About Zxamara
I think I was always going to end up behind the camera.
I spent most of my life in Florida surrounded by friends, family, and a lot of photographs.
Funny enough, I didn't always enjoy being in them.
I grew up in Florida, where palm trees, cheap flip-flops, and the beach were really all you needed.
And for as long as I can remember, there was always somebody taking pictures. Parties, family gatherings, road trips, camping, you name it. We had pictures of just about everything.
I never really thought much about it back then. It was just something we did.
I remember going through this old phone of mine. It was completely broken, but I'd paid to get it fixed anyway.
I kept scrolling back through old pictures, going as far as I could. And I came across one of me and my mom when I was little.
I don't know what it was, but I just kept looking. Like, for anything with her face on it.
Pictures, videos, anything.
And then I remembered my voicemails.
Second to last voicemail in my call log…
It was her.
"Hey Zxamara, I was calling to find out if you wanted me to pick you up anything to eat…"
And that was it.
That changed the way I looked at a camera.
If there's an opportunity to capture something now, I'm probably going to take it.
Then I figured out I actually loved making things.
Around 18, I was already recording little videos on vacations and putting clips together for fun.
Then my uncle had an idea for a Disney cover music video. My family made the outfits, we planned everything out, and I got behind the camera.
Watching everybody sit together afterward and replay what we created was probably one of the first times I thought, “Oh my goodness. I LOVE this.”
Eventually I decided I wanted to film a wedding.
I told one of the patrons I knew from working as a swim instructor that I wanted to get into weddings. Turns out her son was getting married on a yacht off Clearwater Beach.
I basically said, “Put me in contact. I'll do it for free.”
There was only one small problem.
I had just spent about $2,300 on a camera and somehow didn't realize it didn't come with a lens.
Very prepared.
I figured it out, filmed the wedding, had an amazing time, and somehow walked away with a $600 tip.
That was one of those moments where I realized this little thing I loved doing could actually become something.
ZJ Productions started in 2021.
At first, it was honestly a hobby that kept getting more serious.
I was filming weddings and events through referrals while bringing my camera everywhere I went. Florida, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Texas, and wherever else life happened to take me.
Eventually another filmmaker caught me at an event and asked why I wasn't shooting in manual.
Excuse me???
But instead of letting that embarrass me, I wanted to learn from him. He eventually became a mentor, and that's when I realized how much more there was to learn.
The better I became with the camera, the more I realized the camera wasn't actually my favorite part.
Creating was.
Ideas first. Camera second.
Today, I'm Zxamara Jester, a Tampa Bay Creative Director and Filmmaker and the founder of ZJ Productions.
I've created wedding films, artist visuals, events, branded content, aerial work, photography, and concepts that started as somebody saying, “Okay, hear me out…”
Those might be my favorite ones.
Weddings taught me how to anticipate moments that only happen once.
Artists taught me how far you can stretch one idea.
Businesses taught me how many different ways you can tell the same story.
And life taught me why documenting any of it matters in the first place.
I'm building ZJ Productions into a production team where the name itself means something.
I don't need it to become some massive agency where you don't even know who's creating your project.
I want somebody to hear ZJ Productions and know that whatever we're putting our hands on is going to have an idea behind it, intention behind it, and people who actually care about the finished product.
Because if every camera I owned disappeared tomorrow, I'd still create.
I'd still come up with concepts. I'd still build campaigns. I'd still bring people together and figure out how to make an idea happen.
The camera is just one of the ways I get to do it.
The idea was always the part I loved first.
