| Another Rainy Day Image |

My friend Gina says this one makes her want to go kiss someone in the rain :)

| Dog Days of Summer! |

Save 50% off your session fee for a session booked from August 1-30. I'm already booked for the 29th and 30th, but have 7 other days free that month to chose from! Don't miss out on this great deal! Contact me at specials@jensportraits.com .

A Sneak Peek Play

( click to see larger image)

This is sort of a sneak peek for one of my Extreme Bridal couples (you might recognize them as my October '07 wedding couple), and also a play with texture. I love how you can see the city behind them through the glass.

I was really happy when this couple called me to do another session. Their wedding had been in October and it had been cold and rainy all week before their wedding and so the ground was wet and her dress was a little light for the weather, which made it a little hard to get some good stuff, so it was nice to get it out into the world when it was warm again and we didn't have to keep it totally clean!

This was taken in downtown St. Paul by the Capitol on one of the bridges that go over 35E.

| Gotta love color! |

The last wedding I shot had such wonderful color! Just yummy!

| Amy & Ed |

This cute couple found me through one of my brides last year (Thanks Mara!), and I'm so glad they did! They just celebrated their 3rd wedding anniversary last month and wanted some fresh relationship pictures. I had a lot of fun planning for and carrying out their session.

Their session was done mostly down on Grand Ave. in St. Paul. Weather seemed to be threatening this session at the beginning of the day, we had some good downpours and the storm spouted off some tornado activity east of us, but thankfully the weather cleared up just in time for their session, and we made some good use of a puddle!

We ended the evening down by the train tracks and a brightly colored wall.

Thanks you two for a great evening! Hope you enjoy your sneak peek, I couldn't resist playing with them while they uploaded! I can't wait to finish working on your session and share it with you.

(click on image to see larger version)

| Wondering where your sneak peeks are? |

I've been promising for a few weeks to some of you, your sneak peeks.
The only explanation I have for you at this point is that my computer crashed. Don't worry about your images, I'm responsible and have backed them up on not only an external hard drive but also disks.

I've purchased another computer to help me work on some pictures while the other computer is at the computer emergency room, however this new computer is running a different system, and so I had to purchase new editing software, which should be here by Saturday, according to the email. After finding downloads to replace all my key extras in it (such as conversions and brushes) I will be back in business again, I'm guessing it will take about a week. At this point, with Adobe Lightroom, I can only do light editing, no switching heads around can be done with it.

But the whole thing has put a wrench in my work flow and caused some serious delays and I apologize to each of you. If any of you are in urgent need of your images, let me know and I can at least get basic edited images to you asap.

| Why Custom Photography? |

Today I came across a very well written article that explains much better what I tried to explain in an earlier post about all the things that go into being the type of photographer that I am. The author allows other photographers like me to use her article to help us educate customers in our areas.
I think quite often we lose sight of just exactly what goes into our session with a custom photographer, and why it costs so much more than, say, portraits at Sears. Sometimes it is easy to loose sight of the fact that it's not just a piece of paper we are purchasing.

I'd like to direct all of my clients and potential clients to her article here:

http://www.professionalchildphotographer.com/information/

Thank you for taking the time to read it, and understand better why using a custom photographer is unique and worth your time and money.

| Photo Walk Update |

Something came up for the July's date and I can't get out of it.

So I'm going to plan the first one to start in August, the fourth week.

What works best for those of you who would like to join in if you can? Tuesday or Thursday?

I'm going to start with an inner-city one and then branch out for the second one.

I think the first one will be in the Old Saint Anthony Business District. I found a map of it and it look s like there's a variety of stuff from a park to a church to old buildings.

If anyone has a place they've been wanting to play with their camera at mention it to me and I'll put it on the list :)

jennifer@jensportraits.com

|Sneak Peek |

Tesa and Joel were married on June 21 at Kordiak Park in Columbia Heights. I normally would have a sneak peek out for them long before now, if not for the holiday and a friend's passing away putting me into a funk.

They had put together a beautiful wedding and reception, and sadly enough not all of the vendors they relied on came through for them as expected (even I experienced major camera issues). Their reception at upscale The Seasons at Bunker Hills, however turned out marvelous! Delicious food, great music, dancing and toasts. It was the perfect ending to a day that started out rough.

I think that it could be a good omen for them. It was cold and wet on my June 19, 1993 wedding day, and I think it brought us all kinds of luck.

I look forward to showing them the rest of their gallery soon!