Julie Fridley
Julie Fridley is a business owner, photographer, and travel experience curator with a career rooted in creativity, service, and empowerment. Growing up in a military family allowed her to travel extensively across multiple locations before eventually settling in a small Iowa town for high school. After graduation, she returned to Europe where her sisters were stationed and worked as a nanny for a military family. She later returned to the United States, working in roles including occupational therapy assistance and corporate sales for a warehouse company. While successful in these roles, Julie felt a strong pull toward creative work and entrepreneurship, which ultimately led her to pursue her lifelong passion for photography and business ownership.
In 2019, Julie founded Jewel Photo & Travel and Jewel Boudoir, building a brand centered on helping women feel confident, empowered, and celebrated. She left her corporate career at age 50 to follow her entrepreneurial vision, overcoming early guidance that suggested photography would not be a viable career path. After initially starting with wedding photography, she discovered her true passion after experiencing a transformative boudoir photoshoot with her stepdaughter in San Diego. Inspired by the confidence and self-love she felt from that experience, she dedicated her work to helping women of all ages embrace their beauty and individuality. Today, she operates a private studio on her farm property, offering full-service photography experiences that include hair, makeup, wardrobe styling, and signature creative elements such as specialty props and artistic sets.
Julie has also expanded her business into international women’s travel experiences that combine adventure, luxury, and personal transformation. She has organized retreats to destinations such as Isla Mujeres, Mexico, where participants enjoy activities like swimming with whale sharks and participating in flowing dress beach photoshoots. She has also led multi-country experiences in Europe, including a 10-day trip to Paris and Germany, where she photographed clients in iconic locations such as the Eiffel Tower and Oktoberfest. Through her work, Julie continues to serve women across generations from young professionals to great-grandmothers helping them embrace confidence, adventure, and self-expression through photography and travel.
• Occupational Therapy Assistant Training
• Photographer of the Year for Des Moines 2023
• American Cancer Society fundraising calendar featuring breast cancer survivors
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to going to my own drumbeat and knowing what makes me happy, then continuing to chase that. It hasn't been roses all the time - after COVID, I didn't know if we were going to be able to stay open - but I just have a lot of faith and I believe in what I'm doing. I love the whole aspect of helping other women see themselves the way people that love them see them. Most people that love you see you as incredibly beautiful, but we're like 'no, no, I've got a wrinkle here, this could be fixed here.' Other people that love us look at us and think 'oh, you're so gorgeous.' I want women to see that in themselves and say 'it doesn't matter that I have a wrinkle here, I've aged' - to love themselves on the inside and out. I've had women from very thin to very curvy, and every woman is beautiful in her own right. I truly believe that. When they see themselves on the other side of the shoot, they're like 'oh my gosh, that's me!' Winning Photographer of the Year for Des Moines in 2023 was really validating - being a boudoir photographer, there can be a lot of stigma, but that award was a real pinnacle moment that helped validate that going by my own drumbeat and doing what I'm inspired to do really is the most fulfilling.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
One photographer who was a big inspiration for me when I first got into doing boudoir photography is another boudoir photographer named Jen Rozenblum Smith. She has LBV Photography and a very large business with about 10 employees. She offers courses to help other people who are starting to get into the business of doing boudoir. She's a woman-owned business offering women opportunities to learn about CRM programs for marketing themselves. She's an inspiration and attends a lot of conferences and does really amazing things for the industry. What really inspired me about her is that she used to be a speech therapist in her past career, and now she's over a six-figure photographer. In photography, a lot of people think that it's a dying art because everything's becoming AI and digital, but just to have creativity and what you can do without the AI is really remarkable.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The biggest thing I would share is that we choose our experiences in this life. I know a lot of people think that's not right, but some things can happen to us in everyday life - terrible things happen all the time - but it's how we choose to accept them and how we choose to still look forward to something better. I would tell women to really go to your own drumbeat. Find out what really makes you happy. I feel like most women are so, in a way, still taking care of everybody before we do ourselves. It's so true about the glass - you can't do anything if your cup isn't full. You can't pour from an empty cup. When we feel that in ourselves, then we're really able to take better care of other people too. Even though things in the world are really not going great right now, if the job didn't come or the promotion didn't come, all those things, we can still love this moment we have right now and just cherish that we're alive and that we're doing well and that we really have things to look forward to.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In photography, a lot of people think that it's a dying art because everything's becoming AI and digital. But just to have creativity and what you can do without the AI is really remarkable. As a boudoir photographer specifically, there can be a lot of stigma - some people think it's something that it's not. I always tell people I do classy pictures, I'm not, you know, I'm trying to make women feel empowered. After COVID, I didn't know if we were going to be able to stay open, but I just have a lot of faith and believe in what I'm doing.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My values are loving ourselves and teaching our daughters to love themselves. Children won't do what we say, they will do what we do. I had that same experience with my own daughter - tearing myself down apart in the mirror, and then she would do the same thing, even if I'm like 'oh, honey, you're so beautiful, just the way you are.' So the biggest value I would say out there for moms with daughters or even sons is having that self-worth and looking at yourself in the mirror and saying 'I'm enough.' I want women to see themselves as incredibly beautiful, the way people that love them see them. Other people that love us look at us and think we're gorgeous, but we focus on every wrinkle and flaw. I want women to love themselves on the inside and out. I've had women from very thin to very curvy, and every woman is beautiful in her own right. That's what I truly believe.