My name is Jason Jean and I’m a former tax professional turned freelance photographer. After several years in the public accounting industry while diagnosed with juvenile glaucoma and becoming stable but partially blind, I decided to explore my creative side that was suppressed since childhood. I started shooting mid-2008 and fell in love with capturing style/fashion while connecting with various inspirational people throughout the world.

Citizen Couture was established shortly after NYFW Fall 2009 and soon developed into a website focused on exploring and capturing fashion inspirations at major fashion cities/events while globally reaching out to fashion bloggers, including other creative communities. It also extends social awareness among fashion insiders and emerging artists/designers utilizing the web to create better communication for people who are passionate about art and fashion.

I am also available for national and international assignments.

A few random, interesting, and quirky facts about myself:

1) I am an American-born Taiwanese raised in New York. My last name is a phonetic translation to German that was passed over when my uncle lived abroad.

2) I grew up writing left-handed but at a young age my parents taught me to use my right instead. I currently define myself as selective ambidextrous, switching hands for certain tasks based on comfort (e.g. playing billiards with my left, photographing with my right).

3) I carried a sketchbook up until high school, feverishly drawing anything from comic book characters to simple portraits. Sometimes I would simultaneously draw with one hand and color with the other.

4) While I love fashion and style, I must admit that I can be a little of a geek at times; probably because of my financial background. I’m an analytical person who happens to be technological savvy with intermediate computer/web programming and accounting knowledge (how exciting, eh?).

5) I have a habit of asking friends to autograph favorite photos that I take. I find each individual signature unique which creates a sentimental and timeless value to the photos.

I usually get asked what my photography gears are, so I thought it would be helpful to list the body/lenses that I currently own and the ones that I dream of acquiring one day. While Nikon’s professional line of DSLRs can offer so much, I decided to start off with their consumer line, the Nikon D90, and have been extremely satisfied with its performance and output. It’s easy enough for me to carry everywhere and performs well under low-light condition when paired with constant aperture lenses.

Having constant aperture gives me control with depth of fields and helps me shoot at a faster frame rate that can be crucial under certain conditions. Nikon’s standard 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom is my go-to lens for most jobs because it provides exceptional quality with flexibility in tight situations. However, there are simply some situations that call for primes, giving me the power to go wider than f/2.8 and the ease of carrying a small and lightweight lens. I’ve noticed that the 50mm f/1.8 and 50mm f/1.4 are very popular among many fashion bloggers and as a personal user; it’s perhaps one of the most recommended lens for portrait photography and suits perfectly for any fashion blogger.