In 2009, Jennifer Blakeley was expecting her first child when she experienced complications that left her partially – but permanently – blind in one eye.

 

At the time, Blakeley operated her own successful business, Alphabet Photography. The company had placed its products in major retailers on both sides of the border, garnered worldwide media attention – including one viral video – and earned Blakeley a spot on Canada’s Profit List three years in a row.

 

As Blakeley learned more about her condition, and how her vision would not only not come back but rather worsen, she went through, what she calls, “a very – and literally – dark few months.” Her outlook changed.

 

“I thought, ‘Hang on, this is not what I want to be doing with my life. Yes, it’s a great business and I feel very accomplished, but this is not where I want to be,’” says Blakeley. “I thought I better start doing what I want to do before it’s too late.”

 

She started photographing her daughter – and following the career path she wanted all along.

 

“I have been running a full-time portrait studio for nine years now, as well as Alphabet Photography,” she says, “and every day I feel like I am fulfilling the dream of the 18-year-old university student with the big vision.”

 

Blakeley attended Graceland University, a liberal arts school in Iowa. Students were required to take a variety of courses, regardless of their major. Thinking it would be a quick-and-easy course to pass the time, Blakeley chose photography for her art credit.

 

“As soon as I picked up the old film camera the school loaned me, I knew it was what I was meant to do with my life,” she says. She took all the photography classes the school offered. She spent all her free time in the university’s dark room, the only student with her own key. She even tried to change her major, but her dad – ever the businessman, she says – insisted she stay the initially intended course and finish her psychology degree.

 

Instead, she became the go-to photographer on campus. Drama students and bands asked her to do their headshots. When Blakeley graduated in 2002, though, she no longer had ready access to a dark room. “My dream of being a portrait photographer died.”

 

Blakeley had learned the basics of photography by developing her own film and printing her own pictures. An admitted film snob, she wasn’t ready to embrace digital photography.

 

So she went back to school closer to home in Niagara Falls, Ont., and got her graduate degree in human resources. She took a recruiting job at the local casino.

 

It took meeting her husband – and his Canon EOS Rebel digital camera – for her to rethink her gear.

 

While learning about digital photography, she created Alphabet Photography. The company takes photos of architectural or natural elements and uses them to spell out words. Think picnic table legs representing an A, a crack in the sidewalk shaped like a P, or a lamppost signaling an R.

Food is also on the table.

 

“I have a whole food alphabet – that was fun,” says Blakeley. “The cheese and everything – I think I gained five pounds photographing that. I did it in two days in my kitchen. My kitchen was just a disaster. There was food everywhere, but we had groceries for a couple of weeks.”

 

As her company flourished, Blakeley focused her lens solely on capturing landmarks, objects and other alphabetically inclined items. Her daughter was her first portrait subject since her school days. As friends began having babies, too, Blakeley started photographing them as well. Once she decided to pursue portrait photography full time, she attended workshops and practiced on anyone who would let her. She posted pictures to social media and made model calls. It took years, but, for the second time, she built a successful business.

 

Seeing a newborn spread in a celebrity magazine motivated Blakeley to target a new audience. She compiled a list of celebrities who were expecting and put together an old-school portfolio.

 

“I sent out 100 portfolios to people. I didn’t hear back from 99 of them. One person called me back, and that was Simon Helberg from The Big Bang Theory.” Blakeley flew to California to photograph his daughter shortly after she was born. Helberg’s neighbour at the time, Megan Fox, happened to be expecting. Blakeley gave her portfolio to the actress’s gardener. “[Fox] called, and it just evolved,” says Blakeley. “It was hard work. It’s marketing and getting yourself out there and introducing yourself to people.”

 

She has grown her celebrity clientele over the years, but one shoot, done six years ago, holds a special place in her heart. When she photographed a maternity shoot for Ian Ziering, the actor’s “Beverly Hills 90210” co-star Luke Perry dropped in and proceeded to photobomb every frame.

 

“I laughed so hard at the time, and still do about that situation,” says Blakeley. “Now that moment is even more memorable as Luke Perry tragically passed away this year. When I was 13, my first ‘fan girl’ letter was to him. It was an honour to have the opportunity to meet him, even if it was just briefly.”

 

Blakeley’s own kids – her daughter is now 10, her son, five – were a big reason why she wanted to purse portrait photography again. She wanted to be a role model. “I wanted to teach my children not to give up, not to let anything get in their way.”

 

For Blakeley, that “anything” was the loss of her vision. It took her years to adjust to her new way of seeing. She had to adapt her shooting style. For one thing, she now uses her non-dominant eye to look through the camera. “The biggest problem is focusing and seeing what’s happening through my camera,” she says. “Sometimes I have an assistant there to make sure it looks how it’s supposed to look before I start snapping. It’s nice to have the extra set of eyes there because sometimes when I look through the viewfinder, I just can’t see that much. I can see when the camera is out of my face, but when I’m behind the camera it’s very hard for me to focus.”

 

Audio indicators provided by her EOS 5D Mark IV also help. “I rely heavily on autofocus, and have the audio beep always turned on,” she says. “My vision is so poor that I wouldn’t be able to tell if my focus point was in focus without it.”

 

Altering her workstyle hasn’t altered her attitude. Blakeley has never been one to back down from a challenge. “When people say ‘you can’t,’ it motivates me more than anything to say ‘watch me,’” she says. “This is true from the moment I lost full vision and the ability to see normally, to the idea that a regular woman from Niagara Falls, Ont., has a celebrity client list. Challenges become obstacles, and I was taught as a child that obstacles are a part of your life’s journey so you can jump over them and have more fun on your path.”