North Country at Work: Beginning a Glens Falls group images studio

Mar 12, 2026 —

When Jessica Keller was 13 years previous, she acquired her first digital camera, a bit digital point-and-shoot.

Photography caught together with her all through life. In school she acquired into movie and labored within the images division. When Keller moved to Glens Falls a number of years in the past, she missed having a spot to be with different photographers.

“I started selling my artwork at local markets and talking to a lot of different photographers,” she remembers.

The one factor she heard time and again from different photographers was that they had been searching for group. “It can be such an individual hobby,” says Keller. “Like we’re usually just by ourselves.”

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Photography is a passion for Keller, as she’s all the time had a ‘day job’ working as a psychological well being therapist. But she preferred the thought of beginning a enterprise, and she or he thought native photographers might actually use a group studio.

“Also, a little selfishly, I wanted access to a studio and a darkroom again,” says Keller. “And I’m very honest about that. I wanted access to those things, and I don’t want to make it so it’s just mine. I want to share and have it be accessible.”

In the spring of 2025, Keller opened Light and Lens. It’s a group images studio, darkroom, and gallery based mostly out of an previous workplace house that Keller retrofitted final winter.

“It’s been… an experience,” says Keller with a laugh. “It kind of expanded to things that I hadn’t originally thought of. Originally, it was just community space for photographers. That’s, you know, hourly rental for a studio, hourly rental for dark room, and having a gallery.”

Keller had ideas for events and classes, but she didn’t think that would be the focus. But it turns out that’s what a lot of people were looking for, and it was a great way to bring people together.

Her most popular class is “Photography Basics,” where she walks people through “speed, aperture, ISO, which we call the exposure triangle.” She explains it as “learning how to use a camera past being in auto mode.”

Keller also started offering all kinds of other services, from private lessons and film developing to monthly pet portraits. She says that if it’s photography-related, she either does it or she’ll make it happen.

“I just kind of keep adding things that people are asking for, which I really enjoy,” says Keller.

“I don’t know if everybody would see that as the smartest business decision, but I’m trying to supply what people are asking for, because that’s what they need.”

She says the studio brings in all kinds of people, from kids to retired folks. Some people come to learn for the first time, others grew up in the era of film photography and want to learn the ropes on a digital camera. 

Keller still has her ‘day job’ as a mental health therapist. She spends the first half of the week counselling and the rest of it working at the photography studio, which means basically no days off.

Keller doesn’t want to give up her work as a therapist. Her hope, eventually, is that the studio will make enough money so that she can hire someone and take a break once in a while.

“It’s been a little bit slow going in terms of, you know, money,” says Keller. “I don’t like being more towards the money side, but unfortunately, that’s part of a business. But it has been growing even just in the last few months, and I haven’t been open that long. So, I’m hoping that it will continue to grow.”

Ultimately, Keller feels confident that she’s offering something people want: a chance to try something new or connect with people who share their interests.

Keller says that she feels more inspired when she has people to share her work with. 

“Even just to be able to be editing a photo on my computer and turning to someone and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think of this? Or do you like this or this better?'” She says that having community “really gives a different element to it.”

Keller says there is a time and place for photography to be an individual experience, but it’s also a great way to bring people together, especially when there’s a physical space to make that happen.

Nora Kenyon contributed to this story.

Major support for North Country at Work comes from the Adirondack Community Foundation. 

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