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

This blog post has been a long time in coming.  But before I make the announcement I want to share something.

Photography to me has been one of the most amazing learning experiences of my life.  I started out without even having a camera.   I actually used to play “photo-studio” when I was just 5 years old.   A gal that babysat me and my siblings would play it with us…..we posed each other, added props (all the knick-knacks laying around the room) and pretended to crank this camera (apparently our invisible camera had to be wound up with a huge crank?) I loved it.   My babysitter got bored with it really quickly.

When I was 12 I got my first little film camera….it didn’t even have the option of shooting in manual.  I could only light things to the best of my ability and hope it turned out.  With no clue what I was doing – I hung sheets up in my bedroom, dressed my poor little sisters up in tutus and attempted to take photos of them using only window light.    The images are less than amazing.  But I LOVED them.

When I was a teenager I can remember taking my camera with me everywhere.  I once I remember taking photos all the last week of school of our fun and craziness – sumu suit fights, bowling and bonfires.  I was very frugal and wanted to get it all on my one last roll of film.   Sadly I opened up my camera after all of this and discovered there was no film in my camera.    I cried.

About a year after that I had my son (I started young….what can I say!) and as a birthday gift that year I was given my first digital camera – it’s been a love affair since then.   However I didn’t get from “first digital camera” to “professional photographer” all at once.   That was the real journey there – I’ve had a lot of help and put a TON of effort into it.   I couldn’t be where I am today without the help of other professionals out there.   The photography community I discovered is one of the most giving communities of people out there.    I love it!

Keeping with the spirit of giving that goes with being a photographer I’ve tried my absolute best to help others out with their own photography journeys.  Unfortunately (or fortunately…depending on how you look at it) I am one busy lady!  My business always keeps me on my toes and working my tail off.   I love it, but it leaves me little time for family and friends and even less time to respond to the dozens of e-mails I get asking me questions about photography and photoshop.  SO…….this is where my big announcement comes into play!

Starting in August I’m going to be offering beginning and intermediate level photography classes!

As of right now, I’ll only be offering the first “Beginning-level” class.  I’m going to wait and see how the response is before I add more classes, but I would imagine an intermediate and some more beginning classes will soon follow!

The first class is going to be held at my studio Monday August 9th, August 16th, and August 23rd from 7:00 to 8:30 in the evening.    This is going to be a first come, first serve type of thing, and I’m only going to be able to take a small handful of students due to space limitations (my studio is only 1000 sq. feet).

In the Beginning class we will be covering the subjects:

1. Getting out of Auto (full instructions on shooting in manual, the photographic triangle, and “which settings” to use for your photos)

2. Finding the light (outdoor photography).

3. Working with available light and on camera flash (indoor lighting).

4. Interacting with your subject.

5. Composition.

All the classes will include me as your instructor with 4.5 hours total of interactive instruction, handouts of all the subjects we will be covering in detail, homework assignment for the in-between weeks, 1-2 mini-shoots (either in my studio or downtown) for practice and a mini-critique session in the last week.

It is not required, but I highly recommend that all attendees own or at least have the ability to borrow a DSLR, as most of the instruction will involve shooting in manual which is difficult to do with a point and shoot camera.   If your not sure what a DLSR is, it stands for “Digital single lens reflex”  in other words it’s a digital camera with a detachable lens or lenses – examples would be cameras like the Nikon d40, d90, d200, d300 etc, or the Canon Rebel XT, XS, 30d, 40d 5d etc.

Being that I am a “homeschool grad” I have a slightly different approach to teaching – this will not just be a “Jessica telling you how to take pictures” class, this will be us all interacting with each other, discussing, practicing, etc.  I hope to cater to all learning styles – the visual, the auditory, and the kinesthetic, by speaking, showing and doing.   My goal is that you can all not only learn something new and fun, but also create some friendships and perhaps even your own photographic community of sorts.

The intermediate class with be covering things like shooting in raw, photoshop and lightroom workflow, techniques for portrait editing, beginning-level off camera lighting, posing and more!  However I’m not going to announce all the details of that one yet – let me get through the first one first!

Want to sign up?   Cost for the class will be $55, and this includes everything listed above, plus access to me throughout the class for all of your questions!  Call me at 360-431-9265 or e-mail me at jessicalemmonsphoto@gmail.com to get signed up today!  

Last year I had the pleasure of particpating in the National Charity Model Search to benefit the non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.  It was a huge success – the final total raised by participating photographers was $144,000.    I have been throughly blessed being a part of this organization, it really pulls my heartstrings, and I feel very honered to be a particpating photographer in this wonderful group.  

So without further ado – I’m here to announce that we are at it again!  Photographers across America going to be doing the “America’s Cutest Family” Model Search and I’m releasing the official Sandy Puc announcment below.

Jessica Lemmons Photography is participating in the International Charity Model Search to select North America’s Cutest Family and to raise funds for the non-profit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation. (NILMDTS.org)

Are your loved ones North America’s Cutest Family? We’ll give you the opportunity to prove it! Many exciting prizes will be awarded, and the grand prize winner receives a new car!

Model Search Special:

$40 entrance fee includes a 30-60 minute location or studio model session and one image submitted to the national gallery.

Finalists will be determined by online votes. Each vote is $1 (no limit on the amount of votes you can cast), and all proceeds from votes benefit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS.org).

Grand prize international winner will be determined from the 52 city finalists. The winners will be selected from the finalist gallery by photography and modeling industry experts.  The winning family also receives a session with the renowned portrait artist Sandy Puc’ and international recognition.

Call 360-431-9265  now to enter your family in this exciting contest.

*Contest open to residents of the US and Canada. For more information, visit http://sandypucmodels.com/.

Before I post the Christmas Card sample up here I thought it might be good to explain the lack of action on my blog over the last few weeks.   The weekend of September 12th my husband went on a backpacking trip with some guys up in Sisters OR.   He had an amazing time, but unfortunately they had neglected to filter the water at one point on their trip and discovered that even glacier water isn’t completely clean.  My husband got a bacterial infection called campylobactera and was completely out of commission for over a week.  He had a fever ranging from 102-104 for 8 days straight and lots of other not-so-fun symptoms.  He got extremely dehydrated at one point and had to be rushed to the emergency room for some fluids and work-ups.    With most husbands and wives this would more or less be an inconvenience for the wife….of course she would be sympathetic, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world.  Unfortunately for me, (or maybe not so unfortunately?) my husband is my biggest supporter.   I literally CANNOT do my job without his help.   With homeschooling my kids, managing a household and managing a very busy photography business, my time is in great demand.   He does the laundry, cleans the house, cooks dinner, bathes and puts the kids to bed, and calms me in my crazy moments.    I love this man to death, and am extremely blessed to have him.  However, him being sick really sucked as I had to do EVERYTHING.   Listen to me whine here – I had to cook, clean, homeschool, do laundry, take care of kids needs, take care of my husbands needs, grocery shop AND run a business.   Yeah….call me a baby, but I’m not superwoman and something had to go. So…I dropped the ball on my blog for a couple weeks.  I’ve still been very busy with work, but a lot of my sessions from the last few weeks will not be making an appearance anytime soon as I work hard to catch up from that week.   My husband has fully recovered since then and is back to being the amazing support that has always been to me, but I’m still rather behind on things and I apologize in advance if I’m a little slower than normal with my response time.    Thank you all for understanding!

And now for the card samples!!!!

I’m working with just one designer this year, Leah of LCH designs, I love her work and she has quite a bit of variety in what she does.  She made my families card last year and I was SOOOO amazingly happy with how it turned out that I wanted to use her again this year. I do still have some of my old cards if you had a card from last year that you just loved, but I would prefer to simply offer Leah’s designs as I feel they are superb!  :-)   You will see that some of them are square cards – I love these as they are very unique, they come in a 5 x 5 size with envelopes and I think they are absolutely adorable in person.  However most of them are still in your standard 5 x 7 format.  I currently do not offer the “Wal-Mart” size of 4 x 8.   Not because I hate Wal-Mart (I actually love the place!) but because I want my clients to have something unique and beautiful and not something that they could just pick up at the local one-stop shopping mart.   These cards are press printed cards and can have a UV finish, pearl finish or linen texture.  (I personally prefer the pearl!) If you have no idea what that means….ask me and I will be more than happy to show you!!!   Also, one of the many advantages of press-printed cards is that they are double-sided, so you have the option of either (a.) leaving it as designed, (b.) writing a personal note to your family or friends on the back or (c.) adding in an extra photo or two on the back (some of them already include that).   All of the wording and text are fully customizable as well.

So…without further ado, here they are:

Photos on the first  set are compliments of Leah as well.  :-)

ETA – I’ll be posting the retro Christmas in better detail this afternoon!

EARLY-BIRD SPECIAL

Complete your session before October 15th and receive a free 5 x 10 mounted storyboard.

For all sessions, purchase 1 additional set of cards and second additional set will be 50% off.

To book your session call 360-431-9265, e-mail me at jessicalemmonsphoto@gmail.com or use the contact link at the top of the blog.

Keep watching the blog – card examples are coming soon!!!!!!

I have a confession to make.

I’m a geek.

I twitter and facebook all the time, I have a myspace, two blogs, 8 e-mail addresses, and a flickr account.  I’m on digg, linkdin, hulu, and prop.   You can google me and find out all sorts of crazy things….well……not to crazy, but you can certainly find me and probably a few funny photos if you search hard enough.   I’m on lots of forums, and some of my closest friends I met online.   I love social networking and how it has helped my business, but until I saw this video I thought of myself as a bit of a nerd…..it’s only us twenty-somethings and teens that use facebook right?  Not anymore……

I thought this was a fascinating clip and wanted to share it with you – fan my facebook page and follow me on twitter if you want to get in on some of my upcoming specials!

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of doing a quick session with Molly of Life’s Little Polka Dots.  The purpose of the session was to get a headshot for Molly’s website.  If you haven’t already clicked on the link above, then let me tell you about Molly.  Molly is the owner and event planner for Life’s Little Polka Dots.  I met Molly online about 6 months ago and we had the pleasure of working together for the first time at a wedding I photographed back in April.  Saying “I had the pleasure”  is such an understatement actually….. She did an AMAZING job coordinating the whole affair.  My job was so easy that day. Without a coordinator it can often be stressful and confusing….let me tell you!  I was extremely grateful to have Molly that day.  Her wonderful organizational skills and made it easy for me to spend lots of time photographing everything that the bride wanted and I was so thrilled with the results.    I highly recommend hiring this gal if you are planning on getting married soon…..you won’t be disappointed, I promise!

Today is my birthday – yes, June 24th 1985, early in the morning I’m told, I made my way into this world.   Yesterday my family celebrated my birthday by going bowling at the Triangle bowl here in Longview.  It was a great party, but the highlight of it, I would have to say, was getting my two cakes.

One of the the cakes had a new camera sitting on top.  It was purple and had Disney princesses on it.  I was pretty stoked…..I’ll definately be bringing that one along for my next wedding. 

The other one was a Barbie cake.  Yes, on my 24th birthday I got a Barbie.   My wonderful mother-in-law and soon-to-be sister-in-law Nicole got it for me (Nicole is this one here……she makes AMAZING cakes and works at Market Place here in town) This probably would’nt have been as big a deal, except for the fact that in my 24 years I have NEVER owned a Barbie.  Yes, you read that right.  I live through the 80′s and 90′s without ever owning a Barbie.   I was SO excited to finally have one.   

I’m throughly enjoying her dress today.  :-)  Isn’t she beautiful?

Ok….so now for the special - 

Mini-session dates are now set!

Over the past few weeks I’ve received some e-mails from past clients of mine asking if I was going to be offering the same mini-session special that I did last year.   So, as requested I am announcing the dates and prices for my specials.  

It’s going to be a bit different this time since it’s not right before Christmas and I’m doubting that anyone is quite ready for those Christmas cards yet…though I will be offering a card discount of 15% for all of the clients that choose to have a mini-session.  

The dates for the sessions will be Saturday July 11th and Friday August 14th, with the ordering appointments on July 17th and August 21st respectively and at the same time’s as the session.    I will be doing in person proofing on all of these sessions to avoid ordering confusion. 

The sessions will last approximately 30 minutes, with up to 6 people per session  and you will have 10-15 final proofs to choose from.    Sessions will be held at Willow Grove in Longview.   Ordering appointments will be held at a local coffee shop….have yet to decide which one!  :-)

The July 11th time slots are 

5:45 pm. 

6:30 pm

7:15 pm

8:00 pm

The August 14th time slots are

5:15 pm

6:00 pm

6:45 pm

7:30 pm

Pricing for the sessions will be

$100 – 30 minute session  ($50 in savings)

          1 wall print (10×13 or 11 x 14)

          4 gift prints.  (5 x 7 and smaller)

$220  30 minute session  ($75 in savings)

            1 wall print (10 x 13 or 11 x 14)

            1 10 image black leather mini-session album

            6 gift prints  (5 x 7 and smaller

$340  30 minute session ( over $225 in savings!!!)

     2 wall prints (10 x 13 or 11 x 14)

     1 10 image black leather mini-session album

     10 gift prints (5 x 7 and smaller)

     Session digital files with reproduction rights

As you may know, I recently participated in the first National Charity Model Search. The contest’s goal was to discover America’s cutest kid and to raise money for charity.

It was a huge success, 2,000 model’s images were submitted to the contest, and most importantly, the competition raised $164,775 for the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS) foundation.

The competition was so much fun. We were thrilled to enter our community’s cutest kids into the contest. The feedback from clients has been overwhelmingly positive. People were enthusiastic about my philanthropic efforts to partner with NILMDTS. So many folks have experienced the loss of a child or know someone who has. Raising money for NILMDTS was an effort everyone supported.

The 50 finalists have been selected. Photography and modeling industry experts will select the grand prizewinner, which will be announced on May 1st. The finalist gallery is available for viewing – just click here.

This has been such a positive experience that we plan on participating in the National Charity Model Search next year. I hope that just as many of you step up to partner with me in this fun endeavor, and that we raise even more money for NILMDTS in 2010.

I’m on the lookout for a few lovely ladies to model wedding dresses for an upcoming trash the dress session with me and a few other local photographers.  Models must be willing to wear a beautiful wedding dress and not be afraid to get it dirty!     We will shooting at various locations in the area for about 4 or 5 hours on Saturday April 25th.  Cost is free with a signed model release and in exchange for your time you will receive at least 5  digital files per photographer for your troubles. So far we have at least 4 photographers signed up and hope to have between 4 and 8 brides.

If you’ve never heard of trash the dress check out this site here – www.trashthedress.com.
If you are interested please e-mail me with your information (name, age, location,  height, weight and social security number……………………ok, just kidding, name, age and location will do!) and a small jpeg image of yourself and 2 reasons why you would like to do a trash the dress shoot!  I have a feeling I’m going to get a large amount of ladies interested in this, so if you aren’t selected the first time around I will be sure and keep you in mind next time we do this!

This weekend instead of shooting a wedding I’m switching it up a bit – I will be in a wedding!  Yep, that’s right!  I’m a bridesmaid, big poofy pink dress and all (I actually like it, don’t worry!).  My kiddos and I will be donning wedding attire and walking down the aisle at her wedding.   You can see who Beth is in her proposal photos and engagement photos.  Matt (her fiance) is amazing, and I’m so happy that these two are ending up together!  It’s been almost 4 years since I got married and I will be so glad to have her join with me in the married peoples club.  

So….in honor of her getting married I will be offering a 10% discount for all weddings booked during the months of March or April (wedding can be any date) and I will also be offering full payment plans.   So you can pay with a credit card, pay with check, or pay with cash, in whatever amount you need to pay monthly (or bi-monthly, or quarterly!) as long as the initial retainer fee is paid on booking and the full amount is paid by the wedding day.  The retainer fee has also  been lowered to 25% as of today!

Just a heads up to anyone needing to contact me  – being that I’m in a wedding this weekend I may be a little slower to respond to e-mails and phone calls than I normally am.  Pretty much every second is planned out in my life for the next 96 hours.  So bear with me….I will be doing my best to get all caught up first thing Monday.  Thank you for understanding!