Please?

Olive,
I spent hours holding you and staring at you while you slept. I'd hold you so long that you would leave sweat marks on my shirt when I put you down. But, a year later I can hardly remember what it feels like to hold such a tiny baby.

I'm head-over-heels in love with the pre-toddler that you are right now. Can you please stop growing up so fast?

Love,
Mommy

Instagram Date. It's SO hipster.

So, I saw this blog last week about how to be a hipster. The blog outlined the interests of a hipster and I'm telling you that it was as if the writer hacked my computer and stole my iTunes library and then browsed through my netflix favorites. I'm 80% hipster? Pshh, hipster. This started a new running joke in our house and I just need to say something to John real quick if y'all don't mind... "Your face is hipster."  :)

I've since read many more posts on that blog and read the post outlining the appearance of a hipster and according to that I am 0% hipster. So, which is it? I think I probably fall somewhere around 50% hipster although, you'll never get me to say that out loud.

I would claim a lower percentage but I have a feeling that celebrating your wedding anniversary with an instagram date is 100% a hipster move. If you're not familiar with instagram, it's kinda like twitter for photography. It's an app that you use to take photos with your phone and upload them to a twitter-type feed. You can follow people and they can follow you.

Yesterday, John and I walked around downtown for a few hours reminiscing about our past, talking about our future and taking photos. It was one of the best dates we've ever had! Thanks instagram for the entertainment!

Emerald City

Help

Makin' Copies

Portrait of a Hipster

To the left. To the left.

Love Triangle

You can find me on instagram @jessidphoto. John is @jdrizzle. 

If you're a sucker for good composition, I'd suggest following @zarias and @fixelzero.  

IN-CAMERA Workshop Day 3 - Executing the Dream

I couldn't write. I sat there thinking and fighting the tears that were beginning to well in my eyes. Maybe it was because I was tired after a whirlwind week. Maybe it was because I was missing my husband and baby girl. Maybe it was because I had spent the day listening to Zach and Jody talk about executing the dream and my mind was in overdrive. Whatever it was, my emotions we ready to pour out of me.

Towards the end of the day they challenged us to write a mission statement for our life and business. They gave us about 15 minutes to spread out, be quite with our thoughts and write. I sat in their living room and stared at my paper. I thought about about this risk I have taken by leaving the security of a good job to follow my dream and finally the words came...

My mission statement:
To celebrate and honor the gift of life by running a business that serves a happy marriage and a happy family. To invest in relationships generously. To inspire and be inspired.
Not to be very good, or the best, but to BE REMARKABLE.

Zach and Jody talked to us about using a business as a tool to reach your dreams. How to avoid having a business that runs your life and makes you miserable. Specifically, as photographers, how being perfect at the craft of photography isn't enough. You've got to invest in the business of business to be successful. They discussed branding, marketing, social media and client interaction with the underlying theme of being remarkable. Being remarkable will create value in your brand will get you where you want to be.

This 3 day workshop is hands down, without a doubt the BEST investment I have made in my business to date. If you are a photographer and have been trying to pick a workshop to attend, I would encourage you to do whatever you can to go to IN-CAMERA even if you can only swing one day... DO IT!!

Photo courtesy of Lisa Cour ~ Dayspring Photograpahy

To Zach and Jody - Y'all are awe-inspiring. You're a beautiful couple and some amazing teachers. God has blessed you with many gifts and you blessed me by sharing them!!  THANK YOU.
Meeting you was an absolute dream come true.

Love always,
Jessica

IN-CAMERA Workshop Day 2 - Light

"What's that movie where they're in a bunker during a tornado and a cow goes flying by? Twister?" -Jody

Day 2 of the workshop began under severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. Gotta love Spring in the South! Zach's Light lecture was preempted by lightning, sirens and the news that a tornado had reportedly touched down in a town nearby. We all contemplated squeezing into the bathtub, but instead we watched the weather radar until the worst had passed.

Zach lectured about lighting patterns, ratios, flashes, strobes and metering - Oh My! When it was time for us to go shoot it was still raining sideways. Pouring. As a wedding photographer, this was actually to my advantage. Zach and Jody showed me how to take beautiful portraits, on location, in the absolute worst weather conditions. Lets be real... if you are getting married in the South during Spring or Summer the odds that it will rain on your wedding day are pretty high.

I wasn't sure about booking this day of the workshop because I was afraid of getting overwhelmed but Z&J are SO good at breaking down the process into simple steps and making it fun. I'm very glad I decided to go because now I feel prepared and won't go into full on panic mode if I'm ever in poor weather at a wedding. That is a good feeling :)  Also, I fell in LOVE with artificial light!! You can create some absolutely stunning portraits with just one strobe. I'll be saving up my pennies to buy some lighting gear as soon as possible.

We shot at Factory in Franlkin, TN.  Here the rain let up for a few minutes so we ran outside. Elly is standing under an awning in front of the parking lot. It was about 4:00 in the afternoon and the sky, while gray, was actually pretty bright. Zach showed us how to darken it.

 Showing how strobes can create mood and beautiful light anywhere. This is in front of a bathroom.

Behind the scenes.

The result.

Huge thanks to the models that came out in the weather and still KILLED it during the shoot. Y'all are amazing!

What we used, aka my wishlist ;)
Ellinchrom Ranger Light
Photogenic Powerlight
Westcott 24x32 Softbox
Photogenic Speedring
Westcott 13' Air Cushioned Light Stand
Vagabond Mini
Pocket Wizard Transceiver
Sekonic L358 Light Meter w/ Light Module 

IN-CAMERA Workshop Day 1 - Shooting & Post

Voice over intercom:  Are you here for the in camera workshops?
Me:  I am!
Voice over intercom: Great, I'll buzz you in.

A huge butterfly started going crazy in my stomach. I was about to meet Zach and Jody Gray. Like f'real, shake Zach's hand and hug Jody meet them. Not only that, but I'd be spending the next three days in their home for the IN-CAMERA Workshops. AwwYeah!!

The Gray's believe in running a business that serves their life and marriage instead of having a business that runs them. A big part of this includes how they shoot and their streamlined workflow after the shoot. We learned their process of getting exposure, color (setting custom white balance) and composition right in the camera and then went outside to practice. It was about 3pm and the sun was blazing. Zach and Jody taught us to look for open shade and how to create it using a diffuser. They also demonstrated some fill techniques using a reflector.

Let me say that I was so blown away by the results of setting custom WB that I went and bought an expodisc as soon as I could the next morning. This was my moment in the workshop where I thought, 'how have I been shooting without knowing this... I mean, really WHAT have I been doing!?' This alone was worth the trip for me but I got so much more.

Obviously it didn't hurt that we had two gorgeous models, but I am very pleased with the results. Especially since there is very little post processing on these images. (I shoot RAW so there is a pop of luminance that I was able to batch process instead of touching every single image one at a time. HUGE time saver!)

Part of the group. It was so much fun to be out shooting/chatting with other photographers!


Once our natural sunlight dipped below the horizon we went back inside and Zach showed us his post processing workflow. Dude is a culling animal!! I took good notes for John to study :)

If you are thinking about going to a Gray Photography IN-CAMERA Workshop, stop thinking and DO IT! You will not regret it.

A wrap up of Day 2 and 3 coming soon...

Socially Acceptable

"Listening to Ike Pigott talk about social media. #ALsocme"

Sitting in the front row I grabbed my phone, opened twitter and tweeted this message while Ike was speaking. He was standing three feet in front of me and I did this in plain sight. Rude? Not hardly.

I was doing my part to generate buzz about the Alabama Social Media Association's inaugural event. At the check-in table I was encouraged to check in on Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. I took a moment to do just that and there were already a flood of tweets using #ALsocme. People were saying hello from across the room, inviting others to sit with them and generally tweeting their excitement to be there. One brilliant girl even tweeted the hashtag along with a link to her resume to everyone at the event. THAT is (social) networking!

Ike Pigott spoke to us about Social Media: The 21st Century Canary. He discussed how to measure a social media 'crisis' so that you know when to respond. He also explained the concepts of framing and sharing. Framing gives context to fact. If you provide the right context you can frame someones perception. What makes a message sharable? Ike gave us the ABC's...
  Authority
  Brevity
  Clarity
  Detail
  Emotion
  Focus
  Gossip

Canaries make a lot of noise. Noise lets you know you are in the right place but it doesn't let you know what to take seriously. Measure before you react. But, by all means, be prepared to react.

You can see Ike's slides plus a full transcript of the event here.
Thanks to ALsocme for a great event. I think you should host one here in Montgomery :)  Oh, and thanks to Zoes Kitchen for a free lunch!

"It's All Happening."

I could look up the origination of that quote, but I'm not going to. I want to always hear it in Kate Hudson's voice as she is whisked away into her dream life in Almost Famous.

This week is here and it's all happening. Tomorrow I'll be in Birmingham attending the inaugural meeting of the Alabama Social Media Association. Thursday I'll be blogging about the event and packing. Friday I'm off to Tuscaloosa to see Band of Horses. Saturday I'm second shooting a wedding!!!
Sunday I am heading to Nashville for a 3 day photography workshop. Wednesday I'll be home, squeezing my baby girl tighter than ever. Then, Saturday I'll be second shooting another wedding. SMILEY FACE!



It's. All. Happening. - Jessi D

Time. Travel. Speed.

It's weird how time gets jumbled. New Year's Eve, St. Patrick's Day, the Fourth of July, Football Season, Christmas... One year can come and go just like that. The munchkin is almost a year old and I catch myself saying 'I can't believe it's been a year' as if it's gone by in the blink of an eye. Truth is, it was a looooong year and it went by at warp speed.
Only a year since my Olive was so tiny that I was scared to pick her up? Just one year since I was scared to put her down because how would I know she was still breathing? Only one year... are you sure?
How'd she learn to smile, and sit up, and crawl, and laugh, and flirt, and walk, and eat her veggies, and melt my heart? She did all that in a year? Buh-nanas!

Today was her 1 year portrait session and she was such a big girl!

When I see her with her Daddy, it seems as though she's been part of our lives forever. How has it only been a year?

31 Before 31

Happy Valentine's Day to any bride that loves Anthropologie. They launched a bridal boutique, B H L N D,  today. Who needs chocolate with all that eye candy? (For the record... I do).  As I drooled over one particular gown I thought, 'I can't wait to photograph a bride in this,' And for the first time I really felt REAL. I may not have a wedding on the books yet, but I know with hard work I will.

Part of that hard work is setting goals for myself and my business. I've recently been inspired by fellow (and kind of amazing) photographer Amanda Pair to create a list of goals for the year. Since I am turning 31 this year, here are 31 things I'd like to do in 2011.

1. Run a 5K
2. Run a 10K
3. Run a Half Marathon
4. Try a BodyPump class
5. Taste a cupcake from Cooper Cupcakes
6. Make french toast
7. Have a professional family portrait taken
8. Have professional head shots taken
9. Second shoot a wedding with 5 photographers
10. Build a wedding portfolio
11. Re-work website to focus on weddings
12. Finish branding project
13. Make a sample mini site

14. Have a sample canvas made

15. Book a wedding of my own in 2011

16. Be a part of Help Portrait in Montgomery
17. Set up a photo booth at a party
18. Attend a photography workshop
19. Find 3 new shoot locations in Montgomery
20. Blog every day for one week

21. Blog 20 days in one month

22. Meet (lunch, coffee, photo walk) with local photographers

23. Contribute to an online photography forum twice a week for one month

24. Work on a personal project

25. Figure out how to be relevant on Twitter

26. Create a facebook landing page for my business

27. Help an up-and-coming vendor by taking photos for their website/FB page

28. Vacation at the beach

29. Have dinner with my sweetie at Village Kitchen
30. Finish a painting for O's room
31. Take O swimming


What do you want to do this year?

Hats of Vaugh Road

Montgomery, AL isn't a large city by any stretch of the imagination. However, it is large enough to find it odd that there is a stretch of land along one of it's busiest streets that's 'uncitified.' A few acres on the side of Vaughn Rd between an apartment complex and a shopping center that remained untouched during the city's eastern migration. In fact, on any given day you can see cattle grazing in the field.
But, that's not all you'll see. Fence post after fence post you'll see a collection of ball caps the Mad Hatter would be proud of. These hats have mystified me for years. I turned to Facebook recently looking for the answer to my question, "What's up with all those hats?"
I was linked to this article on WSFA's website but even they couldn't find the answer. Seems to be an anomaly. Someone nailed the first hat and the collection spontaneously grew seemingly overnight.

As a personal project, I have photographed each hat. All 112 of them.

Here are some of my favorites.

As I was shooting these, just feet away from passing cars, I felt as if I was becoming part of the mystery. I know if I had driven by I would want to know why that girl was taking pictures. That's when the project became more than just documentation and I'm asking you to help me with the next step... Did you nail one of these hats to the fence? Do you know someone that has? If so, please email me. I'd love to tell your story.

The Slide

We all have stories that our parents tell and re-tell about us through the years. My story is the slide and my Dad can tell it as if it happened yesterday.  I was terrified of the slide. I’d try to be brave, inching my way towards the edge until I’d freeze in fear. Crocodile tears ensued until my Dad climbed up to save me. 

Finally, one day I inched just far enough (probably on accident) to slide and from that moment I was hooked. Instead of crying at the top of the slide I laughed and squealed, then cried when it was time to leave.

For the last few months I have been sitting at the top of the slide, staring at the long drop, white knuckles gripping the metal bar… afraid and excited. Last week, I let go and remembered how much fun it is to slide.

Second Shooter

Jasmine has JD. Nate has Louisa. Bobbi has Mike. Me? I have John.

John is my hubby and second shooter in training. He is a gear-head at heart and usually knows technical names for things better than I do. OK, i'll just say it... He's a nerd. He inherited the Nikon D50 when I upgraded to the Canon 5D MII last month. He's been studying and practicing and I'm proud to say that he's already shooting in manual mode.

He came along with me for a recent shoot and I'm quite pleased with his work.

While I was shooting this ...

John shot this.

My perspective.

John's view. 

John, I love you. I'm beyond lucky to be your wife... and now your boss ;)