1. I am going to LA for a bit and she has to wait that much longer to see her images.

2. She is such a great sport that she was willing to jump high in the air on a tiny trampoline over 20 times to try to get a cool airborne shot! If any of you think that modeling is easy and watch America’s Next Top Model and think that you can do those crazy poses, please call Emily and she will let you know that it is much easier to do these in your mind while sitting on the couch watching other people do it!:)

Thanks for a great day, Emily and Sue! See you when I get back from LA…

And this one is for you, Emily, as I know that you were excited to see one of these. You are so beautiful!

I am so sorry about what happened. I know that you must be so upset. It is hard to accept I am sure. But you must face the truth. Yes, the Vikings beat the Packers today. Did you want to come back down again for the traitor-Farve-jersey-in-dumpster shot you mentioned? Let me know.

Anyway, you were such a good sport on Sunday’s shoot that I had to post my favorite image as a little sneak peek for you. I know it was chilly. And rainy. And bright. And that you had a cold. And that you had to hang out with your mom and I. And that I dragged you into strange places and fixed your shirt and made your knees hurt. Sorry about that.

I sure hope you like this shot and think it was all worth it because I think you look awesome!

Thanks again for being such a good sport!

Jessie

And to my wonderful regular readers – I am sorry too! Perhaps I will get back to blogging again and play a little blog catch-up. I have a super cool story to share with you soon…

]]> http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/724/feed 0 http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/619 http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/619#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:23:05 +0000 Jessie http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/?p=619 On my drive home from Amanda’s photo shoot I just felt so blessed. Once again I got to spend the day with an amazing family and had so much fun. I know that it sounds cheesy and corny, but it is so true. I was just wondering if perhaps the people that are drawn to my style have the type of personality that I just click with, or if I have just been incredibly lucky. Either way, I am thrilled!

I will post more images at a later time (I just got home an hour ago for goodness sakes!), but I wanted to get out a little sneak peek for Amanda and her family before I head out on vacation tomorrow.

As usual, I chose a couple of my favorites from the day to use in the sneak peek. She loves reading and tattoos so we tried to tell her story in some of her images too!

(By the way, as she loves reading so much, I asked her to bring some of her favorite books to try to use during the day. She brought a beautiful copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. It looks so cool in the photograph! I was so happy I was giddy.)

She and her dad have a special bond so we had to get a few with him too. They are “hams” (in their own words!).

]]> http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/619/feed 3 http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/418 http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/418#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:54:15 +0000 Jessie http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/?p=418 Sometimes we are given messages from the Big Guy In The Sky. Sometimes we have to strain to hear the whispering message. Some messages we are still waiting for (like whether or not we should go for child number three – although last week I had my 1 1/2-year old nephew for the week and I think I have my answer – but that’s another post). And sometimes the message is blaring in our faces. It is that big tacky neon sign outside our motel window, keeping us up at night (can’t you just hear the buzzing as you read this – or is that just me?). Early in my career I got one of those neon messages that changed the direction of my business.

When I first decided that I wanted to do photography professionally, my plan was to take awesome photos and hand over a disk of images to my clients for them to do what they would like with them. 

A month after I purchased my first digital SLR, I gave a CD of images from Christmas to one of my sister-in-laws. I printed out a few for myself, they looked great. Then one day I was at my mother-in-law’s house and I saw a terrible picture. It looked kind of like one that I had taken but it was orange and dark and blurry. My mother-in-law said that my sister-in-law had printed out a few of my images from Christmas at Costco and had given them out to our family. So there were my images, with my name on them, in the hands of people I love…and they looked terrible!

And I saw so clearly how much I love photography and think of my images as my babies and how I want them to be the best they can be.

I saw what a difference a professional printshop (and Photoshop) made on my images. That neon sign said that I needed creative control from start to finish. I knew that I wanted to be more than a photography chop-shop. I wanted to give my clients full service. I wanted to spend quality time with my clients and not try to squeeze as many sessions in a week as I could. I wanted to make sure that all images bearing my name were as good as they could be. I saw clearly the direction I wanted to go and never looked back.

I can’t show you the print quality until you come to my office, but I thought it might be fun (and a little nerve-wracking on my end) to share some before/after Photoshop images with you! 

Although a good image needs to be well-composed and exposed with great lighting and expressions right out of the camera, every image needs a little tweak before I share them with my clients. Some tweaks are so minor that no one would ever notice but me. And some images just cry to be played with a bit more like two recent images below.

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I liked this image. Beautiful Dani. The pose. The lighting. The blues. The wind in her hair. But straight out of the camera it deserved a little something. A little special Photoshop effort…

This is now one of my favorite images! So warm and soothing and I cannot take my eyes off of hers.

Again, right out of the camera this had potential. These two were so full of affection and they were having a great moment (on a cute bridge)…

But this Photoshop technique made this image even more special! This is also one of my new favorites!

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little behind-the-scenes and saw how I came to run my business the way I do. It was really guided by the love of photography and commitment to quality (that sounds like such a warm and cozy corporate moral phrase!).

This may be the first time I have publicly shown my straight-out-of-the-camera shots (I hope you still like me!). I am feeling a little naked at the moment but I know I will get over it. Maybe I should have paid attention to the flashing buzzing sign in my window now that says I should keep some things to myself! What fun would that be?

I thought you might like a little sneak peek of our session for your birthday (they are two of my favorite images from the day!). You are so beautiful and kind and such a good sport. I am excited to show you more soon.

Have a great day. Enjoy your time at work (uh!) and at soccer pictures (fun) and at your big bonfire (awesome!). Make some hot dogs and s’mores for me. Does life get any better than that?

Full session post to come in a couple weeks…