Jessica Shae

Celebrating firsts: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2012-02-09T13:05:00.000-06:00

I've always been a great lover of "firsts." I dream about them, sometimes for years, and when I finally experience a "first" I want to remember how it felt for a million years. Playing it over and over again in my head, looking at pictures, journaling every memory... And I'm not just talking huge kinds of firsts--I pretty much celebrate them all. First pair of cowgirl boots. First mac computer. First wedding booked and first wedding shot. First time driving a huge truck. First time holding his hand. First time out of the country, and first time shooting a gun. First 3D movie, and first time riding the train. I have an endless list of them. Realizing and thinking about the little day to day accomplishments and firsts in my life makes it a continual celebration of sorts. And I'm all about celebrating. :)

Last night The Boy and I celebrated a birthday together for the first time. Dinner and dessert downtown, walking around in the cold laughing, talking, and celebrating the fact that 23 years ago the handsomest boy in the world was born :)

So those last two weren't taken last night...but I just couldn't resist throwing them in. He's really the funnest person ever :) Oh, and one more thing, we've made it to 1,300 on the Facebook fan page, hooray! Thanks to all you lovely people I'm looking forward to another aweeesome year of photography adventures!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Mentorships || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2012-02-07T12:49:00.001-06:00

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with this darling couple for a mentorship session. Erin is a photographer in the DFW area, and wrote me a while back asking about the possibility of a mentor session because she was wanting to hone her manual shooting skills :) I was happy to meet up with her and her husband so we spent an afternoon last week at starbucks and a local park talking photography and having some hands on practice time shooting. They're a fun couple who despite the fact that they look suuuper adorably young, are coming up on their 3rd wedding anniversary! We had so much fun together and I was happy to take a few pictures of them as a couple and of just Erin to use for bio shots. So enjoy the pictures and when you're done go check out her fb page and leave her some love!

Oh, and you should definitely scroll to the bottom to check out a rather lengthy (sorry, I just have somany words) announcement about mentor sessions this spring!

While we're on the topic of mentorships, I have an announcement to make about mentor sessions this year! I get emails weekly with questions from all of you sweet blog readers about everything from how to start a photography business, what camera/lenses you should buy, how to advertise, how did I design my blog, how to shoot in manual...etc. I currently have about 20 emails sitting in my inbox that are just questions from you all waiting to be answered. They come in so frequently and are so often the same (kinds of) questions over and over that I feel like I'm writing the same emails back to you all over and over. And seeing as my mantra for my business this year is simplify I have buckled down and tried to think through all the ways that I'm spending my time in my business and ask myself if I'm doing it the most efficient simple way.

And so, because I dearly love to help young just starting out photographers (Hey--I was there not to long ago, and I'm super grateful for those who helped me!) I've come up with several solutions. One, I'm planning on posting FAQ blogs on a monthly basis from here on out. Oh gracious, quite honestly this is the scariest one of them all...but I'm determined to do them. Not because I think I'm brilliant, but because I think that it will be the most helpful way to answer a lot of peoples questions in one fell swoop. Then, I'm going to create a FAQ/for photographers tab on my blog where you can go and read all the archives (once I have them) of the different FAQ posts I've written.

And then the last one that I'm most excited about is that I'm going to be offering FREE mentor sessions again this year. A lot of you may remember that I offered these last year, and here's what the offer was: You take me out for coffee or lunch, and you get 1-2 hours of my time to ask me as many questions as you like! I also said that I would be open to doing them over the phone for those of you who lived too far away to meet up in person. Well, the results were faaarrr greater than I expected. I received over 30 applications for mentor sessions and more than 2/3 of them were from girls who lived far away and wanted to do phone sessions. Needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed and started making my way through the list, meeting with girls in my area when I could, and then doing a few via phone call...but I never could figure out a way to schedule all the girls who applied from far away. And I felt terrible about leaving you all hanging!

So here's the newest plan :) I'm going to be doing group video chats! I love talking face to face about a thousand million times more than I like writing emails, and getting to answer your questions in a group setting will be a more efficient way to handle them I think! I'll probably have them once a month, and accept 5-6 applicants each time. And the first one is scheduled for February 17th, at 12PM central time! All you have to do to apply is shoot me an email at: jessica@jessicashae.com with your name, link to your fb business page/blog/flickr/website or wherever you post your pictures, and the three biggest questions you need answered right now! I'm really excited about it, so shoot me an email asap, the deadline for you to apply for the February date is a week from today, the 14th!

p.s. I'm also currently working on details for a new improved internship program this summer. I can hardly wait to share it with y'all! Seriously...it's going to be the best thing ever, this is not just hype :)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Best of 2011: part II || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2012-02-01T09:10:00.000-06:00

"To find the universal elements enough: to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed

by a morning walk or an evening saunter...to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated

over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring--

these are some of the rewards of the simple life."

john burroughs

For those of you who haven't seen part I of this two part series, you can go here to check it out.When I got my very first camera and my interest in taking pictures began, it had nothing to do with people, and everything to do with flowers, mountains, rivers, skies, forests and fields. My family was living in Colorado at the time and we spent a lot of time in the mountains hiking, skiing, camping, etc. And so, for about the first year of taking pictures, 85% of them were of nature and landscapes. And I loved it. Obviously my tastes and preferences in photography have evolved a bit since then. But every now and then I look back at old pictures and wish that I took more time to take pictures, sans people. This year I tried make a point of doing more of that as I traveled and shot weddings and portraits. So these are just a random assortment of favorite pictures from the last year, that don't really fit in anywhere else. And a majority of them are people-less :)
Hope you enjoy!

Much Love.Jessica Shae

Best of 2011: part I || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2012-01-31T12:06:00.000-06:00

I'm just a little behind the curve with this, I know. I kept promising myself that I'd have it up by the end of January, so here I am in typical wait until the last second Jessica fashion, posting it on the 31st of January :) But I've been putting off the overwhelming task of sorting through all the pictures I took over the past year and narrowing them down to a few favorites for good reason. I had the honor and great privilege (Seriously--I'm not just saying that!) of working with some of the greatest people in 2011. I traveled to old favorite places and to new places that are now on the favorites list. I shot some of the happiest beautiful couples/families/individuals over the last 12 months and it. was. torture. to have to narrow them down to just a few (58 to be exact. ha.) to highlight here.

As I was combing through all of last years pictures yesterday trying to make SURE that I hadn't left anything out or forgotten something, I got all weepy/nostalgic remembering all the lovely happenings that last year included. My first international wedding. First wedding in the pouring snow. 6 internships + 13 interns. Family vacation and first trip with The Boy. Good friends getting married and having babies. Beautiful sunsets, Niagra Falls, the Rocky Mountains, and foggy Lake Michigan.

I was determined to post ALL of my favorites at once, but when I realized there was no way to do that without posting over 100 pictures in one post, I decided to break it down into two. Today I'm posting all of my professional work, but check back tomorrow for part II--which will include all my random favorites from the year.

Last year was over the top wonderful, and YOU my clients-turned-friends are the ones who helped make it that way. Thank you for trusting and allowing me to capture some of the sweetest moments of your life. Thank you thank you! Love you all! :)

"...and they lived happily ever after."
Much Love.Jessica Shae

sweetheart sessions || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2012-01-25T09:15:00.000-06:00

"I like you because I don't know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can't remember when I didn't like you
It must have been lonesome then
I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do

...Even if it was no place particular in January
I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again

That's how it would happen every time
I don't know why
I guess I don't know why I really like you
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you because I like you."

||sandol stoddard warburg

On the off chance that some of YOU have someone out there that you like, I wanted to let you know that I posted on my Facebook page about an amaaaazing special I'm running for sweetheart sessions over the next 3 weeks. Go check it out!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Rachel: senior || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2012-01-23T20:56:00.000-06:00

She's the one that I know will always laugh at all of my lamelamelame jokes and stupidity. In fact, I usually act extra stupid around her just to make her laugh because it makes me feel like I'm actually kind of funny sometimes. She's the one that I can always count on to have my back whenever aaaanyone does anything that was maybe possibly slightly offensive or hurtful towards me. (Or maybe I just imagined they did...who cares? She's ready to knock their head off.) She's the first one to ask if I need help or tell me to calm down when I get super stressed, usually over something silly. She's the one that I used to (Who am I kidding? This still happens...) get in trouble with when we would get the giggles at the dinner table and we just couldn't.stop.laughing. to save our lives.

I have 18 years of HI-larious stories and laughs and memories with this girl. And I wish that you all had the pleasure of knowing the funny, tough as nails, beautiful, servant-hearted, best friend of a sister that I have. But since you can't, I'm happy that I at least get to share some of her senior pictures with you.

These pictures have been sitting in a file on my desktop for a while. I haven't posted them up until now because there's actually a part two of the shoot that I keep thinking that we're going to do and then I could post them all together...but I got tired of waiting. So you get to see them in two installments.

Part two coming later this spring!
Much Love.Jessica Shae

Instagram + announcement: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2012-01-20T18:58:00.001-06:00

I love instagram. Love love LOVE it. It gives validity to all the exessive picture taking I do on my phone all day long. Because let's face it, I can post 6-8 pictures a day on instagram if I wanted (and sometimes I do) but if I did that on FB, it would be just plain annoying. I'd annoy even myself with that kind of behavior. But sometimes even sharing my pictures with the instagram world isn't quite enough. Because lovely as it is, it is kind of limited on who can be a part of the party. So in order to make everyone feel more included every now and then I'm going to have to share some of my favorites with you here. And if you're on instagram and don't mind following someone who posts way to many pictures of food and The Boy then look me up, my user name is "Jessica Shae" (imagine that;)

And in case you aren't interested in looking at lousy cell phone pictures you should AT LEAST scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the last picture...it's kind of exciting :)

1. She loves to be in the middle of things. Even board games // 2. Isn't her face the cutest?
1. The Boy and I have started keeping a running list of each of our top ten favorite stores. They can be anything from hardware stores, to office supply stores, to clothings stores, etc. I realized the other day that QuikTrip definitely needs to be on my list. That place totally redefines what a convenience store can and should be. // 2. QuikTrip is also where I get my supply of these little bites of deliciousness that I'm addicted to right now. They were my lunch today :)
Super excited to be going to Jasmine*'s "The Fix" next month...any of my Dallas friends going too?!
1. Panera date with the boy that included his happy smile, a warm fire in a fireplace (not pictured), aaaand mood music played from his phone? yes. great fun. // 2. Baked potato soup and sierra turkey (extra turkey please!) on the most deeeelicious bread. win.
1. from the moment I saw this I knew I had found the answer to all my siblings complaints of bossiness over the years. // 2. speaking of adorable siblings, I have several of those around here ;)

And now we come to the REAL reason for this post. Guess who bought their first car yesterday?!?! Yes, I am almost 23 years old and I am just now buying my first car. But the last 5+ years of my life have been filled with other expensive purchases, like cameras and plane tickets. And really, who needs a car when you can just fly?? ;) But I finally caved this month and decided it was time to become a normal adult who owns a car. And in a rather sudden un-expected turn of events I found a mercedes c230 that was in my price range aaaand made it mine yesterday :) From it's leather interior, sunroof, and little first aid kit built in to the back (how cute is that?!) it's more than I ever expected to be able to afford, and I'm super grateful for it! So dream list #19. is completed :)

And silly as it may sound (and as short lived as it will be) I'm looking forward to getting the oil changed, and the tiny chip in the windshield taken care of, and all those other little "taking care of your car" duties that normal adults have to do, just because it means that I finally have a car to take care of :)

Anyone need any errands run in the N. Dallas area? I'd be glad to take care of them for you.
Happy Weekend-ing!
Much Love.Jessica Shae

Scott & Sara: wedding || watermark church dallas, tx wedding photographer

2012-01-13T11:01:00.000-06:00

I had the honor of shooting Scott and Sara's beautiful "tangled theme" "DIY" wedding last November. Sara is an art teacher at a school here in the dallas area and her creativity was amazing to see in all the little details she created for their day. She told me that she spent a lot of time on etsy looking for ideas, and then instead of spending lots of money buying all the fun things she found...she just made them herself. I was especially impressed with her bouquet, she hand-made all those flowers!

I really do love watching couples interact. It's like people watching at its best :) And from my very first coffee date with Scott and Sara I was enamored with their sweet love for each other, that was evidenced in every look and word. One of my favorite parts of every contract that I receive from all of my couples is where they get to write about each other, and Scott and Sara's was just so sweet I can't help but share a little bit of it with you...

"Sara is sweet, funny, and honest. Her artistry doesn't begin and end with a paintbrush and canvas but extends to how she sees the world. There are no un-important people or things to her... I love that she has one greater love than me, God, and isn't afraid to admit it. I love that she looks past my faults and loves me with such a wonderful grace. ...she is my best friend."

"Scott is steadfast and faithful. He likes to take the long way around, but somehow he's always early. He loves his family and will make a wonderful father someday. I love that he's purposeful and strives to be unconditional in his love for me. I love that he's genuinely interested in knowing more about what I like... He's my best friend."

Congratulations Scott & Sara, blessings on this new adventure!

Thank you Natalie Pitts for assisting me with this wedding!Much Love.Jessica Shae

It's a new year: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2012-01-09T21:36:00.004-06:00

I'm back from a glorious 3 weeks of vacation. It was lovely and restful, but I was happy to jump back into work today with both feet! The holidays came and went rather quickly, but I'm so excited about this new year--lots of new ideas and big plans, so much possibility! Things have been (intentionally) pretty quiet around here the last few weeks, but the break is over, and regular blogging resumes this week! I'm working on a wedding post + several others, but until I get a chance to post those here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks of my life :) I have a video montage that I made of our Christmas that I was going to share with you all until certain members of my family started protesting that I didn't have permission to share video of them with the rest of the world :P So unfortunately pictures will have to do.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that your new year is off to a lovely start!
Much Love.Jessica Shae

Nutcracker Ballet: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-12-12T12:31:00.000-06:00

Last weekend The Boy took me to see my first ballet, The Nutcracker. It was in Downtown Ft. Worth at the gorgeous Bass Performance Hall where I saw Yo-yo Ma perform a few years ago. We had dinner at a pretty Italian bistro tucked into the corner of Sundance Square downtown, and then got to walk through all the happy Christmas decorations and lights to get to Bass Hall a few blocks over. Afterwards we got gelato for dessert, because it seemed like the obvious fun thing to do at 10:30 in the freezing cold :)

As if Christmas-time wasn't magical enough, having a Boy who takes you on lovely Christmas dates makes it a million times more fun. There's just something about the holiday season that makes me nostalgic and sentimental about life in general. In years past Christmas time more than any other time of the year was when I thought the most about my future and The Boy that I hoped would someday be big part of that future. But no amount of imagining and dreaming can prepare you for the loveliness of those abstract dreams starting to take shape in front of your eyes, and a Boy who treats you like a princess.

Much Love & Merry Christmas!Jessica Shae

Behind the scenes || dallas, tx engagment & wedding photographer

2011-12-08T11:16:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's December and already time for all those "end of year" posts. . .
All year long as I'm going through my second shooters pictures from weddings and other things I usually run across one or two pictures that they've caught of me while shooting--usually making a dumb face or looking like I'm bossing someone (which, I probably was) :P And at the end of the year it's fun to go back through and pick a few to share with you :) I mean, who wouldn't want to see pictures of me doing my ugly camera face? You know, that face where you close one eye and scrunch up your nose and your forehead gets all wrinkly?? Or maybe that's just my face that does that. . .so attractive.
I get questions from photographers who want to know what I wear to shoot in (weddings and portraits) so here ya go ladies, feel free to check out my super exciting wardrobe in these pictures if you're wondering what I generally wear to shoot in. It varies from wedding to wedding, depending on the setting, if it's indoor/outdoor, and how formal it's going on be, but generally speaking I try to find some mix of cute/comfortable/modest(so I don't flash anyone while I'm sitting on the ground shooting)/and neutral (i.e. mostly grays, blacks, blues, and brown). I'd rather not be the red top that's bobbing around the sanctuary during the ceremony.
Some of my favorite pictures that I come across that my second shooters grab are the ones where I'm looking at the back of my camera like, "What is this thing and what am I supposed to do with it??" So I've included a few of those for your enjoyment, and despite what it looks like, I really do know what I'm doing.
I've gotten to work with some fabulous photographers this year, thank you gals for grabbing these shots of me!

I have such a way with children...just call me "child whisperer"

I'm short. And I climb on things all the time.

I once had a very sweet mother of the groom come up to me at the end of the wedding and say "I just want you to know that my daughter and I were watching you shoot and talking about how fun your job looks, you get to look cute and wear flowers in your hair and sit on the ground!"I've never heard my job description put quite that way, but...there ya have it. If you were wondering what it is that I do for nine hours during a wedding, I sit on the ground and wear flowers in my hair :)

One thing I love is all the opportunities I get to take part in the wedding day in so many non picture-taking kind of ways. I've become an expert at pinning boutonnieres (but not at spelling the word, I def had to use spell check for that one:), I calm down sobbing flower girls who don't want to walk down the aisle, do starbucks runs for my brides, tie sashes, straighten the aisle runner that got dragged half way down the aisle on some bridesmaids heel, and teach the happy couple how they're supposed to hold the knife when the cut the cake. I love weddings, every part of them :)

Some pictures just make me laugh. I was not going in for a bear hug, just arranging people :)

Thanks to Natalie, Rachel, Allix, Sarah, and Felicia for these shots!
Much Love.Jessica Shae

Matthew & Kristina: engaged || celina, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-11-29T10:58:00.001-06:00

"I have never been so mad at someone outside of my family as I was at him that day."

Haha, I just love a good love story. Matthew and Kristina met in passing January of 2009. She doesn't remember meeting him but he says they were definitely introduced the morning he visited her church with a friend...and he thought she was pretty. Later that year they ended up both working for a Christian ministry out in E. Texas, and that's the first time Kristina ever remembers actually meeting Matthew. It was a big ministry and since they were working in two different areas they didn't get a whole lot of time to interact with each other. But their paths did cross on almost a daily basis and either in the dining hall or just walking across campus. As Matthew watched her and tried to get to know her a little bit in a "just friends" kind of way, his admiration for her continued to grow.

Kristina: "I kind of figured he liked me. I mean, he was always watching me. Not in a creepy way, but I kept catching him staring at me in the dining hall and other times. But I didn't know him very well and wasn't really interested."

Matthew: "Oh, I definitely liked her, but the timing just wasn't right. I was heavily involved in the leadership of a ministry working with young men and I knew that now was not the time to start a relationship. So I knew I had to wait, but it was hard. Really hard. I tried to just treat her the same way that I treated most of the other girls I worked with...only problem was, I didn't really talk a whole lot to other girls. Which meant that in order to not single Kristina out I didn't get to talk to her a whole lot either."

After a few months of working together they were both about to move back home for a little while. The day that Matthew left he said goodbye to Kristina's brother (who he was good friends with) and her little sister...but left without saying goodbye to Kristina.

Kristina: "I have never been so mad at someone outside of my family as I was at him that day."

Because at that point Kristina was a little bit interested.

It was so funny when they were telling me their story and got to this part Matthew immediately started apologizing and hugging Kristina, and Kristina said that every single time they tell the story he apologizes for that :)

But thankfully the story doesn't end there. After several month of waiting and praying about it Matthew finally talked to Kristina and her dad about starting a relationship with her in October of 2010.

And exactly a year (to the day) later...he proposed :)

Kristina told me that she thought that he wasn't going to propose until around Christmas time and she was sad because she really wanted engagement photo's taken in the Fall. So she was super surprised and happy when he proposed in October.

Their engagement shoot was gorgeously happy from start to finish. We even got to take pictures with a vintage car that an older gentlemen who happened to be driving by as we were taking pictures was kind enough to let us borrow for a few minutes!

Congratulations on your engagement you two, I can't wait for your gorgeous country wedding next spring!
Much Love.Jessica Shae

Jon & Marlena: wedding || lake tyler petroluem club wedding photographer

2011-11-23T10:14:00.000-06:00

Jon & Marlena's beautiful wedding day was probably the most relaxed, laid back wedding I've ever shot. The ceremony and reception were held at the gorgeous Lake Tyler Petroleum Club with an amazing view of the lake. They chose to do a first look (see each other before the wedding) so hiding from each other all afternoon wasn't an issue. They both got to the venue early with family, worked on a few last minute decorations, then Jon set up his band equipment (yes he's in a band, and they played at the reception--more on that later) while Marlena slipped into her dress upstairs and put the finishing touches on her hair and make-up.
They both grew up in the state of Texas but it took Facebook for their paths to cross, Marlena had been going to school in Boston but was back home finishing up, and he was stationed in Florida with the Navy. Fast forward a few years and Jon's moved there to be near her, and finally. . .they're getting married :) Their wedding day followed the same pattern that the rest of their relationship had followed, a little bit unconventional, totally laid back, but completely them in a fun and simple sort of way. They were getting married with their closest friends and family around them and it was a sweet celebration of two very in love people committing the rest of their lives to each other.
They wrapped up their beautiful day as Jon played a song he had dedicated to Marlena, and she sat there looking like a princess, smiling and blushing over it all.
It was a sweet sweet day. Jon and Marlena, thank you so much for allowing me the honor of documenting the beginning of your new life together. Enjoy a few of my favorites from your day!

Much Love.Jessica Shae

Scott & Sara: preview || watermark church, dallas engagement & wedding photographer

2011-11-21T09:59:00.001-06:00

My last 2011 wedding was this past Saturday. Hooray for love ♥

Scott & Sara || 11.19.11

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Aspire: interview || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-11-16T13:23:00.001-06:00

As Thanksgiving looms ever closer (and Christmas only 31 days after!) I'm getting ready to shoot my last wedding of the year this weekend and trying to wrap up editing and a million other little details so I can enjoy the holidays :) I have so much loveliness to share with you all, several weddings and portrait sessions but you'll have to bear with me because blogging will be a bit slower over the next few weeks.

But in the meantime, I was featured by the sweet Hannah over at Aspire today, and I'm just so honored by her taking the time to do that! I shared a little bit about myself and (and my boy--I'm sorry, I just can't help myself) and talk about how I got to where I am now in my photography business.

You can read it here, but seriously, if you haven't already been reading Hannah's blog definitely plan on adding her to your google reader. She has amazing talent for design, photography, and writing. Go follow her blog and leave her some comment love :)

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Valencia: senior || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-11-10T12:11:00.000-06:00

I had the pleasure of taking Valencia's senior pictures a few weeks ago and lovelovelove how they turned out. I knew we were going to hit it off when in her first few emails she specified that she wanted them taken out where there was lots of tall grass and trees, and that she wanted them taken at around sunset. Seeing as I have a small/major crush on tall grass + golden hour (don't tell the Boy) I was preeetty excited that she was already on board for all of that :)

Valencia was so so comfortable in front of the camera, which meant that I got to have a lot of fun with her...she was so easy to pose :) She's a soccer player, and a pretty good one at that, she's currently playing for FC Dallas's junior/youth/imnotsureexactlywhatitscalled soccer team (FC Dallas is our professional soccer team) but being super athletic hasn't stopped her from being gorgeous and feminine as well. And as another complete side-note, I love her name :)

I hope your Senior year is super lovely Valencia, congrats!

Much Love.Jessica Shae

Jean & Shae: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-11-07T09:14:00.000-06:00

What visit from a best friend + photographer would be complete without a photoshoot? My Jean girl came from Chicago to visit me and one night we ran outside in the chilly golden evening and spent 20 minutes laughing and realizing that good photographer does not always translate into good model :P But it was fun all the same...

The pictures of me were (obviously) taken by the lovely Amanda Jean.

Much Love.Jessica Shae

captivated by light || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-11-02T14:22:00.000-05:00

"[You] ...must be captivated by the light. Always the light. Always."

Simon Wyler || The Lakehouse

Taken with the camera that goes everywhere with me, my iPhone4 :)

That's been one of my favorite "photography" quotes for a while now, because it encapsulates so well what photography is about. Noticing light. Being entranced by it. Falling in love with the way it melts all over peoples faces, the grass, or even just a chair. The way it dances in people's eyes, and makes their hair glow until it looks alive.

If you want to be a good photographer, notice light. strike that. Become obsessed, or captivated by light. In every place, at every time of day, revel in the way the light is falling all around you and strive to learn how to use it to tell a story. Light is emotional. Think about it--when I wake up to cold gray skies I can be sure of the kind of statuses I'll find on FB that morning. Everyone wants to stay home, read a book, sit by a fire. And I'm right there with'em. The light has affected how I feel about the day. Therefore if I want to evoke certain emotions with the pictures that I take I have to be sure that I'm thinking about what the light I'm using is saying.

It's a process that is never-ending I'm certain. I will forever be delighting in new ways I find to use light to produce the right emotion in a picture. It's a challenging process. There are times when I want so badly to know how to transpose all of the yumminess that feels close enough to touch into mere megapixels. But it can be done--most of the time ;)

You can have all the nicest equipment and know how to use it inside and out, you can have beautiful people to photograph, amazing locations to shoot at, and 100 Photoshop actions at your disposal, but if you don't know how to utilize light, all of your pictures will fall flat. And no photographer wants that.

So go ahead, fall in love with light.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Love is waiting || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-11-01T12:49:00.000-05:00

"In the Autumn on the ground

Between the traffic and the ordinary sounds

I am thinking signs and seasons while a north wind blows through

I watch as lovers pass me by

Walking stories - whos and hows and whys

Musing lazily on love

Pondering you

I'll give it time, give it space and be still for a spell

When it's time to walk that way we wanna walk it well

I'll be waiting for you baby

I'll be holding back the darkest night

Love is waiting till we're ready, til it's right

It's my caution not the cold

There's no other hand that I would rather hold

The climate changes, I'm singing for strangers about you

Don't keep time, slow the pace

Honey hold on if you can

The bets are getting surer now that you're my man

I could write a million songs about the way you say my name

I could live a lifetime with you and then do it all again

And like I can't force the sun to rise or hasten summer's start,

Neither should I rush my way into your heart."

Love is Waiting || Brooke Fraser

Happy November!

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Peter & Meredith: married || castle rock, co wedding photographer

2011-10-26T17:23:00.002-05:00

The weather forecast called for a chance of rain showers on Saturday. . .maybe. But probably not. Because Peter and Meredith were getting married that day and rain just didn't quite fit into the schedule. And so everyone (including myself) was praying that the rain would hold off at least long enough for the ceremony and pictures afterwards. . .

Saturday came, and no rain. Just lots and lots of snow. Although living in Colorado for 6 years well acquainted me with it's crazy weather swings, waking up to 2 inches of snow on the ground less than 24 hours after I was driving through the mountains with the sun shining and windows down was somewhat of a surprise. My first thought was "Well, pictures will be liiiittle bit on the chilly side" and my second "I definitely did not pack the right clothing." But despite the fact that I left the house about an hour later in a short sleeve dress (with a sweater!) and flats, I couldn't wait to start shooting Peter and Meredith's day.

While I had only met Meredith the day before at the rehearsal, I had heard so much about her upbeat happy self that I knew I was going to love working with her. I've known Peter for about 2 & 1/2 years. We met at a photography workshop and through FB I had been able to keep up with his work as a wedding/event/mission photographer extra-ordinair and I can say without any exaggeration that every time I saw his photography I was a little more in awe of it. At the risk of losing all future possible clients I'm going to tell you that if you have not already seen his work you really need to go check it out. So when I opened Peters first email this summer saying that he was engaged and they were looking for a wedding photographer, I got butterflies in my stomach just thinking about shooting their wedding.

And 3 months later as I walked into Meredith's home to start the morning off with the girls I felt no different. But I can't tell you how dear Meredith, Peter, and everyone I came into contact with at this wedding were. Meredith was a bubbly, endlessly cheerful bride who couldn't have been happier about the fact that she was getting married to the boy she loved more than anyone else--so who cared that there was snow on the ground, roads getting shut down, and freezing temperatures outside?

Peter and Meredith's 600 guest , freezing, snowy, Colorado wedding was one of the most delightful wedding's I've ever shot. They welcomed me in like a friend, and as I walked through one of the biggest days of their life with them I was overwhelmed with their evident love for Jesus and how that mutual love has brought them together in the sweetest of ways.

These two made me excited about falling in love. . .

Thank you so much Peter and Meredith for allowing me to capture these sweet memories for you!

Much Love.Jessica Shae

Jon & Marlena: preview || lake tyler petroleum club wedding photographer

2011-10-17T12:07:00.004-05:00

Looking forward to sharing the rest of this beautiful E. Texas wedding with y'all!

Jon & Marlena || 10.15.11

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

pause: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-10-11T11:52:00.000-05:00

Last fall, God gave me this weekend. It was a pause, a breath in the midst of a very busy, ever changing time of life. It was just one day really, one day of soaking in all the little moments. Of noticing the changing leaves, loving how the chilled autumn wind made my nose red and my cheeks flushed, and relishing how lovely it felt to have my chilled fingers wrapped around my tall pumpkin spice latte. And at the end of the day sitting cozily by the fireplace in Panera eating soup from a bread bowl while enjoying the company of a dear friend. I remember so much about those moments, even though it happend more than 365 days ago.

I thrive on action, deadlines, work under pressure, and I love living life fast. I have a hard time saying no to people or projects, which means that life is usually very full if I have any say in the matter. So breaks are not usually something that I schedule. But thankfully, God in His infinite wisdom usually schedules them in for me :) They're usually unexpected, and at a time that I would probably be thinking I should be doing something else.

So right in the middle of last weekend, which was promising to be the busiest weekend of this year, I had a 4 hour break. I was in Denver for about 2 & 1/2 days, and in those days I had 2 portrait sessions and a wedding to shoot. After breakfast with two friends on Friday morning I realized that I had about 4 hours before I needed to head to my first portrait session. I had the option of finding the closest starbucks and trying to get some editing done, or, taking off into the mountains in my jeep wrangler that the rental company had so kindly given me as a free upgrade :)

And so I decided without really knowing where I was going, that I was going to the mountains. I just drove, and took whichever roads looked the cutest. (Yes I just said that.) I rolled the windows down and let the wind make an absolute mess of my hair. I sang along to country music, and talked to God about lots of different things. I pulled my car over on the side of the road at random points whenever I saw something that needed to be photographed. I had lunch at an adorable little bistro in some mountain town, sitting on their outside patio enjoying the sunshine and the sound of the happy little stream that ran alongside the restaurant.

During lunch I wished that I had thought to bring my journal with me, but then realized that it was nice to have nothing to do. Not even journaling. And after 4 short hours it was time to head back down to Denver, and jump into non-stop weekend made up of 2 portrait sessions, a rehearsal, a 12 hour, verrrry cold, beautiful wedding, church with friends, and then a flight back home.

And as much as I would hardly ever choose them for myself...I'm so grateful for pauses that allow me to rest, and help me to realize that sometimes a life lived slow is so much sweeter than a life that is constantly rushing to the next thing.

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Peter & Meredith: preview || castle rock, co engagement & wedding photographer

2011-10-10T10:03:00.001-05:00

10.8.11 || castle rock, colorado

More coming soon!

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Alma Sofia || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

2011-10-05T11:01:00.001-05:00

As much as I adore babies, taking their picture isn't something that I feel especially talented at. I see other photographers and wonder how on earth they manage to get babies into all those cute little poses while sleeping peacefully and at the same time make an adorable face. (I seriously sometimes wonder if maybe children's nyquil is involved. Or maybe a little bit of jack daniels mixed into their formula?? C'mon people, fess up. Please share your secret.) Maybe some people just have the gift of baby whispering and that's how they manage it.

But despite the fact that I don't feel like as far as photography goes babies are my specialty--when someone offers to pay you to spend a couple of hours talking to, holding, and playing with a little person as cute as this one, you'd be insane to refuse. And I'm not crazy...

Alma Sofia || 8 days old

...and she was a perfect angel.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

fall savings {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-10-04T10:20:00.003-05:00

When I sat down at my desk yesterday morning and started to write out a to-do list for the week (one of my fa-VO-rit things to do) I thought that mayyyybe just maybe I had been a little optimistic with how many things I had scheduled over the next few weeks. In less than two weeks I have 6 portrait sessions and 2 weddings to shoot, 2 of the portrait sessions and a wedding are happening in Colorado this weekend, and 1 of the portrait sessions and the other wedding is happening in E. Texas next weekend. So obviously, I thought I should keep up that crazy pace for the rest of the month and I decided to run a special to help make that happen! bringiton :)

Now's the time to book your portrait sessions my friends--before you lose your summer tan! Any portrait sessions booked and scheduled with me in the month of October will receive a 15% discount on their total package price. October is my state's prettiest month in my opinion, as far as light and weather goes, so it's the perrrfect time for pictures! I'm already booked up for half the month, and only have room for about 8 more sessions, so contact me soon if you're interested in booking.

I'd looooove to take pictures of your beautiful smiling face! :)

*all sessions located outside of a 40 mile radius of Frisco, TX will be subject to travel fees.

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Brianna: senior {white rock lake, portrait & wedding photographer}

2011-10-03T12:50:00.000-05:00

I could hardly wait to post these pictures I love them all so much. Brianna is a sweet high school senior who found me through some mutual friends and I'm soooo glad she did! She put up with a last minute location change, (stinkin' arboretum closes at 5--don't they know that golden hour doesn't start until 6?? :P) me showing up 20 minutes late for the shoot (me + driving 1 hr to somewhere I've never been + construction + going home traffic = never a good idea. I think I got lost approximately 4.5 times) and was happy to do whatever I asked her! Not to mention she rocked every single shot I took and made it a huge chore for me to try and narrow down which pictures I was going to share here. But that's a good problem to have, yes?

Brianna, it was so much fun getting to take your senior pictures, enjoy looking through this preview and the rest will be on their way to you soon!

Much Love.Jessica Shae

bride {dallas, tx engagment & wedding photographer}

2011-09-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

"I wonder if ever
I will be a bride
with a white lace gown,
standing in front of everyone
looking beautiful
because someone
loves me
that much."

A few favorites from a wedding I shot with fairy tale photography this spring.
Much Love.Jessica Shae

brianna: preview {white rock lake, tx senior portrait photographer}

2011-09-27T10:45:00.000-05:00

Last night as the sun slowly hid it's face behind the trees surrounding the lake, setting the sky on fire with rosy pinks and oranges, I had the privilege of taking Brianna's senior pictures. Here's a tiny preview of the gorgeousness that is to come!

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

last thoughts of summer. {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-09-22T12:17:00.000-05:00

It's 66 degrees outside. My window is pushed open as wide as it will go and I'm sitting cross legged on my bedroom floor with my toes tucked up under me to stay warm. I'm listening to the sound of my jon schmidt pandora station mingled with the sound of the lawnmower and enjoying the smell of fresh cut grass + my pumpkin spice candle.

I absolutely adore the changing of the seasons. I was told the other day that you can't call it fall in texas, since the leaves don't actually turn colors and fall, they all just die--apparently autumn is the correct term. And the slow quiet slip from summer into autumn is my favorite. Not because I love autumn so much that I can't wait to see summer go...anyone who knows me at all knows that's not true. But summer obsession aside, autumn is definitely my second favorite time of the year, and I'm happy to see that it's here.

This summer has been particularly sweet. Not in a my-life-is-perfect sort of way. But in a my-God-is-gracious kind of way. These past few months have been the richest, happiest months of my life. This summer has been an adventure, it's been full of new experiences, of stretching scary moments--it's been full of growing up. Something that has been a little bittersweet, but that I'm mostly ok with :) I know, I'm 22 years old, surely I've gotten used to the idea of being grown up by now? But quite honestly, I haven't. There's a large part of me that still likes to pretend amidst running my own business, traveling all over, and paying bills, that I'm still just a kid. I do cartwheels in the street sometimes, I shop in the little girls section, (the clothes are so much cheaper!) and I wear ribbons in my hair.

But despite the ribbons and cartwheels, a lot of growing up has happened this summer. I've made some big decisions. I've worked on being authentic (being the original person that I was made to be with a unique design and purpose given by the one true Author) and through that I've been stretched thin, scared, and been able to see God's power shine through my weaknesses. I've seen some friendships come to an end, and new ones begin. I've been blessed with the greatest (no really, the absolute best of the best) boy in the whole world as my best friend + boy friend, and been grateful a thousand times over for my family and their love.

I've heard it said that Grace is: getting something you don't deserve. And this summer my full of grace God has given blessing upon blessing...I can't wait to see what this next season will hold.

Happy Autumn!

Much Love,
Jessica Shae

zac & kaitlin: engaged {frisco, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-09-20T13:00:00.000-05:00

Zac and Kaitlin were my models for the Day with Jessica Shae workshop I hosted a few weekends ago. How they actually came to be my models is a rather random and confusing story, but I am so sooo grateful that we were connected with each other through our mutual friend, Elisabeth, and that I got to take their engagement pictures!

They had only been engaged for barely over a month and when I contacted them about the possibility of them modeling for me they were excited because they hadn't had the time or money to spend on engagement pictures yet! Talk about peeerrrfect timing! They're both photographers themselves (actually, zac's a photographer AND videographer) and you should check out their darling blog here! Oh! And they made an adorable video of their proposal, puhleeeze go watch it :)

Alot of times when I'm shooting or putting together a blog post, and I'm having the time of my life, laughing and smiling so much at what I'm seeing, and I'm loving the pictures, I think to myself "Oh, they're just my favorite couple ever, and these are my favorite pictures ever, and I just adore them..." As I was saying things like this to myself in my head while shooting Zac and Kaitlin, I realized something. I say things like that to myself almost every single shoot. And every shoot + couple can't be my absolute favorite. So this is what I decided: I think that couples who are whole-heartedly in love with each other, who can sing and dance and laugh with and at each other, who are so so excited just about being near each other, are my favorite. Wether they be 19 or 30 or 52 years old, whether they're engaged, or have been married 20 years and have 6 kids....as long as they fit that mold, they're my absolute favorites to shoot :)

Zac & Kaitlin, you definitely fit that description, you were so so uber sweet and fun to work with, and your smiles and love for each other were so. much. fun. to capture :) Congrats on your engagement, and thank you so much for being a blast to work with!

Prepare yourself, their cuteness is a bit overwhelming...

...told you they were cute ;)Much Love.Jessica Shae

zac & kaitlin: preview {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-09-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

"Oh, why'd you have to be so cute?

It's impossible to ignore you."

The rest of Zac & Kaitlin's engagement session coming soon!

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

the midwest: personal {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-09-07T09:33:00.002-05:00

Still recovering from the most wonderful trip ever last weekend, while trying to prepare myself for a busy month of weddings, workshops, and other fun-ness. And at the same time attempting to slow things down a little bit for the fall months, so that I have time for important things like camping, baking lots of pumpkin bread, and watching college football. It's proving to be quite the challenge.

Much Love.Jessica Shaep.s. I'm kind of in love with the midwest. seriously.

Summertime is for... {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-09-01T08:14:00.002-05:00

. . . adventuring.

"Congratulations! Today is your day.

You're off to great places!

You're off and away!..."

found here.

"Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." || h. keller

"The big question is wether you're going to say a hearty 'yes' to your adventure." || j. campbell

"...you're off to great places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So...get on your way!"

|| dr. suess

Adventuring is one of my favorite things ever. Trying new things, seeing new sights, doing things for the first time...it's really the greatest. So while I actually enjoy adventures year round, Summertime seems an especially appropriate time for them, because during Summer, anything feels possible. So today on this first day of the month, I'm headed off to experience a "first"--I'm off on an adventure :) It's one I've anxiously been waiting for for what seems like ages, but has really only been a little over a month. But the best kinds of adventures are the ones you've anticipated for (seemingly) forever, right?! :)

I'll be out of the office thru monday, so I'll catch you all back here sometime middle of next week!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. for all you misers who are going to pipe up and exclaim that summer is over, I need you to know that it is DEFINITELY not over. Just because you've had to go back to school or work, or whatever it might be, does not make it over. Summer is not officially over until September 23, the first day of Fall. Then, and only then can you pull out your sweaters and fall decor and drink your pumpkin spice lattes....but for now, live it up, eat a Popsicle! There are 3 more weeks of Summer left! :)

A day with Jessica Shae: workshop {dallas, tx engagement and wedding photographer}

2011-08-31T14:45:00.001-05:00

I have gotten several requests over the summer for another one day workshop, so here it is folks! :) I already have 3 people committed, so if you're interested let me know quickly because I'll be accepting people on a first come first serve basis.

It'll be a fun relaxed day designed to help you learn the basics of using your camera, posing your clients and making them feel comfortable in front of the camera, editing the pictures you take, and I'll do my best to answer any other random questions you want to throw at me! We'll close out the day with a shoot with an adorable couple so you can put into practice everything you've been learning all day, and to give you a chance to get pictures for your portfolio! We will eat yummy food, and I will probably embarrass myself by doing something idiotic at some point during the day, and you can all laugh at me.

Basically, it'll be alot of fun--promise! Please come! :)

Much Love.
Jessica Shae
p.s. it'll all be happening in my hometown, Frisco, TX :)

Happy Monday {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-08-29T13:24:00.003-05:00

Happy Monday, my friends :)

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Williams family: portraits {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-08-24T15:05:00.003-05:00

Engagements and weddings are my fav. Like really really my fav. Anything involving happy, laughing, in love couples is so much happiness to my heart. And last year I kind of overdosed on my favorite. I shot aloooot of weddings and engagements, and did very few portraits. And at the beginning of this year I realized that I missed portraits. Because to much fav is kind of like just eating icing all the time, and no cake. (although, if you're me, it'd be like eating cake all the time with no icing, because c'mon people, cake is so way better than sugary icing. But that's just another discussion for another time.)

And though couples + weddings + love + engagements is still a fav, I've reaaallly enjoyed getting to shoot more portraits this year. I love the variety, and the way it mixes up what I do :) And while I don't post allll of my portrait work here (there just really isn't time) I do like to share some every now and then.

The Williams family is definitely one I couldn't help but post. Mr. Williams is our family's dentist, Erin and Anna are two of my dear friends, and I just generally love their family a whole lot :) I don't think they take a bad picture either--making my job raaaather fun, and easy.

Much Love.Jessica Shae

Summertime is for... {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-08-16T11:28:00.000-05:00

. . .going away.

I'm sitting in Starbucks right now typing this up, looking out the window at a gorgeous view of the Rocky Mountains. I rode my bike here about 30 minutes ago in the 58 degree weather, the whole time riding alongside a happily gurgling river.

My family is taking our first real family vacation in yeeaaarrs this week and it's the happiest thing.

They headed up to Vail, Colorado last Thursday and I flew up to meet up with them Saturday after finishing up my internship. We're here until Saturday and it's going to be a week full of reading, journaling, hiking, biking, movie watching, sweatpants and hoodies, no make-up and messy buns, and lots of memory making.

I'm so grateful for a week to stop all the normal day-to-day activities, a week of no editing, or emailing, or (after this!) blogging. So now you know why things will be a little quiet around here for a while, I'll be back refreshed and ready to jump back into normal life in about a week!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Interns week 6 {dallas, tx engagement and wedding photographer}

2011-08-10T10:01:00.000-05:00

A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. We are the proverbial joke :)

My last two interns of the summer are here this week and as I'm teaching them all about branding, marketing, blogging (and consistency in blogging) I'm being absolutely terrible at blogging. Do as I say, not as I do--right girls?! :) There are just not enough hours in a day...

I'm basically very busy eating yum food, taking pictures of beautiful people, eating more yum food, (late night sonic run anyone?!) and talking about one of my favorite topics--photography. I hope you'll understand why blogging isn't taking top priority right now.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. if anyone would like to leave their best blonde/brunette/redhead jokes in the comments section, we promise not to be offended ;)

Tom & Ashley: wedding {three trees chapel, co wedding photographer}

2011-08-04T23:29:00.002-05:00

Settle in folks, because it's story time.

Tom and Ashley's wedding is probably the most personal wedding I've ever shot...

so you get an equally personal story to go along with it.

I was 12 & 1/2 almost exactly the day I met Ashley. It was my first "job interview" and I was super nervous. She ran a greeting card company out of her home and was looking for someone to come over a few afternoons a week to help her with parts of the business. She hired me on the spot that day and what started out as about 12-15 hrs a week sitting at her kitchen table stuffing envelopes and hot glueing buttons + sequins onto the front of cards, turned into 5 years of helping design, create, and ship out some of the most intricate expensive greeting cards you've ever seen.

It was during those 5 years that Ashley lost her husband through a set of very unexpected and horribly painful circumstances. And because I was working with her out of her home 3-5 days a week I was there to see alot of the very personal side effects of what happened. And while it was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen, it was also one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed. I watched as Ashley's mostly happy "normal" life was turned upside down in one day's time, I watched her go from being a wife, to being single, from being a co-parent, to parenting alone, I watched her go from running her home business as a side business, to making it full time (while homeschooling two children) because it had suddenly become her only income...

But most importantly I watched as Ashley, through many tears and much heartbreak, never stopped trusting that the God who had ordained that she walk through this, had a limitless supply of the grace needed to walk through it with integrity.

Fast forward 5 years to about 8 months ago when I started hearing + seeing things on facebook about this handsome guy named Tom that was slowly becoming a part of Ashley's life. I remember being oh so happy for her and then when they announced they were engaged I definitely did a little bit of happy crying for her.

Tom lost his wife a few years ago as well and the pastor at the wedding spoke on the story of Ruth and Boaz, because of how meaningful it was to Tom & Ashley. A story of loss and heartbreak, but also of healing and redemption, and of loving a second time--so similar to their story. After hearing how God has brought each of them through such heart wrenching circumstances and, as they put it, turned the painful into beautiful, I counted it an extreme honor to be able to document their day of joy. Thank you both for allowing me to be there for such a precious happy day in your lives, blessings on this fresh new start God has given you together!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Tom & Ashley: preview {denver, co engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-08-03T13:02:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow--that's when you get to see the rest of their Colorado gorgeousness.

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Hill children: portraits {mckinney, tx portrait & wedding photographer}

2011-08-02T11:05:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned that I don't usually post alot of my portrait sessions...but here recently I've done a few that have been soooo lovely that I just can't help but share. This portrait session with all the little Hill kiddos was so much fun, and between their adorable faces and all the yummy light, I was in love with what I was able to get.

So here they are--Bailey, Chance, and the newest Hill family member, Dillon Montgomery.

Just a reminder, now's the best time to have those family portraits taken (while everyone's tan!) to put in the Christmas card this year. And I'm running a 10% off any package you choose if you book a session with me between now and August 15th!Email me at: jessica@jessicashae.com
Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Summertime is for... {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-07-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

. . .dreaming & sunsets & refreshing breezes.

Oh yes, and sometimes for falling in love.

"And I learned what is obvious to a child.

That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time.

That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals.

That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered.

But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee

and sometimes,

on good days,

for falling in love."

|| n. sparks

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Amy: portraits {denver, co engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-07-27T10:55:00.000-05:00

What I am about to tell you may convince all of you that I am just a creeper with a camera, but I'm going to tell you anyways, and hopefully convince you otherwise ;)

Sometimes I'm at a party, or shopping at the mall, or stalking people on facebook, and I see or meet someone and the first thought that comes into my head is: "I really want to photograph that person." Because over the last few years as I've photographed literally hundreds of people, I've become more and more intrigued with the unique make-up of every single person. And sometimes I see people that are just begging to be photographed. One time it happened to me as I was walking out of the mall. . .I walked past a mom and her two little girls, both about 6-7 yrs. old and they were sporting the cutest curly red hair I have ever seen. In the few split seconds that passed as we were passing each other, I came so close to pulling out a business card and asking if I could do a portrait session of them. . .but I didn't. I kicked myself afterwards for being a chicken :P (it's now officially on my dream list to do a shoot of a random person that I stop somewhere and ask if I can photograph them)

I met Amy about 6 years ago while we were both going through a girls discipleship program in Dallas. I didn't get to know her super well during that time, but afterwards we were FB friends and every time one of her pictures popped up in my news feed I had that same thought: "I really want to photograph her." There was just something about her big brown eyes and gypsy style that assured me that she would be fabulous in front of the camera. I knew she was from the Denver area, so a few weeks ago when I was looking for models for my Colorado internship she was the first person that came to mind. So I sent her one of those slightly awkward messages that goes something like: "Um, hi. . .we haven't seen each other in almost 6 years, and you probably don't remember me, but I was wondering. . .can I take your picture??" And lucky for me she wasn't creeped out by my random request and said yes!

Some of you may have see one of my statuses a few weeks ago about this shoot--I was pretty giddy afterwards because these are seriously some of my favorite portraits I have everrrrr taken.

Thank you thank you Amy for not being creeped out by my request, you totally rocked it!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Home again: personal {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-07-26T11:27:00.000-05:00

I flew home from Colorado yesterday after 17 days of being gone. Days that were full of visiting favorite people, internship, portrait sessions, and a gorgeous wedding surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. It was a lovely 2 & 1/2 weeks away but I was soooo happy to come home. Last night I worked on catching up on hugs, laughter, sweet tea, tickle fights, and funny stories...I still haven't had my fill, but we're getting there.

I always plan a transition day in between getting home, and jumping right back into work. A day to sleep in, un-pack, drink lots of sweet tea (I seriously miss it so much when I'm gone, guys...), and enjoy being back home before I hole up in my "roffice" (that is what I have decided I'm going to start calling my room that also doubles as my office) and start catching up on all the editing, blogging, and emailing that awaits me.

So that's what I'll be doing today ( + I think I might try and fit in some pool time too ;) but come back tomorrow because I'm going to be posting the my new favorite portrait session. Not even kidding--it's so much gorgeousness.

----------------

Here's the question that I ask every time I fly...

How do they get the crops in such perfect squares and circles?!

I really would like to find the answer to that question before I die.

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Wes & Brittney: portraits {denver, co engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-07-22T11:11:00.002-05:00

When I asked Wes and Brittney if it had been "love at first sight" for the two of them, Brittney rolled her eyes and Wes laughed...

"We were at a summer camp at college for a week and I was playing hockey with a group of people and Brittney was the only girl out there. So I walked over to where she was standing with a group of guys and told them to be careful around her so she didn't get hurt."

Aaaaand Brittney was ticked. "I was just trying to be a gentleman!" Wes protested. But Brittney thought he was rude and chauvenistic ;)

Wes was convinced she hated him... "One of the first times we really talked that week she told me that I was a horrible communicator . . . and I'm majoring in communications."

Haha...Don't you just love stories that start out like that?!

And the great thing is, Brittney definitely doesn't hate him anymore, and I got to take pictures of their mutual "like" for each other last week! They were seriously one of the laughingest couples I have ever shot...and they kept me laughing almost the whole time with their hilarious faces, comments, and tough love ;)

p.s. for those of you who have been showering the two of them with congrats ever since I posted their sneak peek last week, let me clarify. They are NOT engaged (yet--Wes was quick to add) they just really really like each other, and that's a fabulous excuse for pictures in my book ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Manney Family: portraits {denver, co portrait & wedding photographer}

2011-07-21T12:47:00.000-05:00

The Manneys are some of my favorite oldest clients. I took their family portraits for the first time my first year of business, and ever since then Cheryl has been one of my biggest cheerleaders! She's referred so many people to me, and aaannny chance I get to work with her is always so much fun!

Her kids are seriously some of the cutest kids I've ever photographed. Most of you know I have a thing for strawberry blonde hair...and they have it in abuuundance ;) I just wanted to scoop them all up and squeeze them, but I was supposed to be taking their picture--so I refrained.

So go ahead...enjoy their little freckle-faced cuteness ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Summertime is for... {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-07-19T13:35:00.000-05:00

. . .Colbie Caillat.

[ kuh-lae ]

"I think I felt my heart skip a beat
I'm standing here and I can hardly breathe
You got me, yeah, you got me."

This song has been on repeat for the past several weeks, and I was ecstatic to hear a few days ago that she just released a new album! Her two new hits "I Do" and "Brighter than the Sun" are absolutely adorable...and the best summer music :)

Plus--her name's just really fun to say ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Wes & Brittney: preview {denver, co engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-07-13T12:01:00.000-05:00

They like each other. Rather alot I think ;)

Can't wait to share the rest!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

dear, pretty thoughts: personal {dallas, tx wedding photographer}

2011-07-07T11:46:00.000-05:00

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Rach: maternity {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-07-06T10:35:00.000-05:00

Some of you may remember Rach from this adorable session I did with her and her husband back in February. At that time Rach was about 3 months pregnant with their first little one, Elijah Leon Dodson. Rach is a dear friend of mine and I've loved meeting up for coffee/lunch dates over the last few months and watching her little bump grow bigger every time. A few weeks ago I got to take pictures of the ever growing bump, and woweee, Rach rocked it :)

She's this adorable itty bitty mommy with a belly--and I hope I get to be half as cute as her someday. I don't normally post alot of my portrait sessions on the blog, but when you have friends as awesome as Rach sometimes you get to bend the rules a little, because these are to good not to share :)

Rach is due in just under 3 weeks, can't wait to meet cute little Eli in person!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

but it was summer I wanted {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-06-23T10:02:00.000-05:00

It was spring but it was summer I wanted;

the warm days and the great outdoors....

It was summer but it was fall I wanted;

the colorful leaves and the cool dry air.

It was fall but it was winter I wanted;

the beautiful snow and the joy of the holiday season.

It was now winter but it was spring I wanted;

the warmth and the blossoming of nature.

I was a child but it was adulthood I wanted;

the freedom and the respect.

I was twenty but it was thirty I wanted;

to be mature and sophisticated.

I was middle-aged but it was twenty I wanted;

the youth and the free spirit.

I was retired but it was middle-aged I wanted;

the presence of mind without limitations.

My life was over but I never got what I wanted.

|| poem by a 14 yr old.

Read this charming poem the other day on this blog, and was instantly smitten with the sweet simplicity of it. Not to mention convicted about how I do this very thing in my life so often. Lets be grateful for today and all the blessing's it has in it, yes?

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Summertime is for... {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-06-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

. . . freezee pops.

There are few things that represent as much quintessential summerness to me as freezee pops do. For as long as I can remember it was the definite sign that summer was actually here when you opened the freezer door to find a shelf full of colorful frozen deliciousness.

It's the first day of Summer my friends, aaaand the longest day of the year, two things VERY worthy of celebration. So go put on a cute sundress (girls only on that one please! Guys, go find some cool shorts or something;), go swimming and soak up some lovely sun, have a feezee pop, talk a walk in the sunset, have a picnic, or all of the above ;)

Whatever you do--enjoy today!

"And it's only time //

but it flies right by //

and today is sweeter than we know."

|| one hundred more years

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

dreaming: personal {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-06-16T11:40:00.004-05:00

"I can't help flying up on the wings of anticipation.

It's as glorious as soaring through a sunset... almost pays for the thud."

|| anne of green gables

"You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream..."

|| cs lewis

Dream:

1. : a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep —

2. : an experience of waking life having the characteristics of a dream:

3. : something notable for its beauty, excellence, or enjoyable quality

4. : a strongly desired goal or purpose

"...and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true."

"I've been dreaming of this moment for 18 years.

What if it's not what I thought it would be?"

"It will be."

"And what if it is? What do I do then?"

"Well, that's the good part I guess. You get to go find a new dream."

|| tangled

{picture credit: courtney reese}

I've been doing alot of dreaming this year. The last 12 months of my life (both in relation to my business and personal life) have held alot of surprises, upsets, and alot of bends in the road. Some old dreams have been taken away, and replaced with new dreams. Other dreams have just been reshaped a little. There've been questions, and fears, heartache and so much joy, and there's been wonder. Wonder at my God and the fact that though I have no clue what He is doing most of the time, "I know what'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well".

Dreaming can be a risky thing, except for when you're allowing your Maker, and the Lover of your soul to shape and mold those dreams for you. . .and then it's a utterly terrifyingly fantastic thing :)

"He has put a new song in my mouth--

. . . and I will trust in the Lord."

|| psalm 40:3

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

JR & Jessica: engaged {tyler, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-06-14T11:02:00.004-05:00

She was sitting in band class that morning laughing and talking with friends when he made his way over and said hello. It was the first year of Jr college for both of them and he had seen her from across the room, and decided he definitely needed to know who the tiny brown haired girl with the adorable laugh was. But as much as it may have been love at first sight for JR, it was definitely not for Jessica. She quickly brushed him off because "I figured he was just some weirdo guy...I didn't know who he was."

But JR didn't give up.

(3 cheers for guys who don't give up, right girls!?!)

They were both really involved in band over the next few years, and slowly as Jessica got to know him better...she started thinking that maybe he wasn't so weird after all. He was funny, and fun to be with, and a really good musician. And the next thing you knew, they were best friends. And while best friends was good for a while, eventually JR asked Jessica to be his best 'girl'friend...and this time she was happy to say yes.

They've now been engaged for two years, almost exactly, and I'm looking forward to shooting their gorgeous garden wedding next summer. (Yes, they will have been engaged for 3 years by the time they get married--they're crazy amazingly patient :) But they couldn't wait any longer to get some engagement pictures taken, and they picked Jessica's grandmothers 80+ acre ranch out in E Texas for the location. JR kept Jessica laughing so hard the entire session it was hard to get anything but laughing pictures ;) Not to mention I was usually laughing pretty hard too...to the point where I had to remind myself to focus and take the picture ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

go together {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-06-09T09:30:00.001-05:00

"Like a photograph to a smile
A runner to a mile

Like strings to a cello

Like a wave to a "Hello, how are you?"

Wanna go together with You"

Just found this song, and it made my heart smile :)

And I couldn't help but share it.

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Pinterest: personal {dallas, tx engagment & wedding photographer}

2011-06-08T10:33:00.000-05:00

Pinterest.

The inevitable has happened, and I am officially in the cool club of loveliness that floats around on there. I fiiiiinally have a place to post all the wonderful little bits of happiness I've collected over the years from around the web. I'm still getting started, don't have a whole lot up yet, because I'm limiting myself on how much time I can spend there a day ;) But, go check out my profile and follow me if you feel like we might be kindred spirits in the "pinning" world ;)

p.s. yesterday, I saw that some of my pictures had been pinned to some inspiration boards...

talk about a day maker. made me smiiiiile for sure :)

Some of my most recent favorite "pins."

I want this necklace so bad. . .if anyone EVER finds where you can buy it please let me know asap and you will be my new best friend ;)

definitely the cutest graffiti job I've ever seen :)

Some of theeee cutest outfits ever. I love the brown sandals + sundress. And the skirt and belt combo is one I wish I could pull off ;)

Someday I want a house with framed words like this scattered all over.

Happy Wednesday to you all!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Summertime is for... {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-06-02T10:46:00.001-05:00

. . .Color.

And lots of it, please.

You don't really have to pick a favorite color during Summer. At least not according to my "Rules of Summer."

(Yes, there really are such rules, maybe it's just in my head, but they are definitely there ;)

Love them all, wear them all, and if you can't pick just one color to paint your nails, then pick 5, or 10! ;)

Any of you gals have fun "summer nail" ideas?? I'm looking for creativity here. . .send me a picture or post a link to one in the comments! ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

For better for worse. {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-05-31T10:39:00.000-05:00

"So it's not gonna be easy.
It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday,
but I want to do that because I want you.
I want all of you, forever, everyday.
You and me... everyday."

|| n. sparks

Sometimes, I come across a picture, and it makes my heart go pitter patter. Is this not the sweetest thing ever...?

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Summertime is for... {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-05-27T12:00:00.000-05:00

. . .sundresses.

In every shape, size, and color please.

I'm kind of addicted to them, and there are so many different kinds I don't know that I could ever have to many. And they're so comfortable, and feminine, and easy to throw on, and cool, and cute, and fun to accessorize with...

the list could go on and on.

So yesterday I was finally able to spend a gift certificate I'd been saving since my birthday, and bought a gorgeous knee length lace dress from Urban Outfitters. I scoured their website looking for a picture to show y'all, but can't find one anywhere, you're just going to have to trust me, it's so prettiful :) But while I was looking for it, I came across a few more dresses from their store that I wouldn't mind adding to my wardrobe. Anyone have some spare cash they'd like to send my way?!

I just love all the dainty feminine looking summer dresses that are in style right now. I'd wear sundresses all summer long if I could. And I probably have enough to do just that...my closet will attest to that fact. But a few more wouldn't hurt?! ;)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! Anyone have any fun Memorial Day plans!?

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Joel & Jessica: married {niagara falls, ontario wedding photographer}

2011-05-25T10:28:00.002-05:00

"Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down;
perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose,
until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music;
perhaps . . . perhaps . . . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship,
as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath."

|| anne of green gables

Jessica was caught off guard when Joel first expressed interest in her. They were friends, good friends, but she didn't realize he was interested in something more. And as they walked around the lake up in northern Michigan that day, she told him she'd pray about it, because she just wasn't sure. Joel could wait, he was ready to do whatever it took to win the tiny blonde girl with the big green eyes.
And there definitely was alot of waiting involved, their relationship spanning hundreds of miles and several years, from just friends, to more than friends, to courting, to engagement. They took time to pray and seek God's guidance in the relationship, to work through fears and dreams + goals for the future, and somewhere along the way, they fell completely in love with each other.
So after months of flying back and forth between Minnesota and Canada, countless long late-night phone calls, and daily texts, Joel and Jessica got married on a rainy Monday afternoon in Niagara Falls, Canada. With their circle of closest friends around them they said their "I do's" and officially became one of the cutest couples I've ever had the privilege of shooting. They braved the pouring rain (and I'm not exaggerating when I say pouring. All. Day. Long.) with me all day to get what have turned out to be some of my faaaavorite pictures ever.
Joel and Jessica, I love you two, and it really was an honor to shoot your classy + beautiful and Christ honoring day. Thank you for including me!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Summertime is for... {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-05-17T10:51:00.002-05:00

. . .road trips with best friends.

7 days, 2,263 mi. and a bajillion potty breaks later, we're right back where we started.

[I'm starting a new little series over the Summer about what Summertime (THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR) is to me. . .what better way to start than with a road trip!?]

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Land-a-Goshen:traveling {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-05-12T11:57:00.000-05:00

2,000 miles, 35 hours of driving, 5 states, a never ending playlist of music, and 3 best friends.

We're the sisterhood of the traveling poodleheads :)

Tuesday morning at 6:02 AM Whitney, Amanda, and I started our roadtrip towards Goshen, Indee-yana :) And by 11AM we had officially sung ourselves hoarse. By 12 PM we had stopped 5 times (5 TIMES) because of Whit's eency teency bladder. Good times my friends, gooood times.

We are coming up here for some dear friends wedding and I've been looking forward to it for months. This is by far the longest road trip I've ever taken with just friends, and it has not been without its share of adventures. Really it's crazy the things that have happened the last few days, we've made enough memories over the last 48 hours to last a lifetime...and we're just getting started ;)

I've been taking photo's religiously with my iPhone, I'm really so in love with the camera on that thing, and all the polaroid apps I have on there, it's just so much handier than lugging around my big camera. So enjoy a little bit of my iPhone documentation ;)

They won't be able to handle our southern cool.

Texas bugs are... large. I thought for a sec maybe we'd killed two birds.

We may or may not have all bought matching aviators. Prob not...because that would be a totally dorky thing to do.

"Congratulations! You did it! Worlds BEST cup of coffee!"(high five to whoever can name that movie quote;)

Ooook. So I was preeEEtTy excited about getting to drive a big truck all the way to Indiana. You can imagine my dismay when I got in and found out I am to short to see over the steering wheel. I fixed it though ;)

No idea what we were thinking when we decided to let the barely has her permit driver behind the steering wheel for an hour. My praying life was instantly strengthened ;)

FiiIIinally made it to my Evy friends house at about 10:00 and stayed up forever telling hilarious stories and laughing our guts out.

Seriously some of the funniest stories everrr....

Cutest hostess on the block ;)

Tim (Evy's husband) (*gasp* Evy has a HUSBAND?!) (weird weird;) (I mean...it's a happy weird, but it's still weird) made us all carmel macchiatos that were better than anything I've had at Starbucks :)
Evy is THE most adorable little hostess...and made the most scrumptious breakfast for us yesterday morning. C'mon America...
Beach day with my ladiiieeess!

Starbucks happy hour with friends...winwinwin.

Front porch sittin....

We finally rolled into Goshen last night about 12PM and instead of just going straight to bed like normal people we decided to go meet up with our peeps at Steak and Shake. No one wanted anything to eat though...so we decided we'd better move the party outside. It was pouring rain, so we all just crammed under the awning and chilled for a while :)

I'm terrible at blogging on trips...but I'm gonna tryyyyy to do better. We're really having the time of our lives and it's impossible not to share at least some of the happiness :)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. apparently blogger had a glitch yesterday and all blog posts that were posted yesterday were lost. So I reposted it again today! :)

Let it be said of me. {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-05-09T10:28:00.000-05:00

"Let it be said of us that the Lord was our passion

That with gladness we bore, every cross we were given

That we fought the good fight, that we finished the course

Knowing within us the power of the Risen Lord.

Let the cross be our glory

and the Lord be our song

by mercy made holy

by the Spirit made strong."

|| Let it be said of us. ||

There

is nothing I want more,

and

are few things I feel less adequate to do.

It's monday friends, and in the face of stress and overwhelming feelings of "I can't do it all" I have to choose what I'm going to glory in today.

Jesus, only Jesus.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Jessica Dueck: bridals {niagara falls, ontario engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-05-06T11:06:00.000-05:00

I loved so many things about Joel & Jessica's wedding day, and as I was going through sorting all the pictures I took, trying to decide which ones to share, I realized there was no way they were all going to fit in just one blog post ;)

So I'm breaking it up a little, and today you get to see some of the bridal pictures I took of Jessica.

Jessica is the cutest, teensiest, little curly haired girl you'll ever meet. She reminds me of a little fairy with her big green eyes and adorably tiny features.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

FAQ's + other "stuff" {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-05-04T11:33:00.001-05:00

More new stuff on the blog!

And while I couuuuld just let you all roam around and find it, I'm not patient enough to wait for that, plus, I'd hate for you to miss any of it ;)

So first of all, I have an FAQ page! I've been trying to figure out what the best way is to answer some of the questions I get alooooot. I've been answering each of your darling emails individually, but I kept feeling like that wasn't always the best way to use my time, since I was typing out the same answers to the same questions again and again. So in order to have a place where you can all go read the answers (that I've typed out once!) I created this page. That doesn't mean that I don't love getting your emails, (if you can't find an answer, def shoot me an email!) because they are all really soooo sweet, but hopefully this will be easier on all of us as far as giving and getting the answers you need! There's a little tab on the right about halfway down the page that takes you to the FAQ page, check it out! And I may be adding more questions and answers as time goes on, but there's a start at least! :)

I've added a few more things to the side-bar, AND I've added the follow box at the bottom of the blog. I'm still debating on wether or not I want to keep it there, but for now it's up. So for those of you who've been asking how you can "follow" my blog click it now, because it may be gone in another week or so...who knows ;)

I aaaalso added a FB like button to the bottom of all of my posts, so if you want to totally make my day, "like" my posts! ;)

And one last thing. I'm sure some of you are wondering why my website release date came and went without any website appearing! There's definitely a reason, I just kind of forgot to tell you :P

About a week before I was supposed to be finished with it (that was also about a week before I was supposed to leave for Canada) I realized that my stress level was rather high, and I needed to do something about it. I had about 10 portrait sessions I was behind on editing, I was trying to keep up with normal day-to-day work, I had a website that had to be finished in the next 7 days, and I was leaving for a week-long trip right in the mix of all of that. Something had to go...and as I tried to think of the one thing that I could let go of and it would make me feel about ten times better, I realized that it was the website. Everything else really did have to be done (I had clients waiting on me!) but the website deadline was self imposed, and I realized that I was holding on to it and adding about 6 stress levels to my life just because of my pride, because I didn't want to admit that I couldn't do it all.

So there ya have it folks, website design has been put on hold, I'll be slowly working on it and hopefully will be able to get it up in the near future, but I'm not making any promises ;) I value my sanity just a little to much for that.

Sorry this was such a boring little "housekeeping" type post, I have some bee-yoo-tee-ful pictures coming on Friday, promise! :)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

be happy: personal {dallas, tx, engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-05-02T11:25:00.002-05:00

"Oh it's a great day to be alive! //

I know the sun's still shinin' when I close my eyes..."

"Be happy, for this moment is your life."

It's monday.

It's pouring rain outside.

I have a to-do list a mile long.

And an inbox full of un-answered emails.

Hello happy, wonderful, crazy, life.

It's a gooood day ;)

What do you have to be grateful for today!?

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. sending out emails about internship/mentorships to everyone who applied later todaaaayyy! :)

Chi-town + Canadia: travel {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-29T12:24:00.000-05:00

This will be long.

Because I couldn't sort down the pictures to just a few, and because I had a lovely trip and I want to tell you all about it. And besides being where I post all my latest work, this is also kind of like my online journal + scrapbook, so bear with me :)

I left two Wednesday's ago for Chicago to visit friends and to see one of the only cities I've ever been to that I absolutely adore. As most of you know I'm a country girl through and through and I'd take open fields and big sky almost any day over big noisy dirty city. BUT there are a few cities that hold special places in my heart, and Chi-town is one of them. I love all the lights, and pretty store-fronts. I love all the people out and about, businessmen/women, hippies, artists, and everyone in-between.
I love Navy Pier, and The Bean, and all the other tourist-y things you can see there.

I was staying about 30 minutes outside of Chicago with a friend but I was determined to make it downtown while I was there. So even though the weather didn't co-operate at alllll, I got up super early one morning and rode the train (my favorite mode of transportation!) to meet two friends who decided to brave the freezing cold with me for a day ;)

It really was the nastiest weather all day. Pouring rain and a high of about 42 degrees = kind of miserable. But it was an adventure none-the-less :)

No matter how many times I go, I will always take a bean picture despite how cliche it may be. I'm a tourist at heart - so sue me ;)This is one of my favorite ones that I've ever taken I have to admit. The rain+fog+mist all over everything gave it a cool feeling :)

My two darling friends, Julia + Amy. I met them both in Chicago last year when I was shooting Jason & Elizabeths and Josh & Kates weddings, and we've kept up ever since!

Love love LOVE this city.

I got yelled at for taking this picture while we were exploring through the library...but I loved these vintage postcards, pictures, and ads.

Glad the memory's documented...even if the guy who took out picture wasn't quite able to get our faces in focus ;) It's the thought that counts.
I got to go out to dinner at Cheesecake factory with a bunch of my old co-workers and housemates from when I lived and worked in Chicago a few years back, I love these girls so much!

'manda jean, my lovely hostess and bff ;)She's a favorite for sure.

And THEN.After my quickie two day trip to chicago, it was time to go to Canada!I realize that it's probably lame how excited I was. But that's alright. I'm ok with a little bit of lame-ness. Because I really really was excited. I was going to get to use my passport for heavens sake. And while Canada isn't a very "foreign" foreign country, it was still a different country, and I was planning on enjoying every minute of the first of my international travels ;)
Airplane cloud pictures are also kind of lame, everyone has them, and they all look the same. But I never get tired of taking them. Because really, how awesome are they!? They look so much cooler from above than they do below ;)

Rain was pretty much the theme of my trip, it poured rain every single day I was in Chicago and Canada, so when the sun came peeking out for just a few minutes Saturday afternoon I couldn't help but snap this picture to remember the moment.

Ok, so The Falls are cool in pictures.But they're absolutely breathe-taking in person.You should go see for yourself ;)

Proof: I was here! ;)

As I walked along the edge of the Falls, stunned with the majesty and power of it all, my thoughts just kept running along the lines of:"Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder //Consider all, the works Thy hands have made..."

My housemates and exploring buddies for the weekend...you can just baaarely make out the falls behind us through all the mist.

So, the whole time I was there I was on the look-out for "foreign-ness" as a reminder that I was in another country. And besides the fact that everyone said "ay"and speed-limit signs were in kilometers, not miles, (SO confusing when you're driving) there weren't a whole lot of differences.
Except for the bagged milk. I'm not even kidding, this one totally threw me for a loop. They buy their milk, IN BAGS. Can someone please explain why???
I had to try out some of the local fare of course, but what's not pictures is the poutine I had.Poutine, for those of you who don't know what that is, is french fries and cheese curds, drowned in brown gravy. I'm sorry Canada, it was gross. I don't even know how such a thing ever came into being.
Ahhhh, the whole reason I got to go on the trip! My adorable petite curly-haired Jessica "twin" got married - and I got to take pictures :) And despite the fact that it poured rain all day, it was a beautiful wonderful wedding.

I got to go hiking down in the gorge my last day there before I had to head to the airport, it was so gorgeous down there!

I inspired my new friend Mark to buy knock-off ray-bans :) So we had to take a picture of course.

So despite the fact that I had to go without a phone for 4 & 1/2 days (one of the hardest things everrr!) and the fact that they didn't even stamp my passport when I went across the border (I thought about asking for at least a smiley face sticker or something!) AND despite the fact Canada doesn't serve Dr. Pepper (boo) my first international trip was a success.
Now I need to book a wedding in Europe somewhere.... ;)
Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Joel & Jessica: preview {niagara falls, canada | international wedding photographer}

2011-04-27T11:59:00.001-05:00

So many words, thoughts, memories, and happiness stored up from my last week of traveling.

But my favorite part was definitely Joel & Jessica's beautiful, dripping wet, oh-so-wonderful wedding. Can't wait to share them all with you, but for now here's a little preview of the gorgeousness to come!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. I know I said the deadline to apply for the internships/mentorships was monday and that I'd announce the accepted applicants today, but I've pushed all that back to next monday! I am super busy catching up from being gone for a week so I need a little extra time to get all of that together. So you still have a few more days to apply! :)

International wedding photographer {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-25T08:00:00.003-05:00

I'm here.

In Niagara Falls, Canada.

For the wedding I've been waiting for and getting excited about for over 6 months now.

It's my first time out of the country, first time to use my passport, and my first time to see the Falls. But more on that later. Because todaaaay, I get to shoot Joel + Jessica's wedding, and it's going to be absolutely fabulous. They took me exploring yesterday to show me the areas that they are hoping to take pictures at and Oh My Lands y'all, I can hardly wait to get started. I told Jess my main stress today will be not being able to take as many pictures as I want in all of these gorgeous places, with all of these gorgeous people ;)

So ta-ta for now folks, can't wait to tell you all about my trip and share these wedding pictures with you! They will be faaaabulous! ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. if you think of it, you could pray a little "rain rain go away, come again another day" prayer for today...my camera and I (+ the bride!) would greatly appreciate it. ;)

Jake & Beth: married love {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-19T11:20:00.001-05:00

Beth told me about thirty seconds after they got to the shoot, "I warned Jake. I told him on the way over here, 'I'm gonna bring it. All that America's Next Top Model watching is about to pay off.'"

And she deeef brought it ;) Jake and Beth were our models for my last internship, and I had SO MUCH FUN shooting them. They kept me and both of my interns cracking up the whoooole time with their banter.

Jake: "Beth told me the other day that I'm fat...I'm not fat."

Beth: "Babe. That's NOT what I said. Why do you keep saying that I said that?!?"

Then I asked them to kiss for a picture...

Jake: "Oh no. nope. She's got pink gunk all over her lips and I don't want to have pink lips for the rest of these pictures"

Beth: "Oh come on Jake, you have to kiss me in some of the pictures! It won't even show up!"

Jake: "That's what you said in our engagement pictures, the ones where I have red lipstick smeared all over my lips in all of them."

Jake kept saying hilarious things, and then Beth would be like, "You realize that's gonna go on her blog, right?" But I promised him I wouldn't say anything tooo embarrassing ;)

As sappy as it sounds, I really do love "love" ;) And I love watching what it looks like in so every stage of life. I love innocent bashful only-been-dating-one-month kind of love. I love ecstatic, surreal, we-just-got-engaged kind of love. I love the love that I get to see spilling out everywhere just moments after a wedding when it's finally sinking in "We're Married!!!"

But I've come to realize that my faaaavorite kind of love, is married love. The love that's seen stress and joy. The love that's seen the messy hair, and smelled the morning breath. The love that's seen you cry, and laugh, and yell. The kind of love that picks up pizza on the way home for dinner, because he know's you've had a hard day with the kids. The love that kills the spider because they know you can't handle even looking at it, much less the thought of killing it. The love that gets up every morning and packs a lunch for him to take to work, but also the kind of love that keeps loving even when you sleep in, and don't have time to pack the lunch.

That kind of love, that's seen and done all that, and keeps on loving, and laughing, and enjoying life is marvelous to me :) It's fascinating. I don't know what it's like firsthand, but I sure do enjoy watching it happen :) And I loooove shooting that kind of love.

Jake and Beth just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary (they seriously don't look old enough for that, do they?!) and I loved the way they were so comfortable with each other. They are obviously more than just husband and wife, they're best friends. And it was adorable to watch ;)

Beth is an awesome photographer herself, so after you get done looking at their gorgeous faces, go check out her blog! I love reading her posts about her two adorable little boys, aaaand her fashion friday posts are aweeesome ;) Because this girl deeef has fashion skills. I need to take a few lessons.

Much Love.Jessica Shae

New love: personal {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-18T09:54:00.002-05:00

Friday was a happy day.

Friday's are usually happy days anyyyways. But this one was extra happy. Because this handsome dude got here ;)

I was seriously like a little kid waiting for Christmas all morning. Thanks to modern technology I knew from about 7:30 that morning that my baby was "out for delivery" and it was tooorture all morning trying to get work done while I was waiting ;)

My little family just keeps growing and growing ;)

I was preeeetty excited. And I'm completely in love. I had doubts about whether the mark II was going to live up to all the expectations I had for it--but so far it hasn't disapointed. And I cannot wait to start sharing videos with you, that's one of my favorite features ;)

Now I must go be productive...I have two days to get alot of work done before I leave on Wednesday for Chicago > Canada. Mhhmmm, yep. This girl is about to become an international traveler ;) And I might be just a leeeetle excited about that.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. tomorrow's post--is gonna be rockin' awesome ;) Don't miss it.

Summer internships {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-14T16:56:00.000-05:00

Hey hey! It's back, hoooray!

I was getting ready to march myself right up to photobucket HQ and put someone in timeout until they could get themselves straightened out!

That little hitch in the giddy-up kind of threw off my blogging groove for the week, so instead of blogging the pictures I was plaaaanning on blogging yesterday, I'm changing my mind (I do that alot;) and we're gonna talk about intern/mentorships.

The good news is, I'm doing more! The even good-er news is, I'm doing alooot more! And the good-est news is, I might even be doing one near you! :) Oh, pluuuus, there's free stuff involved ;)

So, because of some very sweet and convincing emails over the last few weeks (I'm such a sucker when people butter me up;) I'm not only hosting several more internships this summer, I'm going to be holding some of them out of state. Meaning--yes, I will be doing several here in my great state, Texas, at my homestead ;) But I am also for sure planning 1-2 weeks of internships in Colorado (my second favorite state) aaaand I'm open to the possibility of doing one in either Minnesota, or Georgia. And if you want to see a few more details about what an internship with me looks like you can watch this video I made of my first interns or read either this or this post about two of my spring internships.

So here are the details.

The dates are flexible and subject to change slightly, but right now it looks like that's what's going to work best for me. I already have 4 girls who are coming to my Colorado internships and I'm only going to be able to accept 2-3 more, so if you're interested in coming to that one, email me asap! I also loooove to have out-of-towners for my TX internships, so if you're from out of state, nooo prob!

If you're from one of the other two states I mentioned as possibilities, and are interested in hosting one near you, then shoot me an email and we'll talk! Basically I'd need to have at least 4 girls interested in attending from that area before I could start planning definitely :)

The second opportunity that I want to tell you about is mentorships!

I get soooo many emails every week with questions ranging from, how to set up pricing, to who do I order prints from, to "I'm about to shoot my first wedding, do you have any tips??" And let me tell ya, not only am I terrible at replying to emails, it's sooo hard to type up clear answers to some of those kinds of questions! I'm a face to face kinda gal, so here's the dealio ;)

I'm offering a limited number of free mentorship spots. You can take me to coffee or lunch, orrr if you live far away we can set up a a skype date, and talk! You'll have 1-2 hours of my undivided attention and I'll try my best to answer all your questions!

The reason I'm doing this?

Several reasons. One, because I know everyone doesn't have the time or the money to come to an internship. And maybe you don't need a whole week of teaching you just have a couple of quick questions. I want to do it for free because when I was just starting out, there were soooo many people that gave of their time to answer my million and one questions about everything under the sun. Actually, forget the "when I was just starting out" part, there are still people to this day who I know I can call for help if I need it. So I want to do that for someone else, or maybe several someone-elses ;)

So if you're interested in a mentorship spot, email me at jessica@jessicashae.com and let me know 5-10 questions you have for me.

And I just have to say as a disclaimer to alllll of this. I don't have all the answers. I'm not the best qualified photography + business instructor in the world. NotEvenClose actually. But I love making new friends, I love teaching, I love helping people learn, and I love photography. So come join me in all of that!

You have until the 25th of April to apply for both the internship and mentorship positions, and then I'll be announcing who's been accepted on April 27th!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Blog issues

2011-04-12T13:38:00.001-05:00

Oooobviously there are some serious issues happenin' here on the blog today :P

Apparently photobucket (which is who I use for my blog design hosting) has decided to take the day off leaving me with a blog looking like this. Boo. They would pick the day after I announce my new blog to pull a trick like this one me :( I guess I can just be happy it happened today and not yesterday!?

But for those of you who have been trying to get on all morning and couldn't (thanks for your sweet panicked emails about it!;) it was because I took my blog down for a little while hoping that they'd fix it soon and it would all be better. But I don't know when it will be back to normal so for now y'all just get to see the blog in this less glorified state unfortunately.

Hopefully it'll all be back to norm' soon!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

New blog! {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-11T11:02:00.005-05:00

It's here.

Fiiiiiii.nuh.Leeeee.

I'm excited, and exhausted, and just so happy to have it done that I'm all out of words. Which is a strange occurrence for me ;) Seriously though, even though it's not the perfect blog, and it's not exactly what I want, I'm still pretty proud of it. Mainly because it took me so stinkin' long to figure out what I did want, and then learn how to do it all :)

I knew I wanted to make it a little more personalized, add in some of my new branding stuff, and new colors. I also knew I wanted alot more quotes. I collect quotes like nobody's business, I have journals full of them, a blog devoted just to posting them, and pages of word documents on my computer where I copy and paste them. I love words, and I'm not the most eloquent person on the planet, so I love when I find that someone else has said something that I was thinking, faaarrrr better than I ever could. So I incorporated some of my favorites into my header and I'll be rotating through different quotes in my side-bar every few weeks. I'll also be adding some new features to the side-bar eventually, but for now make sure and check out my new about page, and if you don't already follow me on Twitter, or haven't check out my Facebook page goooo do it! I love making new cyber friends ;)

(ohhh yeah, I just said cyber. And I was totally serious. *nerd alert*)

haha, I feel like a dork for how excited I am over this, like a proud home-owner giving a tour of their new house.

"Welcome, welcome!"

"Here's the main living area. . .check out the new furniture!"

"Back here we have the bedrooms, I made those curtains, and recovered that chair!" ;)

(tooold you--dorky!)

So friends, come in, have a look around, and let me know what you think!
I'm still working on tweaking a few things, but the majority of it's done :)

Now I think I'm going to go paint my toes, lay out in the sun for a while, and breathe a sigh of relief, before jumping into this week's project: finish website design. Oh my holy moly. . . pray I make it through alive ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. if you come across any glitches or are having problems with anything I'd loooove for you tell me about it so I can do my best to fix it! :)
p.p.s. thanks to I'm Kristen for taking about half of the pictures in my new header! :)

Contest winners! {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-08T11:29:00.001-05:00

I just love having contests.

And if you don't know what these contests are all about, you should probably catch up here and here before you continue reading :)

I love reading everyones entries and I'm not even kidding when I say I get nervous when it comes time to put the numbers into random.org and see who's gonna win ;) I put all the names into a spreadsheet form with a number assigned to each name, put the numbers into random.org, push the generate button, see the number that's been chosen and then quickly look at my spreadsheet to find out who has that lucky number. And then I do a little happy dance around my room for the winner ;) Umm, so maybe I get a little bit more excited about it than y'all do. . .just let me have my fun, K?

So I was just a little bit overwhelmed (in a good way!) by all of your guesses + suggestions. And I was happy to see that the majority of you guessed the right color! I'm hoping that means that it's a good choice? Or maybe it just means I'm predictable? Haha, for any of you who follow my authentic blog at all, it was prob pretttty easy to guess, my color shows up alot there ;)
Well whatever it is--I love my new color. And I think I'm becoming a little obsessed with it. Anything and everything I see in this color, I must buy. A pair of socks? They're my color, I must need them. A set of measuring spoons? They're tiffany blue, I must need them. You get the idea...it's kinda bad ;)

I just can't quite decide what to call it. I usually call it Tiffany blue in my head, but I realize that technically it's a little darker than the "real" Tiffany blue, but it's not quite teal or aqua to me either. I think the one that I've settled on liking the best is "robins egg blue" ;)
It all started with my darling iPhone cover. I got this back in January, and ever since then It's like I can't keep my hands off stuff in this color.

I have new stationary

A beautiful little "robins egg" necklace that I got as a birthday present from a friend.

This cool vintage jar I found at a thrift store, and the adorable potted plant sitting in my room that I'm doing my darndest to keep alive.

And these adoooorable summer shoes that I found this week--to go along with all of the teal/tiffany blue/robins egg colored tops and dresses I've been buying here recently ;)

And my favorite fav. My wayfarers ;)

I love them so much that I'm giving a pair to one of youuuu! But you don't get to know who, just yet ;)

p.s. thanks to Kendra Dawn for the picture! ;)
I also loved all of your music suggestions. Seriously guys...you all have awesome taste in music, and I found SO much new stuff that I like. It took foreeever to go through all 98 of your suggestions, and I loved all the txt messages, emails, FB messages, and comments I kept getting all week adding to the list ;) So much fun-ness ;) The not fun-ness part was having to pick just ONE song that I loved the most, and really it was quite impossible.
But it had to be done, and this one was definitely in my top plays over the past week. I've never heard of Little & Ashley, but I loved everything about this song--the vocals, music, and lyrics...especially the lyrics ;)

Soooo folks, the lucky winner of the iTunes gift card is Lydia Covey who shared this adorable song with me.
Aaaaand Amelia Sutton is going to get a new pair of rockin' wayfarers because she guessed the right color and random.org decided it was her lucky day ;)
Shoot me an email girls (jessica@jessicashae.com) with your address so I can send you your prizes! :)
And I can't wait to unveil the whole shabang on monday! I may not have any hair left by then but my bloooog sure will be cute! ;) Let's just hope that this weekend involves some sleep on top of shooting a wedding tomorrow, church on Sunday and somewhere in the mix of all that finishing the design ;)

Much Love.Jessica Shae

Intern week #2: recap {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-07T12:28:00.001-05:00

Spring internships are officially over, but boooy were they fun! And hard and exciting, and exhausting, and challenging, and wonderful. Each one was different, and each one I learned so much, probably more than the girls did! ;) I had 4 girls here for a week in February, then the beginning of March I had two more girls here for a week, and I just wrapped up my last one a week ago with two more girls :)

Jayne and Hannah were my first March internship and while the weather did it's best to be nasty to us all week (loooots of rain and wind. boo.) we managed to have a fabulous time anyways ;)

We spent alot of time at my "second office" my favorite little starbucks down the road.

I fed them goooood. Guys. Here's the deal. If you intern for me, I can't promise that I will have all the answers (actually--I think I can promise that I won't;) but I do promise this. If you come, I will feed you gooood. Because really, who can think about learning how to shoot manual and blog design on a hungry tummy??

Aren't they the cutest little things???

We went glow-in-the-dark (?) bowling...and managed to be absolutely terrible at it :)

And did lots and lots. . .

. . .of shooting :)

K, so I'd seen a friend post something about doing a shoot in the dark using just the light from his iphone, and I'd wanted to try it ever since. So Wednesday night we went out and had some fun with my iphone and the light from one street lamp. Pretty cool, huh?

Mk, so, let me introduce you to my girls :)

Jayne Hale lives in College Station, TX and is going to A&M right now. (You will all be very proud to know that I didn't let our differing college loyalties interfere with the week. GO UT! Oh, whoops, how did that slip out?? ;) We bonded over our mutual love of Sonic (Happy Hour!!) and anthropologie. Oh, and our almost matching iPhone covers :) And she introduced me to some pretty awesome new music/artists, my favorite being Jillian Edwards.

Jayne is sweet, quiet, and laid back. We laughed all week at the differences between her very methodical step by step way of doing things, that was so different from my slap-dash, figure it out as I go way of life ;)

I love how her brand turned out...a little bit of anthro, a little bit of vintage, and a whole-lotta loveliness just like Jayne.

Jayne dreams of someday using her photography to help non-profit missionary organizations, and I couldn't be more proud of her heart to help others with the awesome talent God has blessed her with.

Aaaand Hannah!

Hannah Pittelkow, (better known in the blogging world as "Farmgirl in Flip-Flops") came alllll the way from Washington State for the internship. She's been reading/commenting on my blog for what seems like forever, and I was so happy to get to put a face and personality to all the sweet comments I've gotten over the years!

It was my extreme pleasure to introduce her to all the wonders of TX food. I took her to Chipotle for the first time, (the poor girl had NEVER HAD CHIPOTLE) fed her barbecue from my favorite barbecue place, and introduced her to the deliciousness that is Blue-Bell Ice-Cream. All in all a pretty successful week right there, even if I hadn't taught her a single thing. Because really, Chipotle and Blue-Bell = waaaay more important than knowing what aperture and shutter speed is ;)I kid I kid.Kinda... ;)

I love the way Hannah's blog/brand came together. She incorporated her love of warm yellow light, the ocean/beach (where she hopes to live someday) the country (where she lives right now), aaand the fact that she's a Navy brat with a love for all things nautical and traveling :)

I miss you girls, come back?? ;)

It was a fabulous week--and you need to go check out their new blogs here and here, and leave them some blog love! Because they're pretty rockin awesome ;)
For all of you that have been emailing and asking if I'm going to have any more internships this year, the answer issss Yes! I actually have a few exciting surprises up my sleeve about that little matter, and I'm hoping to announce them next week, so stay tuned! :)

Much Love.Jessica Shaep.s. thank you Hannah P. for all the pictures in this post with me in it! :)

Alan & Ginni: love {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2011-04-06T11:12:00.001-05:00

Oh my oh my oh my. So much to do so little time to do it in. The good news is. . .blog design is coming along faaaabulously and it's pretty much done other than a little bit of tweaking! ;) Cannot wait to share it with y'all! And it's been so much fun to hear everyones guesses as to the new color and music suggestions! I have the best readers everrrrr! Stay tuned on Friday for all the big announcements and contest winners! :)

But in the midst of blog/website design I'm trying to keep up with editing and blogging too. I counted up how many shoots I'm behind on editing + blogging and I think I counted up to about ten? Whoops? So I have lots of beauty and fun coming to the blog, once I can get my rear in gear and start posting!

This adorable couple was one of my models for my internship 3 weeks ago. Ginni was actually a bridesmaid in Elvis and Katie's wedding last summer, but lives pretty close to me. So when she saw I was looking for models she volunteered her and Alan's gorgeous smiling faces for the job ;)

I have a confession to make--when I first saw/met Ginni at the rehearsal the night before Elvis and Katie's wedding, I thought she was about 12, and that she must be a junior bridesmaid in the wedding or something. I quickly realized that she was not 12, not a junior bridesmaid, but was in fact married ;) And noooow they're not only a couple, they're also getting ready to add a little one to their family this Fall!

Ginni is itty-bitty...and I loved how gentle Alan was with her.

And I'm preeeetty sure Ginni adores him ;)

My faaaavorite collage in this post. Snaps they're cute!

And as usual. . .we'll end with a favorite ;)

Thanks so much Alan and Ginni for modeling for us, you rocked it! :)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae