So often, I talk to people about their wedding, their anniversary, a milestone birthday and no album was ever created. Images stay stored on computers or in boxes rarely to be enjoyed.

J. Love Photography had the opportunity to create an album for a couple who renewed their wedding vows after 20 years of marriage recently in  Hawaii. The photographer gave them a CD with loads of images on it and my prospective client had neither the time nor the interest in figuring out what to do with them. I stepped in and created a beautiful album for her of those images, images of mine, and even images she had taken on their trip. She gave it to her husband as a surprise for his birthday a few months later. I scanned images of their original wedding and faintly placed them within the album where they weren’t obvious, but almost gave the effect of a ‘memory’. Their comments about the album I created for them renews my belief that images of important events in our lives with an album to grab and share and relive the moments is worth every penny we pay for them.

You might have seen the album I did similarly for a couple for their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. And I’ve done such albums for things like large family get-togethers, a woman’s journey into feeling beautiful again after having children, a group session of siblings, a baby’s first year, engagement sessions, and on and on. Many people buy a duplicate album for someone close to them as well, especially for weddings and baby’s first year. All of the album examples here are double page spreads.

If you are considering making the investment in professional portraiture, consider making an album of your own or having your photographer create one for you. If you feel like it’s too much extra to invest, many photographers, such as myself, have layaway plans. We understand and want to do what we can so that you can enjoy and share the art we created for you for years to come and not store it in a box or worse yet, never have any record of  the priceless moments in your life at all.

I waited a long time before I agreed to photograph weddings.  Photographing weddings is the most difficult thing we, as photographers, do.  Nothing can be restaged, it is the most important day of a bride and groom’s life, and we go for hours nonstop making sure we don’t miss anything.  The pressure is on!  Finally, the romantic in me gave in and I began photographing weddings year before last.  I’m so glad.   Sharing the moments of such a happy, monumental occasion in the lives of couples with their friends and families is joyful, exhilerating, and makes me feel hopeful and renewed, as silly as that might sound.

Here are a few of my favorite images of Meg and Sean who were wed this summer and held their reception at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.  We began photographing the bride and groom with their families at the bride’s parents’ home in the area. It was a beautiful summer day and their backyard water garden made a perfect backdrop.

We were honored to be part of the very first wedding reception ever held at UMMA.  What an amazing venue.  This sweet couple were so in love and with the backdrops of original art including stained glass made by Tiffany himself, our job was a visual delight from the word go!  The food tasted as wonderful as it looked and was created by Food Art, out of Ann Arbor.  The color theme of fushia and lime were enhanced by fresh flowers from Tom Thompson Flowers in Ann Arbor. 

It was a beautiful summer night in Ann Arbor.  When we were finished, we chattered all the way home about what a great event it was and how fabulous the images were going to be! We hope you think so too.

I just finished Christmas cards for the family and the wedding album is almost done. I will post more soon.

My t-shirt I’m wearing for Help-Portrait Day here in the Ann Arbor area says “A Picture is Worth”… It got me thinking.

There is a reason digital cameras have been one of the top selling gadgets for years now. There is a reason ‘everybody is a photographer’ today. Why? Because our pictures are our visual diaries. They are the witness and our memory of our lives as it goes scorching by us at such a fast pace we have trouble remembering. And then we gaze upon a picture and the moment floods back into our senses; we can smell the scents in that moment, hear the sounds that went on around us, and once again truly FEEL the moment as we had lived it.

It is no wonder we’re all in love with photography! A picture is worth… well that’s entirely up to you. For me, a picture of a treasured moment in my life is priceless.

Here is a list of helpful tips to creating better pictures of the moments in your life worth remembering.

Tip 1:

Get closer! Please. No one cares about the surrounding scenery. We want to see the expressions on people’s faces. Up close. So when you have your loved ones get together, move in close, tell them to ‘hug in’, and capture only the top thirds of them! You’ll love the picture so much more and so will they.

Tip 2:

Don’t just stand there, MOVE! Get on a ladder, get down on the floor. Kids are best photographed at their level. Older people are photographed best from a higher angle so they’re looking up a bit. Try it. Be creative.  Tilt the camera and try an angle, move the camera when people are moving and see if you like the blur. Experiment. Just don’t stand there head on and click the shutter. Please.

Tip 3:

Learn how to use the settings on your camera! Why spend all this money on a camera with all kinds of fancy settings and then put the camera on program and pray the camera does something spectacular! That camera is nothing more than a box! It has absolutely NO IDEA what you are pointing at unless you tell it. So put it on the setting of the little guy running if you are taking action. Put it on the setting of the flower if you’re close up. You’ll be shocked at how much better your pictures will be. And once you get really good at that. Break the rules and change the settings so you learn exactly what they do and your pictures will even get better! I promise.

Tip 4:

Understand your flash! Learn how to control whether the flash is on or off. Your pictures will shock you if you do this! Don’t ruin the holiday lights on your Christmas tree late in the evening when the room is aglow by using flash. And don’t think that because you are standing in the hot sun with it glaring at you that you don’t need flash. The person in front of you would look fabulous if you would use the flash to balance out the sun.

Tip 5:

Candids are good! Don’t just pose your subjects. Catch them doing fun and spontaneous things. If they know you are there, ask them not to look at you and to just keep doing what they were doing. Click away. Remember, tell a story with your camera.

Tip 6:

Learn to use the timer on your camera so you can get in the pictures without looking like all of those FB and iPhone shots of people holding up cameras photographing themselves. They’re dumb. People would like pics of you so much better if you weren’t holding the phone/camera up taking a pic of yourself, trust me.

Tip 7:

Keep snapping. Take a million. Delete ten for every one you save.  Take crazy pics, fun pics, experimental pics.  Just keep snapping.  And then when you get things you like, remember what you did and do it again!  This is how any good photographer learns. Trust me.  I am never sorry for a photograph I took.  But oh if I had a nickel for the photographs I regret that I missed.

Tip 8:

Photos on your hard drive ARE NOT a celebration of your life. I repeat… PHOTOS ON YOUR HARD DRIVE ARE NOT A CELEBRATION OF YOUR LIFE. Pictures are meant to be printed, shared, lived with, stared at, and posted on refrigerators. The price to print them today is so minor that there’s no reason in the world not to get triples printed for you, your kids, your parents, whomever! So quit sending photos electronically to your loved ones. It’s never the same. Post them on your bathroom mirror, your desk, your refrigerator, your mantel. Celebrate your life by sharing it often, not just with people who come to visit but share it often with yourself to remind you of the special moments that come together and create the fabric of who you are.

After all, this is your life you are documenting. And there will never be a finer work of art than you.

What: Ann Arbor Women Artists’ Holiday Arts & Crafts Show

Where: Riverside Art Center at 76 N. Huron Street in Ypsilanti

When:  Saturday, November 20 from 10 to 3 pm

J. Love Photography will be there with greeting cards and a few small fine art prints.  There will be all kinds of holiday treasures to nab for friends and families at affordable prices such as paintings, photography, jewelry, folk art, glass art, ornaments, books and journals, and more. Come early, visit the other cool galleries and shops in Ypsilanti, and have lunch at one of the great spots there. Every time I venture over to Ypsi, I’m always glad I did. As a bonus, the Riverside Art Center has a current exhibit that is worth seeing as well, Life Inspired Art by Steve Allen.

Admission is FREE. Check it all out. Hope to see you there!

WHEN:  Saturday, December 4, 2010 12:00 to 4:00 p.m.

WHERE:  Faith in Action, 603 S. Main St, Chelsea, MI

WHAT: Free portrait sessions for individuals and families in need

Help-Portrait.com was founded by celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart. Help-Portrait is a community of photographers, coming together across the world to use their photography skills to give back to their local community. In their first year, December 2009, more than 41,000 portraits were given by 3400 photographers and over 5000 volunteers were involved. Help-Portrait became a global movement in 543 locations in 42 countries.

On December 4, 2010, photographers around the world will be grabbing their cameras, finding people in need and taking their picture. When the prints are ready, the photographs get delivered. 

12 local photographers in and around Ann Arbor are working together this year in Chelsea and hoping to photograph up to 100 individuals/ families. This is our first year doing this in this area and we are hoping for a great turnout and a well-put together event. If you know of a needy family or individual who would like to be our guest, please have them contact Faith in Action directly to set up an appointment for that day at 734-475-3305.

This is about GIVING the pictures, not taking them. These portraits are not for our portfolios, websites, or for sale. Money isn’t involved here. This holiday season, we have the chance to give a family something they may have never had before—a portrait together.

A little bit about our friends at Faith in Action:

Faith in Action is a community supported, faith-based assistance and resource agency for families and individuals who need a helping hand. It serves the area within the Chelsea and Dexter school districts.  In 2009, over 5,000 separate services were provided that impacted over 14,000 lives with clothing, food, utility shut off prevention, eviction prevention, health care, transportation, and other emergency services. Founded in 1980, Faith in Action is the lead agency providing safety net services in western Washtenaw County. We are so happy to be working with Faith in Action. They are providing us with a place to photograph our guests this year as well as supplying us with the guests themselves, volunteers, and so much more. 

Please watch this video that Help-Portrait shared on You-Tube. Contact me directly if you can give or know someone else who can give the following things we need: makeup artists, hairstylists, either cash donations for us to be able to purchase frames or 1 8×10 and 1 5×7 frame per individual/family. We don’t want to just give them a portrait. We’d like to be able to give them framed portraits. Thank you for spreading the word!