Jessica Lemmons Photography Blog, Longview Washington (Wa.) photographer.

I had so much fun photographing this session for Miss “J”and her Mom!  The photo’s from this session were a Christmas gift to Miss “J’s” Dad,  so I’m just now getting to stick them on my blog since I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.    Miss “J’s” teddy bear has been by her side since birth – she doesn’t go anywhere without him, so it seemed totally appropriate to included this little guy in her photos.  He is adorable and SO well loved by his little mommy. 

I would have to say her dear husband is a lucky guy! 

Just wanting to wish you all a safe and blessed Christmas!

A big thank you to all of you, my wonderful clients, friends and family.  I have had such amazing time over this past year getting to know you all and I am truly grateful for each and every one of you! The friendships that I have developed with you are such a blessing to me and I thank God for them!  I hope that you all have a blessed holiday with your families!

I also want to take the time to thank my Lord and Savior for coming to the earth and dying on the cross for me.  I can say 100%, that I would not be the person I am today if it wasn’t for the amazing gift of God’s salvation, and I feel truly blessed to be able to call myself a Christian today. Though I still struggle, he always loves me and is always faithful to me.   He is the reason for this wonderful season, and I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart for what he did!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone and God Bless!!!

I met up with Mr and Mrs. A at the lake in Longview for the first part of their session, and then finished their session at their home.   It’s been snowing a lot here and it made for a gorgeous backdrop to some fun outdoor maternity photos.   It was fun getting to know these two! You could just feel the excitement about baby’s soon to be arrival. The new addition to their family should be here sometime  in January, and I’m looking forward to meeting baby and for the chance to photograph him as well.   

Please enjoy the ‘A’ families sneak peak!

My family and I made a trip to Seaside last Sunday when it first started snowing.  We had a lovely time shopping at the Seaside Outlet stores and had a fun family dinner together.  I had NEVER in my life seen snow and the ocean together and so I was totally thrilled to be able to get this photo. Unfortunately, it was dumping snow all day long, so my daylight shots of the ocean look like a lot of white nothingness.  However, I did get this night shot from some friends of ours hotel balcony, and even though you can’t tell that the blackness is the ocean, you can see the snow on the beach and I was pretty excited about that!  A little bit of fascinating info for you non-locals: The statue on the right side of the photo marks the supposed end of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

For those readers of mine that are fellow camera geeks, this was shot with the Canon 5D, handheld (didn’t have a tripod with me) at 3200 ISO’s.  I continue to be blown away at the way my baby handles low light.  I’m in love.

You all know I like to be really nice on this blog.  I enjoy it when everyone likes me and is happy but unfortunately I have to do one of those posts.  You all know what I’m talking about right?  The one where the blogger switches personalities to go on a rant and rave about people after getting ripped off somehow – yeah, this is one of those posts. (I will do my best to keep from trash-talking though) This is not a happy post.  This is not a post that I necessarily want to have on my blog, but my livelihood is at stake here and I need to address this issue.

Over the last several weeks I’ve been perusing local myspaces and facebooks  and unfortunately found a VERY large number of my images online that have yet to be paid for.   This is unfortunate since this is my families livelihood that these particular clients have chosen to steal from me.   We’re talking the income I use to buy my kiddos clothes and food.   Really…..stealing is not cool.

If you’ve seen my images and your wondering if they are stolen or not please read the rest -

On occasion I do grant clients permission to use photos for their myspace or facebook in which case I give them a cd of low-resolution watermarked images, or in some cases clients purchase digital negatives and are given permission to use them for personal use (which includes printing and internet usage but not copyright).

Images that have my url on them (www.jessicalemmonsphotography.com) or don’t have a watermark are not stolen images and these people have my full permission to use these files. In many cases they are advertising for me which I GREATLY appreciate!!!  I would feel terrible if someone were to accuse them of stealing, because I assure you they are not.

Images that have this watermark -

are stolen images.   (the green part will actually be black and at a lower transparency)

Now I’m not going to name names, but I would hope that maybe these people will be approaching me in the next couple of weeks about a payment plan for their digital files (I charge $700 for a CD of digital negatives from a regular photo session).

I accept payments through paypal at my e-mail address jessicalemmonsphoto@gmail.com.

Copyright infringement (which is what right-clicking, choosing “save as” or using a screen capture of some sort to copy an image) can be punisable by law and with fines of up to $150,000.00.  I do have an attorney and belong to the PPA (Professional Photographers of America), and I pay legal insurance to cover attorney fees just for such an occasion as this.

If the images are not paid for, my attorney will be in contact with said clients.

If all goes as planned and everyone pays I will be taking a month long vacation to Hawaii to enjoy my recent holiday bonus!

In the future, please respect my livelihood by choosing not to scan, copy, print or reproduce my images in any way, shape or form.

To learn more about copyright please visit this link http://www.copyright.gov/title17/

And also, a huge thank you to my clients who have chosen to be honest and not steal my images.  I wouldn’t be in business if it wasn’t for you guys, so THANK YOU!    I appreciate you all more than words can say, and have been totally blessed by the relationships I have built with you all over the past few years.

Thanks for reading and have a Merry Christmas!

Oh…and here’s what miss Olivia thinks of stealing……

I’m pleased to announce that a new add-on to my site is currently under construction.  I’ve still got LOTS of work ahead of me but I’m hoping to be finished by the end of December/beginning of January 09.

What does this mean for you?

Well… a couple things….

I will be getting some help from family and friends with “testing” the new site. But since family and friends are always so nice and encouraging, I’m going to also be asking a few special clients for feedback in exchange for some free stuff.  I want to know what draws you to my photography site,  what makes you attracted to my line of custom photography, and what I can do better.

So keep stalking my blog, in few weeks I will make the official announcement and the first 5 clients or potential clients to contact me asking to be “critics” will get to preview the site before everyone else and get some free stuff in exchange for being so helpful.

I will also be giving a $450 gift to the first bride that books their wedding through my new site…..so all you 2009 and 2010 brides be watching!

I met the “K” family this last Saturday morning at the lake in Longview.  It was absolutely beautiful, blue-sky, sunshiney, (and freezing cold)  winter day.    Little “KJ” was all boy – I had fun chasing him around and watching him throw bark dust and rocks in the pond at the Gardens.  You could tell his parents were totally in love with this little guy and it was apparent in everything they did with him. It’s always amazing to me how much I learn about family dynamics at family photo sessions,  something about photography seems to bring out the very best (and sometimes worst – yikes!) in people.

Thank you guys for having me as your photographer and please enjoy your quick sneak peek – the rest will online soon!

See?  Can’t you just tell how much they adore him?

I had the pleasure of photographing this absolutely adorable newborn baby girl.  Miss ‘K’ was nearly 3 weeks old at the time of her session and was an absolute angel the entire time I was photographing her.  I barely heard more than a grunt out of her until the very end of her session – she did AMAZING!

Please enjoy the sneak preview for Miss “K” and family.

Have someone on your gift list that you just don’t know what to get?  Well I have the solution for you!!! 

Gift cards are now available in any dollar amount of your choosing.  These are a PERFECT way to give a gift that your friends and loved ones will cherish for years to come.   They come in a cute little box wrapped in holiday themed paper complete with a bow so you don’t even have to wrap it!  What an easy way to give a fun and personal gift.  Unlike your typical gift card (the gift that says “I don’t know you enough to know what you actually want so I’m just getting this silly card in a cardboard envelope and hoping you can find something you like at this store that I REALLY hope you actually shop at”) these gift cards are much more personal because they show that you took the time to actually find a photographer that you know they will like, in a style that you are sure they will love, and that if they want you will even show up and help me hold the reflector at their session. (Well, that last part is totally optional, but my reflector stand is broken right now so the position of “official reflector stand” is temporarily available!)

Can’t wait to get your hands on one of these babies? Well, there’s more!!!!

If you purchase a gift card between now and December 24th I will throw in an extra $15 for every $50 purchased.   Yes, you heard that right.  Free print credit just  because I can.

In fact if you want you can even purchase some of these babies for yourself and use them for your own future portrait sessions.   Talk about free money!!!

To purchase contact me via e-mail at jessicalemmonsphoto@gmail.com or at 360-431-9265.

Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!!

My kiddos had new stocking caps gifted to them and I thought the hats were adorable, so a quick photo session with them was in order!  We went to Tam O Shanter park in Kelso and I spent a good hour chasing them around trying to get some cute photos.

Casey was cracking me up….he kept trying to tell me how to do my job “Stand over there mom. No. Stop. Go back up on the hill. Now look here and take my picture, now!”  He definately inherited bossy oldest child syndrome from me.     Despite not following his directions I still managed to get some precious photos of the two of them…of course, I am a little biased.

I wish I had a way to record this child’s laughter and put it on here – It’s loud, precious, bubbly and  contagious all at the same time!  Totally a noise that would brighten even the most depressed person’s day.