Jessica Claire - Photographer

No posts? Must be wedding season!

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:07:00 GMT

I'm sure that as much as ya'll loved seeing my mom's surprised face as we shocked the bejeezus out of her for her birthday, you're ready for a new post, huh?!

Oh, there are plenty of new posts being worked on as we speak, for example, Kristen & Nick:

and Cheyenne & Daniel:

But I've found out something new in the past couple of weeks about weddings, that I never really knew: they are a LOT of work, and quite stressful!

As a photographer, I'm limited for the most part, to knowing about one very specific part of a wedding. What do I know about rentals, linens, lighting, catering, caterers bringing in their own KITCHEN because the location doesn't have one, hotel blocks, chair covers, flowers, what days the flower mart is and isn't open, and the myriad of other minutia that combine to create a wedding explosion?!

Well, as you might have guessed, while I know people who are experts in these areas, the information doesn't reside solely in my head, which is a serious disadvantage to planning a wedding. It's a good thing I have an absolutely amazing coordinator working on my & Jeff's big day, who I'll be doing a post about in the next few days.

Still though, the decisions that have to be made fall mostly on me, since Jeff has a real job and being a guy, cares less about how napkins are folded or the stamps that are going to go on the invitations. He did, however, take the leadership role in registering at Williams Sonoma yesterday, since I'm so hungry due to my wedding diet that all I wanted was cake mix and individual cupcake holders for those times that I desperately need to take a cupcake on the road with me (yes, I actually registered for 4 OF THOSE!).

In any case, in honor of my wedding FINALLY really starting to take shape, I feel like GIVING SOMETHING AWAY TODAY!! The item I'll be giving away showed up on my Amazon store a few posts ago and I just think it is so cute! It is the super fabulous, SHOOTSAC inspired Emilie pillow! Check it out:

Doesn't this pillow look so much like Baroque, our best selling, most classic cover of all time? Big things are happening for our baby, Baroque this month, so this giveaway is extra good :)

Anyway, if you want to win the super cute pillow, here's what you have to do:

Post a comment in the comment section with the BEST piece of wedding planning advice you have or have ever heard. It can be a word of encouragement, an anecdote, a funny story or a disaster story, something you learned, a GOOD IDEA I should use, or anything else you've got! You have until noon tomorrow. GO!

**you must leave a REAL email address and website address (if you have one)**

Surprises are fun, aren't they?

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:23:00 GMT

This year, my mom had a very big birthday (although I'm not going to mention which one). We decided to surprise her by flying to North Carolina, showing up at a play my grandmother was performing at, and giving her a good scare! My cousin Richard (the one in the video below on the phone) said we should wait in the elevator so that when she pressed the button to get on, we'd all be in there. It worked pretty well, I'd say--watch the video below.

And everyone wish a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom, Wendy! I wish we could have stayed longer but am so glad we got to spend your birthday with you!

Here's the video--check it out! Do you think she was surprised?

(embeded object)

Wendy's Birthday Surprise! from jessica claire on Vimeo.

Jessica's Favorite Things

Thu, 28 May 2009 13:06:00 GMT

Today has just been one of those days that can't seem to get off the ground. Instead of heading to the nearest Nordstrom or more likely, Nordstrom Rack, I spent a little time online this morning in deference to the work that really must get done today. Normally when this happens, I end up shopping online, but this time, I decided to be a little more productive with it and work on my Amazon aStore! So behold, below is my creation, a collection of my favorite things! I have a life/style section, a photography section, and a reading section.

Am I the only one that thinks this is SO MUCH BETTER than a wedding registry?

Take a look at the store, because on Monday, I'm going to be GIVING AWAY one of the items on this page to a lucky blog reader--just for fun!

My Wedding: A Focal Point

Fri, 22 May 2009 12:30:00 GMT

I used to absolutely LOVE the show "Trading Spaces". They'd come in, take some neighbors and $1000, and completely change the look of a room in someone's house. Most of the time, the rooms were so extreme they were kind of hideous, but every now and then they would do something SO fantastic that it looked straight out of Elle Decor.

I remember one episode in particular where the designer had to convince the neighbors who were going to be doing the work to see her vision. She showed them an artichoke and pointed out how it was all different shades of greens and purples, cream and browns, and explained that it was going to be the focal point of the room. The neighbors looked at each other in complete disbelief that a vegetable was going to be their inspiration, but they went along with it anyway. I don't remember what the room looked like exactly, but it was awesome, and it was all because of one little artichoke :)

Our wedding started much the same way. Now, I have been to many, many weddings, obviously. Although this makes planning easier in some ways, in another way it's so much more difficult because there are SO many choices out there! Should the wedding be all piercing bright colors? Dramatic and all one color? Super modern like my hotel icon The Viceroy? With so many directions to ponder, Jeff and I started to talk about what kind of wedding would suit us, and all I was getting from him was "I don't want it to be super girly". Okay...check.

So what should be the focal point of the wedding? Well, I'll be honest--for at least the past few years, I've been more interested in what shoes I'd wear to my wedding than even the dress! I thought it would be entirely possible (and not strange in any sense) to pick the shoes first and revolve the theme around them.

Of course at the time, I figured it would be MY shoes that would be the focal point of the wedding.

Well, it just so happens that Jeff and I were shopping one day, when we came across the perfect shoes and subsequent look of the entire wedding. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on these babies:

Yup, they are Jeff's actual wedding shoes and the basis for our entire (and I hate this word but i'm going to use it anyway) theme! One more shot now:

More to come...stay tuned and happy Friday!

Liana & Mike: Part 3 of 4

Thu, 21 May 2009 11:55:00 GMT

Hello faithful readers! My body is slowly but surely adjusting back to California time, and I've got a TON of blog entries in the queue for the next few weeks. I'm also plugging right away on my own wedding plans, so I should have some new posts about that this coming week as well.

Instead of posting my images from Sweden today, I want to share a little bit more of Liana & Mike's wedding, which I started posting a few weeks ago. The wedding was at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, which is just an amazing, incredible property. Look:

One of the moments that I love during a wedding is that little bit of time immediately before the ceremony where everyone is getting ready. It's the height of the anticipation, and and the moment they've been waiting for for so long. Here's the girls about ready to walk down:

One last look between Liana and her dad before he gave her away to Mike:

Lines lines everywhere:

The ceremony site--perfectly backlit, of course :) That's what you get when you shoot another photographers' wedding!

A couple little ceremony details:

A great shot of Liana's dress:

I love the feeling of this one--Liana's expression and her Maid of Honor's expressions just make it for me:

A prayer and a kiss...

And a newly married couple!! I love this series:

Might be my fave of the day:

They sneaked off into the bushes for a real kiss once they tied the knot :)

Seriously, the property is so flippin' stunning:

Throw a beautiful bridal party in there and you've got a nice little photo:

Cocktail hour was simple and pretty in lovely light:

The setting is like a courtyard straight out of a European storybook:

A little sneak preview of the final part of the wedding---the reception!

Istanbul: The Details

Tue, 19 May 2009 15:52:00 GMT

Whew, I am finally home from Sweden and Turkey, and after sleeping through the weekend, I am finally feeling almost back to normal, even if I am still falling asleep at 9 and waking up at 5. Could be jetlag, could be my impending old age, either way, I'll be glad to finally shake it off!

In my last post, I shared my images of the people I shot in Istanbul. My real love though, is shooting details and textures, and of course, locks! I tried to go through and pull out my favorites, but there were so many images that just looked better as a collection that I decided to share the gallery below instead. I'll just post this one single image of my favorite shot of the trip. I had been wanting to shoot laundry hanging on a line for ages, but it took me this long to find the right scene--and I finally did! Check it out:

I'll also share the one item I did bring back for myself. I do not like to buy a lot of trinkets or "stuff", but I do love to bring home one really special item from everywhere interesting I go. I found this amazing bag, handmade out of pieces of antique persian rugs, that will make a great overnight bag. I had to use my powers of "turkish negotiation" to be able to get it, but I did! Here it is:

And of course, the gallery--check it out!

View Gallery: istanbul, turkey: 2009

My Turkish Homies

Mon, 11 May 2009 13:08:00 GMT

Over the three days we spent in Istanbul, I mostly shot what I always shoot when I travel: colors, patterns, textures, and little things that the ordinary tourist might not notice or capture (if you're interested, you can see more on my art site, overlookedart.com, which really needs an update). One thing I don't shoot much are the people who live wherever I am traveling. It's not that the people aren't fascinating, although I really only like to shoot people who seem to tell a story with the way they look or what they are doing. It's more that for a long time I've been uncomfortable shooting people that haven't actually hired me to be there!

Shooting people who don't know me requires a different means and level of getting permission to take that photograph. I'm teaching a class at Rock Harbor in June on missional photography (which we also taught last year) with Mike Colon and Dane Sanders that focuses on this in more detail, but the truth is that having never been on a mission myself, I have had relatively little experience in this area. However, this trip has definitely better educated me on this sort of photographer/subject relationship!

Okay, on to the photos.

It was a Friday afternoon the first day we really got to walk around and shoot. Even people who are not super religious pray on Fridays at lunch time in Istanbul--here is a big crowd during that time at the Blue Mosque:

These women were making traditional Turkish pancakes--they were quite animated and willing to be photographed!

I still have no idea what this fruit/vegetable was, but this guy couldn't crank out juice fast enough to satisfy all the people who wanted it!

**thanks to all the people in the comments who have let me know that these are pomegranates :)**

A kid in the town of Balat, my favorite area where I shot lots and lots of locks and textures:

A man who saw me take a shot of the texture next to his head seemed disappointed that I didn't want to shoot him, so I obliged :)

The food vendors are so delicious!

Doesn't this look good? It was a TOTAL trick. The corn was chewy, not crisp and delicious like it should be. I was severely disappointed to say the least:

The locals seemed to enjoy it though:

We got a drink and a snack here. The owner couldn't figure out if I wanted him in or out of the photo:

This man shines shoes on a sidewalk. Becker had wanted a shoe shine anyway, so once he paid the man, he was perfectly willing to let us photograph him:

The fish market is bustling, especially in the early evening! This guy seems just about ready for the rush that's about to hit:

Just an interesting person and scene that I happened to come across:

My favorite of the day. I don't know what story she has to tell, but I am sure she has one. What do you think?

I'll post some more goodies in the next couple days! I am teaching a second Sweden workshop here in Gothenburg tomorrow all day, so I need to rest up :) Happy Monday!

**all photos here shot in raw on my hoodman cards--they were super fast, and downloaded faster than my jpegs using the hoodman downloader too. click below and pick up a card or two if you want to try them out**

The Spice Market of Istanbul

Sat, 09 May 2009 23:43:00 GMT

One thing I've never done before is travel with no plan at all--literally just show up at a train station or airport and head on the next trip out of there! Becker and I decided to do this a few months ago when we found out we'd have four days between workshops in different parts of Sweden. It just sounded like so much fun and so adventurous! I saw the movie, "Yes Man" last week and there's a scene in there that' similar, but they went to Wisconsin or somewhere like that. Well when we got to the airport, we got Istanbul!

Istanbul is an incredible, amazing place with so much to see and do. I'll be posting my photos in several parts (as usual lately), because I want to break up what we saw into a few categories. The first place we went when we got here (besides our hotel, The W Istanbul was the world-famed spice market. Here, you can get spices of every smell, texture, and variety known to man--I've never seen anything like it. Some of the spices are very cheap, and some are very expensive ($80 for not very much at all!!). I didn't actually shoot all that much in the market because I"m attracted to shiny objects, of which there were many. Here's a few you can see:

The main street, or one of them anyway. The place is a labyrinth that they say you can visit for a month and never see it all:

There is so much delicious there!

So spicy! The saffron was especially abundant:

I LOVED these little lights! I wanted to get a whole bunch, but the outlets are different and even with adapters we weren't sure they'd work:

Maybe I could do this in my house somewhere? :)

There were two kinds of items at the Bazaar--incredibly cheap junk, and incredibly beautiful treasures. Which do you think this is?

I love their flag and it makes for great photos as it is everywhere!

See?

Today we travel back to Stockholm and then tomorrow to Gothenburg. More soon! Check out Becker's Blog for his shots--he's got way more posted!

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:56:00 GMT

I have a (very) long post coming about this just as soon as I can get some legit internet to upload photos, but for now, let me just say this: Istanbul is an amazing place! I shot for a full long day yesterday and there are tons of photos to share, so here's a little taste of what I saw.

Happy weekend--I truly hope to have internet that will allow me to post a slew of photos for you to see soon!

Life as I know it

Wed, 06 May 2009 00:35:00 GMT

It's been a long time since I've spent any REAL time disconnected from the world. For two weeks, I am out of the country, mostly in Sweden to teach two workshops with Becker, one in Stockholm, and the other next week in Gothenburg. Stockholm is an awesome city, and I'm absolutely loving it here, but I am having one major issue: NO SERVICE on my iphone. Also, practically no internet. Yes, I realize that's actually two issues, but they're both part of the large one, which is that I'm having a hard time without being connected!

I admitted a few months ago that I'm an addict. I just love Facebook and Twitter (follow me here!, talking on the phone, emailing, surfing the internet, and all the other modern conveniences. Being without them here has really made me see how much I actually depend on those things day to day! I'll tell you this though--I'm sure not used to it! Plus, it's hard being away from Google and not able to chat--another thing I'm not used to!

I'll try to get a full blog post up at some point in the next day or two before we leave Stockholm tomorrow for another 4 day adventure (we have no plans, just going to show up at the airport tomorrow to catch a flight somewhere), but for now, enjoy the following photos that Becker shot of me, and check out B's blog for his shots from the past couple of days (his computer AND phone are connected and mine aren't. It's just not fair!!!)

There are so many good treats here!

I won a poker tournament here at the local casino! There were about 70 players. It was so awesome, because I couldn't understand anything people said at the tables the whole time. So much less distracting when I can't understand their table chatter!