I am SO excited for you!  When you contacted me to ask me to do author photos for your new book I was excited for a few reasons.

#1. Because you are a wonderful woman with such a sweet spirit and I was excited to get to work with you. You are someone who has known pain and heartache, but who has allowed God to teach you and mold you into the beautiful woman that you are.  I admire that.

#2. Because I got to spend time in your amazing backyard that I have always referred to as “the secret garden”.  A place of such beauty… it’s no wonder God has taught you so many lessons from the garden!

#3. Because I get to have my photos in a book!  Yay!

Here’s the photo you chose for your first official author photo!  And it was fun to find out that the quick shot I snapped of Daisy made it into the book too!

Debra, you are so beautiful inside and out.  Thank you for allowing me to photograph you.

Visit www.gardenlessonsbook.com for more info on Debra Vaughn’s book or purchase a copy on amazon or barnesandnoble.com.

Here are a few more from our session.

Love,
Jen

I’ve watched Kristin make so many bold moves in her career, giving up a teaching career to pursue a future in the entertainment industry.  Her status update the other day was this: “Work perk: smile from Dax Shepherd (from Parenthood) when you drive by on a golf cart.”  It’s so good to see her flourishing and absolutely loving what she’s doing.

We got together to do some new headshots for her recently.  Here are some of my favorites.

I really like this look.  Very crime drama-esque.

Just had to make one of them kinda gritty.

It was especially easy with my friend Lindye.  Lindye is an awesome event planner in Orange County, and just a great person and friend.  She and I got together to shoot some new photos for her new website, which is awesome!   Make sure you check it out.

Check out what we got.  Yes, her skin really IS that perfect.  Stop your hating (and I will try to as well).

Karey and I met a couple of years ago at a photography conference.  I had no idea that she would become one of my dearest friends.  At first it was just nice to find a friend that I could talk about photography and business with and ask questions when I needed some advice.  But it’s even more valuable to me to have a friend who will listen to me cry on the phone, will celebrate even the smallest of victories, and who will drive over in the pouring rain to give me a hug after the latest heartbreak.

We got together last weekend to just have some fun shooting.  It was a blast and I’m excited about what I got!

When I shot these last few, we had almost zero light left.  Karey kept saying, “I can’t believe you’re even getting anything.”  Yay for my 1.4 lens!

Now, I have done my fair share of internet dating myself.  So the first bit of advice I give people embarking on this journey is to put up good photos.  You’d be shocked at how many lame profile photos I’ve seen!  ”Yeah, that’s a really cool photo of you and General Sherman.  Wait…. is that little speck at the bottom you?”

Lynn was smart.  I met her last year when she asked me to do some headshots for her online profile.

We had a great time and I ended up visiting with her and her daughter, who is a very talented budding photographer herself.  Imagine my delight when late one night I received an email from her that said, “Well, it worked!  I met someone and we just got engaged!  I’d like to talk with you about photographing our wedding!”

These two cracked me up!  They are SO in love!  Like crazy mad about each other.  Like can’t keep their hands off of each other in love.  They should bottle that.  I want me some of that!  I can’t wait to shoot their wedding next month!

SHE…. ROCKED…. IT!

I met Molly the summer before her senior year in high school, the summer after my sophomore year in college.  I was a counselor at Miracle Ranch in Port Orchard, WA that summer.  Molly, or Franque as we called her (we all went by camp names) was my counselor in training and lived with me in my cabin, helping out with the campers all summer.  My camp name, in case you were wondering, was Gepetto.  The kids would try all week to figure out our real names.  I alway told them I would tell them my name in a letter if they wrote to me.  That was really just my way of making sure I got mail.  Hee hee!  We could definitely tell some horror stories of certain campers that summer, but we won’t talk about that now!

It was so fun to reconnect and find that we have even more in common.  Molly is just starting her photography business, but is already flying to different states to do photo shoots!  Watch out for this one!  She is rockin’ it!

Check out my pretty friend.