Bailee

When I met with Bailee and her mom for our pre-consultation I told them about the location I was dying to do a Senior Session at and I was stoked when they said they were game! It's a bit of a jaunt from Three Forks so even more so from Townsend.
I love finding new and unique locations so I never mind a little drive time to a shoot! The evening light, the colors and the flowers was definitely  worth it. I think we all came out with a few mosquito bites, but I didn't mind! Bailee and her mom did a great job of picking outfits which would work well with the location. I've really enjoyed getting to know Bailee and her mom and I cannot wait until the second part of our session this fall :)!

Be Yourself!

Lets face it,  the majority of young men and adult men don't get real excited about getting their portraits taken. Snapshots are one thing, but going to a professional photographer, getting posed, having to smile, being told to look off into the distance looking forlorn just isn't their thing! But they do it, because their wife wants family portraits or they're going to be a Senior and their mom says they have to. So I try my hardest to make it painless, to make it kind of fun. I encourage them to have fun, be playful and I allow them to give me a hard time or roll their eyes at me.
I recently had Randy for his Senior Portraits. He plays baseball so his evenings are pretty busy and since mornings and evenings are best lighting a 7:45 am shoot was pretty early.  After a few shots, Randy asked if he could take some with his sunglasses on. I don't usually like to take portraits with sunglasses because it hides the eyes and the eyes are one of the most important parts of a good portrait. I asked him "do you wear them a lot?" and he said "yes". I said "Is that you?" and he said "yes". So I said sure, as long as we do some with out because your mom wants to see your eyes. Mom joined us a little bit later and I told her what we had decided and said "You know, that really is him". So you will see below a little sunglasses action. I'm glad that Randy spoke up and I think that's important for clients to do, if something doesn't feel right then say something, if there's something you want, speak up! Be yourself!
I think Randy survived and we got some great shots. I did hear through the grapevine (mom) that the whole experience wasn't quite as painful as he was anticipating. So that's good! Thanks Randy for being such a great sport! ....and he had to do it again 2 weeks later for family portraits! You'll see those on the blog soon too!

Sadie

As I talked about in my last post I have found a definite love of Senior Portraits and this week and next are filled with them! I was looking for a Senior Model in Townsend and my sister in law,  Amanda Cram a teacher at Broadwater High was able to help connect me with Sadie! Although I've only spent a few hours with her, she is one beautiful young lady inside and out! I'm so happy that I got to spend some time with her and we got some amazing shots!
We did a session back in March (you can see some of those images on my previous post) so that I could start doing a little advertising, but we also wanted to do some more when the spring rains made it a little greener! This past Monday we were able to do just that.
We found a spot by the creek with wildflowers and the sun coming through the trees that was pretty much perfect (except for that fact that we were indeed trespassing, but the property owner was just fine with us there as long as we weren't taking any "questionable" photos..."no sir, we are not!".  Hopefully he doesn't mind that we had to do a little landscaping and weeding! Sadie was a trooper for trying just about anything, including standing in the freezing cold creek and lying in weeds and dirt. I told her it would be worth it and it was! I am also happy to say that although close, I did not fall into the creek!
Her sister, Grace, tagged along and was a fantastic assistant, holding the reflector and carting my camera bag around! Thank you Grace.
Sadie definitely feels comfortable in front of the camera...your mom taught you well and she would be super proud :)
Here are some of my favorites!

What's my favorite?

I've always loved photography, I've always loved having a camera in my hands, listening to the sound of the shutter and capturing life as I was seeing it. I love old....old buildings, broken furniture, car parts, things falling apart, even old cemeteries.  So old was often my subject.  I still like to incorporate that into my portraits whenever I can. I'll be honest, when I would envision photography as a job, it wasn't as a portrait photographer, it was a wildlife & fine art photographer.
But then I had kids and I enrolled in the New York Institute of Photography and people began to become a regular part of my photography. Today, I love being a portrait photographer. I love meeting people and in a short period of time make them comfortable enough that I'm able to capture their personality and their true self.
So now that I have embraced and love doing portraits, there are so many categories...family, children, newborns, maternity, engagements, boudoir, weddings, seniors. I'm pretty new to this very saturated market of photography and I love working with all sorts of categories of portraits. Each one brings a different challenge and allows for different creativity.
 I see myself evolving into a more narrow field as I grow my business. I haven't decided what yet, and I don't know if I will decide or if it will just happen. But the one thing I know is that it will include Senior Portraits. I LOVE Seniors! I think Senior Portraits are such an important part of life, a sort of rite of passage. Both the Senior and their parents will go back to their portraits for many years to come. I just helped my dad create his "kid" wall at his home and he incorporated all of our Senior Portraits....we are talking portraits from 10 years to 30 years ago! But it was interesting to me to watch my dad's pride when looking at those portraits and then adding  our accomplishments since then.
I really enjoy working with both the parents and the kids during the pre consultations and through the shoots. It's fun to listen to them and hear what is important to mom and dad and what's important to the kids. Then finding a way to incorporate those both into their portraits.
I had two Senior Models this year, Dani and Sadie and they both have been so great to work with! We did some fairly early so I could get some advertising out. Just a couple weeks ago Dani and did some softball portraits and tomorrow Sadie and I will work together again! Here are some of the portraits from our sessions! I have 2 more Senior sessions this week and I'm giddy with excitement!

Baby Bumps

Here's the deal, I only post 1 or 2 sneak peeks on my Facebook page from each session. My intention for the last month was to post more images from sessions here on my blog with a little "inside story" about the shoot. However, I've been swamped and the blog kept falling lower on the priority list. But...I am on it now!
One of the sessions I did last month was a maternity session for Malori. She's such a beautiful pregnant woman. Her due date is one day and one year after my due date was for Elle so I know how she is feeling about this time in the pregnancy!
I personally did not get my own maternity shots done for my first two pregnancies. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of being pregnant. I don't embrace my body, I don't feel fantastic and I'm always ready for it to be over! But with Elle, I decided that I wanted to capture my last pregnancy, I wanted to try and actually embrace my changing body this time. So I had my portraits done and I'm so glad I did. I remember looking at the images when I got them and thinking ugh, I hate my arms, ugh my face is wide. (I'm not one of those lucky ones that just gets a belly, I gain everywhere). But its funny because now every time I walk into Elle's room, I find myself looking at the pictures I have hung in there and I love them and I don't see the flaws, I see my belly and feel amazed that just a year ago she was in there and now I have an almost walking, almost 1 year old!
I didn't really mean this to turn into my story, but after my blog yesterday (if you didn't read it, scroll down and read it!) and what Malori posted on Facebook when she shared my link, I felt it tied in. So there's my story and here's what Mal wrote:
"Oooo Trisha Jones its a really good one! Everyone should read no matter who your favorite photographer is....pictures are the gateway to our memories! I didn't want to do my maternity pictures and found myself in tears the morning of wishing I had done them sooner, or that I had something else to wear etc etc but now I know I will look back when we are old and cherish one of the last last times it was will be just zach and I and use them to remember our love when their are times of difficulty ahead...."
And finally here are some of her session images!

Why you shouldn't wait.

I currently hate my hair, I still have 10 pounds to lose from my last pregnancy, Bella's hair needs cut, Lily's teeth are kind of crazy (she will need braces), I don't really have a lot of extra money right now. Excuses. Those are all the excuses I could have used to NOT get our portraits done. I said all of these things the morning I was running around trying to get all 4 of us ready and Matt even said "then why are you doing them now?". I didn't have time to answer him then, but I thought because if we don't do it now, I never will and there will always be something! I've been wanting to write this blog post forever because I hear this all the time. "Oh, I love your work, I will schedule a shoot when I lose some weight" or "when the baby will cooperate better" or "when the kids are older".

You shouldn't wait. You should schedule a session now. Not because I want your business (well I do, but this isn't for my benefit, it's for yours), but because it's important. To document your family as you are now. One of the reasons I hadn't written this yet is I wanted to go through some of my old family photos and scan them and post them with this blog, but I finally decided that's not going to happen anytime soon. So you will just have to imagine me with the big hair, braces, pegged jeans and my sister and our cousins in their Power Ranger Costumes taken by a professional photographer that our parents actually paid to have done. And bought the prints!  (There are definitely advantages to being 10+ years older than siblings and cousins).
 So despite the fact that 20 years from now you will all probably be enjoying a good laugh over the hairstyles and awkward phases of life you will also be treasuring these portraits, regardless of how you all looked at the time. Because it was you, then.

 I will be blunt, what if something happens to you tomorrow or even a year from now. Your children won't be looking at the portraits thinking "wow, wish mom had lost 20lbs before she got these done". They will be looking at their mom and how they knew her and they'll be so  thankful they have these great images! And even better 20 years from now when you get to pull the portraits out and show your grandkids what their parents looked like! Some of my greatest memories are pouring through photo albums at my great grandmother's house with her and looking at all the Olan Mills portraits of my evolving family throughout the years.  I can still remember the year I insisted that I had to wear a red t-shirt under my hideous denim shirt that matched everyone else...just to be different! I'm sure at the time my mom frustrated, but we look at it now and it was so me at that time in my life (and really still is me :)). 

So whether it's with me or with another talented photographer please schedule your family portraits soon. It's one of the best presents you can leave for your children and they will thank you!

After I had all these negative thoughts running through my head before my own "mommy and me session"
 a couple weeks ago, I absolutely love my portraits (even if my hair isn't my favorite style and I can see an extra roll here and there).  I am so glad I got them done and I cannot wait to get them on my wall. Instead of posting my own work today, I'll leave you with the link to view my portraits, done by Samantha Anne Photography! Thanks Sam!

http://www.samanthaannephotography.com/ClientGalleries/Families/Trisha/29776231_rSZM9Q#!i=2551247229&k=9wncn2j

Two of my favorite things.

My goal for blogging is weekly...I'm a couple weeks off, oops! But this blog has been in my head for the last two week. 
I've done the photography thing on the side for a few years now, but in September I put my all into it. So I wanted to share a couple things I've learned and love about my new business. The first is the people. I've had so much fun getting to know families that I either knew in passing or that I didn't know at all. Portraits are a very personal thing and my goal in my photography is to capture individual's & families in their natural way, when they are comfortable, have their guards down and their true selves are showing through. This is not easy always easy when photographer and subjects are strangers. Therefore, I like to take time to get to know my clients. With emails and phone calls before the session I can find out my clients expectations for the photo shoot are and just hearing someone's voice before meeting can be calming. The beginning of each session is spent chit chatting, getting to know my clients, letting the kids explore and relax a bit before I whip out the camera and say here smile! Miss Gabby didn't necessarily want to smile, I found out that she loves dogs so I told her if smiled for me I'd let my dog come in and visit...that got a smile!
The second part I wanted to share is how I love to find new locations and places for shoots. I get tired of shooting at the same spot, with the same backgrounds all the time, I want to continue to find new places and creative ways to use those locations so that each shoot is unique for my clients. I was struggling the morning of this shoot as to where to go for the outdoor portion. My girls and I were out to take the recycling that morning and just 2 blocks from my house something that I drive by on a daily basis suddenly looked a whole different way. One thing I remember in my early photography lessons is to look at your home town as a tourist. When you see something every day it loses its character a bit and it's just a building...that morning I became a tourist in my own town! I had my girls get out and took a couple shots of them with this building. I showed my clients and they agreed that they liked the idea and I'm so glad I saw this old building differently that morning. I really had a lot of fun with the Willett Family and I'm really happy with the end results! It's also always such a great feeling when you're client tells you "you captured our family perfectly" because that is my ultimate goal! Thanks Ashley, Phil and Gabby!