7 states in 20 days: travel || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

A few weeks ago my family took the longest vacation ever known in the history of man (or maybe just the longest one we've ever taken. ever.)  Over 20 days we drove across 7 states, made 2 emergency room visits, hiked + camped in sunshine AND rain, saw the grand canyon for the first time, heard the mormon tabernacle choir in concert, came within about 20ft of a bull elk, and spent an inordinate amount of quality time with each other in the car.  You know, just normal family vacation types of things. From the mountain tops to the flat desert, to the ocean and the tops of the Grand Canyon every single bit of it was an incredible testimony to the creativity of our Creator.  It was lovely, and I came away from the trip with the happiest memories, and some of my favorite travel pictures I've ever taken.  Enjoy. Winter Park, Colorado

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah



Salt Lake City, Utah
Tahoe, California

San Francisco, California














Grand Canyon, Arizona







Much Love, Jessica Shae

chicago view: travel || chicago, il engagement & wedding photographer

I'm a little behind on posting these days, I've been doing so much shooting + traveling over the past 3 weeks that I haven't been able to keep up with posting it all.  These travel posts are a little series I started after my trip to Georgia about a month and a half ago so that I would have a place to post all the pictures I take while traveling that don't really fit into any other posts.  I've said before that my interest in photography started with taking lots of landscape/scenery type pictures when my family was living in Colorado, but I don't do much of that any more mainly because when I do take it it hardly ever sees the light of day.  So in an effort to give my landscape shooting some validity and reason for its existence I'll be posting some pictures after each trip.  So y'all can see the countryside with me :)
These are from when I was in the Chicago area a few weeks ago shooting Tyler & Veronica's wedding.  Driving back and forth between the wedding and other shoots I had I was able to take some pictures of some of my favorite countryside--the midwest is so gorgeous.  And the barns in Illinois are so much cooler than any I've seen in Texas :)  The rest of the pictures were taken in the darling little downtown of Hinsdale, where I lived for a little while a few years back.  All its little streets and shops will always hold a special place in my heart.










Much Love,Jessica Shae

Georgia View: travel || byron, ga wedding photographer

From the pecan-tree lined roads everywhere you looked, to the sweet southern drawls, and the beautiful southern country homes (complete with huge front porches--oneverysingleoneofthem) I fell a little bit in love with Georgia last week.  I ate boiled peanuts and grits for the first time, shot a beautiful wedding, had an Anne of Green Gables marathon with one of my dearest friends, explored Atlanta with the same friend and somehow ended up in the scary part of town (<--adventure!!!),  went to the aquarium, and got a thorough dose of sweet southern hospitality.  And now I'm back home, excited to sleep in my own bed, hug my family, and see The Boy! (I'll probably hug him too;)





















Much Love,Jessica Shae