1 year :: 52 weeks :: 365 days

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Happy Happy Birthday to Jessica Shae!

Not to Jessica Shae the person . . . O no, Jessica Shae the business.

Because you see, one year ago this past Saturday {March 13th}, a very momentous thing happened. I posted my first blog post. But it was so much more than just a blog post. It was a declaration. It was a new beginning. It was a hope and a wish and a whole lot of dreams all put on display (in a small way) for the whole world to look at.

And I have to send a HUGE thanks to y'all, especially to you who have been reading and commenting from the beginning. Because you are awesome. You have been so kind with your comments and words of encouragement, your sweet emails and Facebook messages. I started out a year ago, wondering if this crazy idea of starting my own photography business would even go anywhere, or if it would go splat - because really, who would trust me to take their picture? Much less PAY me to do it.

But thanks to y'all it has taken off. Because of y'all and the way you have referred my name to your friends or hired me yourself, I have been able to travel all over doing over 40 shoots in the last 52 weeks. I never would have thought that a year later I would have learned so much, traveled so often, done so much shooting, and be looking forward to a year filled with even more shooting and traveling, including 8+ weddings!
At the beginning of this year alot of other photographers did a post looking back over the past year at some of their favorite pictures that they had taken. I wanted to do something along those lines but January was a craaazy month for me, and it ended up just never happening. But I thought now would be a good time to do that. I always like looking back at my old work, and seeing how my style and skill level has changed and (hopefully) improved ;)

I hope you enjoy this little trip down memory lane. It was so hard narrowing down my favorites from a whole year of shooting. So this was the best I could do.
(I uploaded the photo's just like I first posted them, with whatever borders, watermarks, or signatures I was using at the time. I think it's kind of fun to see the evolution of it all :)

Alex was my very first official shoot ;)

Emma: when she turned 7

Cash: Family Portraits

Ben's: Senior Portraits

Krista & Kaela: Sister portraits

Rachel: Anytime Portraits

Neil and Jessica: Day After Session



Joe & Janette: Engagement Session

Caleb & Hope: Engagement Session

Bliss: Anytime

Priscilla: Anytime



Krista: Senior Portraits

Sean: Senior Portraits

Bailey: Senior Portraits

Phil: Senior Portraits

Emily: Senior Portraits

David & Esther: Anytime

Sarah: Anytime

Justin & Hannah: Maternity Session



David & Daniel: School Portraits



Manney: Family Portraits

Self: Family Session

Shawn: Senior Portraits

Mill's: Family Portraits

Farney: Family Portraits

Callahan Charles

Kim Hughes: Anytime

Rachel: Anytime

Elisabeth: Bio Portraits


When I originally began to be interested in photography, I mainly took pictures of landscapes, flowers, and things of that nature. That slowly turned into a love of people photography, but I still like taking pictures of anything and everything really, so although I don't normally showcase these types of pictures here, I thought I would add a couple of my favorites just for fun :)














Thank YOU all again for your amazing and awesome support this past year. You have made it fun, exciting and I have learned so much! As a thank you to each one of you, I am offering a free 8x10 print of your choice to each of my clients that have hired me over the past year! Even if a picture from your shoot was not a part of the post, as long as you had a shoot with me in the last year, just shoot me an email (jessicashaephotog@gmail.com) and let me know which picture you would like to have printed!

I am busy working out my shooting/traveling schedule for the next few months, April- June are already pretty cram packed! I have 8 weddings I'm shooting, 4+ portrait sessions, two friends weddings I'm attending, and another friends graduation. It's going to be craaaazy! Im so excited about it all, but if you are considering booking a portrait session or a wedding, now's the time to do it while I still have time available! I look forward to working with you all more in the future and making lots of new friends in the process!

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

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11 comments:

  1. Aw, happy birthday, Jessica!!! Wow, you have so improved over the last year! I don't want to be mean, so don't take it that way - but you are SO great now! Not that you weren't before. Oh, dear, I just made a mess of what was a simple compliment. =)

    ANYHOOOO... You are an EXCELLENT photographer and I just wish I could come visit for a day, in case your genius rubbed off on me!!!

    Happy birthday, Jessica Shae (the business)!!!!!!

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  2. Jessica, you don't know how much I've enjoyed looking at all your posts. Whenever I see that you have posted I get really excited to see what you have to share.You are definitely one of my FaVoRiTe photographers!! You are an inspiration to me as an amateur photographer. Thank you so much :)
    HaPpY bIrThDaY Jessica Shae Photography!
    I can't wait to see what God has in store for your awesome photography buisness and for you <3

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  3. look at you go! i'm SO proud of you. you have changed and grown so much. God has great great plans for you love!

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  4. WOW! I love reading and looking through your blogs. they make me happy =)

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  5. WHOOHOOO!! PaRtY tImE!!! I have had so much fun watching you as you've grown from an learning photographer to a full time pro!! YAY for you!! Keep it up, I look forward to seeing all the awesome posts from this year!!!

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  6. Happy Birthday Jessica Shea :). Thank you for sharing your fav's of the past year; they are amazing!

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  7. congratulations! be very very proud of how far you have come in only a year. (i just found your blog ... but i went through your archives and you've had an amazing year for sure!!).

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  8. Congratulations, Jessica! It is amazing to see how far you have come in one short year.

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  9. Hello Jessica Shae! I'm Stephanie. I have just recently found your blog, and I absolutely LOVE your photography! Happy Birthday to your 1 Year blog and business! I have enjoyed reading your story, and thoughts, and pictures! I am a beginning photographer, and I have some wonderful opportunities coming up that is (hopefully) going to start up my business! And when you talked about your fears last year about your business going anywhere, people trusting you to take pictures and wanting to pay you for them. I feel the same way! I know the Lord has given me a love and passion for photography, but photography seems so vast a world! So the point of this really long comment is that you have really encouraged me! I know if God has written this as part of my story, He will see it through, and give me wisdom and strength. Maybe one day I will be shooting a ton of portraits and weddings!

    I'll stop rambling on for now...well just one more thing to say.
    I am a curly girl too! Not as curly as you, but I have curls!

    God bless you and your work, He has given you a gift. :)
    ~Stephanie

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  10. Oh, and I forgot to say that you photographed a friend of mines wedding on Saturday, Elizabeth H., so I did see you in action! I hope you post the pictures from the wedding!

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Oh hey!
Thanks for taking the time to say hello, it makes my day everytime! :)

Jessica Shae