Danielle & Jared Jewell Wedding // 9.28.19

Jason and I were so honored to be apart of the Jewell wedding! We met this beautiful couple back in March and bonded over beer and Game of Thrones. It was a match made in heaven! They were so excited for their wedding and couldn’t wait to celebrate with their friends and family.

Finally after months and months of planning, it was the day! After a morning rain shower, it geared up to be a nice warm day with the perfect breeze. As we arrived in a family owned barn in the beautiful Middletown, VA we met Danielle with her bridesmaids in the sun room as they sipped mimosas and snacked on some donuts. Danielle was glowing and so radiant! We scooped up her details to capture some beautiful shots in the gorgeous barn. The worn wood detailing just made everything look so beautiful! After capturing some centerpieces, table settings, and the venue... it was time for the fun to begin!

As we were photographing Danielle’s dress we decided to use the sunroom because it had the most beautiful ambient light shining through and it helped highlight her stunning dress. After a few shots, it was time to get ready for everything she had been planning so hard for! As her sweet mother helped zip up her blonde haired baby, I couldn’t help but look over to see Danielle’s soon to be “official” daughter watch and had nonstop smiles. It was a beautiful moment and why it is one of my favorite moments of the day!

Jason and I met Jared and his buddies in the garage with some beer and laughs. His groomsmen were hilarious and they were surely going to amp up this party! Jared’s dad put the boutonnière on his son and Jared did the same for him. Jared also placed the boutonniere on his little boy’s jacket and got a big hug and that was a sweet and special moment for both of them that I know will be a lasting memory.

We had a half an hour until the I do’s and Danielle wanted to do something special for her Dad, a first look. Moments like these without a doubt make my eyes water, I love seeing parents with their kids as they help relieve their nerves and tell them everything before one of the biggest moments of their life. It was filled with tears, smiles, hugs and laughs!

Now it was showtime! My ultimate favorite moment of the day and one of primary jobs as a second shooter is capturing the grooms face as he sees his bride coming down the aisle. And my gosh! Jared was filled with the best smiles and look of disbelief as his best man watched him. I love seeing the emotional side of even the toughest guys, it makes it even better! After their beautiful ceremony, the kiss, and the “I now pronounce..” we were a step closer to letting loose!

The backdrop for the family portraits was a no brainer. The gorgeous farm fence with the animals grazing in the background was without a doubt simplistic and beautiful. Danielle and Jared were finally able to have a little more alone time during their session and it did not disappoint! Check out that super steamy garter picture! 😍 Then it was time to head in to party down. Their first dance was sweet to watch and a little girl blowing bubbles made the vibrant colors in the photo just pop! The parent dances caught the best looks of their Mom and Dad just being so proud of their son and daughter.

After dinner, speeches, lots of thank you’s, and cake cutting - it was time to really party! The barn was cranked with music and lights and the sound of laughter and cheering. It was a long time planning, but I could tell by the way Jared held his bride with one beer in his hand and the way Danielle looks to him that they found their love of a lifetime and we are so happy and honored to be apart of it!

Congratulations Danielle & Jared! We are so excited to see what your future has in store for you! We wish you a lifetime of love, laughs, and happiness ❤️

Vendors

Makeup | Makeup by LZ, LLC

Dress | The Barn Bridal and Formal Wear

DJ | Wright Live

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What is Newborn Lifestyle Photography?

Recently, we’ve had a slew of newborn inquiries and I didn’t realize how many clients were a little confused on the difference of a traditional newborn session and what we like to offer, lifestyle newborn.

Newborn babies literally give me all the super feels (and it isn’t just their adorable toes or cute button noses) and it is something about seeing these new parents or older siblings taking care of such a sweet gift. We used to offer traditional newborn like you see below, but with the endless props, wraps, washings and the time it would take to properly get these cuties set up was a lot of time that was a little much for our schedule.

Within these sessions, we offered a lifestyle newborn session which has became the biggest and newest hit that we fell in love with. Being a mom, the one thing I miss the most is holding my little baby in my arms and the looks he would give me and the simplicity and beauty of it all. I also love seeing Jason rub noses with our son as he admires him just makes my heart throb! That’s exactly what lifestyle newborn is ❤️ It’s capturing those super special moments in a candid setting and not the typical backdrop portrait style session. Don’t get me wrong, they are beautiful, just not our particular style.

We have found with traditional newborn, we need to do everything in our own home studio and though some clients are fine with that - we find many clients prefer to be in their own home with everything they need. If they wish to breastfeed in private or in their rocker, you can do that. If you want it photographed, even better! Parents don’t have the stress of getting bags packed or running low on little fruit snacks to keep their kiddos at bay incase the session runs into hours - which it typically does with the traditional newborn. We also found many clients get quite anxious when their babies won’t calm down for a session or fall asleep for those cutesy poses because they’d much rather be snuggled up with Mom or Dad and who can blame them? During those situations, we would allow Mom or Dad to comfort their baby and shoot a few images (we do shoot away so the baby doesn’t appear to be crying, you wouldn’t know the difference 😉) and our clients ABSOLUTELY LOVED those images and those were the images they wanted canvases and prints of.

So we decided after a lot of back and forth, lifestyle is just a better fit for not only us, but our clients and also provided a much better experience for them and their families! It’s a little less stressful, more intimate, time saving for many reasons and ultimately, comes at a lower cost which we know can be super important for parents on leave.

I hope this helps to better understand the difference between traditional and lifestyle and why we personally like to do it this way and offer it. That being said, we cannot wait to meet these new babies we will be photographing and the new Moms, Dads and older siblings!

Until next time ❤️

August Before & After

Part 1

Recently, we did a Disney princess stylized shoot which was a lot of fun. For the first step, we have the basic edits completed such as crop, exposure, and color correction. We went with a more darker tone for this image to give it that enchanted feel! Unfortunately, with some shots, you have to sacrifice some more post work to get the image with that specific look and feel you are going for. As you can see above there are quite a few distractions in the image.

Part 2

The first thing we fix are the big obvious distractions in the image, the softbox to the the right and the small garden sign on the lower right. We use photoshop to quickly fix those distractions. Most times you don’t have a problem removing the items, however the multiple textures near the soft box were problematic but just requires a little more time to perfect it.

The final distraction is more of a judgement call. With our editing style, we generally try to line everything up correctly in the camera and not over edit or alter the image. One of our rules on deciding if something should be removed or not is the eye test. If you first look at an image and your eye is immediately drawn to distraction, then we will generally remove it to keep the integrity of the photo. In the middle left is a building in the distance that we couldn’t help but draw our attention to it, so it had to go.

Part 3

Here is the final image! As you can see the simple edits help achieve the mood and feel we were going for, and the removal of the big distractions only help finish the image while keeping from heavily altering it. We hope everyone could take away a little knowledge from this before and after, as well as getting a look at a few of the steps that are behind the scenes of a beautiful image.

The Pros & Cons of Mini Sessions

With our recent Fall Minis announcement and the high amount of interest and bookings, we have been hit with many questions and we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to list some of the pros and cons of minis!

THE PROS

- Especially for those who don’t have a photographer they exclusively use, mini sessions offer a little peek and a chance to work with that photographer to “try them out” and just see how it goes.

- Everything is essentially taken care of, the props and location - you just need to show up!

- If you have kiddos with particularly short attention spans, sometimes mini sessions and the shorter times can be helpful! You get their best attitudes and attention for 20 minutes and they are all done. Of course, this could be a con as some kids need some warm up time (we will talk about that later).

- It fits busier schedules and are usually held on weekends. Weekend schedules for photographers fill up quickly and as long as you can snag a spot in time, you’re good to go!

- They are much cheaper than a photographers regular rate and usually have a theme! Since we can stack multiple sessions back to back, there’s no travel cost so we can eliminate that off the top which makes it a third of the price!

- It’s a great way to keep your family photos updated through the year.

- This one mainly is for photographers, but minis are a great way to build your clientele. Usually once you post one sneak peek of a family from your minis, their family and friends will also see your work and may contact you also!

THE CONS

- They are short! Going back to one of the pros with the kids, if it takes awhile for your child to come out of their shell - it could be tough and a little challenging.

- You won’t receive as many images. Typically, our full sessions yield 60-80 images with a wide variety of looks. With our Minis, you can expect anywhere from 20-30 images.

- Sometimes there’s a limit on the amount of people. With large groups, it can eat up a lot of time posing and swapping out the groups which can decrease the amount of images you will get.

- They aren’t as personalized as full sessions. We really like to give each client their own photo shoot and find ideas they love or even a place that is meaningful to them. Mini sessions don’t allow a lot of time for those fun and more artistic photos, though we do the best we can!

- If you’re late, it will severely cut into your time and the outcome of your shoot. Bouncing off that, we’ve known photographers and heard stories of those who won’t allow you to come if you’re late or won’t refund your money if you can’t make it. It’s important to get that information beforehand so you are at least aware of their policies.

- They are super limited and sometimes fill up before even getting a chance, so keep an eye out if you’re holding off for an event!

Those are the main points of the pros and cons, as you can see much of it deals with time. Jason and I like to be sure mini sessions fit for those potential clients we haven’t worked with so we can be sure you are going to have a great experience in our short time and beautiful images you’ll love. We love Mini Sessions as photographers, sometimes we catch up with the families we work with all the time or we meet new families that end up being fantastic clients and friends! We are so excited to meet our new clients this go around and cannot wait to catch up with our friends ❤️

Popular Photography Copyright Options

What is copyright? A copyright is “the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same”. Basically it’s the right to edit, share, or print a designated work.

Who owns the photos? What can or can’t I do with the photos? Who has the copyright? These are some of the more frequent questions that get asked by our clients and if you’re a photographer too, I’m sure it is for you as well. Ultimately, the person who physically takes the picture is the copyright holder to that image, after that is where the options open up. It’s the photographers choice how he/she chooses to assign the copyright after the work has been done. The photographer can keep all the rights, assign just printing rights, or create a variation that fits the clients need.

1. Photographer Owns The Full Copyright

This one is by far the most popular as well as being the most profitable. The photographer is paid a fee (often called a sitting or session fee) which is strictly for the photographers time to come and take the images. Afterwards they will perform edits to the images and the clients would be given those proofs to look through. At this point the client would purchase individual or packed physical prints that they wanted made for their choice of images they liked most. The photographer would print and deliver the images. At any point in the future if the client would want further images, they would just need to contact the photographer and order more prints.

In this method, the photographer chooses to keep all rights to the photos. The client has the ability to choose only their favorites and receive quality prints, while the photographer keeps full artistic control of the work. This option is often viewed as a win win option by giving both people the quality work they want, but in today’s digital environment can become less enticing in a fast paced society. And if not given this information prior could lead to unhappy clients who assumed their sitting or session fee was all they would owe for your services.

2. Photographer Gives a Limited Release

The next method has the photographer giving a limited copyright release to their clients with their purchase. Often a flat price is given including the session, editing, and the limited release all together. This way the photographer can give a no surprise purchase option to the client allowing them to know a price which has everything included. The photographer would then take the pictures, perform the edits on the photos, and return all of the photos or whatever amount they were contracted for. They would then give the client a limited release, which gives a few rights to them. This release isn’t a cookie cutter document and is often different from each photographer based on how they choose to run their business. However, the most common version allows the client to make their own physical prints and the photographer keeps all of the remaining rights to the images.

This is the option we personally use and find it fits exactly what both parties want. We can give our clients a price that they know will not change while also giving them the full value of their session.

3. Photographer Sells The Copyright

The final option is one that most photographers at least offer on their packages. The photographer will perform all of the duties they are contracted fo, but as an option sells off the copyright to the photos at a price. The benefits to owning the copyright is that you could alter, edit, sell, or even advertise your images and have full legal rights to the images. The con to this would be the price, the value changes from person to person based on what they think the value of their pictures would be. By selling the copyright, the photographer relinquishes all value they have to the pictures and as such must charge accordingly.

I hope everyone could take a few things learned from a quick look at these different copyright options that most photographers offer. Of course, there is no definitive option because each photographer must choose which one fits their business and personal choices best. Never be afraid to bring it up while discussing a session with your photographer, a professional will appreciate a client who takes the time to understand just what they’re getting and ask questions about their services. If anyone has any questions on this topic or anything else, just message us and we’d be happy to help!

Planning for your clients shoot and maintaining expectations

There is nothing that Jason and I love more than a perfectly timed candid that we were able to capture! With each of our sessions we shoot, we strive to give a good mix of both portraits and candids. We like to try and shoot two different areas at a location to give another look and switch it up. But with each session, we will plan accordingly so our clients get that personal and unique touch!

We always try to take the clients’ style, the look they are going for and why their reasoning for wanting to book a session in the first place into consideration before even choosing a location. This preparation not only tailors to each client and gives them some freedom to make decisions while also giving your professional input, but it ultimately keeps them from getting the cookie cutter photos at the same location or the same studio with all the SAME backdrops.

Some photographers don’t like the idea of recreating photos they’ve already seen before, which is okay! But in the midst of planning their session, I personally like for clients to share ideas they’ve seen from our work (Pinterest is pretty good with this too!) or certain poses that they like. Even as a photographer, we have our own creative eye but that doesn’t mean that your client can’t assist in inspiration and give some ideas that they really love and you throw your creative twist on it. Ultimately, Jason and I want our clients to be happy with the photos that are received and sending ideas my way gives me a great idea of what they like or what they like most about our style. Of course, the best is when a client sends you an idea and you exceed it a million times over while maintaining their vision, then delivering an incredible image that they never thought could turn out so beautiful!

Now, this is the only issue (and I say issue so very lightly) when it comes to sending those Pinterest ideas - expectations. It’s difficult when a Mom sends this adorable and perfectly timed photo of Dad kissing Moms’ belly while their oldest is sitting perfectly on Dad’s shoulders and is kissing Mom’s cheek while also grinning ear to ear to me that she had found. It’s not that it isn’t an adorable pose, but those poses (and looks) can be tricky! Sometimes come the day of the session, there’s a lot going on and sometimes kids just don’t want to cooperate or it turns out their fear of heights became a huge realization when they are high on their dads shoulders. That’s okay! Sometimes a good bribe works if their old enough or finding/doing anything to get that shot. But, it’s super important that you reel in those expectations before even shooting that day. Most clients are totally understanding that it may not be a true realization, but being prepared could really help with all the above while still providing some amazing images that are truly their own!

Which again brings me back to just preparing for the shoot with a few helpful tips. If you know there are little ones involved, be sure the time you set isn’t disruptive to their nap routine or dinner time. If it looks like it’s going to be extremely hot and humid that day, possibly offer to reschedule or at the very least be sure to bring hydration for everyone and minimize all the walking. We have found all of our clients truly appreciate thinking of their needs before they even have a chance to think about it and it makes their whole experience much more enjoyable and in turn, will surely help give you great sessions with beautiful images that your clients will love while they also enjoy their experience with you!

July Before & After Photo

Recently, we’ve been asked a lot about our editing style and some of the steps it takes to get our images to their finished look. After a little discussion, Katie and I have decided to start a monthly before and after section of our blog discussing just that. Unless we’re shooting for a particular creative session our style is more reserved, as we prefer to showcase our clients for who they are without drastic editing to maintain that personal and authentic feel for each image. We are definitely excited to give a small glimpse into some of our choices and work that goes into each of our images and hope both professionals and clients enjoy this little inside look at editing with Jason & Katie Photography.

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Part 1

For each photo, the very first thing we do is make minor crops and adjust for the proper color temperature. As you can see, we tightened up on the couple and left more negative space above. As a result, the couple has become more pronounced in the photo allowing for more of an “up close” feel and you can see their reactions much better which can easily get lost in those large images. The adjusted crop also lets a wandering eye go to the gorgeous trees above them which allows for that big encompassing feel that puts this couple into a bigger than life look.

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Part 2

The second step is where more of the tiny details com into play which helps the picture pop more. The shadows are boosted just a little to give the wood bark more texture as well as an airy feel to the branches around them. It’s important with encompassing photos to highlight the details of the scenery or it becomes just… blah, for a lack of a better word. Adding some to the highlights also gives the branches a lighter green tone and making sure they don’t disappear into the shadows.

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Part 3

Finally, we make a small adjustment to the overall exposure of the photo making sure that it is completely balanced with all of the previous changes we made. A final small scan of the photo is made to make sure we get rid of any problems, such as the big black soft box to the right! Each of the changes may seem small or unimportant but ultimately, they work together to create that polished image that fits the look you envisioned. Always spend the time to think out a photo even before you snap the button! You will be guaranteed to have a gorgeous image every time.