Naugle & Naugle —Jacksonville Family Photographer

I was trying to be clever with the title of this blog since I’m featuring a lawyer. It was the best I could do. LOL.

I’ve known Katherine for a couple of years now. We used to each work in the same building (an office complex, her for a law firm and my studio was in the same building) and about a year later a relative sent her in to have me do photos (in my new space) not knowing that we knew each other.

Right before Christmas she scheduled two sessions, one for her little girl at Halloween (the cute little bee in a previous post) and then her Christmas photos. (I meant to post this before Christmas, but time ran away from me!)

She had her husband dress up like Santa, she like Mrs. Clause and their little one up as a cute little elf. And to make things more interesting, they added a vintage motorcycle with side car–the same year and type used in the Indiana Jones movies!

She says her mom dreamed up the idea when her father bought the motorcycle.

They used one of the shots on their Christmas card and another set of three photos on the back of the card.

Here was the front:

We also did some family shots. Of course with a little one it can sometimes be hard to get them to smile, but after a bit, we managed to get her to play fetch! She loved it!

From Katherine: “As usual your work is beautiful!!!! I love the picture of Miss A looking up at you with her 2 teeth showing. You really do know how to capture her and her blue eyes! Thank you!”

I’m a big supporter of local businesses. When you spend your money with a local business MORE money stays in the local economy. So I wanted everyone to know a little bit about Katherine’s business, you never know when you or someone you know might need a lawyer!

She’s a partner in the firm Naugle & Smith, P.L. and they specialize in estate planning, probate, guardianships, real estate, business, commercial issues, and taxes.

She describes her firm as energetic, with lawyers who have large firm experience and use modern technology to your advantage. Check out their website at www.jaxlawteam.com

Happy New Year! — Jacksonville, Fl Photographer

2010 was a wild and crazy year. And 2011 is definitely looking bright!

On the blogosphere, I wrote 33 posts last year and had aprx. 4,800 viewers. So HELLO out there to all you lurkers, don’t be shy, leave some love! The most popular post of the year, was a personal one.

Wedding Wire picked me as a top wedding photographer for 2009 and 2010.

And I was voted best wedding photographer in Jacksonville by readers of Jacksonville Magazine’s BRIDE.

And the Knot called recently and said I made best of for 2011. So THANK YOU to all my fans and clients. You guys keep me going and keep me smiling.

As many of you know, at the end of 2009 I left my studio space on Chaffee. While looking for a new space I became pregnant and was very sick and stopped looking. Well, a couple of days ago I signed the lease on a NEW office.

This is the BEFORE shot. It is currently being buffed and painted. I’ll post an after photo soon enough. This will be my new meeting space if you have a consultation, it is located at Park and King Street in the Whiteway Corner.

Tanya Hendricks of Southern Charm Events and Katie of Kakes by Katie will also be sharing the space with me. (If you are a non competing vendor looking for office space, please contact me.) We are planning a party/open house for probably Feb. Watch for the info on the blog or on Facebook.

As soon as I am ready I can expand out to have shooting space as well in the same office. But for the time being, I am shooting on location or renting studio space as needed. So if you need studio time, don’t be shy, I can still provide it!

Besides all of your voting and spreading the word about my wedding photography, my husband and I eagerly welcomed our own little girl in September. Quite the surprise since we didn’t think we could get pregnant!

As for resolutions, well, I guess in business everyone is always looking to build on what they have and bring in new clients. I’m looking forward to shooting more weddings, families, and newborns. I’m also looking forward to doing some photography training and learning more and more, as with any career, you should never stop learning.

Most of my other resolutions are personal, the same stuff everyone says–lose 30lbs, eat healthier and all that stuff. So I won’t bore you with those details, lol.

Thank you again to everyone who made 2010 what it is. I hope you and yours have a happy and healthy year!

Three months — Jacksonville children’s photographer

Next week my little girl turns three months old. It’s amazing the changes and how much she has grown in those 3 months.

She’s small, but she’s not near as small as she once was. I miss how tiny she was and how nothing suited her better then sleeping on my chest–and oh that IS heaven. But now, she is a complete wiggle worm and doesn’t nestle quite as nicely.

But with each thing you miss a new thing takes it’s place. You sacrifice one thing for a gain somewhere else.

I took these photos yesterday in her baptism gown in a pram I bought before she was born. I have been envisioning this shoot for while. These were all done in my backyard.

Spencer Amelia wasn’t too thrilled with this shoot. She has started crying until she is picked up and that’s what she wanted. I had to sing numbers to her to get her to crack a smile at some parts.

At one point I managed to get Spencer to fall asleep with a pacifier in her mouth and then I slowly took that out…

Right as I was about to wrap up the shoot, I had to get this next shot. I’ve never seen anyone do anything like it and I really thought it was a fun way to tie in my hobby chicken farm. LOL, that’s right if you didn’t know, I’m a hobby chicken owner. This white chicken is named Trixie, she was sitting on eggs trying to hatch them so I figured she might sit a little calmer then the other girls.

I still don’t have a single photo up in the house of her. But now I’ve got to do it! But how am I supposed to figure out my favorite? I’m debating on the first carriage shot with the sun coming through or the one with the chicken, because it’s quirky!

I took these next two when she was just over a month old and I’ve been debating about getting them blown up on canvas as well.

Thoughts?

Children’s Mini Sessions — Jacksonville Children’s Photographer

I feel so bad, it’s been forever since I’ve updated my blog. Life has been NON stop this year. I had my little girl in September (I’ll try and post new pics of her soon!) and two weeks later had two weddings to shoot and then it’s been families and children ever since!

Here are a couple of photos from some of the children’s photo sessions I’ve done lately.

Meet Briggs. Look at that cute smile!  I fell in love with the vintage styling to his clothes.

The above shot was kind of an outtake, but I loved it. I love how momma and baby boy are having such a good time!

Meet Ms. Abigail, she’s got those to die for blue eyes that I wanted growing up! She did this session in October, right before Halloween.

Love the little bee costume. And I love how in the next picture it looks like she has found her belly.

This is little Grady. I met his momma at a wedding I did in October.

His colorful sweater is so cute.

It looks like he is giving momma the “why’d you stop tickling me” look! And one more, another blue eyed baby!

And she’s here!

A week ago today I went into the hospital to be induced into labor. My little girl was running a week past her due date. After a lengthy delivery, she was born Wed. Sept. 22 at 5:56am.

I introduce to you the newest member of our family:

She weighed in at 7lbs 11 ounces, and 21 inches long.

She really didn’t want to come out of the womb. But it was time for her eviction, lol. And her little fingers and feet still show the tell tale signs of a post date baby–all wrinkly and peeling.

She is a sweet and quiet baby, so far she only cries when something is wrong, and it’s typically pretty easy to figure out what it is.  A complete blessing for new parents!

If you look at the counter top behind her you can see just some of the flowers and gifts that were sent to us. The ones shown came from A Fantasy in Flowers in Mandarin. Not only did my family order flowers from their, but the staff sent flowers and balloons as well. I may have had a dreary view of the parking garage from my room, but the flowers made it much more friendly! Thank you everyone for the flowers and gifts, we got so many compliments on them!

And our first family portrait, the day after Spencer’s birth:

Thank you so much everyone who emailed, posted on Facebook called, etc. After a week of no email, I came back to over 500 emails in my business account! We have been so overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and sincerity.

I hope to post more photos in the near future when I’m healed a little more.

For those that have been asking, I will be resuming normal photo shoots probably at the end of October, after I get a couple of previously booked weddings out of the way first.

Makeup Artist Helps Orphaned Children — Jacksonville, Fl Freelance Photographer & Writer

When I was younger I always wanted to travel and do volunteer work, but it just never came about–college, life and career just got in the way. But makeup artist Paulina Perez, whom I’ve worked with on several occasions is doing just that.

I wrote this story for the Florida Times Union, which ran yesterday. And I am including excerpts as well as some additional information as I hope everyone will donate to this cause or be inspired to do their share somewhere for their own cause!

“Anyone that knows me knows how much I love children,” Perez said. “I can’t wait to have some of my own, so the thought of these kids being left there malnourished and uneducated in an eight by eight room turns my stomach!”

While not everyone needs makeup or a photo shoot, Perez is also reaching out for donations in other ways.

She is asking for donations of books and movies which will be sold and the profits go toward her trip. She has teamed up with www.firstcoastfundraising.com, and has already received several boxes of books and DVDs.

A friend on Facebook, also contacted Perez offering to donate a large bookshelf to the cause. Aspiring children’s illustrator, Amy Dwarika, hand painted flowers on a bookshelf that measures just over five feet tall that her husband built and asked Perez if she wanted it.

“I would love to be able to volunteer like that, but since I can’t at the moment, I wanted to help by doing what I could,” said Dwarika, a Mandarin resident. “So I donated the bookshelf.”

Dwarika works at A Fantasy in Flowers in Mandarin, where the bookshelf is currently on display. A job that also inspires her paintings, including the floral depictions on the bookshelf. Raffle tickets are being sold online.

Raffle tickets for the bookshelf can be purchased through the end of September at www.paulinaperezcharity.packedhouseevents.com. A photo shoot or donations in general may be made by calling Perez at her studio, 735-7499 or through her website, www.paulinaperez.com

I wrote  this story about two months ago and it has been on hold at the Times Union because of time and space constraints.  But it finally ran!

Below are some of the other photos I did for the story, but I haven’t seen the print version,  so I’m unsure if they ran as well.

Paulina and her pup sitting amongst some of the items that were donated to help her raise money.

Amy Dwarika, at A Fantasy in Flowers, painting with her bookshelf in the background.

Paulina and Amy with the bookshelf that is being raffled off. To buy your own ticket go to www.paulinaperezcharity.packedhouseevents.com.

Wedding Albums –Jacksonville, Florida Wedding Photograppher

One of the most common questions we get from brides who are booking a package is the difference between albums. We carry two basic styles which have tons of options.

Our basic album is the coffee table style. Basically, it’s like most any hardback photo book you’d pick up at your local book store–except it’s of you and your wedding day!

All of your wedding images are edited and put into an online gallery for you within 6 weeks of your wedding day. If you ordered an album, we begin work on that as soon as your images are done.

The coffee table albums are our most affordable option and we put about 90% of your images into the album. You simply select your favorite images for the cover (and the wording you want on the cover & spine) and we’ll do the rest.

Most books have the images completely covering the covers, but occasionally if we feel that it won’t quite work for the image we’ll offer up an alternative layout, like the one shown. This particular cover, we pulled colors from the wedding to give it that extra pop and personality.

The coffee table albums are a little more traditional and are typically what parents are used to seeing or remember. Except, back in the olden days images were printed and then hand placed into the album, often with those little corner tabs. Today’s modern flush mount albums have the image directly placed on the page, for a beautiful and high quality effect.

The biggest and easiest difference you will see between the two types of albums is size and weight.

The leather flush mount album on the left has about 30-40 pages, whereas the coffee table album on the right has about 100 pages.

The flush mount albums have thick, lay flat pages. And unlike the coffee table albums, the images are capable of being panoramic across both pages. In the above spread the room photo goes partially over onto the left page.

The standard flush mount album comes with a plain leather cover in your choice of color and leather style and up to two lines of wording imprinted on it. There are upgrades available, like shown, that include a metal or plastic cover that has an image embedded in it.

The leather albums are extremely nice.  With these, a certain number of pages is included in your package and you choose the images you want to go into the album and you may approve the layout prior to print, or add on more pages (for an additional charge).

Many couples choose to have extra albums printed for their parents and/or to keep in their purse (so as not to mess up their nice big album). We can provide a coffee table style version of the leather album at a reduced price when you order your leather album. These often come in packages of two or three.

And finally, a review of the coffee table album…

I have to share this story. The above book that I’ve included in this post is from a summer 2010 wedding we did. I recently got this note from the bride and I thought it was super sweet!

First let me say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE our album! It is absolutely amazing. My mom has been taking hers everywhere with her so everyone she knows has seen it! Even the people at the furniture store where she got her living room furniture have seen it!!