summer adventure: internship || dallas, tx wedding photographer

"We are the music makers,

and we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea breakers,

and sitting by desolate streams;--

World-losers and world-forsakers,

on whom the pale moon gleams,

Yet we are the movers and shakers

of the world forever it seems."

a. o'shaughnessy

Y'all have no idea how excited I am to FINALLY announce the dates and details for this--it's been in the brainstorming phase for so long because I've wanted to make forsure forsure that I had everything in place before I announced it--and now I feel like I'm going to burst after having held it in for so long :)  Many of you know about the internships I hosted last year, over 6 different weeks I had 13 interns, gained new friends, and had SO much fun with all of them. (click here for a fun little video I made during my 1st internship last year)  Going into this year I knew I wanted to revamp the program and take what I'd learned this past year and make it even better!  So here are all the fun and happy details about this years internship program.

First of all you should know that I'm only hosting ONE internship this year, and this might be the last one everrrr.  As much as I loved having so many girls last year, I know that I just don't have the time to devote 6 weeks to that this year.  But since I'm only having one week, I want to include as many of you as possible :)  So that brings me to happy little detail #1: the internship will be held at the Gaylord Texan, in Grapevine, TX. (please go click that link and get excited--serrrriously:)  I've booked a suite that has 2 bedrooms and a living area and can sleep up to 7 people, which means that I'll be able to accept 6 applications!  Aaaand happy announcement #2: I've asked Hannah Nicole to come and be a part of the internship and help me with the blog design part of things!  One of the things that I included in all of my internships last year was a new blog design for each intern that incorporated their new branding.  Since there's no way that I can roll out 5-6 new blogs in 4 days time Hannah will be there helping me with that aspect, and also teaching a session on design principles!  I'm kind of SUPER excited to have her be a part of it, y'all will get your money's worth just from what she'll add to the week :)  Oh, and the super fab graphic above was designed by Hannah, isn't she amazing? :)

And for those of you who are hearing about my internship program for the first time, here are a few more details about the week :)  We will be covering topics that range from: shooting in manual, creating a consistent workflow + editing in Lightroom, running a shoot + posing, marketing, branding, creating and maintaining aweeesome client relationships, and you'll also get the chance to practice what you're learning + build up your portfolio during 3 different shoots I'll have lined up with awesome models!  The $600 tuition covers your 4 day stay, your meals for the week (which will be aweeeesome), and other little fun goodies that I'll have waiting for you :)  All you'll need is some spending money for starbucks runs and frozen yogurt :)

So.  You should come.  Because summertime is the best, and adventures are amazing, so why not combine the two?

And here's how you can get a chance to do that!  If you'd like to apply, all you have to do is email me (jessica@jessicashae.com) letting me know why you'd like to come and what you're looking to get out of it, and send me a link to your blog/flickr/facebook page where you post your work! (edited to add: also, I'd love to know what camera you shoot with!)  You can apply starting today and I'll be accepting applications through May 15th. Once I've accepted your application there will be a 50% deposit due to hold your spot!

Because I'm thinking that there's a good chance I'll receive more than 6 applications and might have to turn some people away, I would ask that you pleeeaaase only apply if you're seriously interested and know that you'll be able to make it for those dates!  I'd hate to have to turn someone away so that I could accept you only to find out later that you're not able to make it :P

Super excited for this Summer!

EDITED TO ADD: Due to a high volume of applications I'm no longer accepting intern applications for Summer 2012.

Much Love,

Jessica Shae

p.s. for all you past interns, I'll also be having a special dinner/reunion at the end of the week that y'all are invited to, I'll be posting more about that later! :)

Jasmine Star: the fix || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

I'm not a huge fan of photography workshops, "mixers", or conferences.  I think this dislike stems from several things--One, since I'm a hands on learner, sitting in sessions for hours at a time "learning" about photography doesn't always do a lot of good for me.  I need interaction, and to be able to watch people actually DO things for it to start to sink in and take hold in my brain :)  Another reason is because over the past 3 years I've spent hundreds of dollars on workshops, etc. that have been a complete waste of money.  Either because the information provided wasn't helpful or applicable, or because it seemed like it was just a day full of biased reviews of their "amazing" sponsors tools or equipment that they want you to buy.  And lastly because. . .as much as I love meeting new people and making new friends, walking into a room of 200-300 photographers can be slightly intimidating.  I've found that more often than not I come away from workshops feeling overwhelmed with all the things that I'm not doing "right" as opposed to feeling encouraged and ready to take my business to the next level.

So I've learned to choose wisely who and what I spend my money on and to take a friend with me so in those awkward moments of "I don't know who I should talk to next" I have a friendly face to chat with for a little bit :)

But when Jasmine Star announced that she was bringing "The Fix" to my city there was really no big hard decision to make :)

I spent way too long yesterday trying on multiple outfits, not liking anything I put on, and stressing about what to wear, because let's face it, Dallas-ites are styyyylin, and I was determined not to look like a 16 yr old (something I have a problem with a rather lot) :P  I left the house 15 minutes later than I'd planned, and about ten minutes down the road realized that I'd forgotten to grab business cards and I didn't have any kind of note-book to take notes in.  Perrrfect.  I googled the nearest Target (yay for iPhones!) and pulled off the highway to run in (I was wearing heels, so it wasn't actually a very fast run) for a notebook.  I hadn't been back on the road for ten minutes before getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.  It was at this point I started muttering unkind things about Dallas traffic and decided to try a short-cut.  Always a smart move :P

But at the end of the day I wasn't stressed over all those little things that filled my day, I was encouraged and excited to be doing what I do, full of new ideas, and re-inspired with old ones that I'd almost given up on.

Jasmine is one of the most inspiring photographers I know and every chance I've gotten to hear her speak I've walked away with a sore belly from laughing so hard/much, and feeling encouraged and ready to try new things and step out of my comfort zone.  Her life and business are a testimony to the fact that trust in Jesus, making sacrifices, hard work, perseverance through the tough discouraging times, the times of feeling like I really have no clue what I'm doing and maybe I should just quit, can take you places that you'd never dreamed of going :)  One of my favorite quotes from the evening was:

"Sacrifice doesn't guarantee success, it's merely a pre-requisite for success."

I scribbled notes as fast as I could the whole time, trying to soak up as much as I could...but I know it will take days and even weeks to really flesh out what I learned and how I'm going to apply it.

Thank you Jasmine for all you do to make our industry better!

p.s. It also totally made my night to be there with two of my darling friends, Elisabeth and Julie!  Love you ladies! :)

p.p.s. (on a completely un-related note) Today we're celebrating the first day of March with 80+ degree weather--yayforspringwhichisrightbeforeSUMMER!

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

A day with Jessica Shae: workshop {dallas, tx engagement and wedding photographer}

I have gotten several requests over the summer for another one day workshop, so here it is folks! :)  I already have 3 people committed, so if you're interested let me know quickly because I'll be accepting people on a first come first serve basis.

It'll be a fun relaxed day designed to help you learn the basics of using your camera, posing your clients and making them feel comfortable in front of the camera, editing the pictures you take, and I'll do my best to answer any other random questions you want to throw at me!  We'll close out the day with a shoot with an adorable couple so you can put into practice everything you've been learning all day, and to give you a chance to get pictures for your portfolio!  We will eat yummy food, and I will probably embarrass myself by doing something idiotic at some point during the day, and you can all laugh at me.

Basically, it'll be alot of fun--promise!  Please come! :)


Much Love.
Jessica Shae
p.s. it'll all be happening in my hometown, Frisco, TX :)

Interns week #1: video recap {dallas, tx engagement and wedding photographer}

Swing open up your chest and let it in
Just let the love, love, love begin

Everybody || Ingrid Michaelson

Intern week round 1 is over and oh my it was fabulous! :)

I can't wait to share details details about the week, all the awesome things we learned and talked about aaaand share their fabulous new blogs that we designed while they were here, but I'm saving that for another day. Today, you get a peek into what our week looked like in video form. Rachel and Allix both had video capabilities on their cameras and we had fun doing a little bit of video-ing throughout the week. And then I've been having fun in iMovie all weekend compiling and putting together a quick recap of what our week looked like ;)

Thank you Rachel and Allix for doing most of the video for this, and thanks to all four of you girls for an amazingly fun weekend! You were the best guinea pigs everrrr! ;)

Even tho I've seen it about a million times, it still makes me smile everrrry time I see it. Y'all are just so stinkin fun ;)

p.s. while editing this video, I listened the the song "everybody" about 30,745 times, and it is forever ingrained on my memory. I will still remember all the lyrics when I'm 93, I promise ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Authentic: the blog {dallas, tx engagement & wedding phtographer}

Authentic.

It's my one word for 2011. And it's been interesting to see how that one word has already started to shape how I make decisions over the past 13 days. It's almost like having a second conscience peeking over my shoulder. "Is that really the right decision? Are you choosing that because you know it's right, or just because it's what other people expect you to do? Are you being genuine right now?" And it goes on and on and on...

It's been so so good for me. It has affected small decisions like, which pair of sunglasses I chose to buy the other day, and big decisions like, how I'm dealing with relationship issues in my life right now. I'm spending less time wondering about what other people will think if I say or do something and more time thinking about the likes and dislikes, interests, goals, standards, and personality God has given me in particular and how he wants to be glorified through them. And I'm only 13 days in...I can't wait to see what happens over the whole year :)

One of the little projects that I started on January 1st was a new blog.

It's something that I've wanted to do for a while now, and the beginning of the year seemed like the perfect time to do it. Alot of you have probably heard of project 365, which is basically just taking a different picture every single day for a year, editing it, and posting it somewhere. I love the idea, and thought it would be a fun way to document a year. I'm a horrible journaler (as much as I love the idea, and even love doing it, I'm terrible at keeping up with it) so I thought it would be fun to journal the year in pictures. But I added another element to it. I also have to take, edit, and post one self portrait every single day for a year. And I have to print all 730 pictures that I take and post, and put them in my picture journal for the year. So at the end of the year, I will have one picture of the day and one self portrait from every single day of my year in a journal. An entire year documented through what I do best, pictures.

And the name of my new blog? Authentic. Because that's what I want the blog to be about. You're gonna see pictures of me without make-up on, pictures with greasy hair because I just didn't have time to shower that day, and pictures of my life that maybe are boring to you but that mean something to me.

Seemed fitting that a blog highlighting little pieces of my world/life for a year should be titled with my one word. It's been a fun challenge (I'm only 12 days in and I'm already running out of self portrait ideas!) and if any of you are interested in keeping up with it you can click here.


Winter came to TX this past weekend, we got about 4 inches of snow and alot of it's still here!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. I'm absolutely looooving all the emails you're sending me about the internship, I can't stop smiling, y'all are so stinkin nice! And gracious me, I was hoping that at least 3 people would actually sign up so it wouldn't be a total flop, but I've gotten 12 applications over the past 5 days!! I'm working on figuring out how/when I can fit you all in. Can't wait!

Brandon & Natalie {frisco, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

Brandon and Natalie were the darling couple who modeled for my one day photography workshop about 2 months ago. Natalie's a photographer in my area and when she heard I was looking for a couple to model, she was one of the first to volunteer, and I'm soooo glad she did! I was looking for a couple to do a mock "engagement" session with, so the attendees could see how I run a shoot and Brandon and Natalie were just fabulous!

It was so cute, when we met them at the location we were going to be shooting, Natalie tells me, "Sooo, Brandon didn't actually know that we were going to be modeling in front of a bunch of people, he just thought it was going to be like, two people. I guess I didn't explain what we were doing well enough" Haha, poor Brandon walked up to about 8 more people than he was expecting and totally took it in stride. I always appreciate guys who aren't awkward about having their picture taken (because let's face it guys, MOST of you are ;) and Brandon was so sweet to watch with Natalie. They haven't been married all that long, but they have this lovely mixture of newly-wed love, and we've been married for 50 years comfortable-ness with each other.

Thanks for modeling guys, you were the easiest and best to photograph and I know everyone loved you!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

2011 Spring internships {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

Woot Woot!

The post we've all been waiting for!! Orrrr, maybe it's just been me that's been so excited about making this announcement, but whatevs, I'M EXCITED, ok?!?

I'm announcing dates for week-long internships.

Oh, oh, oh, there are a million words behind that last sentence that I could share with you. But that would be boring, so I won't. At least not all of them. ;) I will say that over the past 2 months as I've considered the possibility of offering internships, it's mostly just scared the living daylights out of me and I thought of 637 reasons of why I really shouldn't do that. So here's the disclaimer and the offer--all together :)

I realize there are easily 4,739 other photographers in the US that are better qualified to teach photography and how to run a photography business. I realize that I've only been doing this for about 2 years. And I DEFINITELY realize that I don't have even close to all the answers that all you little intern-ees are gonna have. But guess what else? I have been blessed with opportunities to learn under some pretty amazing photographers over the past two years, those much more qualified than me. And I have been doing this business/photography/wedding thing for two years now. And I do have SOME of the answers. Like, I can totally tell you how to turn your camera on. I promise ;)

But mostly the reason that I keep wanting to do this (even in the face of all my NOT wanting to do it) is because of these 3 darling people.

A year and a half ago I had the oh-so-fun opportunity to intern for Kristen Leigh, along with my fellow intern-ees Ica and Julia. It was a week full of laughter, crazy photobooth fun, late nights, yummy food, Oh, and photography talk ;) It was the best best BEST thing that I've ever done for my business, and I'm so grateful for it. I'm grateful for Kristen being honest about her failures, and things she didn't do right. I'm grateful for the way she shared openly about the things she had done right and that had helped grow her business. And I'm super grateful for my Ica+Julia darlings who didn't laugh at my pc laptop and my complete inability to throw down even one cool dance move ;) I flew out to DC for a week with my rebel xti and 20lb laptop, to stay with someone I'd never met, in the hopes that this little step would somehow get me closer to my dream of being a wedding photographer and got so much more than I bargained for.

And they're the reason that I can't not do this. (ha. I love confusing double negatives) Those 3 girls made my whole internship experience so compleeeetely delightful, I've been dying to give it a whirl myself.

So...I'm offering week-long internships.

yikes.

And here are all the leeetle details:

We'll drink starbucks and eat chipotle, probably take tons of pictures, and somewhere along the way hopefully we'll all learn something new about photography and running your own business.

It's gonna be fun, promise.

I'll only be accepting a few girls for each week, and you have until the 20th of Jan. to apply, so send me an email, asap! Oh, and you def don't have to be from my area to apply, if you're from Paris or Bejing and want to come, cooooome on over! Seriously tho, if you're from far away and need a place to stay all week, that can definitely be arranged :)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. I'm also planning on having another one day workshop soon, covering more beginner level topics, for all of you who maybe aren't really interested in starting a business but would love to know how to take better pictures! Email me if your interested :)

Jessica Shae {workshop}

Hiiiiiii friends!!!

I feel kind of silly saying hi to a big computer screen, but I hope that there's at least a few people that are saying hi back!?

I had a perfectly delightful week last week, and I kind of wished it would last forever - I'll have to post about all the fun I had sometime later on this week. I will still be taking it a little bit slower this week because I'm going to be in and out alot, I'm traveling with my dad tomorrow, and then I will be out of town Friday and Saturday, getting back just in time Saturday afternoon for a wedding here Saturday night ;)

But I'm soooo excited with the results of all of my brainstorming and "re-thinking" I did last week about my business. It will take a while to get it all out, because there is alot of it, and because some of it is still in the refining process. But it's coming, I promise! I had originally planned to not blog this until Wednesday, but I just couldn't wait to start sharing some of my excitement!

So, first off, Jessica Shae {photography} is hosting a day long workshop in November!

I have gotten some very sweet emails and phone calls from some of you the past few months asking if I would consider teaching y'all some things about starting a business, how to use your camera, how to edit, etc. And every time I was asked I said I would think about it and then pushed it to the back of my mind, where I could think about it every so often, but not actually DO anything about it. Because let me tell you guys and gals, I'm very VERY aware, that in the world of photography, there are about 7,528 other photographers who would be more qualified than me to teach you anything about photography. So it seemed kind of presumptuous to announce that I would be leading a workshop.

But then I realized, when I was first learning about photography and starting my business, I can't even begin to count the people who were so patient and kind enough to answer my emails, calls, and txt messages, and said yes to my pleas of "can I take you to coffee so I can ask you some questions?" I'm grateful to the workshops I was able to go to, and the instructors who were so fun to learn from, and I want to take this opportunity to try and do for someone else what all those awesome people did for me (and continue to do!)

And so, because I'm a spur of the moment, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of person, I decided, "heeyyyy, why not have one in two weeks?!"

November 10th people - mark it down, because it's going to be an awesomely fun paaacked day where we will talk about everything from booking and interacting with your client, to learning how to use Photoshop Elements and Lightroom to edit your pictures, I have a fun shoot planned for the end of the day with a beautiful model, AND you will come away with with some headshots of yourself taken by yours truly for you to use in your business/branding. And It will all be happening here in my hometown, Frisco, TX.

All you need is your camera, laptop (with at least the free 30 day trial of PS elements and Lightroom downloaded) and your happy smiling self! I am only going to be taking 8-10 people this first time around (don't worrry, there will be more!) and I already have 4 commited, so if you're interested make sure and let me know quickly, I will be giving spaces based on a first come first serve basis. I can't waaaiiit!

And there's so much more fun stuff coming, like my awesome new brand (logo), internship opportunities that are starting in the new year, and a contest for all of my past clients!!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Thanks to Phillip Glickman for the picture!