Check out these favorites:
AMAZING Spider webs – Check it out at CAKE WHIZ!
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This is so yummy – I just had to share. Check it out at A FOOD CENTRIC LIFE
Children and Families
Our favorite stories.
January 2013
About a year ago we decided that we would do a calendar project to benefit a children. We finally have our first calendar complete. It was our first year – and after all of the work and organizing put into it…. Jenny up and says… “so… are we doing this again next year?” Of course me… “I think so.”…. Jenny “Because if we are, I think I need to start on that NOW.”
Ok… enough said I think with that – it was obviously a huge project and took a ton of people, organizing, prop shopping and construction, photography time, editing time. But in the end – yes, my first thoughts is OF COURSE we will do it again for a 2014 calendar because it was just way too much fun not to.
We had great little subjects who participated.
Then of course we had a few very gracious vendors that supported some of our shoots too.
Anything But Vanilla was amazing with some cupcakes in the “Everything nice” shoot. She makes some of the most amazing flavors of cakes & cupcakes I’ve ever tasted.
Cake Pandemic – Christine Godsey Black 720-235-2008 made us a BUNCH of pies for the Little Jack Horner shoots. They were so yummy, and looked beautiful… that is before the boys dug in and destroyed them upon command!lol
Kimber at Kim’s Designs is my go to tutu vendor. Amazingly creative and custom makes tutus for our shoots. I can’t say enough about her work.
Dizzie Izzie makes amazing pedi-skirts and much more. The kids just love twirling in them!!!
And then my thought catcher & arranger and set designer too: Jenny Bonfiglio
THE STORIES.
PRINCESS & THE FROG
SUGAR & SPICE AND EVERYTHING NICE
LITTLE MISS MUFFET
BED IN SUMMER by Robert Louis Stevenson
RAPUNZEL
LITTLE BOY BLUE
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
JACK AND JILL
WYNKEN BLYNKEN & NOD
LITTLE JACK HORNER
For each copy of the 2013 Calendar sold between October 20th, 2012 – February 1st, 2013 a portion of the proceeds will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
PURCHASE YOUR 2013 STORYBOOK CALENDAR BY CLICKING HERE!
I almost missed the “Peach” month. What was I thinking?
So most of August peaches escaped my radar. Of course, I am a photographer – mom – wife… first. But WHAT WAS I THINKING? This is one of my favorite fruits and in a month when we are suppose to be celebrating the mighty “Peach” it almost slipped by me. THANK GOODNESS, I caught a post on facebook letting me know it was national peach month. So, this morning I decided I needed to make some fresh peach cobbler! So here you go:
- FRESH PEACH COBBLER
- 1/2 cup salted butter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar (divide into 3/4 cup each)
- 1 tbs. baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
- 4 Large fresh yellow peaches (or 5 if you’re like me and LOVE peaches)
- 2 tbs. fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- nutmeg
Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.
Melt butter in an 8×8 baking pan.
Combine flower, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Add one cup of milk and mix until dry ingredients are moist. Don’t stir – pour batter over the melted butter.
Heat remaining sugar, fresh peaches, lemon juice, lemon zest, and cinnamon on medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Pour peach mixture over batter AND DON’T MIX. THE CRUST WILL FORM OVER THE PEACHES WHEN BAKING. I sprinkle the nutmeg over the top before putting into the oven!
Bake the cobbler for about 40-45 minutes. Serve with either vanilla ice-cream or for a lighter version use frozen whipped cream.
Hope you enjoy!!! It doesn’t last long –
What little lady can pass up a tutu?
A few weeks ago we posted on facebook that we were doing one day of “tutu” sessions for little girls, their families & friends. One day quickly turned into three and it couldn’t have been more fun! Absolutely in love with hundreds of images from those shoots! Dizzie Izzie pedi-skirts and some fantastic tutus from Kimber… then add some cupcakes from Anything But Vanilla and some accessories and it makes for some pretty fun filled days of photography.
Check out some of the images on these little videos!
BABY Jack tab blankets
SUPER happy to say that I’m now carrying Baby Jack tab blankets at our new studio in Denver. Both my kids LOVED their tab blankets – in fact they wore them completely out because they carried them everywhere. They are super soft and have the great sensory tabs and nice and small so your kids can tote them around without taking up much room at all. If you are interested, we will have some available at the studio or if you see one of the designs here that you like, call me and I can let you know if I have it in stock and can also take orders over the phone or online. Any questions: (720)566-9770 or e-mail us at info@fototails.comDescription
baby Jack blankets are all handmade ribbon tab blankets. They are baby/child size.Each blanket has 1 looped ribbon attached for clipping toys or a pacifer and the rest of the ribbons are sewn shut to create “tabs”. This is to prevent from easily popping off after normal wear & tear and to prevent safety issues like getting little fingers caught.
They are PERFECT perfect baby shower gifts!
They are PERFECT perfect baby shower gifts!
General Information
Please wash on cold delicate & tumble dry solo to prevent from shrinking. Ribbons may fray and stray after normal wear and tear so please moniter children carefully!
$23.00 + tax (& shipping)
A Storybook Journey.
In 2012 we are taking ourselves on a storybook journey towards our final destination of a 2013 calendar to raise funds to donate to St. Jude.
The goal is to take a child’s point of view when we photograph children in some of their favorite childhood stories. We’ve managed a few of the shoots so far and still have a huge path ahead of us to capture the final images for the 2013 calendar that will be released for sale sometime in October of 2012.
While we are dreaming and and creating sets or scouting locations for many of the schedule shoots – the ultimate goal is that we want to keep them child-like and so set designs are created either by children or with a child’s point of view in mind. If you follow us on our Facebook page at Jeanine Thurston Photography, you will be able to keep up-to-date on upcoming shoots that you children may be interested in participating in with us.
This is a very exciting project and so far we have been having so much fun with our little subjects. Some of the comments I’ve received from parents that have had their children participate already is about how the children continued to role-play all the way home, and things like “my kids have been talking about the shoot for weeks after!” We are going about the sessions with the mindset of “NO CHEESE PHOTOS” and lightly leading the kids into creating their own little “storybook” playtime during the shoots. It really has amazed me at the expressions and real fun everyone has during the process.
If you have children between the ages of 3-12 years of age and feel you may be interested, please like our page at Jeanine Thurston Photography and check back often for updates over the next few months. We have some amazing shoots planned and would love to have you come to one of the photo-shoots with your children! We limit the number of kids that can participate in each shoot so we can concentrate on getting some great calendar images… so as soon as you see a notice post – please contact us ASAP to get your spot.
Wynken, Blynken & Nod
Casting for another story. Calling boys (or tom boys) 3-8 years old
If you haven’t seen our posts or if you just need an update, we have 12 months of a calendar to fill with some amazing themes. The 2013 calendar is scheduled to come out later this year and we need to have 12 solid months of images for the calendar. We are doing this to raise some much needed funds for a children’s charity – and we will soon post details on the charity as well.
But… in the meanwhile we are looking for some amazing little boys to be a part of our next two shoots scheduled in March!
If you have some boys ages 3-8 years or have a friend that has the “boy” flavor and has some time to come play with us please pass along the details!
MARCH 15TH Little Jack Horner… I’m sure you know this story. But picture a corner of
100+ year old brick walls with a pile of pies – and I mean REAL pies. 9am-12noon
MARCH 22ND Wynken, Blynken & Nod. 9am-noon. This hand-made child-inspired set is going to be a blast. If you don’t know the story… we will have the book there for you to read – it’s a great children’s book.
We ARE setting appointments for this – so if your son is available for the shoots please e-mail jennyb@fototails.com for all the details to get on our list!!!
Calling all boys with a HUGE IMAGINATION to play.
What’s next on the calendar for photography? April-June 2012
Upcoming “Special Days” to consider for a photo occasion!
Fairy Tales....
Easter (Sunday – April 8th, 2012) – perfect time for frilly dresses or your little guy dressed in his best “duds.” We will have the Little Ms Muffet set available for the entire month of March & April – and will be putting up samples of the shoot/set before the end of this month.
DONT FORGET MOTHER’S DAY!(Sunday – May 13th, 2012)!! Yes I had to put this in capital letters because I’m a mom. I don’t get in front of the camera often enough – and mother & child(ren) portraits are really the BEST! We moms love our little ones and love photos to show how amazing our children are to us.
FATHER’S DAY(Sunday – June 17th, 2012). I see father’s come into the studio all the time – and a portrait of the kids to give him on father’s day is extra special…. and make it fun maybe with some of dad’s favorite things in the photo session too! Does’t have to be boring… let us help you customize your session to fit your personality!
The happy jumping dance.
Happy Jumping Dance
Family & children portrait sessions can be super fun. But… of course there are always the little bumps in the road, trying to get children to smile… or even sit in a decent location to get some good images. Years ago… (MANY YEARS AGO) as I watched the TV show ELLEN of course I couldn’t help buy smile at her dancing before every show. So… I decided that instead that we should do a happy jumping dance “after” each children/family session to celebrate. One of these days I’ll have to go through and make a little video of shots of this from each session… the kids adore doing it and I always have to snap one or two of the happy jumping dance.
Happy Jumping Dance
Random thoughts by a people photographer. JOURNAL ENTRY 1
February 3rd, 2012
Love photographing – hate bill collecting
Want to please everyone
When we have a few days of happy clients we are elated, but defending that we need to support ourselves financially is self defeating.
RECENT TRUE STORY: A man who comes into the studio with his family is appalled that his wife has spent money on photography (mind you he actually didn’t take it out on me – but rather on her his wife in front of me), and verbally reprimands her that she “can not” spend money on this again. He was shocked that there was a session fee and that did not include ALL of the digital images or prints of everything – and continued to grunt, moan, and groan through the first 20 minutes of the session. After he calms a bit and is loosening up we get some family portraits done and then I start photographing just their beautiful child. The entire time, she has a smile on her face, is playful, silly and I have such a great time with her. Nearing the end of the session I hear the dad giggling and commenting on how cute she is being for me. We are done with the shoot and dad quietly says with a pause.. “well, I can already see you’ve got some amazing shots of our daughter; so….. I’m SURE we will be ordering a lot of photos.” with a big huff and drops his shoulders like I have physically defeated him in the ring.
I walk them to the front door to see them out of the studio and mom takes the beautiful daughter to the car ahead of dad. My response to dad after mom & child are out of ear-shot… “Thank you so much for bringing your family in for me to photograph today. I can see that you are a proud man, as well you should be with a beautiful family like yours. I know this was not your choice to come in today, but I commend your wife for getting you all in here for a family portrait – and as a daughter myself, I can tell you that these will mean more to your daughter in her life than you could ever know.” The dad turns to me sharply (mind you I was a little worried that I had overstepped my bounds at this point) and he very kindly says – “I am sorry I was rude in the beginning – I am a CEO and make plenty of money… and that is the last time I will question paying for portraits, thank you – you made my daughter and wife smile which I see all the time – but today – you made me smile by seeing you make them happy.”
As photographers – we can’t please everyone, and we will never be able to make everyone believe there is value of photography. But sometimes, when we break through to a client – all of those “other people” that don’t understand just melt away from our minds. We are photographers of love, of family, of life and we are historians more than most will ever understand right away… but some day when they look back at images we have taken as photographers… they will have one moment when they understand the importance that they have that image sitting in their hand or hanging on their wall.
MY TWO BOYS
Sisters.
I was so excited to get myself into the studio this morning. I photograph newborn babies quite often – typically around 100x year, but for some reason – I was jumping up and down for this session today. Partly, because I LOVE photographing siblings. There is such a unique connection between sisters & brothers… it is a very intangible thing that makes me smile. Anyway – short post, but had to share photos of these two lovely ladies from this morning!!!
A letter on my door step. portraits are more than paper.
There will be no portrait photos in this post. This letter wasn’t mailed – it was at my doorstep when I got home a couple months ago. I read it, I cried, and read it again – probably a hundred times by now. It wasn’t easy to read – and honestly, as much as it validates what I do for a living – I wasn’t sure I was going to share it either. If you choose to read through the letter, you will know why I’ve finally chosen to share it.
July 2nd, 2011
Jeanine –
Today I am writing for a couple of reasons. I have some quiet time at the moment and need to get a couple of things off my mind. I will leave this for my husband to deliver to you when he is ready.
You photographed my wedding, you photographed my first pregnancy and my first baby. I contacted you awhile back to photograph my 2nd child and family. After getting prices and realizing I would want all of the pictures as we love your work – I decided against spending $500+ – which is what I normally spend for portraits and prints with you.. Please know it is not because I don’t value your amazing eye, or how much we love the experience.
That week that I decided to NOT do a session with you, this is how I spent some money.
On Sunday I called and cancelled our session. Monday I went out and got my hair cut ($39+tip), and colored ($65), Thursday I had my nails done ($24), my family went out to dinner at a somewhat expensive restaurant for no particular reason costing us $79 + tip. This was just 4 days since canceling our session, already totaling over $200 for un necessary things. My nails only lasted about 2 weeks, my hair is gone, and seven weeks passed when I got the phone call from our doctor. It was not something I expected and the cancer has spread very quickly. I will be leaving my husband, my 6 year old girl and my now 2 year old – not by choice. It is very hard for me to talk about it which is why I need to write you.
I watch your Facebook page and your posts about the value of a photo and if I could give back all of those things that I purchased this few weeks after I cancelled my session with you, knowing what I know now, and have that session, well… I would do it in a heartbeat.
Now my time is done and there are no more chances for me. The next time someone cancels a session – my wish is that you forward this letter to them. Time is fragile, it is gone before you know you had it. If you charged $200 for one print it wouldn’t be enough for what it is actually worth. I cringe to think that my priorities were a manicure over a memory to pass onto my babies and husband.
My love and thanks for what you have given us from past photos. I am so sorry that I did not see it as more than paper until now.
Karen L.
Jeanine Thurston 