I’ve been holding off on this announcement for months trying to figure out just how to do this and make it fully incorporated. I’ve finally figured it out. OK, so I was a little slow on the uptake. It was a busy time and I took forever to *DING* on just what I had to do.
Hey, this is why I say I’m the Jacalyn of all Trades, Master of None. I can do a great many things, but sometimes I miss out on the glaringly obvious. It’s OK. It makes me loveable when I am clueless, right?
At any rate… the big announcement? I’ve changed the hosting of my pictures on my personal site to using SmugMug. Why? Well sure, keeping everything in house is easier and whatnot, but SmugMug offers a great deal of awesomeness that I just had to share.
The best thing? You can order your photos off of SmugMug yourself! So you don’t have to wait for me or compile orders from your extended family. I know that Great Aunt Ida isn’t always the easiest to get a hold off since she’s always off with the Red Hat Ladies. It’s all right. She can do it herself if she wants!
Mostly, I like the ease of their site and the organization. I’ve been loving on them and all their products. I got this beautiful floating mounted enlargement of Janellen’s family and it was absolutely stunning! I printed a photo book for Aaron and Tara’s wedding and loved it. The printers are full pro quality labs and that takes my end product to you up just that extra notch.
So anyway, there you go. Really you won’t notice much change. Blog entries still going up and all that. However my new proof pages (Check them out! I really got them updated!) will now go in super fast. I did my last five jobs in one day! Woot! They can be ready at the same time as the blog entry! Isn’t that great? If you click on the thumbnail, you can open the lightbox to view the pictures larger and at the bottom of the page is a link to the gallery for more viewing/ordering.
So there you go!
That said, I am still dealing with slow upload times. Nothing I can do for that except send complaints to Verizon. I’m trying to upload another job so I can post about it. Meanwhile I’m editing a mammoth job along the lines of Janellen’s family. And yes, I’m also working on uploading more Utah photos so that I can post a few more about that in my personal blog crossover.
This year I’ve already got two weddings in the works. One for sure and one hopeful. What else shall 2010 bring? We can but only wait and see!
And since a photoblog is nothing without a photo… here’s one of the chicken I made at Christmas. Silly photo to post, I know, but I’m very proud of it. I’m *cough cough* 28 *cough cough* and never baked a chicken before!
Hey check it out! I baked a chicken for the first time and it actually looks like something you might want to eat!
Ok, so I’m gonna tell you guys something. You gotta promise not to laugh.
I’m a big fat sap.
Surprised? NO??? What are you saying? OK, so it’s not that much of a secret.
So here it is, dear readers. One of the best things about photographing people is LIFE. Nothing says life like the beauty of a baby bump! And you don’t get more bump than a 38 week pregnant mom!
Claire messaged me while I was on vacation in Utah. We set up an appointment, but had to move it to the day after Christmas. I’m just glad that the baby waited for our photo shoot!
This next picture is pretty cool because Mama is wearing the same maternity shirt her mother wore… that’s pretty cool!
Now you know I can’t help myself… where there’s a cute kid… I’m there with the camera! How cute is this little guy?
If you want to see the slideshow with all the pictures feel free to enjoy!
Thanks Claire, for letting me come and photograph your beautiful baby bump! I hope you enjoy all the photos. I’ll give you the time to contact me because I know you are a little busy right now. And to the little one, welcome to the world! She was born today at 1 AM! Congrats to the whole family! It’s been really great getting to know all of you!
–Have Camera, Will Travel
JS
–PS I have a few more photo jobs from the holidays and I do plan to finish my Utah posts. Hope you’ll stick around!
Monday marked my first full day of Utah and to welcome me, there was loads of snow. Not just a little snow, like I left in Virginia. Loads. It was snowing when my friend’s kids went off to school. We seriously questioned our plans for the day.
Finally we deemed it safe to travel, but it was definitely an adventure!
The first thing on the busy schedule was to take my friend’s son to the doctor’s office for a pre-mission appointment. Like the good loving people we are, we left him to deal with the doctor on his own. Welcome to adulthood! HA!
We went over to the Bountiful Temple grounds nearby. Why? Because it was close and I like to take pictures! The problem? It was Monday! What on EARTH were we thinking? Hello? Monday is set aside by the LDS Church for families. No church activities. Which means? Yup… the Temples are locked up tight.
But that did not deter us! Yes, there’s a large fence around the grounds and it was as closed as closed could be… but we were in Utah. Yay for mountains, right? Well thank goodness for the mountains, we got some great angles by driving around the windy mountain roads!
I don’t know what my deal is, but I seem to travel and then end up with needing to take creative Temple angles. On the bright note, that makes for interesting photos!
After we got back from our travels, I did borrow my friend’s car and went back looking for more shots and managed to get this one as well:
After we checked out the Temple, being sorely disappointed about the closed gates, we tried to find something for me at a local music shop. You see, my husband wants a particular book of guitar music and we can’t find it out here in VA. I thought, well, it’s worth trying out west. After all, what’s the point of going to Mormon-land if you can get Mormon-type-stuff right? Absolutely! And guess what? THEY HAD IT! AWESOME! From now on, I’m just gonna email my poor Utah friend and be like, “Could you go see…” Hehehe. I’m bad. I know!
We picked up my friend’s son again and then raced to get him back to BYU in Provo before his scheduled class. The snow was still falling in Provo and so we had a bit of a white out situation going on. It was crazy bad. Like apparently there are mountains there… guess what? We couldn’t see them AT ALL! Crazy!
We walked around the BYU campus and I managed to find a little something for my kids and a friend back home. Not telling though because hello… that would totally spoil the Christmas fun! Right? Yeah! So you can be left in suspense. Sorry!
So wanna hear my shame? This former dancer, AKA humungo clutz girl, totally fell flat on my back like some sort of cartoon character in the parking lot. Nice, right? Go me! I so rock. This is why you should totally have me out taking pictures. Because I just randomly fall down and will bring much laughter to everyone.
Before leaving Provo, we decided to just try to go see the Provo Temple. I mean, how many times am I going to end up at Provo? In the snow? Right. Besides, we found ways to get photos before. So we could do the same, right? Yeah. Except the snow was crazy and we couldn’t hardly see anything. However, we lucked out. They were plowing the parking lot so I quickly got out and snapped some pictures in the freezing cold with snow-wet pants.
There’s a mountain RIGHT behind that Temple. Squint and look by the flag. You can get a hint of it. I know, crazy white out! Is it even crazier that I thought the white out effect was neat? Yeah, I’m weird. I’m blaming the fact it was around 0 degrees and a blizzard or whatever and I was in wet pants.
The last picture of the day was also at the Provo Temple. There was this statue… I loved it!
Back through the snow, waving at the MTC, we headed north once more. My friend had some piano students coming and then we made popcorn, old school style! I took some photos for her website and she posted about popcorn. Pretty awesome!
That was my first full day in Utah! Fun, right? And for those wondering? Yes, I am such a dork that I kept my eyes peeled and nearly squealed with delight when I saw the Salt Lake Temple! Yay, Temple!
Last week I flew to Utah and back to DC again in a trip that was like no other. I wanted to share about the trip with both words and pictures over the next few entries and hope that you enjoy my adventure as much as I did.
On my photography blog, I use the phrase “Have Camera, Will Travel” because that is at my heart, what I am. I have a bit of wanderlust in me and I blame that on the gypsy that I have become in my adult life. I grew up in the same house for 13 years, the same town for 16, yet over the course of the last 16 years I have lived in 12 homes and two different dorm rooms. Those residences span four states and six towns and a grand total of three different time zones. (OK, so one of those states/towns happens to live in two time zones over the course of the year!)
Often I travel for a reason. Last year I flew to Arizona for a wedding of a friend as a the official photographer. Earlier this year I accompanied my husband on a business trip.
This trip, however, was mostly pleasure though I did take the opportunity to do quite a bit of photography. Well, are you really surprised? This is me we are talking about! And I went to someplace absolutely begging to be photographed!
What I did not expect, however, was record lows. Yikes! And me, without my long johns! What’s a girl to do? Well, I’d traveled some 2,000 miles and held in my hand a much coveted ticket to a concert that went so far beyond “sold out” I don’t even know how to describe it. The cold and the snow was not going to keep me down!
And so my adventure begins.
I should probably preface this story with how I was able to take such a miraculous trip.
It started in August when my husband took a business trip to California. He decided to fly out of the dreaded Dulles because of the ability to get a non-stop flight, drastically cutting down his travel time. Only the airline overbooked the flight. To change his flight, United offered him a free ticket to be used in the next 12 months anywhere on CONUS. We originally planned that I would use this ticket to take a trip with him to Northern California in the future, only that was the last month he was really traveling. By last month, it looked as though we’d be lucky if he’d travel before the ticket expired.
Enter Facebook. I saw the announcement of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s annual Christmas Concert and nearly died instantly. Natalie Cole and David McCullough? Are you KIDDING me? Maybe it’s the many years of dance, I don’t know. I happen to love Nat King Cole as well as his daughter Natalie Cole. In my eyes, they are royalty in the music biz. As for David McCullough, his Pulitzer Prize speaks for itself. You combine that with America’s Choir and you have set yourself up for one heck of a show.
The only downfall is that Salt Lake City is a rather far haul and tickets were going like hotcakes. So many requests for tickets flooded in that a lottery system was put into place to award tickets. I wasn’t even fool enough to try, living out in DC.
I did, however, send an email to a friend, mostly because I was insanely jealous of her proximity to said concert among other things. And miracle of miracles? A ticket magically appeared for me. I’m not questioning it, I’m only saying a big huge thank you to the generosity of her and her husband. And her family.
My husband told me to use the free airline ticket we had, since this was such an amazing opportunity and the California idea seriously did not look like a viable possibility.
And then I found out… I could see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir not once, but twice! My friends also had a ticket for the annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, held the first Sunday of December.
My knees went weak. The closest I’ve ever been to Utah was when I went to the Grand Canyon – Arizona Side. I’ve never actually seen a member of the First Presidency live and in person. I know that President Thomas S Monson is the Prophet of God with ever fiber of my being, and I couldn’t believe I was about to be in the same room with him. (Breathing his air!!! HAHA, I love you Elder Bednar! Sorry, that was just screaming at me to be said after last General Conference!)
I packed my bags, I hugged my family, and I boarded my airplane. And tragedy hit. I would have thought the early snow storm the day before might hamper us, but no, the tarmac was clear as could be. The plane taxied out to the runway, and then we stopped. Turns out some paperwork for maintenance performed prior to our boarding had not been properly filed. So we had to wait. And wait. And wait. For an hour we sat on the tarmac at National for our paperwork.
Here’s a photo of my plane just before we boarded it.
Many on the airplane had tight connections in Chicago, our destination. I was one of them. There were two flights that passengers were concerned about before mine. We didn’t make it in time. The flight taking off five minutes before mine as well as my flight to SLC were in another Terminal from our landing gate. Thankfully, passengers without the tight clock let us deplane first and I took off running with my heavy bags.
I ran from the middle of the B concourse on Terminal 1 around a couple of turns and all the way to the end of Terminal 2 to Gate F12. Bad lungs, bad knee, heavy bags, and I dodged people left and right. I made it in 10 minutes, lungs burning and unable to breathe. I arrived at 11:59 for a 12:05 flight. They’d shut the doors to the jetway just four minutes before I got there. They could do nothing for me and so I was forced to watch my flight to SLC taxi away while being informed that they’d gone ahead and rescheduled me on a 5:45 flight to SLC.
A 5:45 Central Time flight due in at 8:15 Mountain Time was not going to aid me in getting to an event starting at 6:00 Mountain. I wanted to cry, only I couldn’t even breathe.
The gate attendant told me to try customer service to see if I could fly any earlier so I trudged all the way back to the other end of Terminal 2 where I was greeted by the rudest person I have had the displeasure of conversing with while traveling. She acted as though I was not only inconveniencing her, but as though it were my fault I missed my flight. She then couldn’t seem to understand why the 5:45 flight wasn’t good enough and I might not *enjoy* an almost 6 hour layover at their wonderful not-so-little airport. She also informed me there was absolutely nothing she could do. 5:45 it was.
Hey, Mr United Breaks Guitars? I’m with you. United + Chicago = Bad.
Even more fun, Chicago is a major hub but not on the free Google wi-fi for the holidays. So mostly I texted everyone I knew updating them on my tragic tale. Thankfully I have loads of friends who found ways to cheer me up. To all my friends – I love you. Thanks for being there to entertain me and get me through the long wait!
As a funny side note, apparently there was a great lay-over story told at the Devotional. Rather ironic, right? Thank goodness I’d had the foresight to set it to record in case my family flaked on when it aired. (Which they did.) So I have it ready to watch. I didn’t have to *really* miss it.
And really? I don’t need to be in the same room with him to know… Thomas S. Monson is the leader of our Church, a great man, and super inspirational. I love him with all my heart and hope that some day I can grow up to be even half the person he is.
But still – here’s a photo of my ticket to the awesome Christmas Devotional I did not get to attend:
My 5:45 flight wasn’t without its little dramas, either. Oh no. We changed gates, had issues getting gate personnel, so on and so forth. Boarding did not even start until 5:45! I know, if only that had been the earlier flight, right? Oh well. We got on and took off and made great time. I arrived in Salt Lake City to bitter cold temperatures, snow, and great friends at the airport who filled me in on the Devotional.
I even got to see Temple Square from the highway. Not quite as good as being there, but still pretty awesome! And, they gave me my ticket for my scrapbook so I can always remember the time I *almost* got to go to the Devotional.
Because really, I love General Conference, but my heart is always with Christmas. I love Christmas and the Christmas Devotional is my favourite event of the year. It really sets off the season for me, just like watching Santa come in at the end of the Macy’s Parade.
I just wanted to let you know I am home from Utah and plan to share with you all some really great photos! Prepare for a week’s worth of blog posts detailing my exciting adventures!
I had a blast and just want to thank my friends in Utah for putting up with me! Especially because they let me photo-geek-out!
If you just cannot wait another minute to see photos by me, go check out my good friend over at My New Old School and be taught by the lovely Damsel in Dis Dress!
Not that you can see how lovely she is… I was informed no face shots! Crying shame because she’s a real beauty! Sweet as anything, too! Plus, she’s smart! I totally learned how to make shortbread because of her!
Check out my site later for entry one in my Great Utah Escape! (Yeah, I’m the girl who escapes TO Utah! Who knew?)
I’m such a slacker! I gave this family the link to their photos, but I never posted here! It’s been a super busy time for me. November is my crazy “Try to write a novel in 30 days” time and so I spend a lot of time doing that and tend to fall off the net-o-sphere. Bad me!
So while the family has seen the photos, I never posted them here. You guys need to seriously flog me with a wet noodle or something!
You remember that precious Baby Lillian from a few posts back? Yeah she’s a dream. I just want to snuggle on that baby every time I see her!
Well, her parents invited me to the Christening which is such an important day in a baby’s life as well as for Mom and Dad. What an honour to be invited to share in something so beautiful!
Baby Lillian is Catholic, and the baptisms are done as infants and usually involving having the holy water poured onto them. However, at Baby Lillian’s church, there’s this beautiful font styled after one of the original fonts of the early Church. You can choose to have your infant sprinkled with the water or getting immersed.
Baby Lillian got an immersion baptism and the reaction from everyone was audible. It was so sweet and wonderful! She shared the event with family and friends, and two little babies also getting baptized!
Me? I’m just glad I got to be there! And, I got to photograph it as well!
Thank you for letting me share in Baby Lilian’s beautiful and special day! She’s just an absolutely beautiful baby! Sorry I never posted this until now!
–Have Camera, Will Travel (I’m in Utah right now!)
JS
I come from a family with a long line of military service. I went on to marry a marine who also has a strong military history in his family. His father and brother have also served as volunteer firemen. I’ve been friends with EMT’s as well as law enforcement officers.
To say I have a strong love for our men and women in uniform that do their jobs to protect and serve would be an understatement.
It doesn’t matter what route you go, it’s a dangerous job and one I am thankful you work so hard at. To all of our many men and women in uniform – Thank you for your unselfish willingness to protect all of us.
You might remember the cute kids wearing dad’s uniforms from earlier this summer? Who could forget them! Well, their father needed a portrait so along I came with my camera!
Getting to know Charlie was a true delight. He’s a funny guy and very generous. I’m proud to know him and I only hope that my pictures make him happy.
Because of the nature of Charlie’s job, I went the serious portrait route. I’m more of a natural photographer, but some things just call for a more formal and classical route. Here’s a peek at his photoshoot!
Charlie, thanks for letting me photograph you. But really? Thank you for working for all of us!
To everyone who is a fan/client. I have some work, I know I owe stuff to be given out as well as to post. I have upgraded my entire system and the learning curve has taken me some time. I’m DREADFULLY sorry. But I think I have it all worked out.
Your stuff is coming. New posts are coming. I promise. But changing from Winblows to Mac has taken a long time. (To the tune of a 1 gig thumb drive to move all my picture files. Do you know how freaking big picture files are? Stupid Windows not wanting to play nice. GAH)
And I’m still working on the upload to the new backend for ordering photos straight from the site. That’s also taking time because… well… photos are large files. LOL
Now that said, check this out! My husband took some of our photos of our family and made this rocking awesome video! *GRINS*
Because? I want to. And because it is pretty. Most of all, I do have contacts there who have made it seem as though I am welcome.
And I’ve always wanted to photograph the Salt Lake Temple! (And go inside. What can I say, I’m a Temple Addict!)
And if I happen to run across the MoTab? Awesome! I promise not to act like a foolish fangirl. (Seriously, can those people sing or what? *SWOOON*)
My husband and I are looking at a way to make this possible. I have one month to try to make it happen. This would involve planning the days to be gone, arranging for help with the family here (he is more than willing to do what it takes), and then — eeek — the finances! The plane ticket, the food, the everything.
Can I make it work? I might just be able to!
But hey, I’m the “Have camera, will travel” girl! I’d rather wear the same two outfits for a week and wash them in the bathroom sink if it means having my camera with me. HAHA, yes I’m that crazy! (Actually, I’m also a great packer. Thank goodness!) I know I have some Utah fans. (Goodness knows why! I say, “It’s good to have friends!!”)
Whatcha think? Anyone want me to come out for a quickie visit for a few days? Hey if you want photos, I’ll have the camera.
Not only that but there’s all those free hugs you get when you are around me! (I always give free hugs! I’m a believer in free hugs!)
No post is complete without a photo. So I’d like to show you my Christmas photo of the DC Temple. Don’t you think it is just asking for a friend? Like a Christmas photo of Salt Lake? Yeah, I totally agree!
Now that I’ve got photo releases on all these kids, I wanted to share with you what happened this summer.
My church has an annual conference in the summer for teenagers ages 14-18. It’s a great experience and it’s for all the youth in an area. We have something like 11 congregations in my town, so that’s a lot of kids! This year the theme was “Let it Shine – ‘09″ and was about talents done by way of putting on a play.
I grew up on the stage. I studied classical ballet from the time I was 5 until I was 18. I also studied other forms of dance and performed in plays. Of course, I never seem to get tapped for that any more when the rare opportunities come up. I guess people have forgotten now. My husband gets a call inviting him to particpate in an acapella group to entertain the youth and so I sent in with him the offer of whatever help I could give.
Turns out, I got to help out. I spent the entire conference with the youth taking photos to document the event. What a treat for me to watch as the teens learned how to put together a play, let their talents shine forth, have a lot of fun, and worship God all at the same time. It was my pleasure and my honour to take part in this event, which I did for free. No amount of money could ever equal the joy from the experience and the look on the faces of those teens when they saw the slideshow I put together.
Here’s where the miracle came in for me. What a time to build my own testimony in a way I never expected. I just wanted to be of good use. In a chance conversation with the Stake President (for the non-LDS out there a stake is a group of congregations in an area…), I was asked how I handled heights.
Here’s the thing. In theory I love heights. I’d love to climb Everest, Nothing is cooler than to look out over a cityscape from a tall building, I think going to the top of the Empire States Building or the Eiffel Tower would be absolutely awesome. My favourite mode of travel is the airplane and I love seeing all the squares of land. In theory. The problem is I have a hideous case of vertigo. I can’t even get remotely close to the railing in a mall. I have issues going down the stairs of my house. The world spins and my stomach starts flipping and flopping. It is very disorienting. It’s pretty bad when you can’t even change a lightbulb because standing on the chair makes you feel like you might keel over at any minute. (No you crackheads, I’m not standing on rolly chairs! Sheesh! I’m not the brightest gal around but I know that much!)
I explained this problem to the Stake President. He had an idea to get the group shot I was hoping to take by putting me in this lift. The stage is in the gym of the church which has those super vaulted ceilings since it is also a basketball court. They have a lift to go all the way up so they can change lightbulbs and things. Obviously, when you are talking something like a group of 150 people, aerial is best if you want to get all the faces.
Well, I told him I’d try it but no promises. If I got up in that lift and the world started spinning, forget it. But, I’d try. It wouldn’t hurt me. After all I trusted they wouldn’t put me in actual harm’s way, regardless of what my vertigo might do to me.
Saturday came and they brought in this one woman bucket lift. I got a crash course in how to use it. The dress rehearsal began, and even though the group photo was coming at the end, I wanted to try it out before we got there so we could have time for alternate plans.
Imagine my surprise when there was no vertigo! Nothing. In fact it was so great, I spent the entire two hours of dress rehearsal in that lift taking photographs. I threw out the ones from before because these were far superior! Standing in a bucket was hard on my knees and back, trashed from the aforementioned dancing and whatnot, but even that was far less painful than one could ever hope and pray for.
And the group shot? Well you tell me how it turned out:
Amazing. That is probably my favourite photo I have ever taken. And that comment about “pray for”? Well I know that is what it was. I know that the Stake President really wanted that photo and I have no doubt some prayers were said for me. I felt them. I’ve never experienced the sort of calm like I felt then. I can tell you a few weeks later in the balcony of another church shooting a wedding? Definitely could have used that peace because my not so good friend Vertigo was back in full force. Darn.
It was good while it lasted.
I am so grateful that I could shoot this event, but I’m most grateful for this group photo. It is nice to have that sort of experience to make you learn that trusting in God can be a good thing. That doing a simple act of service can take you above and beyond what you are normally capable of. That the power of prayer works.
Thank you, youth of my Stake. You are a great bunch of teens and I enjoyed hanging out with you for three days. Remember this weekend and all you learned. And remember that the Lord really does answer prayers and help you in ways that you can never even be able to guess about.
–Have Camera, Will Travel
JS
P.S. If you are a youth/parent and want a copy of this photo printed, I have opened up printing orders on this photograph. The format size is for multiples of 4×6 (to make it easy that’s like: 8×12 – 12×18 – 16×24, etc). If you try to get something other than that, you will have a hard time because of the dimensions. Contact me for help. The only reason I mention this is because people have asked for copies of it. It will ship right to your front door. Is it bad I’m thinking I want this gallery wrapped for my house? I don’t even have kids in there! LOL. Click here to order.
Is it bad I’m thinking I want this gallery wrapped for my house? I don’t even have kids in there! LOL. 
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