I’ve just written my first ever post on our brand new blog. Which, inevitably means that this will be my last post ever on this one.
To keep up to date with us and for new posts, please head on over to our new home at http://jennstarkphotographers.com. Can’t wait to see you there.
This was my first blog ever, so it’s kind of sad to leave. But it’s time. Why do I feel like I’m breaking up with somebody right now???
See you over at our new blog!
- Jenn xx
Oh we have some big changes going on around here. I feel like I’m bursting at the seams. Like I need to tell somebody. So I’ll tell you.
In between working on a weddings and engagement sessions, meeting with our wonderful clients, nursing a gaping cut on my heel which has left me hobbling around and spending way more time in the emergency room than anybody should ever have to endure (yes, there’s a story there), Dave and I have been taking a serious look at our business and we’re making some huge plans and goals that have got us all excited and bursting at the seams. Among a lot of other things, one of the most tangible changes we knew we had to put in place after our wonderful talk with this couple, was to this thing right here: our blog.
WordPress and its “so easy even Jenn can figure it out” templates to build a blog have been so wonderful to me. This little blog has served me so well, but I’ve been working away any spare moment I get at a brand new, shiny, still-got-that-new-car-smell blog. It’ll have bigger images, a gallery of our work, a brand new logo and tons of other things that I just can’t wait for you to see. I kinda feel like a little kid taking her training wheels of her bicycle for the first time. Watch out for our “big girl” blog, due to hit the internets any day now! Ooooh I can’t wait!
Oh, and the story: I seem to manage to injure myself while doing the most “undangerous” things you can imagine, like taking photos. I mean, it’s not like being a photographer is like being an athlete in a contact sport or working on a construction site with scary pieces of demolition equipment. Still. I manage to find a way. Like the other day while we were out at an engagement shoot. It wasn’t until we were finished that I realized I had cut myself on a rock while on the beach. And I don’t mean a nice, small little nick. I’m talking a huge gash right across the heel of my left foot. Thus the number of hours spent at the hospital. It’s wasn’t too bad though. Dave came with me and we passed the time playing twenty questions, trying to guess what person we were each thinking of. Took Dave forever to guess Santa Claus. I think I messed with his head when I answered the question “Is your person dead or alive” and I said “…both” :)
At least the beach was worth it. And here’s a sneak peek at our new branding that I’ve been working away at – I think it’s finally just right.
If you head over there now, you’ll see that our new home at http://jennstarkphotographers.com is currently under construction – I’ll let you know when it’s ready!
Without her, I wouldn’t be here today. And I mean that in more ways than just the obvious.
She first landed in Toronto at eighteen years old to work as a live-in nanny (think Mary Poppins…or Maria/Sound of Music) and a few years later, married and with a young daughter (that would be me), moved here permanently to live and work and raise her family. She was one of those adventurous young people and I think has maybe instilled a bit of that spirit within me. And today is her birthday.
So here’s wishing this wonderful woman that I have the honour of calling mother and friend a very happy day today!
Love you……xox
Dear Brianna & Ewan,
Dave and I feel so lucky, inspired, grateful, encouraged and overwhelmed by our time together yesterday. You two are both such lovely, talented, and smart people. Yes, so smart. Smart even on few hours of sleep and while losing your voice and going through an entire packet of fisherman’s friends. We just can’t thank you enough for everything. We learned so much.
We knew back when I sent that first email that booking a mentor session with you guys would start something big in our lives. We knew it would force us to let go of our fear and stretch us outside our comfort zone. We knew it would and it did and still I’m not sure we were quite ready.
We spent the whole drive home just talking…we stopped for a bite to eat and spent all of dinner just talking…then talked some more this morning. It’s so much to take in, but we’ve started to take what we’ve learned, how it applies to us, and think about what our next steps need to be. I think big changes are on the way. We are so excited and can’t wait for this next chapter of our business. Thank you so much for being a part of it.
I’d like to take a bit more time to write up some more thoughts about our day together but it may take me a few days to get my thoughts organized. But just know that we came away from the experience feeling very full, like after a huge holiday meal – completely stuffed, a little bit drowsy, immensely happy :)
Love,
Dave & Jenn
PS – we owe you a dinner sometime!
When I first started my blog I wanted to be one of those bloggers who blogged a lot. Maybe even every day. I wanted my blog to be a sort of record of my personal journey into photography; like a diary I could look back on. I wanted it to be filled with photos, yes, lots and lots of photos; but I also wanted it to be filled with stories – of couples in love, of wedding day celebrations, but also filled with stories of just the plain old everyday, of what I was up to and what I was thinking and feeling and doing. I feel like I used to do that well but that lately well to put it simply, I’ve found myself just really busy and other things have come first. And I wondered if really, at the end of the day, anybody really cared.
Funny enough though it’s often the more personal posts that I get the most feedback from and I want to get back into the habit of doing more of them. This past week has been a bit of a blur as I’ve tried to get on with all the normal everyday stuff while having hurt my back quite badly a few days ago. I’ve had problems with my back for pretty much as long as I can remember but every now and then something just tweaks. Yes, yes – I will go to the doctor. But for now I am armed with a bottle of back pain caplets and a very supportive husband and am plowing through a weekend of photo shoots with amazing people. Got one more later today and I really can’t wait for this one.
In other news I am so so excited to be heading up to London tomorrow to attend a mentor session with an amazing husband + wife team, photographers and business owners Brianna + Ewan! If you haven’t yet discovered their blog, you’re in for a treat. I can’t wait to learn and laugh with them, and I’m pretty sure I might just fill an entire notebook full of notes. And you can bet I’ll be giving a full review of my experience back here on the blog later this week.
I’m going to leave you with this frame from a shoot we did yesterday afternoon. I found new parents Jon + Andie in the middle of our family shoot lying out on the grass enjoying just a few seconds alone. They’ve just adopted the two cutest kids and I can’t wait to show you the rest of their beautiful family. But I just love this one: a rare, peaceful moment in a world of crazyness. Makes me want to just lie down and take a breath.
I always love hanging out with this girl – we first met while I was going to teacher’s college at a time when I don’t think either of us thought that we’d one day be running our own photography businesses…but fast forward a few years and here we are doing exactly that. As a little mini-celebration of Kendel just being finished her own year of teacher’s college, we met up in Niagara-on-the-Lake a few days ago for a chat, a coffee, a stroll, and of course some photos.
I don’t think I can stress how important it has been for me to actually be the one on the other side of the camera and experience having my photograph taken. To experience the indecision of picking out the right outfit. Of stressing out about the zit on my face. Worrying as I’m standing there if I look alright or just plain awkward. It reminds me of my goal as a photographer to make people feel comfortable and maybe even fabulous about having their photo taken. Kendel does that really well, and I realized after the first few shots that everything was going to be ok and maybe even fabulous and we had a ball.
We roamed around the main street getting the most wonderful stares from retirees out for the day, both with our cameras in hand, taking turns shooting each other, flipping through each others’ images, getting inspired, trying a few more shots…then we ate yummy food and drank hot drinks and chatted photography, business, weddings, and life. I always get so much out of our talks. Kendel wore the cutest retro outfit and brought her collection of vintage cameras to play around with and…well, why I don’t I let you take a look for yourself? Here are a few of the shots that I got from our afternoon out…Kendel, you are gorgeous and amazing…when can we do this again?? xx
The weather has been super fickle lately and has resulted in numerous shoots to be rescheduled and even (begrudgingly) digging out the winter jacket from the back of the closet. Then we get teased with gorgeous sunsets like this one last night…Mr Sun, can we be expecting to see just a little bit more of you soon? Please?
Sometimes people are surprised when I suggest we do their photos close to sunset. This is why I suggest we do their photos close to sunset.
Yesterday I finished up an edit of a session I was so proud of. I had a huge conversation via email with a bride-to-be who is days away from her wedding that I can’t wait to photograph. I met with a couple who plan on getting married under a huge tent and they booked us for their wedding later this summer. I looked at my calendar for the month of May and it looks quite full, with lots of neon streaks of highlighter everywhere, and it makes me excited and happy and nervous all at the same time and like I’m standing here on the brink of something really good; something that I’ve been waiting for. It hasn’t always been easy and there have been many weeks and months that have come and gone where I’ve wondered how this was all going to turn out. But now I feel like I’ve actually gotten somewhere, that I’ve made it to where I only hoped to be during those long weeks and months that went before. It feels like I’m standing on the brink of a dream that I think and hope might only get bigger and better.
It’s all been worth it.
I’ve shot one wedding so far this year but I feel like my actual season of weddings kicks off next weekend. I’ve got more brides and grooms than I could have ever imagined who’s weddings I’ll be sharing on here between now and November and I simply cannot wait to get started.
Watch this space.
It’s easy to take the plates into the living room and set them down on the coffee table in front of the television. The little half table we call a dining table that we have pushed up under the window of our minuscule kitchen makes it even easier. It’s easy to fall into a routine. It’s easy not to be able to see any other ways, to just go about every day in the same way. It’s also easy to decide to make a change.
Dave and I used to always eat dinner at the table together, I mean always. And writing this makes me think of the old Seinfeld episode where Kramer tells Jerry that when you’re married you eat dinner together at the table and ask each other “and how was your day? What did you do today? I don’t know, what did you do today?” but I swear it was never like that. Over the past few months we’ve fallen into the routine of eating in front of the TV, crouched over our plates, flipping channels and wondering “what’s on?” Our kitchen sucks, but we’re trying to make ourselves work with it. Last night we made a really simple meal that was just looked too pretty to take into the living room, so we sat at the dining table and chewed long and slowly and it was divine.
Chicken breast stuffed with ricotta, parmesan and fresh basil over tomatoes and some homemade garlic bread. It was a feast. You should try it.
Dave and I were recently out at an engagement shoot and we picked a spot that he and I have been to many times before for a wander around that we thought would be a perfect location to bring one of our couples to. Yeah, us and about a gazillion other photographers with their couples. Ha ha.
Ok, so it wasn’t a gazillion, it was maybe three or four. As they passed us on the path to the spot that I knew would be the spot, I found myself gazing longingly at their cameras that were “better” than mine and their entire backpacks full of gear that I knew I just had to have…I watched them out of the corner of my eye and thought oh, they totally know how to pose their couples better than I do…and oh, they’re doing that, should I be doing that too?…and so, I started to feel a little down. A little bit like maybe I didn’t “belong” in the club.
Dave and I stopped off after the shoot for a quick bite to eat and talked. I told him how I had felt when we saw those other photographers.
“Yeah, but do you think our shoot went well?” He asked. Yeah. Really well.
“Are you happy with your shots?” Yeah, I am actually.
“Do you think our couple had fun?” I think they did.
He reminded me what we’re about: capturing people in the moment, having a good time, being comfortable, and being themselves. That we couldn’t do what we do as effectively with a million bits of gear to figure out and lug around and set up. That we accomplish our goals by creating a relationship with the people we’re photographing and by letting their relationships with each other shine through. And that at the end of the day it’s not about the cameras we use but the experience we create. To be honest, at the end of most sessions I feel like we’re just a group of friends out having fun. And most of all he reminded me that one of our greatest “pieces of equipment” are ourselves, which is something that no one else can buy or duplicate.
So we don’t have a lot of gear. But as one of my photographer friends recently wrote to me in an email – “just learn to rock what you’ve got”. So our approach to taking photos might be a bit different than what others do. But I like that about us. I like the way we do things. And I think I have to learn to be OK with the fact that my different doesn’t have to mean that it’s wrong. It’s just me. Talking too much, laughing too much, lowering my camera to tell a totally random story, asking questions, balancing on tippy rocks, five-foot-two, not a lot of extra gear, absolutely loving taking photos…that’s just me.
Cadbury’s Mini Eggs. Jewelry from Tiffany&Co. Cupcakes. Mint Polos. Newborn babies. Strawberries. My cat Cleo. White dandelion wishes…
Why yes, sometimes good things do come in small packages.
