fall savings {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

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

Accidental Awesomeness {personal}

I can't stop laughing at this picture.

I was at my grandparents house this weekend, trying to take a picture of this really cool chili plant my grandmother has. And I totally didn't see my little bro who was inside the house - doing what little brothers do best, acting like a dork ;)

Sometimes the picture you were meaning to take and the picture you come out with are two different things. And sometimes the accidental picture is the best.

And by the way - I love my brother, he's the coolest dork I know ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

I am not a photographer {personal}

No, let me explain what I mean by that - before all my clients get very worried that they've hired a fraud. Photography is my main trade right now. It's what I do to earn money, and it's one of my favorite things to do. I am invigorated by it, I love the way it stirs my creativity, and the fact that there is always something new to learn about it, some new discovery to make. I would be happy if it were something that I got to do on a regular basis for the rest of my life, but I don't know for a fact that that's how it will pan out.

And photography is not, and cannot be the only thing that defines me, and who I am as a person.

A friend sent me this quote a while back, and it has stuck with me ever since:

"A human should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." --Robert Heinlein

I don't want to be just a photographer. I want to be an artist in the full sense of the word. I want to take a painting class, and a calligraphy class. I want to learn to see and create beauty with more than just my camera. But even outside the realm of being an artist, I want to be continually working on being a better daughter, sister, friend, cook, organizer, teacher, learner, listener, reader, and speaker. And guess what? Most of those things cannot be learned while sitting in front of a computer screen, which is where I find myself most of the time these days. Yes, I have an obligation to my paying clients to do my work in a timely manner, so there are some days when I will need to shut myself up and plow through my work. But I never want my calendar to be so full of "photography" work, that I don't have time for all of my "other" work - some of which is so much more important.

I want to make time to cook more meals, give more hugs, go on more bike rides, read more books, tuck little siblings into bed and kiss them goodnight, watch a movie, have real conversations with real friends, keep up with journaling . . . and the list could go on and on.

And let me be very very honest here, I'm terrible at it. I know this, and I want to change it. I don't want to look back and see that I spent two years of my life building a business in a way that left me with nothing but just that - a business.

I made dinner the other night, because I hadn't really cooked in forever, and was dying too.

You just can't beat homemade pretzels (with cheese and jalapenos on them!) fresh corn on the cob, and grilled chicken salad.

Best Summer meal eveeerrrr.

We've all heard it said a million times, but I think it's worth saying again: No one ever comes to the end of their life and wishes they had spent more time in the office.

I have another friend that posted this as his status the other day and boy did it strike home: "Priorities are what we *do* -- everything else is just talk." I don't want this to just be "talk" that I post on my blog, and then never do anything about, keep me accountable my friends!

So, I guess I should say - I am not (just) a photographer. And I hope I never am :) Now I'm off to "butcher a hog..."

I kid I KID.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

[real pictures . of real people]

Once upon a time there were people.

And they were real.

Mom's ran around all day kissing booboo's, making peanut butter and jelly and hot dogs, and sometimes there just wasn't time to put on make-up or curl their hair.

Dad's came home tired from a long day of work, put on their favorite t-shirt (which happened to be very hole-y. Apparently it's called, "just broken in".) some shorts and crammed a ball cap on their head.

Little kids ran around shirtless all day. . .

. . .sometimes with food on their face.

And life was happy.


And they took pictures just like this.

They had acne, bad hair days, and sometimes their clothes didn't even match.

But guess what? They still took pictures. Usually with a little throw away camera. And they printed them out, framed them or put them in photo albums, and then every holiday or maybe just on random rainy days, they would pull out those photo albums, and relive the memories. Peering at the somewhat grainy, slightly off center, usually blurry pictures, they would laugh and sigh, remembering back to those happy days. They would giggle at so-and-so's nap hair. Or point out that dad was wearing socks with sandals - agaaain.

And then, slowly but surely something started to change. All of a sudden, everyone wanted one of those crazy awesome new digital SLR cameras. And then it seemed that there was this new un-spoken rule that any picture that went anywhere (i.e. Facebook, blog, picture frames, etc...) had to be photoshopped (or at least touched up in picasa for crying out loud!) And pictures were no longer stored in photo albums, where they could be pulled out at random and looked through, but instead were stored neatly on hard drives, to be lost and forgotten.

I posted a new album of pictures on Facebook the other day entitled "[life's not always picture perfect.]" and in the description I said this:

"Sometimes as a photographer there is this pressure to make every picture you take, everywhere, at all times, a work of art. But guess what? Life doesn't work like that. It's not always picture perfect. There are times when all you have is a cell phone camera, or a little point and shoot camera, or maybe even one of those little throw away film cameras from Walmart. And sometimes that's all you need to capture the moment. Yeah, it might be a little grainy, or underexposed, or blurry, or whatever, but who cares. They are memories - documented. Sometimes you just need some real life pictures where everyone looks a little messy and un-edited, where the kids have pb&j smeared everywhere, where you've already taken all your make-up off for the day and you're in your pj's, those are the pictures that you will take out with the grandkids someday and talk about. So - in honor of preserving memories no matter what the equipment, these are just pictures. Of real people. Some taken with a film camera, some with my point and shoot, and maybe a few from my cell phone."

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not advocating the turning away from ever having any professional quality pictures taken (and thus neatly doing away with the need for my profession) and you aren't going to find me showing up to your wedding with a little point and shoot throw away camera (although I might have a Polaroid camera lurking somewhere nearby for creative use ;) and I'm also not saying that photoshop is evil and you shouldn't be using it.

no, no, no.

Here is what I am saying.

Let's start taking and printing and framing real pictures again.

I realized a while back that I was getting so stressed out with making every picture that "perfect picture" that I was missing moments all around me.

Sometime last year I came across Chase Jarvis's work, and quickly became enamored with what he calls "iphone art" and his philosophy behind it. He says: "I hope to underscore--perhaps legitimize--the idea that an image can come from any camera, even a mobile phone. Inherently, we all know that an image isn't measured by it's resolution, dynamic range, or anything technical. It's measured by the simple--sometimes profound, other times absurd, or humorous, or whimsical--effect that it can have on us."

The first time I read that (and every time I've read it since!) my heart started clapping! Because it's so so true! Yes, beautiful pictures can be taken with really expensive equipment and made even more beautiful with really nice editing software, but the same impact can come from a picture with the little 3mp camera in your pocket on your phone.

All those pictures at the top of this post, were taken with a throw away film camera. And guess what? I LOVE them. They make me happy just looking at them. They bring back memories. I don't look at them and think, "Omw--the exposure is waaaay off on that one." Or, "I can't believe they didn't take the time to apply the rule of thirds in this picture."

Here recently on my last few trips I have bought a throw away camera to take with me just to snap random pictures with, and it's been so much fun to experiment with it a little! Instead of spending alot of time thinking about f/stops and shutter speed, I just see something that makes me happy, and take a picture to remember it.

So, my challenge comes in two parts. First--go take pictures. Wherever you are, with whatever you have. And second--just because you are using a cell phone camera or a throw away camera, don't try to take ugly pictures, try to take good ones! Some of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken are ones that I took before I had a really nice camera, or knew how to use editing software, or knew what aperture and shutter speed even meant. In our ignorance, I think we can take some of the most beautiful pictures just because we are shooting on instinct, and not based off of what the back of our camera tells us.

I've decided that to hold myself accountable to do this I am going to start posting a picture once a week that I love (and the reason I love it) that was taken with either my phone camera, point and shoot or my old school film camera. And no editing allowed ;)

And yes, if you are looking for someone to take those once a year professional pictures for your family, or need someone to document your wedding day, I would love to do that for you. But in the in-between times . . .

[pull-out-your-camera, and click.]

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Prosky Family Session: Denver CO

It's always so much fun reconecting with old friends through photoshoots, and I seem to be doing alot of that here recently! Jennica and I were in youth group together way back when, like 6 years ago. We sang together in adult and youth choir, even sang in a trio with together, and we also helped lead our youth groups worship on Wednesdays nights there for a while.

YaY for Facebook and keeping in touch with old friends because when Jennica saw that I was coming to Colorado again, she wrote me asking about the possibility of doing a family shoot with her new little family! I was so happy to get to do it, and meet the adorable little smiley guy they recently added to their family :)

It was so much fun to meet the rest of your family Jennica and your little guy is a heartbreaker for sure!
Thanks for the fun times!

We had to move the shoot indoors somewhat last minute because of the freezing cold outside. We just happened to be near this amazing building in downtown Denver, with tons of natural lighting, Christmas Trees, and Poinsettias, I was so happy :)


This little guy just cranked out the smiles the whole time thanks in part to my assistant Krista, who was busy dancing and doing who-knows-what-kinda-crazy-stuff behind my head while I was taking pictures. But also because he was just a totally happy baby!


This little guy looooves his mommy :)


How adorable is that...?!?!VERY adorable let me assure you ;)





Jennica was so creative and brought along several adorable props, including a santa hat and Christmas storybook!








I love this one...isnt he a cutie?


Mommy's kisses are always the best!


Aaaaaand my favorite! Check out his amazing eyes!

Much Love,

Jessica Shae

David & Daniel: School Pictures.

You will all remember the gorgeous girl I posted about yesterday, with her beautiful blue eyes . . . well, more amazing-ness coming right up! While I was there staying with Sarah, her mom asked me to take some school pictures for David and Daniel, the two youngest. They hadn't had any taken in a couple years and she wanted something to update the picture frames with. You will quickly see that stunning good looks just so happens to run in this family, I'm pretty sure there's not a single one that doesn't take a good picture!

I took the boys out individually to a really cool old barn on a little piece of property within walking distance of their front door. I have to tell ya, they must just have some kind of magic light there in the California mountains, every shoot I was just eating it up! I wasn't using a reflector OR a flash for any of these pictures, and the lighting . . . O my lands, makes my heart go pitter patter.

Coupled with these killer good looks, it's a win-win situation :)

David is 15 and you've heard the cliche "heart of gold?" . . . it's not a cliche with David, just fact. I have never seen such a perfect gentleman, totally selfless, and a really really all around cool guy. He takes after his namesake King David, "A man after God's own heart."

Daniel is 13 and Mr. Spitfire Personality. He just took up soccer a few months ago, and is already well on his way to becoming the teams star player! He is the life of the party most anywhere you go, and quite the crack-up ;) It is funny to me how well these two resemble their name-sakes in character and personality, because Daniel is very much like the Daniel-in-the-lions-den.

O yeah, these guys have the natural "studly look" doooown.

sigh . . . LOOK at that smile. What a heartbreaker ;)






Check out his eyes! Told ya it runs in the family :)


One of my favorite shots of the day. There is just something about boy-sitting-on-split-rail-fence that makes me H.A.P.P.Y.

Mr. Tough guy . . . watch out world!

Much Love,

Jessica Shae

Callahan Charles

A little while ago I was able to go and spend a week with my aunt, uncle, and cousins that live in the amazing city of San Fransisco, CA. I love Love that city, it totally ranks in my top 3 favorites, and as it was only my second time there, I had so much fun falling even more in love with it.

But even more than the city I love, Love, LOVE my awesome family that lives there, I hardly ever get to see them so I had a blast having a week of them all to myself ;)

I was there as a stand in Nanny for my two little cousins, while their normal nanny was out with a family emergency. I had so. much. fun. getting to explore the city with Bliss and Cal (age 6 and 3 respectively) take them to school, gymnastics, the beach, the aquarium, the park, we were all over the place!

While I took lots of pictures, most of them ended up being of Cal (short for Callahan) because I spent a lot more time with him since Bliss was at school a lot of the time. I wish I had more pictures to post of her adorable little face, but for now you will have to be satisfied with the studly looks and mischievous smile of Cal.


Told ya he could be a model. I wasn't kidding . . .

We went to the beach, threw rocks in the water . . .

. . . and sniffed the fresh salty air . . .

We went to this amAzing aquarium that was about 15 minutes walking distance away from them. Seriously, it was so awesome, I love it. And I managed to get some pretty cool pictures with all the cool lighting coming from the fish tanks.

I love this one so SO much. He was absolutely fascinated and completely absorbed with all the different fish.

We stopped at Starbucks on one of our excursions, because everyone knows that when exploring a city as amazing as San Fran, you must stop for refreshments every now and then ;)

While he was enjoying his blueberry muffin I managed to catch a couple of "signature Cal faces".

This is his "Squinty Pirate Face" and This, his "Big Cheesy Grin"

Here we have some adorable brother sister love going on. This is Bliss, who you will get to enjoy more pictures of sometime soon, but I just couldn't do a whole post without at least one picture of her. She is just so so adorb :)

I love both of these kiddo's so much! And I can't wait until the next time I see them!

Much love,

Jessica Shae