48×30. Original art – acrylic on board. $2,300 + shipping (please email for shipping/delivery rates)
fototails@gmail.com
Disrupted.
Inspiration
Mindfulness for relaxation
“Consciously aware in the present moment without judgment.”
Self-care is an essential step to overall wellness. Being consciously aware in the present moment without judging your experience is something that we overlook when we are continuously preparing or reacting. Our busy lives have conditioned us always to think ahead or be hyper-prepared for action instead of relaxing and just taking in a moment.
Let’s filter out the forecasting and start being mindful of the details that are happening here and now. Reconnecting with life, by seeking out simplicity and awareness – finding our peace within. Over-thinking it will have you missing the point, as you don’t need to be religious or on a spiritual journey to practice mindfulness. It’s just focusing on the present, leaving worry about the future or “what ifs” and accepting that there is no right or wrong way to be mindful.
How is mindfulness relaxing?
When you tune out worries and live in the present moment, you are taking out the static and allowing your mind to rest. It’s not going to fix your anxiety, or change your negative feelings altogether, what it will do is give you a moment to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, and happenings of what is happening one moment in time. The continuous bombardment with media and everyday distractions can be debilitating at times, it’s those distractions that can stop you from experiencing very simple joys in life.
Meditation or mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a form of meditation. The most significant difference is mindfulness is taking a moment and redirecting your focus to what is happening right now. It’s not fighting what is happening, or trying to change the way we feel; instead, it is acceptance of a moment without judgment. Human nature is we want to change things – mindfulness is allowing you to let things be as they are and accepting that moment.
Empowering.
Once you find that you can practice mindfulness, you will feel liberated and empowered. It’s not something you master, instead, it’s something you practice. Making mindfulness a habit can be a form of self-care and helps us take control over what we are feeling and how we react.
It’s easier than you think.
Most anyone can develop the skill of mindfulness and find an inner sense of calm. Making a habit of this can increase confidence, self-esteem and even contribute to compassion for people around us – and for ourselves. We are so often worried about tomorrow, or dwelling on the past. Practicing mindfulness can make us more aware of others and how they feel – fostering empathy and empowering us to help those around us.
Where to start?
Find a quiet place and close your eyes. Try starting by grounding yourself; this helps when you need to calm yourself and relax.
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can feel
- 3 things that you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
The easiest way to follow through is to put it on your schedule and make it a habit. Take a few minutes each day to ground yourself to a calm and relaxed baseline.
Wedding WOW me please.
Here ya go. I’ve been photographing weddings professionally since 1989… yeah – that’s right – 27 years. Yes… I am that old… and yes I started with medium and large format cameras (the stone age). So… after 900+ weddings – I can pretty much say I’ve seen it all. I’ve photographed in 40 states and 6 countries… from weddings with 500+ attending, to a Grateful Dead wedding a mile back in the woods in a field… goth weddings… balloon weddings… I don’t even know where to start.
I NEED SOMETHING CRAZY FUN. It can be an elopement or big wedding. I’m offering 50% off any one of my packages to the first wedding couple that can WOW me with the wedding they have planned. Please e-mail my right hand Jenny at jennyb@fototails.com and I need a theme, a plan, your wedding date, your wedding location, how you met or your story, and why your wedding is going to be something I’ve never seen before.
ENTRIES must be received before November 1st, 2016. I MUST have your wedding date available to qualify.
My favorite “Where the wild things are” quotes
Where the Wild Things are is one of my favorite books and contains some of my favorite quotes of all time…..
“Let the wild rumpus start.”
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Inside all of us is Hope.
Inside all of us is Fear.
Inside all of us is Adventure.
Inside all of us is… A Wild Thing.
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I’LL EAT YOU UP
I LOVE YOU SO
_______________
“I have a sadness shield that keeps out all the
sadness, and it’s big enough for all of us.”
~ WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Jeanine Thurston Photography ~copyright 2014
Now is not the time to give up on your dreams.
My dream wedding. COLORS
When you dream of your wedding day, what colors come to mind & where do you find your inspiration? There is so much planning – and just shouting out “PINK” at the top of your lungs seems to be such an easy answer. The colors you choose for your wedding can really set the tone for the entire day. It can make people feel festive, romantic, crazy fun, heart-warming…
So where is a good place to start?
What do you love most? Sunsets or sunrises
Where is your happy place? Hiking in the woods, in the city, or at the local ice-cream parlor?
What inspires you???
What most people do is go and HIT the Pinterest pages and start clicking the heart on everything that they like. And although it is quite fun to do, at times… that causes a hodge podge of wedding design with nothing quite melding together. As much fun as you’re having browsing the local boards, it is so much more fun making your wedding about you and not about making your wedding about how someone else may have had it.
And… this brings us back to colors.
Having a hard time narrowing it down?
ANOTHER OPTION:
Maybe too much of seeing everyone else’s color combinations…. time to go to the local home store (Home Depot, Lowes, Benjamin Moore) Those little paint sample cards can be priceless. It allows you to look at colors that YOU fall in love with – without the persuasion of wanting a color pallet EXACTLY like that other bride.
AND YET ANOTHER OPTION:
Pick a destination, a fruit you love, a plant or a vegetable, a mushroom, an animal… something in NATURE, that you find completely beautiful and attractive to you. Base your color pallet off of the colors of that object. Funny… nature kind of has a way of knowing what looks good all on it’s own.
But… in the case that maybe you just want some options and don’t want to think about it quite that much… here are some inspiring colors in nature!
Lavender fields
Purple trees of Scottland – by Sam Abell
Blue Lagoon in Iceland
Reminisce. Your wedding day should always give you butterflies.
rem·i·nisce
/ˌreməˈnis/
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Verb
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Synonyms
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Have inspiration meet romance for your wedding day.
Have your cheeks hurt from smiling so much on your wedding day.
Look at your new husband/wife on your wedding day and feel the butterflies
Then… don’t let anyone tell you to cut back or cut corners on your wedding day. This is one of the most romantic and love filled days of your life. You are starting a new path together and have a huge future filled with learning, living and loving. There are ups and downs and all of it is part of living. Create a wedding album of beautiful images that show reflection, love, laughter and your romance and butterflies for each other so that no matter how tough life gets – you can look back at your beautiful wedding images and feel it all over again.
Your wedding album should:
Make your cheeks hurt from smiling
Make you remember how many people shared the day with you and love you
Make you feel the butterflies you had on that day
Make you realize how important reminiscing is for you, for your family, for your children, for your friends for decades to come.
Your day is your day…
Remember
Recollect
And feel all the love because you did it right with a team of experienced vendors that are there to make your perfect day something amazing to remember from start to finish.
Live. Laugh. Love your wedding!
A message to new photographers.
To any new photographers out there. Please do not WORRY about the competition. It is way more important to create what you love, not what someone else loves. You will rise to the top much faster by being true to yourself and only comparing yourself to what you were yesterday – with your eyes continuing to look at how you can improve yourself tomorrow.
~Jeanine Thurston
A fun day of play at the studio.
Sometimes you need one of those creative days when you can just shoot what you want how you want to. It helps when you have some amazing people to work with too. Viqui Westenhaver from Skye Salon and Spa whipped up an amazing hair day for Jill Scott – who got to be model and MUA for the day. 
Thanks for the fun ladies and getting us all out of a “cleaning” day! lol
Image
The essential romantic
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 