Senior Season Has Begun!!

The senior portrait season has started off with a bang!  I recently shot Aeriell in her home for her college senior portrait - she is graduating from the Elms College this spring.  We had an amazing session, she has a fabulous smile.

As you can see, her dog Tinkerbella wanted in on the photos.  We also coaxed Aierell's sister, Adrionna into a few shots.  Beautiful young women.

Epiphanie!!

Epiphanie!  Quite literally I have had one!  I have discovered the Epiphanie camera bags.  What a marriage of my loves - my camera with me everywhere in a phenomenally stylish bag!  No more finagling a bag with different padding to try to fit camera and protect it!  Here are a couple of shots from our trip to NYC last month.  It was amazingly comfortable to carry all day while we roamed the city, visited colleges and capped the evening with a Broadway show.  I can thank my sister-in-law Kara for sending me the link a few weeks ago - she knows me well....

It's perfect - it fits my camera (Canon 7d) with lens (my favorite Canon 24-105 f/4L IS); my second favorite travel lens (Canon 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 IS); Canon 430EXII speedlight; my Transformer Prime (Android tablet); phone, wallet and various personal items :)   If you haven't discovered them, maybe now is the time!

Baby Love

Recently I had the pleasure of photographing a long standing client's new baby.  What a joy!  Phillip is a very sweet tempered boy, taking in his surroundings and happily moving from basket to hammock to brother's lap!  Max was an amazingly helpful older brother (once he got over his shyness!).  Love to hold a new baby and capture their innocence.

Reflection in the new year...

January is typically a slower month for me and it's nice to have a break after the crazy spring/summer/fall portrait season and the hoopla of the holidays.  I recently came across a photography contest where the prompt word was SELF.  I do not typically enter contests (mostly due to lack of time :) but this prompt stimulated me to give some thought to the word...  I came up with my thoughts on SELF and put together a quick collage on what it means to me. 

SELF - Soul Energy Love Family

Happy New Year!

Phew!  The craziness of the holidays is finally subsiding.  The new year always brings a fresh feeling for me, a time to re-group, look back on last year and plan for the next.  2011 was the busiest ever for JHS Photography.  Dozens of new clients, branching out to more commercial work and happily seeing some familiar faces as clients came back for their 3rd, 4th - even 7th session!  

So far, 2012 promises more of the same.  I am already booking baby sessions for late winter, family portraits in the spring and senior portraits this summer!  On a personal note, my youngest will be graduationg from high school this spring.  Yikes!  Where does the time go.  We have a multitude of events coming up - starting with the Springfield Colleen Contest last weekend.  Meg did not make it to the next round, but we couldn't have been prouder of her poise and presence last Saturday.  All of the contestants were amazing - I definitely do not envy those judges!

22 contestants - 5 from East Longmeadow!

That's all for now - along with planning comes new ideas (learned a new collage technique today - so FAST and EASY!) and a renewed commitment to maintaining my website and blog!  Stay tuned.....

Happy Holidays!

I am again late in posting.  Time flies when you are having fun!  Here are a few holiday cards from this season.  I am finally wrapping up for the year and am more than ready to enjoy the Holidays!

Critters

I cannot believe it has been almost 2 months since my last post!  Where does the time go ?!?  Soon I will be posting some senior portraits - what a phenomenal season!  Over 50 seniors in the past 12 weeks.  But during my many shots in Forest Park, I came across the heron on multiple occasions:

And this little guy was crossing the road one day on my way out:

Forest Park is such a beautiful park - Springfield has done an excellent job in creating an oasis for us all to enjoy!  Happy Fall everyone.