My motto is: "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right"
Hey there!
I'm Dawn Elizabeth Johnsen, a Senior Photographer with over 10 years of experience specializing in commercial photography, photo art direction, and content creation. Currently based in Seattle, WA, I am the Lead Photographer at T-Mobile! But how did I get here? Great question, I would love to tell you!
I started my photography journey when I was just 13 years old! My love of photography grew during high school, and after graduation, I bought my first "professional" camera. During college, I was the leading photographer for the on-campus fashion magazine and presented my first gallery exhibition in my senior year.
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After working a typical 9-5, I decided to pursue my passion and get my Masters of Fine Arts in Photography. I embarked on a new life in San Francisco while attending the Academy of Art University. During that time, I created my freelance career as Dawn Elizabeth Photo. I began by photographing bloggers and influencers, then night clubs, and when I graduated, I freelanced with New Revolution Media, a boutique creative agency also based in San Francisco.
In addition to freelancing, I was employed full time by Airbnb as a Photo Editor. I was responsible for the quality of images for all Airbnb Plus listings through working with freelancers to ensure accurate, powerful and on-brand, quality images. After my time at Airbnb, I became the Lead Photographer, and subsequently the Photo Art Director, at Original Stitch, a men’s fashion start up based out of Japan. My responsibilities included campaign ideation, pre-production, production and post-production of all the content for social, email and website; it was a small team and I wore as many hats as I could.
And then Covid happened. I found myself looking for a new career opportunity - I manifested hard... and it worked! I landed my dream job as the Senior Photographer at Chewy, a online retail platform for and all things pets (based in Fort Lauderdale, FL). I was passionate about every single aspect of my job and the work that I was creating... and I got to hang out with pets almost every day - so what’s not to love? It truly was a once in a lifetime job and I will never forget the talent people and wonderful pets I got to work with. As many in the corporate sphere know, there is a huge shift when going from a start-up to a publicly traded company; and just as all great things do, my time at Chewy (and in Florida) ran its course.
So I high-tailed it back to the west coast to start a fresh new life in Seattle, Washington as the Lead Photographer for T-Mobile where I am currently launching a new studio at the HQ in Bellevue! This job is beautifully challenging, with the scope of work changing constantly. Some days are headshots and events, other days I'm leading multi-branded campaigns! This is going to an epic chapter for personal and professional growth!
I also still love to freelance in my spare time, and this is where my bread and butter still lay. Photographing people is still one of my main focuses, especially fashion. In addition, I have a growing passion for food and cocktail photography!
If you've made it this far, CONGRATULATIONS, you now know more about me than most people, bravo!
But now it’s my turn; please reach out to me and let’s get to know each other. I am always excited to meet new people, getting to know you, and working out how I can help you on your journey to amazing content creation!
Talk to you soon!
~Dawn Elizabeth
