BLOG – Page 17 – the latest in-studio & on-location MO, IL and beyond

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019

| Jillian | Maroa-Forsyth High School Class of 2019 Senior Model |

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It’s Jillian’s turn up on the blog today!! She was SO fun to photograph with her unique style, confidence in herself and comfort in front of the camera. All of this comes through in her images, made her sessions fun AND you can even see more of in her own youtube channel. What?!?! yup, that’s right. Check out this girl’s musical and creative talents on her channel HERE.

It’s so cool to me, that high schoolers (and younger) are growing up in a time where you can just create… want to be in music videos? Want to be a videographer? There’s no longer a barrier of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment to get to those goals. Your camera and recording device is right in your pocket. This is a key concept I speak about every time I speak to groups of young people who’d like to grow up to be creatives or entrepreneurs… you no longer have to ‘grow up’ to chase those dreams!

So while we took a more traditional path for Jillian’s wall art (to match those created for older siblings), I knew for her album I wanted to add a bit of modern and unique design and I’m excited to share not only some of her favorite images but also a few of those design pages today.

If you’ve got a unique style and are ready to let it shine on camera and in film, you’re exactly who we’re looking for on our senior model team. Applications are live for just ONE more month at sjanephotography.com.

February 22, 2019February 20, 2019

| Lynch Family Portraits | Decatur IL | Sarah Jane Photography |

Omg the session I have to share with you today has me grinning again just uploading the images (you’ll see why when you get a load of these faces!). We had SO much fun on Tiffanie’s session. I mean playing with these kiddos how could you not have a great time?!?!

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I met Tiffanie when we featured the Mt. Zion Convention Center as one of our featured small businesses and not long after that she got in touch to schedule a session for her kiddos and I’m so glad she did.

We got her in for a quick session as part of our Limited Edition session event. These sessions are perfect bite-sized versions of our full portrait experiences. We know you don’t always need over an hour of portrait time (I mean even my kids who are no stranger to the camera don’t have nearly an hour’s worth of good behavior in them … #toddlermom #truth). So 4 times a year we offer our Limited Edition 15 or 30 minute sessions which are designed to be simple, quick and still full of everything you’d expect from an SJP session! PLUS, these sessions include a whopping 50% off (yes, you heard that right!) of our Limited product line.

If you’d like a taste of the SJP portrait experience this year and like the idea of getting everything you want in less time than it takes to watch your favorite TV drama, then head on over to sjanephotography.com to BOOK NOW!

2019 Limited Edition Session dates: Saturday, May 4 | Saturday, Sept 14 | Saturday, Nov 16th!

February 21, 2019February 20, 2019

| Muirheid Fall Family Limited Edition Session | Decatur IL |

It’s time for some ‘bonus blog posts’ since I have LOTS of sessions to share with you from the past few months and not enough days in the week to fit them all in if we don’t start adding in some extras. So our first BONUS post this week is of this beautiful family who lucked out with scheduling and landed perfectly on the best, most beautiful, fall week of our entire year. Just look at that stunning fall color we had for their day!

I hear from mommas all the time who haven’t had family portraits taken in a year, 5 years, a decade or more and it always comes with a tone of guilt… ladies, let me be the first to tell you I 100% do not judge you for not having family portraits taken! It’s hard work, it’s stressful and the #1 reason I do it every year is simply so I do not ever forget how freaking hard it is to be on the other side of the camera. I get it! And we all have enough mom-guilt about EVERYTHING (literally I just posted on my IG yesterday about having it about not grocery shopping <eye roll>). Melissa mentioned that it had been quite some time since they’d had family portraits taken and she wanted to be sure to get one while they had the chance to celebrate their family before the next chapters and additions with her son going on to create his own life as an adult.

As we’ve started along the path as parents recently, I’ve grown more and more fond of photographing families at all stages because I can so appreciate the ever-changing fabric of our families. This guy is grown, he’s venturing out to create his own life but he’s still their baby boy (ok mushy mom moment) and it was important to all of us to create a final family portrait of JUST their family before any future additions.

I’ve been doing this long enough to have been able to share in creating family portraits for my past senior clients as they welcome new babies and I SO look forward to the day when I start to photograph my senior’s senior kids (boy will that make me feel old), but that’s the dream right?!? I’m a decade and a half into this so bring on the next decade and more.

I’m so excited for a fun year of family portraits this year including families of brand new babies and families with their babies headed out of the nest! If you’d like to join us this year I’d love to work with YOU to create the portraits that celebrate the ones you love.

February 20, 2019February 20, 2019

| Makennah | Argenta-Oreana High School | Senior Model Class of 2019 |

Guys, can I let you in on a little secret. The first time I ever photographed twin seniors was a few years ago and I was so worried when they first booked that I would do a whole session and not be able to tell them apart. That I’d mix them up while editing and merge two individual people into one person and that’s absolutely NOT something I wanted to do because they are two people, two individuals with two separate personalities and lives and it’s my job to celebrate and show off BOTH.

Well let me tell you, my worry over this lasted about 45 seconds after meeting those first two seniors! It was SO clear (even with identical twins in that first instance) that those two guys were 100% different people with different styles and personalities and mannerisms etc and, after all, it IS my job to observe and see these subtleties in each of us so doing so in twins was no problem after all. Now, this time around with Makennah & Morgan I was confident that working with them both this year as models would not be a challenge at all and would rather be even more rewarding as I get to work with the whole family to create images that showcase each of these ladies as well as work to create a few images (at the very end of their model experience) of them together to celebrate their sisterhood too.

It’s been such a pleasure to have Makennah on the model team and to get to hang out with her to create images that show off not only how gorgeous she is but to highlight her talents too. So today, I’m thrilled to get to share all those favorite images with all of you guys!

If this looks fun (it is!), we’d love to have you join us for a year-long senior portrait experience as a part of our senior model team. We are now accepting applications for the class of 2020 AND 2021 online at sjanephotography.com.

February 13, 2019February 13, 2019

| Morgan | Argenta-Oreana High School Senior Model | Class of 2019 | Sarah Jane Photography |

Today I get to share the lovely Ms. Morgan with you all! I got to meet Morgan first on a BFF session for another of our senior models and not long after that she scheduled a session to get some images for her pageants (Illinois Festival Junior Miss 2016 at that time!)

As you can see in the time since then she’s gone on to win Miss East Central IL Teen and then even Homecoming Queen for Argenta-Oreana High School! And this year I’ve been able to work with her all year long as part of our senior model team.

Morgan is always so much fun to photograph and work with and it has been so fun to see her not just this year but for really the past THREE years from her first sessions until now and to get to work with her lovely twin sister who’s a fellow senior model and their family along the way. It’s always bitter sweet to come to the end of a senior year like this when I’ve worked with clients for so long and they’re now headed off into the world for new adventures soon. Keep an eye on this girl as I know she’ll go far!

If this looks like fun (it is), we’d love to have you join our senior model team for a year long portrait experience! Apply now at sjanephotography.com.