Amanda emailed me some feedback regarding the time we spent together:

i stumbled upon jenna’s blog late one night and instantly fell in love with her style and beautiful images. i decided to e-mail her and see if she would be up for a mentoring type session where i could shadow her and just observer her “in action”. i didn’t know if i would hear anything back from her {especially since it was around the time of her little one’s arrival}, but to my surprise, she got back to me and was up for it! i was ecstatic! we met up early one morning for a few hours in arlington and i can’t even begin to tell you how amazing she is. i am a very visual learner, so i learned so much just watching her shoot & her interaction with the model. she instantly puts you at ease and you feel like you’ve known her forever. she made sure to take time and answer any questions i had about anything; lensese, camera settings, business. she even gave me a few awesome tips and some of her own advice. she has so much knowlede and experience, i loved getting to pick her brain a bit! i really learned so much and this experience with jenna was priceless, it really helped me grow as a photographer and changed the way i shoot. amanda onstott

So kind, thanks Amanda! Here is a photo she took, I hope she won’t mine me sharing it here!

I’m going to be doing a little mini workshop of sorts with some friends this weekend, a sort of “momtog” lesson for the women I’m friends with who have dSLRs and are wanting to learn how to really get the most out of their cameras. Depending on the feedback I get back from them I may consider making them a regular occurrence for a small fee, available to dSLR users who just want to better understand how to utilize the fancy equipment they’ve invested in. If you are in Chicago or Dallas and would be interested in such a thing please email me!

As soon as I knew my Christmas flight plans I contacted two of my cousins and asked if they would be interested in doing a photo shoot with me. I haven’t had anyone turn down the offer for free photos yet, so I wasn’t surprised when they said yes. Younger children aren’t currently my thing, but I did love working with these teenagers! They were silly and bright and happy and fun, and I loved watching them interact with each other and with the camera. I enjoy living in Dallas but I do get a little sad when I think about missing out on the birthdays, proms, and graduations of my favorite cousins. I’m still waiting for them to come visit me down here in Texas! (Hint hint girls.)

This is Keestan, she’s the older sister.

And this is Tanaya, the baby of the family. They have 3 other siblings, but the oldest is away at college and the other two are boys and I didn’t think they would get very excited about dressing up for a photo shoot so I let them enjoy their Christmas break in their own way.

This super cute girl isn’t my cousin, but after a few hours spent with Lindy I can see why she is BFF with Keestan.

I really hope that all teenage girls have at least one photo like this with their best friend. Some may call it cheesy, I like to think of it as “classic”.

Sisters. Aren’t they cute?

Saassafrass!

Due to the rain we ended up taking these photos in my dad’s onion packing shed. It’s a site my family has utilized for photo shoots several times now!

My family calls this expression the “Andersen scowl”. If you give me reason to, I can whip this face out as well.

I convinced these girls to wade through puddles, in Washington State, in the middle of winter. They were excellent models, as it was freezing and they didn’t let it show at all.

THAT SHOT!

This one makes me so happy.

We ended on the train tracks, using coats with furry hoods as “props”. I’m now officially in love with photographing furry hoods. I don’t see many of them in Dallas!

I hope I get the chance to work with these girls again in the future. Love you ladies!

Best,

Jenna

It wasn’t until we walked into LoveCafe for the cupcakes that I put two and two together and realized that Nole’s wedding played a large part in inspiring my own. I saw her wedding photos on Punam Bean’s blog and fell in love with her cake buffet and had to have it for myself. It was fun to meet someone I had admired for so long!

We did these portraits so Nole would have something to use for headshots, for her blog and such. I thought her outfit choice was perfect as I loved the bright pop of color.

Bringing your significant other along to your portrait session is a good idea as it results in expressions like this one!

Nole’s blog focuses on paper goods and so she brought some props along to incorporate into some of the shots.

THAT SHOT!

Look at those perfect lips and the way her lovely red hair glows in the sun. I’m experiencing a bit of jealousy I admit.

Nole is currently using this shot as her Twitter icon and I think it looks fantastic. I love when she tweets because it’s so fun to see my photo pop up next to her name!

Thanks for working with me Nole. I won’t be forgetting you or those cupcakes for a long time to come.
Best,

Jenna

“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