Story & Lesson Highlights with Jacob Grimes

Jacob Grimes shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Jacob, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
This might sound a cliche but sometimes when I am feeling uninspired or not driven to do anything I just bite the bullet and force myself to do it. I force myself to get up and get out there and every single time, I am glad that I did. I find myself not only having fun but feeling creative and inspired once I am out there doing what I love. It is just that initial push, almost like writer’s block in a way, that you need to manage.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Jacob Grimes. I am a professional automotive photographer in Tempe, Arizona. I started taking pictures in high school, at the same time that I rode BMX. I quickly realized that photography was not only much safer but it was opening more doors for my future than BMX and doing so at a rapid pace. I sadly sold my bike and threw everything I had at the time at a new camera and new gear to step up my work. I have done Arizona real estate photos, desert landscapes, sedona weddings and even local desert spots but what has always stuck with me is automotive photography. For years, I photographed very popular and highly modified vehicles within the PHX area but once I started working, it was obviously a dream of mine to have something under my own name that is worth photographing. Building cars was something that I have done during the second half of my time doing photography and I am still going strong. I am not done yet and still have high aspirations on the horizon.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
My digital photography teacher Mrs. Sapakie as well as my mother always gave me kudos on how well I networked myself even at a young age. I guess I am still “young” but even at 17 years old in Mrs. Sapakie’s class, I landed my first job when a company was coming to my high school to talk about a business they were opening up. I kept this pace when it came to networking and I strongly believe it is 90% of the reason I am where I am today. One day, I was on my explore page on Instagram and found WRX STI in AZ and reached out to him about doing a ceramic coating on his car (I did detailing at the time). He explained to me that he already had a coating but needed photos by me, so I obliged and we shot together a few times. I was editing photos shortly after our second or third shoot when he texted me about working for him. He offered me a job, no interview needed because he trusted me and knew I had drive. Solely because of that comment I left on his post I am now a lead at an incredibly respected chemical company. I have the rare privilege to say that I adore my day job.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
There was actually a time where I did give up. I stopped photography and sold my gear. Social media was going through a huge transformation and if you didn’t do video you were a goner. I felt like a film photographer when digital photography was releasing. I didn’t do photography for about 6 months until I really wanted to get back into it. All despite what was in demand on social media, I got back into it because I realized how happy it made me and how good it felt to let out that creativity. In the same portion of my life, I had a car that was extremely limited to parking lots and smooth roads. When shooting that car, my creativity was extremely confined to the car’s limitations. I sold the car and progressed into building an offroad truck to finally have no restrictions on what and where I can shoot.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What do you believe is true but cannot prove?
Everything happens for a reason. I feel like plenty of people will agree on this with me. There are so many times that is hard to prove or actually just hard to justify. Some things in life can be truly difficult to manage. I have experienced plenty of loss for someone my age, it’s very hard to just shrug your shoulders and say well it happened for a reason. But even though it is impossible to prove and difficult to justify I think that it is a good thing to remind yourself. There is really only so much we can control.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
This is a great question. I have something that I tend to remind myself from time to time. We all know that every day is not promised but we tend to forget that fact quite easily until we are reminded and usually that reality hits extremely hard. It is better to remind yourself more often to soften the blow of reminder sent from someone other than yourself. I try to not get complacent and when I wake up, try to feel blessed and remember that we really don’t have very much time. We think that we have around 100 years or so but then as we grow up all we hear about is how one day you’ll blink and you’ll be X years old. We as a generation need to make the most of where we are right now to not feel the “Aw, I blinked and now I am turning 50 in a week”. That actually is a fear of mine…

I would stop worrying about the small stuff because I know I really don’t have the time to worry about it! I saw a tik tok once about how right before a vacation, you don’t care if there is a line somewhere, you don’t care if someone cuts you off in traffic. All you care about is you get to go on vacation in a week, you can’t be bothered by this nonsense. But then once you are back it does affect you. I would strive to not let the little things bother me anymore.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://30c002-1e.myshopify.com/
• Instagram: Deadset.zr2
• Youtube: Deadset.zr2

Image Credits
All shot by me, just not all my cars.