Biz Cards

I finally got around to ordering my very first business cards last week! It didn't take me very long to design, and I'm happy with how they turned out. The plan is to switch out the pictures periodically. Who can say no to this face?... :)

Front:

Back:

Images by Jen Photography | Official Website!

Hi everyone! So I've FINALLY got my new Images by Jen Photography website together!!

www.imagesbyjenphotography.com

You'll see links to my Images by Jen | Blog and my Facebook Fan Page. But the main attraction is my portfolio, showcasing my last three years of work.

Thanks for keeping up with me and offering encouraging words.

I'm excited to be able to share this new site with you!

New Web Site ~ Sneak Peek!

So I'm just a tad bit behind on my timeline for launching my new website... It seems that I've been having some technical difficulties along the way that I wasn't anticipating.

Anyway, just wanted to give you a sneak peek of what I've been working on... This new site will be the hub for my Facebook page, my Website, and also my blog. I'm now shooting for a February/March launch to coincide with some nicer weather and just in time for scheduling some spring photo shoots!

**Drum roll please...**

TA-DA!!

Let me know what you think!

My New Logo!

So the New Year is here and I'm getting closer to completing a big project I've been working on... my new website! The new website will be the hub for my photography, showcasing my portfolio and providing the links to this blog, as well as my Facebook fan page.

One of the first steps was to get a logo designed that reflected my photography. I had a few things in mind... 

*I wanted the logo to reflect my favorite colors--burnt orange and dark turquoise

*I wanted it to be circular like a stamp

*I wanted it to look pretty intricate, but not too frilly, 

*I wanted it to have a "J" in the center.

*and I wanted the words to be a lowercase, sans serif font

and here is the official Images by Jen Photography logo....

Chris from Austin Creative (You may remember him from a recent photo session...) worked diligently on getting the logo together for me. The logo was inspired by the aperture of a camera lens, like the picture below. You can see how the cursive "Js" surrounding the center of the logo look like they're spiraling inward. Clever,  eh?

I'll be sharing a screen shot of my web page soon... I'm excited!

Let me know what you think!

Before & After Thursday

So I've done a handful of Before & Afters on my post-processing using Totally Rad Actions.. Well this past week, I received a nice surprise. Totally Rad Actions tweeted on their Twitter account that they were loving my before and afters... and as a result, I have had over 400 hits on my blog! I was totally stunned, but also very humbled.

So in lieu of a Before & After today (I don't have one prepared because of the holidays!) check out these Before & After recipes on the TRA site...

Happy New Year's Eve! See you in 2010!

In Front of the Camera

In preparation for 2010 and the launch of my new Images by Jen Photography website in January, I decided it was important to get some professional headshots for my bio page. 

The beautiful and talented Tiffany Kelley of Hollister, met up with me on Sunday and we roamed around the Branson/Hollister area on a cold, windy December afternoon so she could grab these shots. I met Tiffany on Scott Kelby's 2nd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk in downtown Springfield in July. We had lunch together with some other local photographers, swapped business cards and went our separate ways. I contacted Tiffany shortly after that and we've gotten together several times to hang out and talk photography.

I warned Tiffany that I feel like a big goober in front of the camera, but despite this fact, she managed to capture me in a way that's truly me... and that's what makes a great photographer! Thank you, Tiffany!!

Here are some shots you may see in the near future on my site...  Please click here and here on Tiffany's blog to view them larger and in full detail.

Which one is your favorite? Let me know what you think!

I've always wanted a shot of me in a field like this next one. Yay!

New Year Checklist

There will be some changes starting in January for Images by Jen. Here's a bit of my crazy schedule lately:

1. Order domain name. Check! www.imagesbyjenphotography.com coming in January!

2. Order website template. Check!

3. Write copy for website. 40% check.

4. Wait patiently for logo to be designed. Check! (Is it weird that I dreamed about my logo the other night?)

5. Go through the last two years of pictures and pick my favorites for website. Totally do-able, but not quite done yet.

6. Order Canon Speedlight 580 EX II flash. Check!

7. Download Adobe Creative Suite 4 onto my laptop. Check! I now have Photoshop at my fingertips. Finally!

8. Download Totally Rad Actions. Check! Sooo excited about these! (Is it weird that I also dreamed about these? I really need to not be on the computer before I go to bed!)

9. Learn how to use Lightroom. Hmmm. Definitely not checked yet.

10. Prepare for my photo shoot. Check! Yep! I'll be having my own photo shoot on Sunday, courtesy of the beautiful and talented photographer, Tiffany Kelley. I remember how incredibly awkward I was for my senior pictures... Hopefully things will be different this time around!

11. Finish editing November sessions. Almost check.

Well this isn't the entire list, but I feel like I've accomplished something by at least typing this. No wonder my head has been spinning lately!

And not to have a post without some pictures, here are some photos of my doggie-niece Sammie, from Thanksgiving day:

Am-I-In-Trouble? Sammie:

After-Turkey Sammie:

December Sessions

I will not be booking any more sessions for the busy holiday month of December. If I've already spoken with you regarding your tentative December session, please contact me to confirm your date and time.

Thanks!

P.S. I would like a Shootsac and this cover for Christmas. Thank you in advance, Christmas elves.

Facebook Love

Since I've had a lot of fall sessions lately and have been updating the blog and my Images by Jen Photography Facebook page like crazy, just wanted to remind you to click on the link here or on my Facebook link on the right of my blog page if you would like to become my Facebook Fan!

Any new sneak peeks or blog postings will show up right in your news feed!

Have a wonderful day!

Bad Blogger!

I've realized that I've been a bad blogger recently. I'm sitting here at the airport waiting to head out to Charlotte, North Carolina for a CAS Wall Decor shoot, and thought I would give an update.

My mind has been filled lately with to-do lists for my photography for this coming year... things I can do to improve workflow, things I can do to benefit my clients, and things to ensure that I have adequate backups should anything happen to my computer and my files *gasp.* Oh. and also on the drawing board is a logo and an official web site...

I have a very busy October month including this commercial shoot in North Carolina, and a bunch of family and couples shoots in Springfield. I'm excited to be able to take advantage of the beautiful fall colors and produce some great images.

I am constantly reminded how blessed I am. I love photography. It fulfills me. It makes me want to be better every day. It forces me to see things through a different perspective. It makes me happy.

I'll end this post with another picture from Brazil. I captured this image after we told a Bible story to the children. This one melts my heart...

Meet My Future Lens

After doing some research and getting opinions from some local photographers, I've decided to buy this fabulous Canon 50 mm lens f/1.8 II. (I was going to trade in the grip I just recently purchased, but by the fine print I'm just now reading, I'll be losing money). This lens will help out tremendously with the bokeh I'm wanting to achieve in my macro shots and also in my portraitures.

This lens has so many benefits.. It's cheap, it's light, and it produces sharp images. If you purchase a cheap reversal ring (around $8/each), you can also reverse the lens to get even more detailed manual macro shots. There's a terrific article on this lens here on the Digital Photography School site. If you're even considering a new lens, I would recommend that you read this article first.

I'm sure I'll be experimenting with it as soon as I receive it, so I'll be posting some shots. Check back soon!

P.S. I got my passport and new VISA in the mail today. Brazil is only a little over 2 weeks away! We received tons of toys, clothing, and shoes to take to pass out to the Brazilians we meet. On Sunday we packed these all up into 50-pound duffle bags. I even got to speak about my friendship with little Junior during church service on Sunday. I'm so excited to see what this year's adventure has to offer!

Live & Learn

I'm doing a couple new things this week that I'm excited about.

**I'll be going to a Photography Workshop at Lawrence Photo on Thursday hosted by Tamron. I'll be learning about exposure, lighting, composition, and post-processing techniques, for landscape, wildlife, and nature images. I don't really have any expectations about this class, but I have no doubt that I'll come away learning something new, since I've never officially had any photography classes.


**Another new thing that I'll be doing is going on my first Photo Walk. Over 60 photographers from Springfield will be meeting downtown on Saturday, July 18 to join in Scott Kelby's Second-Annual Worldwide Photo Walk. People from all over the world are joining to photograph their cities. It will be a fun way to meet some other local photographers, find some new spots downtown, and do some networking. I'll let you know how it goes!

Shutterfly Products

I've been getting emails from www.Shutterfly.com for awhile now. Shutterfly is one of those online places in which you can do a lot of fun things with your photos. I received an email for some free and on-sale items, so I thought I would give it a whirl. The first coupon was for a free calendar from Shutterfly, and all I had to pay was $5.99 for shipping. So I created an Images by Jen calendar for my home office with some of my photos from 2008 sessions. I was pretty impressed with the quality of the calendar... It's not top-quality, and I'm sure there are some sites that have better products and less-compressed images, but since it was free, I can't complain. I decided to keep it pretty simple so that the photos would pop. Here's a tiny snippit of what one of the months looked like... (minus the orange box around the picture)...

I also decided to try to get two poster-sized advertisements together to try to get some business for upcoming Spring sessions. These 11x14 collage posters were on sale for $5 each plus shipping. Again, I'm satisfied with the end results, although I wish they gave more options as far as fonts and font sizing on the templates. I actually purchased these as a promotional offer to get a free 8x8 photo book. However, Jen didn't read instructions very well and forgot to put the promotional code on the last page of the purchase, and therefore, will not be getting the free book. Silly Jen. Let this be your lesson... When you're trying to get free things, read the instructions. Very carefully.

P.S. T minus 6 days and counting until I get my MacBook Pro in the mail.... *smiles*

Brazil Mission Trip 2009

I am super-excited about photography for the upcoming year! One reason I am excited is that I have the opportunity to return to Rio Branco, Brazil with my church for a mission trip through a great organization called Christian Missions Unlimited (CMU). This will be my fourth time to Brazil with this wonderful organization, and my third time back to the city of Rio Branco. Our mission while in Brazil to build a physical church building for a congregation that is meeting either in each other's homes or in outdoor pavillions, but who do not have the resources themselves to build a physical church in which to fellowship. During the few days we are physically building the church with bricks and masa (cement), we are able to form special relationships with the adults and children in the area. Words can't express how blessed you are by a experience like this... Every time I go, it feels like I've been able to take away so much more than I can physically and spiritually give. The people we meet are generally very poor materially, yet they have so much to offer to those they come in contact with.

The church we built in 2005, Igreja Batista Morada do Sol.
Click here to see a link to a YouTube video from a special service there.

God has blessed me with some very special relationships with Brazilian friends, and they are people who I will never forget. I was so impacted after my first time to Brazil that I came home and immediately started taking Portuguese lessons (the native language of Brazil) so that I could communicate more effectively with the people of Brazil my next time around... Being able to speak the language actually impacted me more than I knew it could. One of the special people I met in Brazil in 2005 was a 12-year-old named Junior. We bonded pretty instantly and he lived close enough to the church we were building that I was able to go to his house and meet his family and his beloved poodle, Leon. Since he was one of my favorite new people, I took a lot of pictures of him during our short time together. We continued to write each other letters during the 11 months before I was able to return again in 2006.

Four weeks prior to my return to Rio Branco in 2006, I received word from another Brazilian friend via the internet that Junior had been in an accident. He was riding his bicycle one day and was hit by a car and had severe head trauma. A few days later, I found out that Junior had passed away from his injuries. I was heartbroken. Prior to his accident, I was looking forward to being able to see him again and to give him a hug and to give him some new presents from the United States. Instead, I was blessed enough to be able to see his family again and surprise his mother at her house. I explained to her that I could speak and understand Portuguese now, and she immediately started sobbing and going into details about what had happened. Even though I couldn't fully understand everything she said, it was obvious that she was hurting and was in a deep state of grief. I gave her a gift while I was there--a photo album of the pictures I had taken of Junior. As her eyes filled with tears once again, she went to another room and returned with a white envelope. She explained that she found the envelope, which contained a letter and some gifts that Junior had intended to send me but had never mailed. As I walked back to meet up with our group again, I was amazed at how God was able to use such a little guy to make an impact in my life. Every year now when I return to Brazil, I am thinking of my buddy, Junior... and knowing that those of us who are going to Brazil with CMU have the same opportunity to impact someone else's life... for the better... for helping them understand through our words and actions that there is a God who loves them and can give them peace and hope and fill them with a joy that they may not yet be able to comprehend.

*Just a second while I dry my eyes...* Okay.. Now onto what I am so excited about. I have been blessed by friends and family in the past for helping support me financially for the mission efforts I have been on. I am excited to say that the first $2600 I make from my photography in 2009 will pay for my entire mission trip to Brazil this year. I am excited about it simply because I'll be using the talents that God has given me to be able to give back to Him in this way... and that thrills me more than I can explain! So if you know of anyone needing some pictures that wants to donate to a good cause, send them my way!

Here are just a few of my favorite photos from my past mission trips to Rio Branco and Fortaleza, Brazil during 2005, 2006, and 2007.

One of my favorite pictures of me and this adorable little boy...

My good friend, Daniel, and me at the dedication service...

2009 Rates

I have updated my rates effective as of January 1, 2009. I am increasing my rates due to experience and to cover expenses for some additional equipment. Please contact me if you need an updated price sheet or fact sheet.

Year-End 2008

As 2008 is coming to an end, it's been awesome to look back and see how everything photography-wise has come together for me this year...

It all started in July, when I did some engagement pictures for Charles and Alice... I had done sessions for people before, but not on a consistent basis...

Shortly after that, I kept getting contacted to do other engagement and family pictures... so I decided to start my ImagesByJen blog in October and also continued to post sessions on my Facebook page.. and the rest is history. Up to this point, I've had 1,092 unique page hits to my blog, with 373 being first-time visitors and 155 returning guests.

I've tallied up my photo sessions through the end of the year, and here are my final results (July-December):
10 families, 9 Engagement/Couple shoots, 5 portraits, 3 events, and a partridge in a pear tree (not really)... for a total of 27 sessions.

Somebody asked me recently what I was most excited about for 2009... and I have to admit, the thing I'm looking forward to the most is a new year in photography! For getting my own MacBook, getting some business cards printed, learning to do more editing techniques in Photoshop... I'm excited for warmer weather, new shoot locations, and just plain getting more experience behind the camera. I'm excited to see what doors God is going to open for me in 2009.. Stay tuned!

To-Do List

Ok. I knew this was going to be a crazy month, but I'm already behind... So many Christmas parties to attend and things to do! I'm a list-maker, so here's my to-do list for this week:

1. Change the header on my blog for a more Winter-y feel... (Crossed that one off!)
2. Edit Stephanie and Zach's engagement pictures... (Got 'r Done)

3. Edit Michael and Emily's "engagement" pictures (they've been married for awhile, but didn't initially get any pictures taken)... (yup.)
4. Pay some bills on my photo equipment and insurance before the end of the year for tax purposes... (Did that..yuck!)
5. Win the lottery... (waiting... waiting...)
6. Post some pictures of the Christmas decorations at my house... (Yup. Did that.)
7. Make my Christmas cards for this year... (Yeah.. so they might end up being Happy New Year cards...)
8. Burn a CD of the pictures I took at the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Christmas party... (checkity check)
9. Practice my Christmas music on the piano... (check.)
10. Take some stuff to Goodwill before the end of the year...
11. Cross my fingers that the laptop I want goes on sale after Christmas... (still hopin')
12. Scout locations downtown for Saturday's family pix... (yeppers.)
13. Put the final coat of paint on my hallway before next Wednesday... (not gonna happen!)
14. Eat, sleep, and be merry.

Whew! Wish me luck on getting all that done! (especially #5!)

Come back soon, as I'll have new pictures to post!

2 Month Blog Birthday

The numbers are in again, and it looks like November was a successful month for my blog. I had 345 visitors in October and 553 in November, for a total of 898 altogether! Not too shabby for a newbie blog! It's fun seeing the numbers come together... It looks like I've got some great returning guests... Keep coming back!

Thankful

So November was pretty busy for me as people have been wanting to take advantage of the good weather and get some pictures for Christmas cards. Obviously, the winter months are going to slow down a bit for me, since I do most of my photography outside. I'm excited to be able to use the extra time I'll have to learn some new editing skills in Photoshop. Hopefully, you'll see some nice results soon.

Please note that I'll be increasing rates starting January 1. If you're wanting to lock my current rates, please contact me to set a date.

I'm looking forward to the new year. It looks like a new Macbook Pro will be in my future in the next month or so... and I'll be getting some business cards printed up shortly after.

Thanks for all the referrals you've been giving me. Your word-of-mouth advertising is much appreciated.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving... Here are some things I'm grateful for...

1. A car that works... I've only spent about $1000 on it this past month, but I'm so grateful to have transportation that I can call mine, and I am sooo happy that it is working again...

2. Awesome friends... You know who you are. Thanks for your encouragement and your thoughtfulness.  Don't know what I would do without you guys!

3. Amazing church family... You're my #1 fans, and I appreciate your willingness to let me love on your kiddos, sing and play for you, and take your pictures... and thanks for referring me to other people for photo shoots!...

4. My family... For a brother and dad who know how to fix my car, for my mother who makes yummy noodles, and for my grandma and aunt Nadine who make me remember not to take the time we have with them for granted...

5. My warm house... I am so blessed to have a roof over my head, especially in these chilly months when so many people are cold...

6. God's provision... God has always provided for me in every way and He will never fail me.  I am reminded every day that He is faithful and that He has an amazing plan for my life...

7.  A great job... Not only do I have a great boss and fun coworkers, but I actually like my job... and an added bonus is that I get to take photos on the weekend and get paid for that too. No complaints from me...

8. For music... I can't begin to explain how impactful music has been to me.  I can't imagine my life without it. It energizes me when I need it... it can be thought-provoking... it can make me laugh and it can make me cry... I get to sing and play for church every week with an amazingly talented group of people... It blesses me.

9. My health... so many people I know have medical problems that are rocking their worlds. I am so grateful that both me and my family are healthy. I hope I never take it for granted...

10. Creativity... I am grateful that people are positively responsive to my creative work. My photography, music, and artwork is just another outlet for expressing who I am and sharing with others the gifts and talents God has blessed me with. All praise goes to God, who is the ultimate provider!

Hope you are blessed today!

One Month Blog-iversary!

As of November 1, 2008, my imagesbyjen blog is one month old! Thanks to my handy statistics counter, I'm able to see that I've had 337 new visitors in my first month (excluding myself, I swear!). Thank you for visiting, and thanks also for your encouraging words!

Here's what I'm able to see...


Hopefully, these numbers will keep getting bigger!
Have a great day!