Lots'o headshots

Right before I left for the land of cheese, I was busy building up Vantage's headshots portfolio with some models in the San Diego area. I really like doing headshots--it's a good way for me to change things up from my wedding work, interact with other fun and creative people and, I find, it helps me to create even better portraits during my weddings. Here are some of my favs from those recent sessions:

Helloooooo Wisco!

I'm back in Wisconsin to shoot three weddings for Vantage (check back regularly for those beloved sneak peeks!) until October 20th. I was greeted by my native state last Thursday with chilly temperatures and on and off drizzle/all-out rain. Gotta love Wisconsin weather! But to Wisconsin's credit, the leaves are just starting to turn and hopefully I'll be here to see the fall colors in all their glory--and it really is my favorite time of year here. I was just saying to Michael the other day "The thing about living in San Diego is you don't get those chilly rainy Sunday afternoons that give you the best excuse to just hole up under a blanket and watch old movies all day". I think I'll get my fix (and then some) over these next couple of weeks. :)

It's been great to be able to go to the final Brewers game with dad (Brew Crew, we love you, even if you didn't make it as far as we had hoped....), play gin rummy with mom, see old friends. And ooo, those fish fries and Brandy Old Fashioneds! To top it all off, my baby sis Sara is even going to be in town from New York City next week! But of course I miss Michael and my puppy, Chloe.

So I'm a cheesehead again until the end of October....and I'll enjoy every minute of it. :)

No travel costs for Wisconsin weddings--it's official!

There's a new "policy" I wanted to update y'all on. I've made an official decision at Vantage (hear ye hear ye) that I won't charge travel costs for any couples that book with me in Southern Wisconsin. I benefit greatly from shooting in Wisconsin (I get to see family, eat at my favorite restaurants--The Old Fashioned! The Great Dane!--and get coffee dates with old friends--Fair Trade Coffee! Espresso Royale!) and I want to provide an incentive to future clients to keep me coming out there. And no, my mom didn't put me up to this, although I'm sure she's doing a victory dance at the thought of me flying back to Wisconsin regularly. (Hi mom!)

So pass it on to any of those new engaged couples you were thinking about referring to me--I'm up to it! :)

Self-portrait, puppy-portrait

So as some of you know already, Vantage Photography's website is getting a facelift. Nothing crazy...just updated homepage images, new "about VP" text and pricing information. Which brings me to the title of this post: I also uploaded new "this is who I am" pics. Just thought I'd share with y'all my new self-portrait(s)!

Yes, these really are self-portaits. And, yes, this is me being a goofball and then laughing hysterically at myself. It's not a bad thing to be amused by the stupidest things--you're always laughing!

As I was about to pack up my gear, I noticed Chloe sleeping on the couch. Hmmmm, I thought. This calls for a puppy-portrait! So I picked her up and put her on the chair. Luckily she was a sleepy puppy, so she pretty much sat still for me the whole time. Who knows? Maybe I'll take up pet portraits as my next photography foray!

Kathleen and Mike

I love Kathleen and Mike! You may remember this duo from the e-session I did with them back in the Spring (check it out here). Well, they're baaaaack, and they're married this time! They're such a beautiful couple, clearly in love, and SO much fun, which is pretty obvious from the pics. And admittedly, I haven't teared up at a wedding since the first one I shot and, well, this one got the water works flowing--seriously, I was like "Jena, you CAN'T cry! You're the photographer!". Thanks to the two of you for a fab day and I'm definitely taking you up on that offer for dinner when I'm back in the Madison area!! :)

Ok, so it's not spidey vision...

So I'm a member of the Digital Wedding Forum, a great online resource for professional wedding photographers all over the world. And as all good DWFers do, I procrastinate by surfing the site and learning lots of new photography tips, readings posts, etc. :) I just came across a link for the FM 100 Hue Test, an online test that allows you to test your color vision. Ok, so it's totally dorky, but I actually had FUN doing it! I know, I said it was dorky. And, it turns out, I have 100% PERFECT COLOR VISION! All that really means is that I'm good at color correcting to make sure that photos come out the right colors and you don't look purple-ish (or green-ish or red-ish or whatever-ish) in all the pictures. So hooray for my eyes!!! In my head, as I read the test results, I actually said "Good job, guys, keep up the good work!". Somehow my eyes are male in my female body. Go figure. Lol.

We're New Kids On The Block!!

No, we haven't quit our jobs to become the newest members of my favorite boy band. We're New Kids On The Block because WE MOVED! Michael accepted a marketing position with Intuit (Turbo Tax, Quickbooks, Quicken, etc) in San Diego, California this summer so we picked up our lives and moved clear across the country, puppy and all. We're absolutely thrilled about our new digs and the adventures that await us. The weather is fabulous, the people we've met so far are friendly and we can't wait to explore the surrounding area. Chloe is thrilled, too, because we've shacked up across the street from Balboa Park, the Central Park of San Diego. That means she gets lots of walks with her mom every morning (that's me) and there are plenty of other dogs to sniff and play with.

I'm especially excited about this move because it's allowed me a great excuse to dive in feet first and take the business FULL TIME! That's right, I'm doing this photography gig 24/7. Ok, maybe not that much...but at least 40 hours a week! :) I'm so excited about being able to pursue my passion full time, a chance that a lot of people don't get and/or take. It's been great for me and for my photography, too, since I don't have any other pesky jobs to distract me. I've already scoped out cool places for engagement sessions and have lots of ideas. I also still have a handful of weddings in Wisconsin that I'll be flying back for, so some of you will still see me from time to time. :)

I'm especially excited to be able to take one day a week to dedicate to personal projects, such as documenting, through photography, how life and the concept of family changes when someone makes the decision to go into a nursing home. I even bought my own website (www.jenaolson.com) to show off my work. But don't go there yet...all you'll see are ads from GoDaddy.com, since I've gotten about as far as buying the domain name and that's it. All good things come to those who wait though, right? :)

So a little business plug from me, in light of this big news: we're giving 10% off any package to anyone who books a wedding with us in Southern California during the months of September and October. That's right, 10% off. Tell your friends!

So consider us official Californians--we're here to stay. Yay!!

Marita and Eric are engaged!

Two weeks ago I had the privilege of spending three hours doing an engagement session with Marita and Eric, two very fun, energetic and in-love people. We hit practically all of Madison, from the Olbrich Gardens to the Overture Center to State Street, and I for one had a blast. I'm also psyched because they want me to use their images to create a custom guest book, my first "real" one (as in, not just a sample book). I love these books and think they're one of the greatest ways to customize your wedding and have an amazing keepsake all at the same time. Yay for Marita and Eric! :)

I can't wait to shoot their wedding in October and share with you even more gorgeous photos from that day...

Click here to view their slideshow (oh so fun!!) and scroll down to view images:

Teresa and Eric

Teresa and Eric celebrated their wedding on August 22nd at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee, WI. Everything went smoothly (not a cloud in the sky, even!) and everyone spent the day laughing and enjoying themselves. A highlight of the day was watching one of Eric's groomsmen get everyone (literally everyone) at the wedding onto the dance floor to sing along to Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline". There was clearly a lot of love in these two newly-joined families and Kate (my second shooter) and I were glad to be a part of it. Thanks for choosing Vantage to shoot your wedding! Enjoy the peek at the pictures, you two!

We're home (and we've banned Alitalia from our lives for good).

Ok, so we've been home since last Wednesday but life's been a little crazy since then and I haven't had a chance to sit and write. :)

We had a little snafu (is that how you spell that?) with our flight on the way back, which has led us to declare an official boycott on Alitalia. I highly recommend you do the same thing, to avoid the stuff we had to deal with! Now, this isn't to knock Italy--of course we LOVE it there, but we experienced a seemingly typical Italian travel scenario that hopefully you can avoid. So...we show up at the airport 2 hours before our scheduled flight but, hmmmm, our flight isn't on the departures board. That's odd. After flagging down an Alitalia person, and having that person then ask 2 or 3 more people what the heck was going on, we come to discover that our 2:10pm flight doesn't exist. Yes, there was a 10:10am flight but no 2:10pm flight. And, of course, even if it did exist, we apparently didn't have tickets for it. What?? Well, remember way back to one of our first blog posts when our flight got cancelled due to weather and we had that huge debacle between Alitalia, Delta and STA travel trying to schedule another flight? Eventually we got an Alitalia official to deal with it--by cancelling our entire trip and then rescheduling it. But, as we found out when we were in the airport on our way back, she never scheduled a return flight!! Luckily, they didn't put up a fight and paid for a hotel room and meals for the night as well as a ticket for the first flight out of Rome direct to Chicago the next morning. Well, at least we got another story out of it, right? :)

So that's it for our travel stories (for now). Hopefully you had a good read and enjoyed the images that came with it. Not sure when we'll be able to take a trip like this again (Japan and Southeast Asia are high on the list) but we certainly have enough memories to sustain us until the next trip... :) Ciao!!