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Monday, February 8, 2010

Tea for Haiti

Jen Martin Studios & Epic Life Photography have teamed up for a special fundraiser for the Haiti relief efforts!

(April 3rd-10th, 2010)

On April 7th, 2010 these Bellingham photographers will offer good-old-fashion tea parties at the beautiful and nostalgic Lairmont Manor in Bellingham - complete with cookies, juice, trunks of dress-up clothes to play with, and photographs of the entire event to take home and treasure. All the while raising money to aid the relief effort for the Children affected by the devastation in Haiti.

Each tea party can have up to 4 participants, so make a play-date with your bestest friend, grab your cousins, your Momma's, Your Grandma's and even your Daddies! - and enjoy a 30 minute tea party, set in the beautiful gardens of the Lairmont Manor... and then have some one-on-one time with your photographer to get some individual portraits of each child.

Each Tea Party includes the following:

• A 30 minute tea party for up to 4 participants
• Juice and cookies provided (Those with allergies and gluten free will be accommodated)
• Trunk full of dress up clothing (Hats, jewelry, petiskirts, ties etc) to play with during the session
• Each participant receives an additional 15 minute "quick shoot" session on site - for individual photos and portraits
• Each participant receives a free album of the tea party with 25 4x6 prints inside!
• Each parent receives a photo disc with 25 shots from the tea party as well as 5 shots from each of their children's individual portrait session. (sized to 8x12s)
• Each parent (or grandparent/guardian) receives a print release - so they may make copies up to 8x12s.

Each tea party participant will pay only $75 each - with a considerable portion of the profits going toward the relief funding for children in Haiti's devastated areas.

Tea parties must have at least 2 participants minimum and can have up to 4 participants maximum.

If you are interested in booking a tea party for you and your child/children or your playgroup - please contact Jen at jenmartinstudios@comcast.net or Jessica at info@epiclifephotography.com

There are only 10 parties available at the Lairmont ( Wednesday April 7th, 2010). However you can schedule a party for at your own home, or at a local park, at any time!

Meet Jessica

www.epiclifephotography.com

The Artist

The most important thing you need to know about me is that I am an Artist. My work is ultimately fueled by my unquenchable desire to create, imagine, and explore. My style and techniques are constantly growing and changing as I mature as an artist. This ensures that my images of you will be unique, fresh, and beautiful.

It is important for me to tell a story with my images. I strive for every image I take to capture the viewer, and have them asking questions and inserting their own meanings. Honest emotions and movement are essential in creating images that will captivate for years to come. It is easy to glance and pass over a standard, stiff-posed portrait, but add laughter or movement and the images come to life it becomes an image really worth exploring.

The Professional

Photography is more that art for me; it is my career and my livelihood. I took my long time hobby and made it a legitimate business in January of 2009. As I took this step, I have made the necessary upgrades to my equipment and software so I can give you professional grade images. The prints and display products that I offer are of the best quality ensuring not only a beautiful photograph but longevity to your investment.

Not only do I offer quality products, I pride myself on having an outstanding work ethic and providing excellent service. I have photographed many couples who have been scammed, misled, or disappointed by their previous photographers. I refuse to be someone's photographer-nightmare!

I make certain that my clients get that outstanding service experience by really getting to know them and involving them in the process. I love to hear what my clients want from their photos! While we are on a shoot, I show my clients the images and we bounce ideas back and forth until we create the feel that they want. Through this process, my clients become comfortable with me so that they can relax and be themselves in the short time we have together.

The Person

I am a professional; however I am always a person. I bring that person to my business, and it helps me understand relationship dynamics. By keeping myself sensitive and real, I am responsive to the people I am photographing.

I am a Woman. I am a Wife. I am a Mother. I am a Daughter. I am a Sister. I am a friend. I am an Outsider. I am an Artist. I am a first generation American. I am a business person. I am a music lover. I am a movie buff. I am a computer nerd. I am philosophical. I am an outdoorsman. I am many things, and all of those aspects play into my photography.

Meet Jen!

www.JenMartinStudios.blogspot.com

I've never been good at this whole "Describe yourself" thing - but I will give it a shot!

I am not going to list all of my awards and years of schooling...I'm not going to tell you that I have an "eye for this or that" - but I will tell you that I love what I do and I have been passionate about photography since the first time I snuck into my Mother's bedroom and stole her old Polaroid to snap a photo of her as she slept in a chair...I was fascinated with the ability to stop time and the magic of capturing moments that I could hold in my hand...a moment I now treasure more than I can even begin to tell you.

I've been doing "This" professionally for about 6 years - after far too many years (About 10-15...wow...I'm getting old...) of being "The friend who takes really good pictures!" and always getting invited to weddings or having endless offers to "let me" take photos of my friends extreemly adorable children. Now I'm finally getting paid for what I love to do and get to stay home with my 3 children and .... it is AMAZING!

Over the years, I've really come to understand just how important my job is - not just to me, but to those I photograph and the families that love them. It wasn't until after I had lost my father earlier this year and having lost my mother in 2002 - that it really sunk in, just how important photographs are to those that hold them. After sitting and going through boxes of pictures with my sister - looking at my life and my parent's lives in photographs - I realized just how precious these tiny little things are to me.

Time was stopped for that moment - the smiles, the tears, the excited wide eyes of a Christmas morning, first birthdays, camping trips, family barbecues, new babies and weddings...those memories are relived every time I lift the top of that box and sift through the worn edges of time. Someone thought it was important to make sure I remember that my Daddy did smile sometimes - even if it was a struggle...someone made sure I had proof that my Momma's hair was actually long once and full of the curls that she got tired of taming and snipped off...

Without those photographs - I might not ever have remembered those moments in my life. So - my passion for photography has grown from being curious about the "magical powers of stopping time" into ensuring that my family and my clients recieve the best of my best when I'm behind my lens.

This year, I've already gotten news that a few of my past clients family members have passed away - and learned that the photos they loved the most, were the ones I took of that loved one at their wedding, family reunion or family portrait session. They saw their Grandmothers "Real smile" and Grandpa's "Devious spark in his eye" in the photographs that I snapped at the perfect moment in time....and now they hold onto those pictures as beautiful memories to sift through when they start missing those special people they've lost...

Please know, that when you choose me as your photographer - you don't get someone behind the camera that is "Just doing her job"...you have a photographer that cries when she finds out her newly married couple is being seperated just months after saying "I DO" by military orders to deploy back out to fight a war that may not bring him home again...

You have a photographer that sits and giggles at her screen while she edits photos of your child watching a butterfly land on her hand, sobs during the father/daughter and mother/son dance at weddings and squeels "OH MY GOSH this kid is SO CUTE!" to her startled family (and quite often - just to her computer screen when she's all alone in the house...) - and means it.

I used to wish I could "Make a difference in the World" even if it was just for one person. I think I've managed to do that over the past few years. The people I have photographed will cherish their pictures for years to come...generations, years from now, will sift through boxes of photos and remember those faces peering back at them, talk about them and share stories about them....ensuring that those people will live forever...the past stopped in time - to share with the future.

Maybe I won't ever cure cancer, end World hunger, save a stranger from drowing or find a way to make the air cleaner...but I'm making people smile...and that's enough for me.