The Stauffer House|Fort Wayne Children's Photographer

Most all of you that follow this blog know that the light of my life is my little Jaxson. Except, he's not so little anymore. :( But, just wanted to share some things that have been going on around the Stauffer house lately!

One of the great things about being a photographer...I get to photography my family doing the every-day stuff too...like Justin, in deep thought :P



Jaxson, putting together a puzzle with Papaw Crae (my dad) and Mimaw (my step-mom)


I think Jaxson has developed a video game addiction already. We got a WII for Christmas, and he loves playing, "Mario de Wii" (Super Mario World). Here he is playing with my sister, Allie.




Jaxson was supposed to have his Valentine's party for preschool last week but because of the snow and school delays it got pushed back to Wednesday. Here a few pictures of his Valentine's goody bag for his classmates. I am sure that every one of the parents loves me for all the sugar I stuck in there ;)

I thought this shirt was super appropriate :)


The goodie-bags full of candy hearts, marshmellow friends, fun dips, sweet-tarts, brownies and bubbles!


Can't forget his teachers who are such sweethearts.


And his little Dr. Seuss valentines for his friends.


Jaxson has been learning to print his name at school and we practice at home too. He's getting so good at writing his name all by himself!










So hopefully you all got to see my awesome story of my Valentine's Day and how insanely wonderful my husband is. Though in the past I haven't talked much about my life at home besides Jaxson, I have decided to make it a point to be more authentic here on the blog which means I get to share all the funny things that happen in my house. Such as the picture below. The other day I asked Justin if he could put his dishes from lunch in the dishwasher since I had just cleaned the kitchen. He said, "ok" and I left the room to go work on some other stuff around the house. Later in the day I am loading some more dishes in the dishwasher to find this:



I couldn't help but laugh. This isn't the first time he's done it, and his only reponse is, "you need to be more specific when you say put them in the dishwasher..." Oooooh I love him. Jaxson's facial expression below was about the same one I had!



So that's about it for now, I'll hopefully have some awesome new things for you coming soon! Have a fabulous weekend!

J

Whitney Thompson | Scarlett Lillian Workshop Day 2

Yesterday's post didn't do justice to the experience I had while in Atlantic Beach, Florida a couple of weeks ago.

Between running a business, being a mamma and trying to keep my house clean, the day slips away from me and I never have time to write what I really want to! Especially about the thing I love most doing: photography!

So, as most of you know I went to Florida for the Scarlett Lillian Workshop . I knew that I wasn't going to learn general photography tips and tricks, I knew those already. I wasn't going to be taught about photoshop, but I knew I needed and could learn from Scarlett . We started the weekend off with a little black dress party for all the girls. Here's a fun photo of all the girls with their yummy cupcakes Scarlett got for us to kick off the workshop:


As I mentioned last post, our first day of shooting was of a couple that is now engaged and planning a September wedding in Jacksonville, Florida. They were super sweet and totally adorable. It's always great when I get to photograph beautiful people...more on that in a little bit :) The assignment was that we all had to lead the group as the main photographer for five minutes, and then after that everyone else was the second photographer. It was really awesome to get to see how everyone led the group differently and also the shots that were set up. The end result was amazing with beautiful engagement photographs for the couple. I've already posted my favorites from that day, so I'll move along to Day 2 of shooting.

I had told everyone prior to my trip to Atlantic Beach that I was getting to photograph one of the winners of America's Next Top Model but I just wasn't sure who because Scarlett wouldn't tell us. Well...it was Whitney Thompson, from Cycle 10. It was really cool to see her in person. I don't follow "America's Next Top Model" but to get to meet someone with such an inspiring personal message was really cool. Whitney walked into the conference room at One Ocean Resort looking like she had just rolled out of bed! I LOVED it. She had such a great message about how being "curvy" wasn't going to stop her getting into the modeling industry and she was tired of hearing people say that models needed to be thinner etc; It's a message I wish every young woman could here, and she's only 22! Although the beautiful Melanie did accenuate the already beautiful Whitney Thompson!

Day 2 was all about off-camera lighting. As a photographer I have strived to come up with unique posing and locations, and not focused so much on lighting techniques as much of the work I do is with natural light. However, the long I am in the photography industry, and especially wedding photography, the more and more I am wanting to push the envelope and make each of my clients feel like a rock star! On Day 2 we worked with Pocket Wizards and Alien Bee lights. I specifically didn't work too much with the lights, when there are 20+ people all trying to take the same photo, it makes it pretty difficult to get the shot, so I just stayed in the background and took pictures of the beautiful Whitney Thompson!


She has got a BEAUTIFUL smile!!















This is the hall way at the One Ocean . The decor in this resort is spectacular!


It was a blast getting to photograph a super model! Here are some photos of me and the wonderful people I met while in Florida:

This is Lydia Shannon . She's an amazing photography from Fort Lauderdale, Florida who just recently made the switch to boutique photography specializing in children! Lydia is by far one of the funniest people I have ever met in my life.





This is Leeann Marie based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She's super talented in boudoire and wedding photography!! Lee and Lydia were roommates when we stayed at The Retro and Leeann was also the one who wrote the awesomeness in this video



I mentioned in a couple of posts about the oh-so-fabulous Bui Brothers . They were so incredibly helpful, as can be seen in this photo with Vu Bui and my lovely friend Erin Campbell . She lives in Canada!!


And here I am with the talented brothers at this little italian place called Josheph's . The girls and I ate there the last night we were in Jacksonville because we heard Vu and Lan talk about it all weekend. They literally ate there twice a day for four days! So...if you're ever in Atlantic Beach or Jacksonville, you'll have to stop by the place!



And finally, after a few years of emailing and blog stalking, I got to meet SCARLETT and she was just as sweet and fabulous in person as she has been via the internet :)





Nothing like 20 photographers jumping in the air with multi-thousands of dollars worth of equipment hanging around their neck hovering above the ocean and sand. ;)



Here is a list of the amazing talent that I was surrounded while at the workshop!
Leeann Marie
Amy Gibbons
Jessica Ashley
Kerry Andriuk
Erin Campbell
Sarah Bray
Lydia Shannon
Virgina Rhoads
Connie Rollins

There were other fabulous ladies present, but they are working on their blogs or websites, so sorry if I missed anyone!

Thanks for coming by the blog to read what all happened. stay tuned, there are some changes that are gonna knock your socks off!

J

Scarlett Lillian Workshop Day 1 | Atlantic Beach, Florida

A couple weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Atlantic Beach, Florida and attend the very first ever Scarlett Lillian Workshop to expand my knowledge about photography and how to further my amazing business! I met some of the most amazing women I have ever come in contact with, all of whom have the same love of photography as I do.

I had posted a couple of sneek peeks a few posts ago, but wanted to display the photos I took while at the workshop. I had such a wonderful time down in Florida, and getting to photography beautiful people was just a bonus! Here are my favorites from Day One!









































I have more coming, stay tuned!!