About Us

Jim and Joyce McLeod are the owners of Highland Foto. Both Jim and Joyce grew up surrounded by artistic influences. Jim’s father was a prominent artist on the Gulf Coast, and his mother a musician. He passed up a music scholarship to join the Navy and serve his country. Like Jim’s parents, Joyce's parents loved to travel, and her father continues to sing and play the guitar. Her mother was an extremely talented quilter and embroiderer and dabbled in other creative outlets as well.

Joyce's interest in photography began in her early teens with a small Kodak pocket camera. Her ability and interest increased with the gift of a 35mm Canon camera in high school. In college she worked for a photographer and learned black and white film development and print.

Joyce has continued her passion for creativity in many areas, including the creation of jewelry, numerous crafts, and in music through her singing and playing the piano. She has become skilled in numerous types of needlework; however, photography has fueled her passions more than any other creative endeavors. Over the last few years, she focused relentlessly on improving her photography and digital processing skills. Her passion for landscape photography began when she was inspired by the works of Ansel Adams. Her commercial photography inspirations are Robb Grimm, Don Giannatti, Tony Roslund, and a plethora of relatively "unknown" photographers out there doing some amazing work but haven't necessarily achieved the level of recognition of the more well-known guys. "There are some amazing photographers out there creating some incredible works of art. Sometimes you stumble upon them while browsing on Instagram and you are just blown away by their creativity. I am as motivated and inspired by these folks as I am by the masters."

After joining the Navy, Jim’s father provided him with his first camera, a 35mm Yashica TL Electro X. He was introduced to black and white film processing while on deployment with the Sixth Fleet.

Jim always had a passion for aircraft, no doubt inherited from his father, a US Army Air Corps bomber pilot during WWII, and later an Air Force transport pilot. Jim’s first job was at a small airport where he took 80% of his pay in flight time. Since Jim’s father also operated charter boats and performed watch repair in his jewelry store, it’s fitting that Jim joined the Navy and worked on complex avionics and airborne sensor equipment and performed safety-of-flight post-maintenance inspections. Thanks to his broad management expertise and experience, Jim earned his PMP in 2017, attesting to his ability to manage complex projects.

He earned his Part 107 certification in 2018, enabling Highland Foto to offer professional drone photography services.

In the last few years Jim and Joyce developed an interest in astrophotography. You may find them on clear moonless nights at the top of the dam at Lake Laura in Shenandoah County VA shooting the Milky Way or peering through their telescope at the constellations.

Highland Foto branched out into product photography for e-commerce sellers in the last several years, providing product on white background (a requirement of some e-commerce sellers) and branding and lifestyle photography. We are also expanding our real estate photography portfolio, and have shot roughly 70 short-term rental units in the Basye, VA area.

Jim maintains his PMP certification to enhance our business processes and was awarded the Massanutten Association of Realtors Affiliate of the Year award for his contributions in 2022.

Jim and Joyce continue their parent’s fascination with travel and are enamored of the beauty that our world and universe offers. Please enjoy our photography as we strive to share the beauty that we find with you!

How We Got Started

We decided to take our business to a professional level after Joyce received encouragement from our friends and a National Geographic Editor. Although her image was not chosen for the publication, it was an incredibly humbling experience to be recognized at that level.