blogs of photogs

Another fun couple that works together as a photographer team is Chris + Lynn Jaska, out of Vancouver, BC, Canada. Their blog displays their amazing award winning work, as well as giving you a feel for what a fantastic time they seem to have working together and capturing outstanding images. Make sure you check out their “about me” page on their site, don’t you just feel their friendly vibe jump off the screen? Quite the accomplished photojournalists, their talents are put to great use in wedding photography in various destinations. Their style is very polished, artistic and commercial, and I know my readers will get a lot of inspiration from their site and blog!

~enjoy!

Mary

I hope not! If all goes well, and my little wordpress calendar doesn’t fail me, there should be three new posts published while I am gone on my two week vacation! Cross your fingers that they show up on July 30, Aug 4 and Aug 7. I worked my butt off the past two days getting all the posts reviewed and lined up–(wish I meant that literally, but alas, the life of a digital photographer and blogger causes my butt to be a bit too generous, lol)

I will be swimming, fishing, hiking, and relaxing with my terrific husband and truly enjoying (and photographing!) my three amazing children… seen here:

Hope to check in by iphone, but who knows? Happy Summer!

Mary

Karen Carey is a highly gifted photographer who I can truly call a fine artist, working outside of Philadelphia, PA. Karen’s blog looks like it might have had a re-do lately, as a couple of the links (workshop) are not yet functional. Don’t let that stop you from spending some time on her blog and site, soaking up her extraordinary talent and learning from her wealth of experience.  I met Karen last January, at the one and only photography workshop I have ever gone to-her Think. Create. Record. Workshop,. I’m not a “workshop person” but I learned a lot from Karen, and from the workshop, laughed a heck of a lot, and really came away with a greater perspective on my own photography work that I still find myself ruminating about and implementing tips from, in my portrait sessions now.

Karen showed us a sneak peek in January from her work with Flashes of Hope - an awe-inspiring and life changing project that focuses on capturing powerful portraits of kids fighting cancer and other diseases. Truly something I won’t forget. 

Enjoy Karen’s work!

Mary

Jess VanLue works out of Vassar, Michigan and the surrounding areas. She photographs babies through teens and families, but the work that really stood out to me is her high school senior work. You can see some on her blog, but even more at her separate seniors site here. It loaded a bit slow for me, but my wireless ISP has been acting up, might just be me.

Jess seems to have a great connection with seniors, and has some really magnificent locations that she has found. It seems to me that some photographers can take “good enough” photos of seniors, and some seem to truly have their finger on the current pulse of what seniors want, and keep coming up with new, different and unique shots. Jess is there. Enjoy!

Mary

I wanted to share this nifty new application I found on one of the blogs I looked at recently (sorry that I have forgotten where I found it!) Its called Wordle and you can find it at wordle.net

Basically, you can create a beautiful word cloud out of any site or blog that has an RSS stream. Here is the cloud I created from recent blogs of photogs posts:

Click the image to go check it out larger at flickr. I even picked the colors to match my blog. I think it is a fun thing to add to your photo blog….so I wanted to share it here for my readers. :) 

Enjoy!

Mary

Critsey sent me a huge list of blogger blogs that have been enhanced to feature large photos, her blog was one of them. Thanks Critsey! I loved her work, blog and friendly talkative style so much, I had to feature it today! :) 

Critsey is a wedding photographer who truly specializes in destination and travel weddings. If you look at her site, you will see a large showcase of great weddings in various locations that she has documented. She has been all over the place, from St. Kitts to Paris to London and all over the states. I think you will really enjoy her tasteful boudoir, engagement, and wedding sessions!

Mary

In addition to being available for travel worldwide, Daniel Snow works out of the Twin Cities metro area, (Minneapolis & St. Paul–same as me!) so I guess I’m performing another local karmic good deed by featuring his blog here on Blogs of Photogs.

Anyway, quite simply, he rocks at both wedding photography and engagement sessions, and Daniel is shockingly affordable for being such an accomplished photographer. If I were getting married again, (which I’m not, but instead celebrating 15 years of wedded bliss to my sweetie next month) I’d have to talk to Daniel first off and see if he was available. There is such a glut of photographers in our area, many whom…how can I say this kindly….just do not have the expertise to be charging what they do. Daniel is the complete opposite-exceedingly talented yet well within the budget of most middle class couples. Yippee for them, and I can see why he is booked so far ahead. The dynamic range of his black and whites, (on my iMac anyway) are truly some of the best I have seen lately. Comparable to great film shooters-this is what digital should look like when done right. Enjoy!

Mary

Todd Laffler works out of Scotch Plains, NJ, but travels as well. He primarily shoots weddings, but also some portrait work and children, etc. To say that his blog and site showcase an extraordinary talent would be an understatement. I’ve mentioned it before (some might say ad nauseum…) but I look at a lot of photo blogs. A lot.

There are some blogs that grab me right away, making me go through pages and pages and my kids get bagels for dinner. Again. Yup, this is one of those. His artistry, finesse and personality are all intertwined within his photographs in a distinctive way that makes me think we will be hearing about Todd more in the future. Hope you enjoy too….

Mary

Gina Lee Photography has a beautiful fresh style that just says “summer” to me. She is located in southern California, and most of her photos look like they just jumped off the pages of Pottery Barn Kids… that saturated bright look that has such a fun commercial feel. Love her family shots, her use of sun flare, her session with the chalk board (too cute!) and the fusion of her own life interspersed within the blog, complete with her curly headed little cutie getting a hair cut. Enjoy the inspiration!

Mary

This is such a fun blog, with so much to like! Perfect little break from getting things ready for the 4th of July here in beautiful Minneapolis.

Ok, first thing, and I absolutely have to say this, and I do not personally know Beth of bsquared photography, so I have no stake in saying this: Beth you are RIDICULOUSLY under priced. There are so many stellar images on this blog, and the portrait work, beach work and family sessions are so much better than SO many of the blogs I look at… I really have to just yell at you for a minute about your pricing. WAY UNDER PRICED!!!

There, that is out of the way…(and if any of you readers agree with me, please leave a comment here to prove my point…)

Ok… so, what else do I love? I love the frequent updates, the huge size of the images on the blog, (especially love that b&w image of the baby on the wooden bridge…) the band photos are great, (and if you have ever done any band photography in darkly lit clubs, you know how good these are!) and the fun, affable, cool-mom-next-door tone of her writing. There are a couple less than perfect images if you delve way back, but you can really see amazing growth, talent and beauty in her work. If she was one of the photographers I have mentored though, I’d be on her about that pricing.

-enjoy!

Mary