Crystal and Randall were sealed in the Dallas LDS temple on Saturday, August 15, 2009. What a pleasure it was to be a part of their day! I promised them a few sneakity peeks for when they got back from their honeymoon. It was definitely tough to narrow them down. Enjoy you two!
At Lauren and Richard’s session something just clicked for me. I found myself creating portraits that had me feeling excited about my chosen profession, and made me want to go shooting the next night, and the night after, and the night after that. Where did this feeling come from? In part it came from feeling like I really “clicked” with my camera, and that lens, body, and brain were really working together. I felt confident and artistic, and that’s a place I would like to continue to visit.
I most certainly can’t deny the role that Lauren and Richard played in making this session so great for me. Richard is a guy that screams southern Texas charm, and Lauren is a gorgeous little blonde who is not afraid to admit she likes to be in front of the camera. I’m also one of those people who like to have their picture taken and I really love spending time with people who exude the confidence that helps make great portraits.
There are two key elements to creating great portraits, first being the aforementioned confidence. Know what the second element?
An attitude open to all of the crazy ideas your photographer has.
Sometimes my ideas can get REALLY crazy. Like asking these two to make their way into this old abandoned building to pose next to an enormous hanging slab of concrete.
And sweet Lauren didn’t even blink an eye when she turned around and spotted what looked like lizard eggshell remains. I wasn’t bothered by the eggshells, but I did hightail it out of there really quickly when Richard spotted a yellowjacket nest. And let’s not even talk about the dried up snake skin we found which looked to be several feet long.
Lauren and Richard were set up by a mutual friend who told Lauren she thought they would be a great fit. Unfortunately this mutual friend forgot to inform Richard why she had invited him over, so he didn’t pay her any attention upon introduction. She wasn’t ready to give up though, and approached him one last time. He wised up, gave her a ride home, asked for her phone number, and called the next night to set up their first date.
I was blown away with how natural Lauren was in front of the camera. She has an excellent sense of self-awareness and I had to do very little coaching to get her into these really fantastic poses. She was constantly turning her head, pointing her toes, and resting her hands just so.
Lauren and Richard are planning for an October 16, 2010 semi-destination wedding at Moon River Ranch in Satin, TX. Richard’s family is from a small town south of San Antonio, called Devine, and Lauren’s family lives in the DFW metroplex so they decided to compromise and have everyone meet in the middle. I’m so happy to say that I will be joining them for what I know is going to be a fabulous wedding!
We met across the street from the Swift Meat Packing Ruins for the photos above, and then proceeded to do a little bit of trespassing onto the Swift grounds. I’ve been wanting to visit this location for a shoot for months now, but it is an off-limits area so I needed an adventurous couple willing to slip through a crack in the fence to get inside. Once inside we learned we weren’t free and clear yet after a large group of shady looking teenagers walked on the other side of this building. Lauren and I had Richard there to protect us though. 
I think these two will agree that the danger was worth it though.
THAT SHOT!
My husband doesn’t like the graffiti in the background, but I like that her beautiful clear face jumps out at me despite the busy background. And that she looks smokin’ hot.
What’s behind these doors? Now that you know it’s an abandoned meat packing facility I think it’s best if you don’t know. Just focus on the adorable couple standing in front of them.
It was a steaming hot day in Fort Worth and Lauren started to feel a bit ill at this point, but she really pushed through the nausea and kept posing like a rock star. Don’t you love the way her dress is billowing out a bit in this one?
Does the Swift Packing area look familiar to anyone? It was actually used in the filming of the Fox tv series Prison Break! I love this spot because it makes me think of Hawaii. Not sure why, but I think it’s the watchtower in the background (which kind of looks like an old school lifeguard stand) and her flowy purple dress.
She’s the city girl who took him on an airplane for the very first time. He’s the country boy who took her out to feed deer in the country. They are so lovely together.
We jumped in the car and got a drink (poor Lauren felt so bad that she drank a water bottle full of steaming hot water) and they did a quick wardrobe change. I laughed so hard while she attempted to change her clothes in the front seat of the car with Richard doing watchdog duty to protect his fiancees modesty.
The Love Shack in downtown Fort Worth is one of their favorite haunts, and Lauren sent me an inspiration photo of another couple in a similar setting. If the light wasn’t disappearing so fast I would have sat down and had something to eat. It smelled amazing!
I adore their bright colored polos in the soft light of the setting sun.
When I asked them to describe their relationship to me, Lauren waxed eloquently about their dedication to the relationship. She loves that she can look in Richard’s eyes and see that he is giving his all to this relationship, and it’s the same look she’s seen from him since the day he proposed. Lauren takes that dedication and gives it right back to him, and their relationship really works.
I’m pretty sure this genuine laugh came after a random couple stopped to take a picture of me taking a picture of those two. It was a busy night in downtown Fort Worth but these two posed and cuddled like there was no one else around.
All three of us were wearing down at this point so they took a moment to rest on a nearby bench.
A nearby vendor saw how warm they looked and called over to them to buy a drink. I saw a great photo op coming on!
Still not quite sure if Lauren bought that beer so she could drink it or use it to cool herself down. I don’t blame her though, it was HOT in Fort Worth that night.
Definitely a contender for That Shot in this session. Love these two having a moment in one of their favorite parts of town, oblivious to everyone around them (even the camera!)
I just wasn’t ready for this session to be over so right before we got back to my car, I told Richard to lean back and relax and asked Lauren to give me something sexy and a bit pouty. I opened my aperture up to 1.2, turned my shutter speed down as low as I dared, and got a lovely series of these two with zero inhibitions being exactly who they are.
I think that’s the reason why I’m so excited to photograph their wedding, because these two are some of the most genuine and open people I’ve ever met. I felt an instant connection with them, and Richard turned this session into a great little history lesson on the Fort Worth Stockyards, taking the time to show me around and explain all that he knew about the area (which was really a lot!. He is such a sweetheart, but then again, so is Lauren. I’m not sure which one of them is luckier to have the other.
Richard and Lauren, I really, truly enjoyed my time spent with you and I look forward to the opportunities to do it again in the future. Thank you for braving snake skins, scary teenagers, and surging crowds, laughing and smiling all the way through.
Best,
Jenna
Drake, like most little boys his age, is very curious and excited about exploring the world around him in detail. The fact that I wasn’t afraid to get up close and personal with my wide angle lens definitely helped.
He’s curious about cameras.
Loves to look up and say “bird, bird, bird”.
Fascinated by balloons. (And doesn’t he have the cutest little monkey toes?)
And can’t get enough of the letter “W”, which happens to be the first letter of his last name.
His mom contacted me about taking pictures of him shortly before his first birthday, in part so she could have these darling curls on record before he grew out of them.
A few weeks before the session Drake’s grandma contacted me and said she would like to pay for the session as a gift for Drake’s first birthday. We kept it a secret from his parents until the time of the session and it was fun to be part of the “reveal”. I also made sure to grab lots of pictures of their reactions to the gift since grandma wasn’t there to hand it to them herself!
Although this is a child’s session, and was priced accordingly, I tried to get a few pictures of the entire family interacting with each other. Love this genuine moment between their family!
My husband and I are preparing to start a family soon ourselves, and I found myself hoping that my children will have the kind of relationship with their father that Drake has with his. These two are close, even at Drake’s young age, and it’s obvious that they spend a lot of time together because dad knows just what to say or do to make Drake’s eyes light up and sparkle!
It was really nice to have the playground nearby to use for putting Drake in different positions. When kids can’t walk yet their “poses” tend to look really similar.
THAT SHOT!
Sparkly eyes, curly whispy hair, soft pink lips, and cheeks you could nuzzle all day long. He’s a darling.
Those monkey toes again. I was drawn to them.
At the end of the shoot we moved Drake over to a spot on the ground (next to what we discovered was an ant ridden log) for some 1st birthday pictures. Kudos to Drake’s dad for coming up with the idea to stick the alphabet letters into the cupcakes to spell out his name! What a great touch.
After taunting him with cupcakes for several minutes (we didn’t want him to get messy yet, so we kept them out of arms reach), we let him dig in. Look at those cheeks!
By this point in time, I as a 1 year old would have polished off my second or third cupcake. Drake didn’t even really seem that interested in more than a fingerful of frosting from his first one. I don’t think his mom was complaining about that!
His face stayed pretty clean, it was his feet that needed a good washing when it was all over.
So we made our way over to the lion fountain. Coolest fountain ever, right?
Drake and fam,
Thank you so much for getting up extra early to spend the morning with me! Drake you’re a sweetie and I don’t remember you fussing once the entire time we were out there. I hope you do end up keeping those curls, the girls are most certainly going to go crazy over them!
Best,
Jenna
Heather wins the distinction of being my first paying client. She booked over 3 months in advance, before I had completed and uploaded more than a few sessions. I hadn’t even set prices yet and so I sent a message to my friend in panic.
“How much should I charge to shoot a group of 6 girls in their 20’s?”
The price my friend quoted (which based on my prices now is a great deal) seemed astronomical at the time. Someone wanted to PAY me to take their picture. After several weeks of begging people to give me a chance it felt so good to have someone say they like my work enough to pay me for it. A big thank you to Heather for giving me the jolt of confidence I needed so badly in the beginning. I just love Heather.
Heather was coming to Dallas for her surprise bachlorette weekend extravaganza (the date and location were the only things that weren’t a surprise), and she had a brilliant idea. She decided to do a bridal part photoshoot with her best friends in the entire world as a way to thank them for everything they were doing for her. As I said before, I think this is soemthing that should be done much more often. In fact, I’m kind of regretting that I didn’t do the same thing! I did a bachlorette type party with my BFFs two nights before my own wedding and I would love to have professional, smiling, laughing pictures with them. I know from the comments left on my Facebook sneak peeks that Heather and her girlfiends love what we ended up with!
MOH D and I went back and forth several times about what they should wear and they ended up coming up with the idea to wear tshirts representing where they are from. I didn’t know who the Astros were (knew they were a sports team but that is it) so I had to ask MOH K where flew in from.
These girls were so awesome. I had just picked up my brand new iPhone that week and when I saw this wall I asked them if they would dance in front of it or me. We turned on some music and they went for it, amidst honking horns and whistles.
Here they are doing the “greatest dance move of all time” according to Heather.
Out of all the spots on Deep Ellum, this is the only one I’ve been kicked out of before and now it has this strange hold on me. I just can’t resist these stairs!
I love working with female clients because refernces to ANTM are always understood.
If you are thinking of doing one of these sessions with your favorite girls, make sure the photographer captures individual portraits of each girl. It’s so fun to see the different personalities shine through when people are placed in front of the camera.
These girls love Heather SOOO much (an easy thing to do, since Heather is very loveable). She has such a great support system to fall back on.
Can you identify where each is from based on their shirts?
THAT SHOT!
Traffic looked clear for a moment so I turned to the girls and said, “Run out into the street, let’s get a picture of the skyline!” It was really dark by then so I opened up my aperture all the way and turned down my shutter speed as low as I dared. The lights in the left corner are a car headed straight for them!
Sometimes I love “bad” photos because of the story they tell. It makes me so happy to see these girls having so much fun working with me!
It was dark, and I didn’t have my flash, and we really needed to turn in, but I wasn’t ready for our time together to end. So I had them follow me over into this random parking lot and we took our final shots under a large light in the parking lot. It was a hot day, and the shoot went long, but you can’t even tell from their faces. You girls are such rockstars!
Heather, I just love you. And you know what I mean when I say THANK YOU for letting me post this shoot. You’ll be happy to know I’ve had another inquiry from another bride who wants to do the same thing! You’re fabulous, and such an inspriation.
Best,
Jenna
There is a very real possibility that I’m going to be coming out to San Francisco on October 3rd and I’m wondering if anyone out there is interested in doing a portrait session with me?
I’m trying to gauge interest to figure out how long I can stay. What a lucky girl I am to have this network to pull from. Have I ever told you all how much I love you?
I also have a friend in New York I would like to go play with, and TH said I can go if I can pay for the trip with my photography. Anyone in New York interested in a session with Jenna Cole? Know anyone who you think might be? If I can get enough interest in the weekend of September 12th or 19th I can come and stay <a href=”http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1234″>in this hotel</a> over the weekend for FREE using TH’s Starwood reward points.
Email me, jenna {at} jennacole {dot} com if you do!
