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

I met up with Maggie again this week so we could get some photos with her husband included – he wasn’t able to make it to our last session.   I had lots of fun just hanging out with her, she was in the middle of moving into a new house (which is absolutely GORGEOUS!), so things were super busy, but  I thrive on busyness and so this was right up my alley.  Maggie was up for all sorts of creative stuff (but some it I won’t be sharing because it’s a bit more personal….)  So creative stuff + busyness + hanging out with a friend + her husbands awesome espressos (he’s a starbucks guy!)  =  a session that’s right up my alley!

Thanks Maggie!  Love ya, and I can’t wait to meet your beautiful new baby girl!

I am currently taking applications for my class of 2010 senior representatives.  I will only be accepting a few per local school,  so hurry up and apply!

As a rep you will have the opportunity to earn free prints, cash and prizes based on the number of referrals you bring in.

To apply, please click on the contact tab above, fill in the contact info and request an application.  I will get back to you within 24 hours with an e-application and the full details of my rep program.  Simply fill  out the application and e-mail it back to me and I’ll let you know within a week if you are picked to be a representative.  

I had a moment yesterday.  I was playing out in the backyard with my kids, and had my camera around my neck just in case they did something cute.   Olivia was singing a song about something……I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was cute.   And that’s when I had my moment, I realized while she was singing and swinging on the swing, that she’s not a baby anymore.    Over the last couple months, something has changed in her.  Maybe it’s that she can communicate verbally with me, maybe it’s that she goes down the slide head first, maybe its that she loves horses and tells me all the time how she wants a “horsey”.  I don’t know, but she’s not a baby anymore.  It hit me inside -  “She’s a kid.”  After taking a few shots of her, I came inside, put my kiddos down for a nap and uploaded the photos.  My husband was peeking over my shoulder while I was processing the shots and he noticed it too  “she’s a girl!”  he said, ” what happened to my baby? I don’t know if I like this”.  I don’t know if I like it either.  I don’t know how, as parents, we forget sometimes that they are only little for awhile.  I’m doing my best to  live in the moment with these precious little lives I’ve been entrusted  with.   I’m not ready for them to grow up, but it’s happening and much more fast than I had anticipated.

I spend a lot of time editing – basically for every 10 minutes I shoot I spend at least an hour in my digital darkroom.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love every aspect of my job,  but sometimes skin smoothing and zit removal gets a bit mundane, so what do I do?

I open up Pandora.   For those of you that haven’t discovered it’s amazingness, it’s a free (and totally legal) music site.  You simply name an artist, song or music style that you like and Pandora creates you a (mostly) ad-free music station.   Some of my current favorite stations are  Jack Johnson, “80′s stuff”,  Lynard Skynard,  Bob Marley,  and Jars of Clay (my music taste is all over these days!).

So check em out, they aren’t paying me and I don’t get anything for sharing this, it’s just such a cool thing I couldn’t help but share with everyone. 

I’m getting towards the tail-end of the National Charity Model Search that I am participating in for the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep foundation.  Mr “E” is my second to last session before my deadline  and I couldn’t have asked for a better session!  I seriously have never had a more cooperative 4 year old – he did amazing, and had a very natural little smile that photographed perfectly!

Good job Mr “E” and best of luck to you in the contest!

I met up with the “H” boys and their mom at Lake Sacajawea here in Longview earlier this week.  These two were all boy and full of energy (as all young boys should be!)  They were both super cooperative for their photos, but also had lots of fun making some great silly faces for me and had me cracking up the whole session.

And a few of my favorite outtakes……  

I met up with Miss Heidi earlier this week for her senior session.  I always have so much fun with seniors, and Heidi was no exception.  She looked absolutely gorgeous in her evening dress, and was such a trooper hiking into  one of the locations.  I had to laugh when she first got out of her car – she was wearing an evening dress with polka dot boots underneath it so she could hike, it was so cute! (turns out we having matching rubber boots too!) We went all over the place for this session – Longview, Rainier and Kelso, and the weather was just perfect.  We were finishing up shooting right as the sun was starting to set and we lucked out with a beautiful golden sunset that made the lighting at our last location just magical.

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation Heidi!  It was so fun meeting you and I hope you enjoy your sneak peek! 

I made a post about this in December, but unfortunately it looks like I’m going to have to make it again.

Stealing is against the law.

Right clicking, screen-shoting, copying, scanning and reproducing images off my site in any way is illegal. My blog and website are both copyright protected, which means that it is completely illegal and wrong to steal images off of either one.

One of the reasons that I do not allow clients and friends to take images off of my site is because the images on my site and blog are “website optimized” which means that I have purposefully shrunk, sharpened and watermarked the images for web – this helps my site to load faster for dial-up users and also helps protect me from theft.  When the images are copied, saved and downloaded to your computer the quality is greatly reduced to the point that it is going to look bad if you upload them from your computer to myspace or facebook.  As an artist I greatly value having my work look it’s absolute best, and a super small pixelated image with my watermark on it is definately not a good representation of my work.

There is a reason why it is tough to steal images on my site.  It’s because I’ve made it that way….yes, it’s still possible, but you have to actually think about it.

If any of my clients and friends would like to have images for their myspace or facebook, add me as a friend on myspace or facebook (I’m easy to find….just look up my name!).  I would be more than happy to tag you with the images.

Thank you for respecting my work and livelihood by choosing not to steal images from my site.

Sincerely,

Jessica

This couple definately knows the way to my heart!   They showed up to their Valentines Day engagement session with a box of chocolates for their photographer -  I was  so surprised!  What a couple of sweethearts!  (and they are officially my new favorite clients!)  It was my first time meeting Ian since both of them are living out of Longview right now and he didn’t get to make it to our initial wedding consult last year.  It was a great “get to know ya” session for all of us, and I had a lot of fun meeting him and photographing both of them.   I know their wedding is going to be amazing and I am totally looking forward to being a part of it this coming August!

Congrats Tricia and Ian!  You are awesome, thank you again for the chocolate – it was good!! 

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Valentines Day from my family to yours!