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MY STYLE sessions

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Over 25 years in the industry and I’m here to tell you – there are only so many ways you can spice up a studio session on a plain background over and over again.  Clients are becoming well aware that their portraits need to mean something.  Their children should have a fun experience during a photo-shoot.  Most of all – parents need to enjoy it as well and let go – because the best photos are the ones with children being themselves.

Away with cheese – leave it for your wine.

It’s time to play, live, love and have professional images that show us how we were and who we were during our amazing childhood.  And not just your iPhone photos – professionally styled portraits that you want to put on canvas and hang on your walls.  Because the iPhone photos may stay on your computer way too long to appreciate.  An album or a wall portrait is something you use to recollect those feelings and moments all the time.

Professional Styling by: Nicole from Worthwhile Style                                                           Solid wood A-frame tent by Function 4 Design

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Blueberry Coconut Gram Crunch.

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Amazingly yummy – blueberries are my favorite berry.  If you love blueberries, coconut and gram crackers – you’re in for a treat.

On medium heat, boil a 2 pints of blueberries & 2 shots of coconut rum until blueberries are cooked but not mashed.

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Crunch one sleeve of Gram Crackers and one stick of softened(not melted) butter together until it creates a crumbled texture.  Then I add in 2 tbsp of brown sugar and mix lightly.

On a cookie sheet, spread the Gram Cracker mix loosely, and then sprinkle some sea salt across the top to taste – I do very little but just enough to balance the sweet of the crackers.  I pop this in the oven on broil for just a minute or so until the Gram Cracker mixture is golden.

Then layer into your favorite cup or bowl with the blueberry mixture, some toasted un-sweetened coconut, and either vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

To make it a little more savory for adults.  I’ve also broiled goat cheese to brown and topped it with goat cheese instead and it is amazing!  YUM.

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Sour Cherry Tart.

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Sour-Cherry-Tart_001 copyright Jeanine Thurston PhotographEarlier this week I went to Berry Patch Farms with some friends and our kids.  I had never been there before and really didn’t know what to expect.  The sour baking cherries were ripe, and these brilliant red berries just called for you to pick them.  About an hour later we had picked… well… more than we needed, but it was just so much fun that we couldn’t stop ourselves.  My boys and me ended up with 4 heaping pints of little sour cherries.  Once we got home… well, of course I was wondering how I would ever use this many – what to make – and how do you pit these things?

My first choice was to dump a half pint into water and infuse it with sour cherries, cucumbers, a squeezed lime and 1/4 cup of sugar!  yum… loved it.

Next I ventured on to cooking down a full pint of cherries with 2 shots of Grand Marnier and 6 tbsp of brown sugar.  After boiling it down to a sauce I then strained it and then sifted through and picked out the pits.  The put the pulp into the drained juices.  OMG… it taste sooooo good over plain frozen yogurt!

Still with about half left of what I simmered down, I decided to make a mini-pie or I guess it is more like a tart – mostly because I put it in a “tart thing.”  Yes – I photograph food all the time, but still the names of all the cookware and baking ware eludes me.

So crust in, and trimmed it up to make it pretty with the sour cherry sauce and folded over the remaining crust.  It is amazing… I’m not even kidding… I could eat this ever day.  I put a small tapas size amount on a mini-saucer with one small scoop of blueberry ice-cream.  I let my kids each have one and they were going on and on about how good it was too.

Yay… three sour cherry uses down.  And yet I look in my fridge and I still have 2 1/2 pints to figure out yet.  Better get back to the test kitchen!

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How does your memory work? The power of a printed photograph.

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How does your memory work?

“How does your brain lay down and retrieve memories? Your brain is made up of 100 billion neurons. As you grow and develop, these neurons are ‘wired up’ to each other, and communicate through thousands of connections – synapses. Memories are formed when certain connections are strengthened.” ~sciencemuseum.org.uk

Regardless of the times when you talk and think nobody on the planet understands you – humans do remain great communicators.  We use language by way of symbols and words that represent our feelings, ideas, actions, and qualities.  This is complex – and yet our lives are becoming seemingly more complex and the flood of information and memories can get ‘filed’ in rarely recovered folders in our mind.

A photograph has the power to recover memories, increase mood – reminding ourselves of positive times that improve how we feel now. Looking at a printed photograph is valuable – people hold them or look at them in an album or on a wall and reminisce about the past.  What is an experience 20-30+ years ago – and possibly long forgotten can create a “remember this” in your mind and bring stories increasing bonds between people.  A printed photograph can make you remember your daughter bursting with laughter on the floor, the way your son loved to run fast as he could,  completely free, and it can bring back stories of your grandmother and how she would hug you or the smell of fresh-baked bread.  It revives your senses, it re-files your memories putting more pleasant thoughts in the current files of your mind.  It brings you tears at times too – and that is what makes a photograph valuable.

It’s not just a piece of paper.  It is lifetimes of vivid book marks connecting your memories.   A printed photograph is one memory that connects many memories and sorts them in a more pleasant order…. that is what makes one photograph so special.

Think about your favorite few photographs that come to mind and take a minute to reflect on the emotions that those photographs provoke – that is the power of a photograph.

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Fish Tacos

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After being away on a trip to the mid-west, I realized as soon as I got home I was craving some fresh fish tacos.  So off to the grocery store for some tilapia and this is what I made.  Super simple dipping fresh white fish of your choice in buttermilk and then dipping in cornmeal and then lightly frying a couple minutes on each side.  Then some sea salt to flavor it.  I wanted to keep it super fresh.  Then chopped one mango and a 1/4 cup of canned pineapple, one diced avocado and then squeeze a lime and mix it together.  Dice or slice a jalapeno pepper, and slice some red onion too.  

Grab your favorite tortilla or make them fresh….If you need to spice it up just add your favorite salsa… but I like to keep it fresh and simple… I put some cilantro on and it tastes amazing.

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Dear photographers and future photographers

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Dear photographers & future photographers.

This a tough business, and you may(will) spend many nights crying or wondering why some people don’t value your work.  If/when you make the choice to be a full time photographer – just know it is not a get rich in your pockets business.  You will have your ups and downs with extremely high-highs, and rock bottom lows if you are in the business for any length of time.  Sometimes you will have to skip paying your rent/mortgage for a month or more and make it up late and just eat the late fees.  Sometimes you will eat ramen noodles for a week because a client is late paying.  Sometimes you need to take your child out of karate/ballet because you have client accounts past due.

You will never be able to convince 98% of the people, that portraits are valuable.  It is one of the most difficult things to communicate that the portrait may hold all the love that is left for some, and spark memories and feelings 10 years from now that were thought to be long forgotten.   The phrase “Portraits are more than just paper” is silly to most when they can get a $2 8×10 at Walgreens, Costco, Wal-Mart… 98% of potential clients believe that you take a photo and that’s it.  98% of clients don’t consider that you have debt, families, lives, and have to pay your electric bill to edit and store their images – as well as to survive.

98% of people think that you are silly, that photography isn’t a real profession – it is a hobby and all you need is talent.

75% of your spouses, girlfriends/boyfriends – will support you only 50% or less of the time and the other 50% of the time will beg you to get a real job and quit fooling around with a dream.

If you are getting into this business because you want to make money and not work.  STOP.  You will NOT be worth anything and you will not survive.

However, this is one of the most emotionally gratifying businesses there is on this planet.  If you can survive the sweat and tears, the continual emotional upheaval, the emotional abuse… this is what you get.

Those 2% of the people you connect with that love you and your work will be your pillars.  They love you and they are your biggest advocates.  You get to spend your life as a part of theirs. You get to have MANY families that you feel apart of, and many of them will stand beside you even when your actually family may not.  They display your art,  your life, your work on their walls and in their albums with the greatest pride.  These people are the most beautiful people in the world and you need to hold them dear as if they are your very own family.  You will cry with them, for them, celebrate their greatest days with them – and you will be there for them when they need you as well.  

There are very few professions like this in the world and you hold the key to how our industry is received and perceived.  You are the only one that can make YOUR client feel special, feel beautiful, and feel loved by simply looking at a portrait…. yes… just a piece of paper.

On a side-note to any of my clients that read this, please know how grateful I am to have you in my life and to be able to create memories to look back on for you and your families.  You mean the world to me. ~Jeanine

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A head of stars.

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His head is made of stars, but not yet arranged into constellations.

~Elias Canetti

I find freckles fascinating.  I use to have freckles as a child and wondered why people would continually comment on them.  As I grew older, I didn’t hold onto mine… they became faint or disappeared entirely.  Once in a great while under the sun for too long I can see faint markings that just lightly appear and disappear again almost as quickly.  I have come to realize that they are so fascinating because they are actually stars, that connect into constellation – and constellations are stories waiting to be told. What can be more beautiful than a story?

~Jeanine Thurston

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Love Inspired: In a little girl’s world

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Little girls are precious gifts wrapped in love serene, their dresses tied with sashes, their futures tied with dreams.

It’s so much fun watching little girls dress up and play.  Skip the playgrounds and letting them explore a set that is entirely new to them.  Letting children be themselves and use their imaginations, lightly guided by our suggestions – and watching them fueled by the smile on your face watching them as you once were.

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Image1Z3A4101bPhotographer: Jeanine Thurston ; Stylist: Nicole – Worthwhile Style

The importance of play.

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We all grow and lean at different paces and in different ways.  As many classes, speakers, and online learning options as there are, I still hold fast that the best form of growth is in play. Always picture you are inside a bubble and the more you grow (learn) the tighter the bubble gets.  It can feel confining, uncomfortable – or if you stay really still you can cope and live in that position for long lengths of time.  Now pop a hole in that bubble and you have an “escape” to work outside the bubble.  The bubble is still there with your “core” of what gets the job done, but you are on the outside growing and expanding without restrictions.

 

See outside the bubble is your play-yard.  It is where you have no limits.  People can’t tell you what is right or wrong with your work – outside the bubble it is all you.  The thing is everything you learn when you are outside that bubble that works then gets stashed back in the bubble.  You keep growing and trying to things and all along the bubble grows with you, but never around you.  It is a freeing place to be.

 

So play, play hard, and make your play work for you.  It’s fun, it allows you to learn things, and best of all it will make your photography your own and not a copy of someone else’s photography.  Be yourself…. live outside the bubble and have fun!Image

 

Amazing make-up skills by the one and only Jill Scott.

Beautiful canvas: Jordan Chappell

 

Castle stop: Lichtenberg Castle – Germany

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A favorite location for many of my sessions during my trip to Germany was Lichtenberg Castle.  It is amazing structure that has a huge history and is currently inhabited by masses of lizards.   It made a beautiful backdrop for much of my ballerina sessions!

 

Lichtenberg Castle (German: Burg Lichtenberg) has a length of 425m and is the biggest castle ruin in Germany. It is located near Thallichtenberg in the district of Kusel in Rhineland-Palatinate.

[edit]History

The castle was built around 1200 and was owned until 1444 by the counts of Veldenz; after which it fell into the ownership of the new dukedom of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. Under the new rule, Lichtenberg Castle became the administrative seat of Zweibrücken until the move of the administration to Kusel in 1758. The castle remained under the duchy until the dissolution of the Duchy of Zweibrücken in 1792.

The part of Germany west of the Rhine river was occupied by French Revolution troops in 1792, and in 1795, the French dissolved the old borders and created new administrative districts, placing Lichtenberg Castle in the Saar Department. The town of Kusel was burnt down by French revolution troops in 1794. Lichtenberg Castle was plundered numerous times during the ensuing chaos that came with the French occupation, and in 1799, a fire caused by the castle’s inhabitants destroyed much of the castle.

With the defeat of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and the subsequent withdrawal of French troops from Germany, in 1816 the area west of the Rhine was given to the Duke of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha and became the Princedom of Lichtenberg. However, this rule was short-lived, and in 1834 the princedom was sold to Prussia. Lichtenberg Castle fell into disrepair and ruin until, in 1895, the whole castle complex was placed under historical monument protection. At the end of the second World War the Prussian government fell, and in 1945 the district of Birkenfeld, in which Lichtenberg Castle lay, became a part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

In 1971 the castle was turned over from Rhineland-Palatinate to the district of Kusel, and restoration work began. Some of the restorations include the reconstruction of the tithe barn and the repair and roofing of the mountain keep.Image