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May 28, 2008 - accidental purple, and other such stories

I've mentioned the painting here before, I think. The part where every now and then, I go manic for a week or two and DO things and complete PROJECTS. Sometimes I even start new projects as a result of completing other projects, because, well, home improvement kinda works like that.

But let's backtrack several years, shall we? When I moved into this house, there was a lot of floral and wallpaper and heavy curtains and unnecessary shelving. Which is fine, if that's what you like. But I ... don't. I'm funkier. I mix antiques and IKEA and colors and textures with almost no presence of floral things. I like to pretend I'm cool.

So it's been a process, to get the house to reflect who *I* am.

One of my first painting projects here was the kitchen. I stripped off the (floral) wallpaper and set about trying to find a paint color to match the itty bitty tiles. The tiles, happily, are currently back in style - yay! So I ended up picking this "taupe" color, which looked nice on the swatch but on the walls ... not so nice. Not so nice, in fact, that we named the shade "Suicide Purple" because it was the most depressing color on earth. I was horrified. The next day, the kitchen got painted "Orange Mist" which is a craftily modified way of saying "not-quite-white-but-really-boring."

The kitchen is now bright yellow as of two weeks ago, and was briefly red for two days before that, but that's not really part of the story. Yes, I have paint issues.

So, in my studio, I painted one wall a beautiful chocolate brown that makes you want to lick the wall, I swear. And the opposite wall, I painted a beautiful bright red. Flamenco Red, actually. So in between, I wanted a neutral color. Something not as dark as the chocolate wall. So, I just picked a color two shades lighter than my chocolate wall on the same swatch. In the can, it looked beautiful. It looked like a Frosty from Wendy's.

On the wall, however, guess what color it is?

Yep. Suicide Purple.

So the lesson here, folks, is to REALLY look at your swatch. If you're going for a yellow-toned neutral brown color, maybe double check to make sure your swatch isn't from the burgundy-purplish section of the browns.

I currently have a can of "Beechwood" paint calling my name. It is not AT ALL purple. And after that's on the wall, I'm done painting for awhile. Until after wedding season, anyway!

In other news, I had a FABULOUS time with the Jack & Jill Playschool yesterday! I took grad pictures of all the students, who are all incredible kids, super cute and polite and I kinda wanted to adopt them all except for the fact that I'm pretty sure 26 four year olds would eat me out of house and home in short order. I finished proofing the photos this morning and sent them off to the lab this afternoon, so you guys should have your photos back in about 10 days! Let's do it again next year, eh?

May 24, 2008 - family portrait day!

2008 Family Photo Day!

Jennifer Jacula Photography is putting on a special this summer for family portraits!

Vermilion – August 10

Elk Point – August 17

Alternate day in case of rain: August 24

Get professional photos of your family* for only $50!

Your session will include a group portrait and individual portraits of children and parents. Sessions will last about 30 minutes and are booked on a first-come, first-serve basis – so call now to book your session and don’t miss out on this awesome deal!

Your family photos will go online at www.jenniferjacula.com within a few days and you’ll be able to choose your prints or albums online and pay via PayPal, or print out your order and mail it in with your payment.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for someone this summer? Why not give them a gift certificate from Jennifer Jacula Photography?! Book a session for your own family and splurge on a gift certificate for a loved one and give them the gift of professional photography that will last for generations.

Call Jennifer Jacula at 780.741.2179

or e-mail jjacula@mcsnet.ca to book your time!

A $20 deposit is required to hold your spot for family photo day.

*Two parents and their children only. Grandparents or extended family in the same photos will result in an additional sitting fee of $10/person.

May 20, 2008 - random updates

We're nearly done renovating the studio ... so close that I can taste it! I can see the light! I'm hoping to complete the studio this week. It's been a challenge - and a lot of work - to do it stage by stage so that I can keep shooting in-studio regularly and still get the work done. Last week, I painted three rooms in four days! One wall in the studio is this delicious shade of brown that looks like chocolate and kinda makes me want to lick it. It's gorgeous!

We've also been taking the time to enjoy some visits from family and friends. I didn't even make them help me paint.

Our shooting schedule picks back up again this weekend and then we're going to be busy for a long time - this blog will be hopping with updates! Be sure to check back often to see all of the exciting stuff we're doing - we've got families, boudoir and weddings galore coming up!

We still have a few weekend wedding dates available - we have a couple of openings in August, one in September, three openings in October, three in November and two in December. We are actively booking into 2009, so don't hesitate to get your booking in ASAP so you don't miss out!

Just for fun, a new favorite shot of my daughter doing her favorite thing - coloring. She's been great during the renovations, even though when she goes down for her nap, the walls are one color, and when she wakes up two hours later, they're quite often another color. She looks at the walls and says, "Oh, wow! Mama? See? Wow!" and then she wanders off to watch The Wiggles. Best kid ever!

May 15, 2008 - kickass canvas!

I got this SWEET canvas in the other day. It's 16x24, a 1" gallery mount, metallic print on canvas with a diamond finish. It's three-dimensional and SO FREAKING COOL. This retails for $300 and it's worth every penny! I LOVE it!

This canvas is actually going to be hanging at Jellybean's Hair Studio in Vermilion, if you want to check it out in person. I'm going to be sad to let it go - it's super cool! I will definitely be ordering more canvases for my studio!

(Please excuse my green wall ... it will become "Grilled Coco" next week. )

The back is beautifully finished - a lot of places that offer canvases just wrap it around and staple it and also lack the stabilizer in the corner. This company is definitely top notch!

May 10, 2008 - playing Supermodel

My best friend/sometime-assistant, the lovely and uber-talented Kendra, is visiting this weekend, so we played Supermodel in the studio. I even let her play the part of the photographer for awhile ...

Moi

Kendra

Kendra and her little tiny co-dependent Chihuahua, Timmy.

May 6, 2008 - understanding your camera

I get asked all the time if I can recommend a good point-and-shoot camera. And I can't. I don't pay attention to them. But in general, if you're in the market, get one that will allow you to shoot in Manual (M) mode - that's where you choose the ISO, aperture and shutter speed. Because believe it or not, you ARE smarter than your camera, and learning how to use it - properly - in manual mode is going to make you a LOT happier in the long run.

Repeat after me: I am smarter than my camera. I am smarter than my camera. I am smarter than my camera.

Let's say, for example, you're enjoying a beautiful sunny day outdoors at around noon. You set up a shot with your camera in Automatic mode, take the photo, and when you check the LCD (or get the photos back from developing, for those of you still in the stone age of film), you get something like this (straight out of the camera, no editing):

Ugh! So what happened? When your camera tried to figure out what settings it should choose, it metered the average light for the scene - so it took into account the bright sky, the subjects, their clothing, the ground, and came up with an arbitrary number that it *hoped* would render a useable result. But the result, as you can see, is anything less than satisfactory. I actually shot this in manual, using the in-camera meter to tell me what settings I should choose, with the intention of using the result for this blog post.

Luckily, I KNOW I'm smarter than the camera.

Situations like this call for a couple of different solutions:

1.) Meter for your subjects and blow out the sky, as below ... (straight out of the camera, no editing)

Or, option 2: Come up with a way to balance the exposure to come up with the best way to capture sky AND subjects. You can achieve this a few different ways, including using a reflector to bounce light back onto your subjects, or using your own light source to light the front of your subjects, as I did here (straight out of the camera, no editing):

Here, I used a flash on a lightstand to camera right to light up my subjects faces and allow me to keep the beautiful sky and lake in the background. They actually came out a little bit too bright, so I ended up knocking the exposure back a bit when I edited the photos.

With a little work on the computer, this is the final result:

Isn't photography fun?! So don't be afraid to try out the dreaded M mode - read your camera manual cover to cover and then go out and start shooting. You'll get the hang of it in no time!

May 5, 2008 - more awesome stuff from TAP!

How cute are these Itty Bitty Brag Books? Seriously! Super cute! They are 2x3 inches and hold 10 photos on their accordian-style pages. The covers are made of super-soft leather. How perfect would this be for your purse, and for grandma, too? These sell for just $20 each including prints - so make grandma's day with one! I have them in stock in pink and blue, but I can also get them in green.

Moving from super cute to sexy, how about this 5x7 red leather album from TAP? This album holds 20 photos and sells for $205. The cover is soft, slightly padded and has a sensual feel to it. Perfect for boudoir photos!