{My Project 10} February

Every month I participate in a great project with ten other photographers from around the globe called My Project 10- it’s a wonderful way to keep those creative juices flowing by photographing bits of our everyday life, in 24 hours. I’m always inspired by the other amazing ladies in our group, everyone has such a unique style you must do the circle to get a peek in their family lives.
For the month of February I chose to document our Superbowl Sunday…
The morning had to start off with a little dancing in football footie pajamas (yeah that’s the Fresh Beat Band on the t.v., don’t hate)

The next part of the day was spent with a trip to the beach- I recently took a workshop by the fabulous Deb Schwedhelm, who knows how to rock a Lensbaby Composer like nobody’s business, so I was inspired to get out there and play with mine more. And one rule of our group is you have to include yourself in at least one image, see if you can spot me ;-)

Then finally we get to the meat and potatoes of the day- Superbowl time! Of course most of us probably use S.B.S. as an excuse to eat all that naughty food, and we were no exception- Dr. Pepper braised beef tacos, hot wings, pepperoni pizza bread, creamsicle cupcakes..oh my. And lets not forget the grapefruit-basil martinis. A little peek at our spread…

Please now head over to the blog of my super talented friend Val of The Red Balloon Photography in Seattle, WA, she never fails to blow your socks off with pretties.

{Valentine Photo Backdrop} Getting Creative

I am the first to admit that I get that jealous twinge when seeing all the fabulous home studios on Pinterest, or posted on Facebook by photographer friends. The pristine white walls, gorgeous wood floors, light that I could only dream of. Let’s face it, most of us don’t have those perfect spaces to shoot in (we personally live in a 900 sq. ft duplex, so the studio ain’t going to happen). This post today is about making do with what you have, being a little creative and ending up with a fun, homemade Valentine card for your little one to hand out in school…

A month or so ago I was inspired by this Valentine’s card on Pinterest, I thought it was too cute and would be perfect for Z’s first Valentine’s day as a big boy in Kindergarten :-) I just had to put my own creative touch on it.

First I bought glitter paper from Micheal’s (any craft store should have it), then commissioned my very patient husband to cut out dozens of hearts in various sizes. I used a great barn wood floor backdrop from the wonderful Lemondrop Stop that I already had, and adhered the hearts with non-permanent sticky dots (I did it to look like curtains)

this is how it looked when finished-

As you can see from this image- we don’t have a large living room, but I just hung the backdrop from my cheap backdrop stand, and positioned it in the tiny space by the dining table so my subject was facing the window (I’ll even admit I was lazy and didn’t use my reflector).

And voila! these are some of my final images for the card-

Then I added the script to the image for the front of the card, did a quick design with images on the back, and had them printed at Black River Imaging in a 5X7 press card (with pearl finish and rounded corners).
Here is the final Valentine’s Day card! *** mini rainbow lollipops from Amazon. Looks like a happy Kindergartner! ;-)

{Santa Barbara Outdoor Photography} Beach Baby

I first photographed this little family when “T” was an itty bitty thing, just days old. Look at him now, about to turn one and running all over the place, amazing how fast the time passes once you have a child. I really wanted this to be a fun session to celebrate such a big milestone and also give this sweet little family some great memories of their trip, since they were back visiting Santa Barbara from up north, where they now live. We covered lots of ground during this session, from balloons in the woods, to the Ellwood Bluffs, and a visit to the tide-pools for a gorgeous sunset. You can certainly see how “T” has a love for the beach and the water, attempting to go in even though it was probably 40 degrees :-) Thank you so much for the fun afternoon!

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{My Project 10} January

I seriously can’t believe the holiday season has passed already and it’s time for my January edition of my project 10, where I join ten other photographers for a monthly peek into our everyday lives, with ten images from one day. This one was particularly fun, since it was the very last day of Winter break, before we all had to return to work and school (boo!). We really made the most of our day together, hitting up the Ellwood Butterfly Preserve , where the butterflies were out in full force as you can see. Then off to the bowling alley for some arcade fun, where Z was able to get himself his first lava lamp with his winnings. Top that off with some delicious frozen yogurt (that got quickly scarfed before I could get a pic of it), and a glorious sunset. We couldn’t have asked for a better last-day-of-vacation!

and since we are required to include a selfie, Z and I had some fun with the remote shutter.. Really trying to take a few shots of just me and my guy every month, so he doesn’t think I have that big metal thing attached to my face 24-7 (this totally counts as one photo) ;-)

Next up in our circle is the fabulous Robyn Oakenfold, please continue clicking through to see what everyone’s January is looking like, such talent in our group!

{Santa Barbara Portrait Photography} Thank You 2011

Goodness, to be honest I got extremely teary looking over images for this post. I know it’s cliche to say but I feel so blessed to have captured the faces of all my wonderful clients in the past year. My business really took off in 2011 and I have all of you to thank, I couldn’t have done it without you. I had such a blast getting to know you, hearing your stories, and for many- watching your children grow and change. As a thank you, not only will I be offering return clients in 2012 $50 off their session fee, I will be hosting a little contest on my Facebook page- a chance for you to win a free session, including ALL your digital files! So look out for that! And hopefully you stick around, and continue to follow my blog, I have a feeling there will be many exciting things in store for Z’s the Day in 2012. XOXOXO Jen

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SEE YOU IN 2012!! :-)

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