Who is Jennifer Mannion?
Jennifer Mannion is an entrepreneur. She travels nationally for select photography experiences and speaking engagements about marketing, entrepreneurship and art.
She is a creative services and marketing consultant for start-ups and small businesses with 20+ years of experience working on national marketing campaigns and global events.
She is also a professionally trained vocalist and performer.
She is a motivational and energetic speaker and writer, appearing at universities, women's groups, and small business and networking events. She speaks about empowering creatives to be more than the stereotype of a "Starving Artist" and about empowering women to know their worth.
She works with progressive businesses to build successful creative and marketing teams, align systems and create processes for success.
Inquire today about how Jennifer and Pixie Posie can be of service to you!
Her Story
How it all began.
When I was 9 maybe 10, my dad bought a camera for my mom for Christmas. She wanted to be able to take photos of her flower garden and nature scenes as a reference to paint from. This camera was not a simple point-and-shoot, but one with several lenses and a tripod, even an external flash. It was beautiful. That camera called to me. It sat in the camera bag unused through the winter and I could not stop thinking about it.
At first, I did nothing out of fear of getting in trouble for touching something that was not mine. Until I talked myself into reading the manual. That was harmless, right? Once the manual was read cover to cover, I started assembling the lenses to the body. One by one I would attach and detach the lenses and the body. No one seemed to notice.
One day I was going through the bag and noticed a box of film in the small front pocket of the camera bag and thought, why not? Figuring out how to load the film in the camera could be helpful in emergency photo-taking situations, I thought.
On a random warm day, I was walking around the yard admiring the flowers and all of the bugs coming out to visit the garden my mom designed. I immediately thought she would love to paint this scene, and that’s when it hit me.
This needs to be photographed.
I already loaded film in the camera, why not test it out? In stealth mode, I snuck the camera outside on a puffy cloud, blue skies kind of day and took photos of flowers and leaves and bugs. I was guessing about the depth of field and exposure but I did not care because I had this camera in my hands. When the roll was full and no exposures were left, I went back inside.
We had this basket in our kitchen where outgoing mail and stamps and film to be developed would go. Where these things went after, I had no concern. I placed the film cartridge in the basket and forgot about it.
One evening, my dad was sitting at the kitchen table talking with my mom while she finished preparing dinner. He was shuffling through letters and bills, then opened a photo envelope and started flipping through 4x6 photos. I was gathering things to set the table when I notice what photos he was looking at and froze.
My dad mentions to my mom the photos she took of the flowers in the garden were really good and he was pleased she was using the camera he bought her. She looked at him like he was crazy and almost flippantly mentioned she had not even taken it out of the bag. Uh oh.
I start to exit the kitchen on tiptoe when he turns to me and declares I stop. I freeze and slowly turn around, wide-eyed and waiting for punishment. Instead, he looks at me cleverly, smiles, and says, “We need to get you more film,” winks and goes back to the photos.
This was the moment photography became a part of who I am.
