PhotoJenic Photography [blog] bio picture

I'm a wife of 12 years to my very best friend and a mom to 3 (almost 4) awesome and crazy kids. I’m a hopeless romantic that loves my date nights and all things romantic. I’m indecisive, an organizing wanna be and a self proclaimed terrible cook whose working to change that persona every week (ok, just some weeks). I love Mexican food and family down time so long as it doesn’t involve the TV on too loud. I have two very smart, yet crazy boys who are obsessed with video games and their dad, and one girly girl who loves her mama and melts my heart with all her sweet toddler cuteness. My career began in the dark ages when you had to nail your exposure the first time without looking on the camera display; and pay for every frame of film and it’s processing.

In 14 years of photography I've learned that while I have largely perfected my craft, I will never be done learning. Education and improvement can never be complete and I will always strive to learn and challenge myself in my work. I want my photography to not only reflect who you are, but more importantly I want to capture relationships and the emotions that exist within them. These days, photographers are a dime a dozen, what makes me any different? Aside from many years of professional experience, I would say my style is unique, clean and timeless. I want my photographs to look great for years to come and I keep my editing "real", not overly saturated, vintage or any other "sign of these times." My clients like that their images are enhanced, yet true representations of themselves.

Your photography experience doesn't have to, and will not end with your session. We can work together to create wall galleries and other custom products that reflect your personal style and show off your photography in a creative and artistic way. It’s not always easy to know the best way to display the art we’ve created and I work individually with you to help you decorate and display it tastefully in your home. The best compliment I receive is for clients to have my work complimented by their loved ones with the beautiful wall galleries and custom products we've created.

I’m so blessed to do what I love and meet such great people along the way. Thank you for considering me to seize moments of time so that you may enjoy them for years to come.

The New Year

January 22, 2012

2012

It will not take much for 2012 to be better than 2011…it’s possible I could mark 2011 as one of my least favorite/most difficult years in my adult life. And it’s over…and I survived. And while nothing completely life changing is to blame for my difficult year…and plenty of people had a MUCH harder year…I’m just grateful I can move forward and make this year SO.MUCH.BETTER.

SO with that I have a very short list of my 2012 goals. I don’t want a bunch of nonsense resolutions…just some REAL, meaningful, personal goals…things I can focus on and live by.

This year, in no particular order I want to…

Be PRESENT in my life…I want to answer questions more, spend more time, laugh more, play more, pray more, hug more, compliment more, study more, teach my kids more and have more patience. This year I want to focus on being the wife and mother I want to be…and I’ll embrace the hard times and know that they are frequent…but short…and pray for better times to follow the hard ones, because they usually do.

With that I have a goal of some sort of organization to the dreaded dinner hour! I HATE cooking, meal planning, recipe trying and especially grocery shopping…but you see I have 4 kids, so this year, I’m going to try and cook more, plan more and grocery shop with a list. I won’t be perfect at this, and that’s ok, but I want to try to do it more.

In my business I want to be more intentional and present with my clients. I plan to do more face to face appointments to help clients make their photos their art. I want people to see and enjoy their images on their walls as much as I do…because I believe it truly makes your home a happier place. I hope to incorporate studio viewing appointments in the near future.

I want to exercise again. Yes, I want to be skinny, lose weight and shed all those baby pounds…but that’s not my 2012 goal. My goal is just to do more, eat better and TRY. I’m not going to beat myself up for a treat, a bad week and another Dr. Pepper. That just sets me up for failure. I will however, work on running again. Get fresh air. Eat more vegetables, drink more water and be more intentional with my health…cuz it matters.

I’m going to take.more.pictures. Well this probably seems like a no brainer…but you see, I take pictures for a living…and you know what that means? I never take pictures for fun. This year, I’m changing that. I WILL document my family in the mundane, day to day life as well as the bigger/more fun life experiences. I never bring my camera places, cuz I just don’t feel like downloading and editing more…and it’s dumb…and I’m losing out on great photos…so this year I will take more pictues. Some with my Iphone for convenience sake…and others with my 5D MarkII…either way I will have photos of my kids and our life this year!

And on that note, my last real intentional goal of this year is to PRINT.MY.PICTURES. I won’t get caught up from all the years past, I can’t print and organize years of photos all at once, but I will start. I have this disease of perfectionism. I don’t want to do an album or a book online because I just want to do something really cool and unique with all the really great vendors I can work with…and so my photos sit…on my hard drives…and my kids can’t see them!! Because I’ve never had “time” to do the really cool ideas, they just haven’t done much of anything, except for what is on my walls. This year will bring a mix of small, loose 4×6 prints in a lame Target album that I probably already have…and some other digital books, and I plan to even print up one or two quality photo albums from one of the wonderful album vendors I’m able to order from. It won’t necessarily be done, but I’m striving that it will be better than years past!

That’s it. Which already seems like a lot…but hopefully it’s still a manageable list.

And even though this post is already too long and you CLEARLY don’t have time…I will say, neither did I the day I watched this…but I watched it anyway…and boy has it resonated with me. I love this, yes it can sound cheesy and no motherhood isn’t all rosey, but it hits the nail on the head. And it sure has helped me the past few weeks as I work on being PRESENT in my life.

The gift of an ordinary day…