A few weeks ago, Mark Hommerding of Jolesch Photography photographed a maternity session for us. We had wanted a fun session with urban backgrounds and Mark did a wonderful job capturing exactly what we want. We think he did an amazing job and we’re so pleased with the photos. Here are some of our favorites.
A rare look at the photographers behind Barber Photography. We wanted to show Courtney some tricks on how we do lighting on-location and we also needed some maternity photos for a shower invite we are going to be creating within the next week so we got some maternity photos taken earlier than most couples get them done. We love the photos Courtney created for us.
On this one, we were joking around and saying “the baby’s in there.”
This is one of my favorite ones. We look so relaxed.
This is a reflection of us in the water.
This is my other favorite photo from the session. It’ll be a hard decision to choose what one we’ll end up using on our couple’s shower invite. The only challenge we had on this session was that since I’m only 22 weeks along, I don’t have that big of a bump yet so we have to try to find ways to make the bump look bigger. We’re hoping to have another maternity session in July when I’m bigger, in case we want a wall portrait for the nursery. This has been such an exciting time in our lives and we’re so excited to meet our little boy in the Fall. Thanks Courtney for taking these great photos of us!
Hi I am Courtney Townsend, a sophomore at Grand View University majoring in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Photography. Recently I have been interning with Barber Photography as a photo assistant. Before coming to Barber Photography I did not really have any expectations of what it would be like to work as a photo assistant.
Of course I figured there would be lots of photography involved and spending time with clients. However, these past few weeks have shown me that there is more to just taking pictures when owning your own studio. I have learned that there is a lot of financial planning involved that I had never considered before. Deciding prices for photo packages was an eye opener for me because I had never thought about everything that goes in to creating a package. Things such as ribbon, boxes, shipping, and the time to create the order are just a few details I never thought about including in your price package.
Also I had never stopped to think about what all takes place behind the scenes. I have been helping out with the Senior Spokesmodel campaign. A new program Barber Photography is creating to photograph Juniors so they can show their Senior photos to their classmates before school gets out. I have learned that there is a lot involved in a new marketing campaign. It has been a lot of fun brainstorming with Kevin and Kindra and coming up with ideas on how to market the Senior Spokesmodel campaign. I never really knew how much planning goes into marketing to get prospective buyers into a photography studio.
So far it has been a great experience learning all these new aspects about a photography studio. I am excited for the months to come which include Grins and Giggles sessions, planning sessions with clients, and seeing more of the photography aspects of a studio as well.
Kevin and I will be welcoming a “photographer-in-training” to our studio in September. Jackie, Kevin’s mom, has told us that she thinks we’ll probably document every moment of our baby’s life. I think she might be right!
Yesterday we went over to Legal Technology Services and hung a couple of our fine art prints in their office. We love how this one looked on their wall. We’re excited to be decorating their office more in the upcoming months.
A lot of you probably remember us talking about Charlotte. She is almost 2 years old and is in our Grins and Giggles Club and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know her over that time. Charlotte’s mom, Sarah, is a very talented graphic designer. She is a professor at Drake University and she also makes beautiful cards. She uses letterpress to print all her cards which makes an indentation on the page where the ink is. It has a very elegant look to it. We love Sarah’s design style.
This weekend, Sarah had a trunk show of her cards at Ephemera Design Studio in Des Moines’ East Village. Sarah prints really beautiful birth announcements, wedding invites and some great everyday cards. I ended up buying a pack of cards with a strawberry plant on the front. I thought they were great for any occasion I could write to someone.
I love this birth announcement for little boys with the plane on it. So cute!
I love this polka dot card.
If you are looking for unique announcements or invites, check out Sarah’s Etsy site. She can also design custom cards for anything you’d like.
Last week, Courtney, our photographic assistant, and I headed to the Botanical Center so she could learn more about our cameras and posing. Kevin had bought me a Shootsac for Christmas and I had been wanting to get some photos with it for a while. Shootsac is a type of camera bag that is fashionable but durable and contours to your body. I have loved using mine over the past couple of months. Kevin definitely has had a lot of good ideas of me for Christmas the past couple of years and I think I’ll really have to ponder what I get him this year. I had wanted a Shootsac for over a year and had hardly mentioned it in that time and he just came up with the idea on his own. I loved that he picked up on that it was something I really wanted.
The Shootsacs have different covers you can choose so your Shootsac can fit your personality. I love the embellished cover I chose and I feel like it describes my style well. I’m always drawn to these type of patterns and tend to wear clothing with fun patterns.
Kevin and were really happy to see Courtney’s potential through these photos. I had a fun day with Courtney and we’re are looking forward to what other photos she’ll create in the future.
Kevin and I went to an art festival put on by Stookey Companies out at Valley West Mall this weekend. Kevin and I like to attend this show every year. We love talking to the artists every year and hearing about how they create their art. This year I ended up finding a beautiful bracelet that Kevin got me as a Valentine’s Day gift and got a photo of a pretty water lily as a Christmas gift for my friend (I like to shop throughout the year when I see things for my loved ones, not just after Thanksgiving).
Kevin and I fell in love with a painting created by N.D Gordon. I love horses and we love how the movement is shown in the brushstrokes. Also we love how the bright colors show how lively and fun the horses are. Kevin got it for me as an early Christmas gift. Here’s how it looks above our mantle:
This Saturday, I went to Kristen’s baby shower. Kristen is one of my best friends and we’ve actually been friends longer than Kevin and I have known each other. Her shower was a lot of fun and it was such a special day to celebrate with my good friend.
Kristen and her mom loved this gift. It was a cute toy that had soft music that Kristen wants to play when they pray with their son before bed.
Kristen is opening one of the gifts I bought her. This is a frame with an ink set that you can stamp the baby’s hand print and footprint on and then hang on the wall. I also bought her a prenatal massage from Body Center Therapeutic Massage. She is looking forward to getting pampered before the baby comes in a little less than a month.
This is Kristen and our friend Carla. Carla, Kristen and I had all met while in the same Sunday School class at Valley Church. We had also been in Bible study together. The three of us still like to get together to go out to dinner or for a coffee.
Even though Kristen and I have been friends for a long time and been a part of many of each other’s big life events (we were both each other’s bridesmaids), we have very few photos together. I started thinking about it before the shower and I think maybe we have about 6 or 7 photos total with each other. So on average, about one a year for every year of our friendship. So I made it a priority to get a photo together at the shower.
Kristen ended up getting a lot of cool things for her new baby and she says her nursery is complete now. I’m excited to meet her new son in mid-March.
Congratulations to our new photography assistant, Courtney T., for her photo being on the National Geographic Website! Check out this great moment she captured of two hippos fighting at:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/myshot/categories/gallery
(It’s the second photo on the third page of thumbnails)
Courtney is an up and coming photography super star who we’ve enjoyed working with the past couple of weeks. Great work, Courtney!
