Jac Cheairs

Jac Cheairs

Carry Your Day: Jac Cheairs

Cinematographer

Talk about "on the go." Jac Cheairs's job as a cinematographer has taken him to some amazing places, from shooting underwater and on board Zero Gravity Flights, to locations like Ghana and California's Trona Pinnacles. He's worked with the likes of Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp and Naomi Campbell, filmed campaigns for Nike and Dior, and owns and runs the creative collaborative 3 Dog Pack alongside his wife, photographer and director Elizabeth Lippman. But his favorite gig? Being dad to his son, Wyatt, and daughter, Indiana.

7:00 AM

Normally we set the alarm for 7, but at least 50% of the time, Indie comes and wakes us up about 10 minutes before it goes off. With the pace of everything slowed down a bit due to quarantine, we've been stealing extra time in the morning to snuggle with the kids. That works for about two minutes before they start wrestling with each other, and then we know it's really time to get up and start the day.

Morning routine

8:30 AM

Work and parenting

We get dressed, we go downstairs, and then Liz and I trade off as parents and business partners. She'll check emails while I feed the kids and get them ready for the day, then I'll check emails and connect on the projects I'm working on. Covid essentially shut down the film industry and any photoshoots, but between myself, Liz, and all of our equipment, we're a director, a photographer, a cinematographer and essentially a full-scale studio. We can shoot and produce almost anything, right from home — if a client can dream it, we can make it happen.

Family outdoor time

12:00 PM

As a family, we're not very good at sitting still. All of us like to be active and doing something, anything — preferably outdoors. We're lucky to live in Los Angeles, where the weather allows for that most of the time. We eat most of our meals in our backyard at the picnic table, and we're almost always going somewhere on our bikes. My Bleecker Backpack is perfect for that — it's stain and water resistant and the nylon is surprisingly tough stuff for being so lightweight. It really stands up to whatever I put it through.

Outdoor activities

3:00 PM

Family photo shoot

Being home more has been an amazing opportunity to spend time with the kids that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten, since I travel so much for work. It's also been so cool for Wyatt and Indie to see what we do. They're interested in the creativity of it all and they want to be involved in our projects — it looks like fun to them. Wyatt has even been learning how to use a camera; he took this portrait of Liz, me and our dog, Scarlett (the original "three dog pack").

Family portrait

8:00 PM

Being home more has been an amazing opportunity to spend time with the kids that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten, since I travel so much for work. It's also been so cool for Wyatt and Indie to see what we do. They're interested in the creativity of it all and they want to be involved in our projects — it looks like fun to them. Wyatt has even been learning how to use a camera; he took this portrait of Liz, me and our dog, Scarlett (the original "three dog pack").

Evening family time

My Bleecker Backpack is perfect ... it's stain and water resistant and the nylon is surprisingly tough stuff for being so lightweight. It really stands up to whatever I put it through.