she saw things photoblog

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my girl is a bloomin photographer.  she, much like her mother ;o), would prefer to be BEHIND that camera rather than in front.  we have an oldish point and shoot camera that has become zoe's camera, and she does pretty darn well with it!  careful to wear the wrist strap and everything!  oh how that makes a photog mama proud.

here a few of zoe's shots from a card i uploaded today...

happy weekend, y'all!

peace.

xo,

jen

 

jen's are good!

Jen is the incredible mother of 4 of the sweetest kids I've come across!  When I sent a shout out that I had a few opening for sessions during my recent trip to the Bay area, she quickly shot her hand up and said, "me! me!" --- much to my delight!!!!  She and her husband John suggested the lovely Hidden Villa organic farm for thier shoot location, and as soon as I arrived I fell completely in LOVE with the property.  It was the exact perfect spot to capture the spirit of this sweet family.


 










thank you!!!
xo,
jen

dele and amber and their sweet boy... another amazing family that i had the pleasure of photoing recently!  d & a are both firefighting heroines, wonderful parents, and somehow manage to stay closely involved with their wonderful and expansive community of family and friends.  I am in awe of them.  I truly do not know how they do it all!













thank you,dele and amber!  i love you!
xo,
jen
 

she saw things: summer special

Hi everyone!
Wow, this hot weather sure has been a change!  It has me thinking of summer... and what a fabulous time it is to do portrait sessions!  No really, it is! :o)  Truthfully, the light in our amazing NW summer evenings provides the absolute best lighting for photos, and the warmth gives us so many options for outdoor sessions with kids playing in water, blowing bubbles, or WHATEVER!  Even thinking about annual family or kid photos for holiday gifts and cards --- its not to early.  (my cutoff date for holiday orders will be November 16th this year, fyi)

sooooooo, I'd like to offer a summer special to all of you...
I will give $50 off of the $250 session fee, if you contact me between today & May 31st to book a session in July or August!!!

I am currently booking session about 5 - 8 weeks out, with the exception of maternity & newborn session that I will find a way to get scheduled.  I will be able to offer some weekday evening sessions during this season as well, so that opens up more options for scheduling.

I have been making some big changes with pricing & packages that will be fun and give every client some great options.  I am striving to offer something feasible and attractive to everyone.  I truly love what I do and consistently feel honored to be able to capture families as they are RIGHT NOW, being themselves. 

I have been so blessed to work with such very cool wonderful people, and I LOVE your referrals!  About 99ish% of my business comes from word of mouth, so please pass this along to anyone you think might like to see it.

thank you!  and i look forward to hearing from you!
xo,
jen

so much catch up

hi there dear blog readers!
i have a confession to make.
i ALWAYS feel behind and stressed out.  ALWAYS.  pulled in 64 directions simultaneously.  all.  the.  time.
does anyone out there have a magical fix for this ailment?  no, really. ;o)

part of this has to do with having 2 kids.  also having one of them with special needs.  and the other constantly vying for attention.  or maybe its trying to be a stay at home mom, manage a household, have a social life, be a good friend, run a quickly growing business, follow my passion, etc, etc, etc, etc....  i just can't even seem to find a balance.  and i want to.  so badly.

::: s i g h :::

here's a bit of what I've been up to.....

I had the honor of photographing my Mom's dearest friend, Susie's, beautiful family while I was in CA.  They are so special to me, and we had a great time on the UC Berkeley campus.



look at those curls!!!!!!!!



Kaary (on the right) was my very first friend in life.  Her partner Kim instantly won my heart too!!!!!



have a beautiful day!
xo,
jen

 

wow

last saturday i had the pleasure of spending the morning with a lovely family with these cutie pie twin 6 month old boys...  it was interesting spend just a couple of hours seeing a slice of what life is like with twin babies.  it took my breath away.
here they are, so beautiful and fascinating...

I'm leaving tomorrow for San Francisco & Berkeley!  Lots of adventures to be had... will write more when I can.
xo,
jen

real simple thoughts on getting professional photographs of your children

I found this on fellow photographer, Ashley MacNamara's, blog.  I think its great so I thought I would share...

From REAL SIMPLE’s website…

Note To Self
Get Professional Photos of Your Children

I’ve never forgotten an invaluable piece of advice that I heard from an older friend right after my first child was born. She told me, “One of my greatest regrets about my children’s childhoods was that I didn’t have more professional pictures taken.”“You didn’t take many pictures?” I asked.Rubin, Gretchen. REAL SIMPLE.
http://simplystated.realsimple.com/life/2008/03/unforgettable-a.html

“I took tons of pictures,” she said, “but the fact is, professional photographs are so much better than even the best snapshots.”

I absolutely agree—professional photos are better. And keeping her advice in mind, ever since my daughters were born, I’ve been zealous about getting their photos taken professionally at least once a year.

While it’s a lot of fun (and also a pain) to take pictures myself, it’s terrific to have some pictures that are truly excellent. These photos don’t take the place of the on-the-spot pictures that I take myself—I still take scads of photos at birthday parties, first days of school, on the slide, with a popsicle—but these pictures memorialize my children’s childhoods in a different way.

Plus they make great family gifts. I can never figure out a good present for the grandparents and great-grandparents, but they always love to get a really great photograph—especially the relatives who don’t often get a chance to see the girls in person.

Also, research shows that one way to boost your happiness is to reflect on happy times, and looking at photographs helps keep memories more vivid.

It’s a splurge, of course. Professional photos aren’t cheap.

However, I figure that the money I spend on these photographs will strengthen family bonds, enhance happy memories, and capture the fleeting moments of childhood. They give me more pleasure than practically any other purchases that I make. That strikes me as pretty good happiness bang for the buck.

A friend’s family had another great photography tradition. For her whole life, at every milestone, her parents took a picture of her and her brother sitting exactly the same way on their front stoop. It’s fascinating to see them change through the years. Along the same lines, the artist Nicholas Nixon took a photograph of his wife and her three sisters once a year for 33 years. The collection of these photographs, The Brown Sisters, is riveting.

Getting professional photos take is a great example of the tiresome fact that happiness takes thought and effort. These photographs are easy to arrange; in the scheme of things, not terribly expensive; contribute greatly to our family happiness—and yet it probably never would have occurred to me to do it if my friend hadn’t suggested it.

here's just a quick shotfrom today.  i am feeling a need to connect with my spiritual side... i'll let you know how that goes. :o)

xo,

jen

amazing

amazing. delightful. fun. kind. super cool. beautiful. inspiring.  these are just a few of the words that come to mind when i think about this sweet family.  i love them.

G, here is just a glimpse at a few of the many photos for your session that i adore....

xo,

jen

again...

this flu never ends!!!  we've come down with another wave of this nasty beast!!!  GAH!

Any healthy and loving thoughts you could send our way would be greatly appreciated... we are pretty darn miserable and quarantined over here.

xox,

jen

flubber & flu

what a week this has been!!!!
after a wonderful photoshoot with the amazing Grayson (of BACKLINE) and her delightful little family, my family was ATTACKED by the nastiest, ugliest, most unwelcome stomach flu last weekend!!!  All of us had in some form or another, with me getting hit the softest (knock on wood!).  I've just kept thinking "How am I going to manage taking care of all of them if I feel the way they all do???"  It was one of those bugs that is just completely all consuming, and everything else came to a screaching stand-still-halt.  So please accept my apologies if you've been waiting on me for anything!  I am so far behind that I can't even see the end of my to-do list, but I promise that I am working as hard as I possibly can to get things done for my wonderfully patient clients.

(the above photo is proof that she was SICK!  she never ever ever naps!)

oh!  and not to forget the FLUBBER portion of this post...

Zoe and I made flubber.  We've done it many times before, and its really cool stuff.  Only this time, Zoe tried something new with it... putting a big fat, massively HUGE glob of it in her HAIR!!!!  If you've made it before or visited the above mentioned link, you know that flubber is made almost entirely of glue.  yep, glue.  Globby, gooified, glue.  In her hair.   I have never seen my girl more mortified than when I told her we may have to shave her head!  OH THE HORROR!!!  (and I was pretty darn freaked as well because I've gotta say that the kid has just about THE cutest haircut right now that I have ever seen!)  Luckily, I was able to pick most of it out and then had the wherewithall to remember that white distilled vinegar is an effective solvent to remove the stuff from clothing, so why not hair???  Many tears, a painful scalp, several cups of white vinegar, and 3 shampooings and her cute little hairdo was as good as new!  PHEW!!!

Moral of the story --- DO NOT PUT FLUBBER ANYWHERE NEAR HAIR!  and if you do, have gallons of white vinegar on hand!!!

Stay tuned for some seriously sweet photos!  Previews for Shonda & Grayson coming up asap!

xo,

jen