My Girl

This is a shot I captured today at my daughter's riding lesson. I just couldn't resist posting it. It's true love.

Check out our new ad in Austin Monthly HOME Magazine

On newsstands now is the latest addition of Austin Monthly's HOME magazine and we are running a full page ad to highlight how photography can be used as fine art in your home. I'm often amazed and delighted to see how retailers use portraiture in stores to personalize their environment. Have you ever noticed the multi generational photographs used in the J.Jill stores? Pottery Barn also shows a great deal of photographic imagery on the walls to give their rooms warmth. There are countless other stores, Nordstom & GAP, being another couple of great examples, of how artistic photography adds something that fabrics and furniture alone just can't. Often times it's the simple black and white photographs, with clean lines, textures and beautiful expressions that can take our breath away!

How do they make those displays work so well? In order to create a beautiful artistic expression with photographs, it's often best to follow a few basic rules. Size Matters! The size of the subjects within the different frames has to be proportionate to one another. A beautiful close up of a child's face displayed next to a equal sized landscape of two children in a field will not be as strong a presentation as two close ups next to each other. I also believe every image has a perfect size, you never want to enlarge a portrait beyond its correct size. Imagine a baby's face three times larger than it is in real life. That just doesn't work! Also, you wouldn't want to place a small image on a wall that's too large. It just might look like a postage stamp!

Once a session is complete, I enjoy working with my clients during the presentation of their portraits on all aspect of making a beautiful display. I have the coolest software program that allow us to see just how the images will look when they are printed and on your walls.

The next time you're out shopping around town, or browsing in a magazine, take a look at the imagery they use. It's amazing how much you can learn about what works well together and what type of photography you love. And then let me know!

Jennifer's photographs around Austin

I recently completed a project for two of my favorite children's doctors. Dr. Evelyn Spencer and Dr. Nitzia Cepeda of http://www.jollyvillepediatrics.com/ These two great doctors have recently relocated their practice from Round Rock and they invited me to photograph their families to display as art in their front office. Dr. Spencer and I first worked together when her oldest son was born in 2002. She asked if I would create images that would allow her clients to see how much she cared about children through the love she has for her two young sons. Dr. Cepeda recently had her first child and I found working with her family a true delight as well. We created the portraits in the studio in two separate sessions using the beautiful north light that I am so fortunate to have flood my studio. I've included a few of the photographs here, if you would like to see more of my work, I know the doctors would love to have you stop by and say hello. I also have images from my Becoming Austin series displayed in the exam rooms. If you are looking for a practice of wonderful woman doctors for your family, I'm sure you will enjoy working with these kind hearted souls!

Heart Gallery Austin

Did you know that in Central Texas, every year, over 500 abused or neglected children are waiting to be adopted from the foster care system? For the past three years, I have participated in the Heart Gallery Project. Working with the Adoption Coalition of Texas, professional photographers are paired with children in the foster care system. We create beautiful portrayals of these children and the collection of photographs travels through out Texas as the Heart Gallery to elicit support for and interest in the lives of these special children, and ultimately find each child a “forever family.” Over 50% of the children who have been photographed over the last three years have been placed in permanent homes. The Adoption Coalition, with the help of the Heart Gallery, has increased its adoption by 34% since 2004! This is a huge accomplishment for Central Texas.


If you, or anyone you know, may be considering adopting an older child, I have listed the links to two of the children I have worked with who are still waiting for families. Jonathan, the first child I met has found a loving home. They have requested I do not post the final images of the children on my blog, so please take a look at the Adoption Coalitions site to meet these children and perhaps find a way to become involved, or just pass the word.

Thanks!

http://www.heartgallerytexas.com/portraits/113.htm
2007
http://www.heartgallerytexas.com/portraits/170.htm
2006

Children in Photography

I just love motion in my images. You know this sweet three-year-old wasn't in the same spot one minute later. The composition of the photograph also cues the viewer as to what will happen next. Sure enough, she was off the page and on to something new in the next second. But we captured the moment forever. What a blast!

Book Review -- Baby Proofing Your Marriage

Amazing Women--

When I first met Stacey Cockrell three years ago (far left) she and her husband came for portraits of her two young children. She was fun, smart and obviously beautiful. But she was still reeling from the effects of her growing family on her career and marriage. We spoke of the challenges of redefining oneself after children change your life forever. I know many, many women have asked the question, “Now what?”

When my little girl was not yet two years old, and I hadn’t envisioned turning my life-long passion for photography into a career, I asked myself this same question. I feel fortunate every day to have found my way, with baby in tow, to this career that fills everyday with creativity, laughter and challenges that keep me hopping!

But back to Stacey. She contacted me a few months ago, told me she’d had her third baby, and that she’d written a book with two long time friends. Talk about hopping! They needed some top-notch promotional images of the three of them. As we worked, they told me how their book came about and why it seems to strike such a chord with young couples struggling with all the changes that come with the arrival of their bundle of joy.

Baby Proofing Your Marriage is a witty and insightful book that needed to be written about the reality of bringing home baby. Stacy, Cathy and Julia have done a wonderful job and saying it like it is. What happens to our love life and why we do battle with our spouse when we used to see eye to eye on almost everything? It includes some great tips on how to stay connected to your lover and best friend through it all . It’s a real page turner and I recommend it to anyone who has young children or is thinking about starting a family. Find out more about this highly successful book, see the authors’ interviewed on the Today Show and NBC news on their website. http://www.babyproofingyourmarriage.com/

The Photo Session

Ever wonder what it might be like to capture photographs of your children, your husband, and yourself in striking black and white? What the experience might look like in the form of a series of complementary family portraits featuring your loved ones?

I've included in this post a series of photographs captured in one session with a local Austin family. I hope it will stimulate your imagination.

Presenting The Photo Session by Austin Photographer Jennifer Sparks Harriman