo but to me, it’s much more than that. I feel I see things differently through the lens.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think photography, in general, is a hard industry to get into. You see a lot of people working for free in this industry. I worked for free on a few occasions until I just couldn’t do it anymore. In this industry, your work speaks for itself and as long as you can shoot good quality photos with decently fast turn around, you can make it.

Pricing:

  • Real Estate pricing from $200+
  • 6 Hour Wedding Package – $2,800
  • 8 Hour Wedding Package- $3,200
  • 10 Hour Wedding Package – 3,600

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Jonathan Kohlwey Photography

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