Jenny Ray Photography

Dackle The Cowdog!

2010-06-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

Today I went out to visit my friends Bobby and Nikki Hughes in Temple, GA. Nikki's aunt and uncle own land and horses at a place called "Wandaland Ranch". Nikki is starting an entrepreneur venture in riding and horsemanship lessons for the local public. As she has always supported me in my photography endeavors, I want to do all I can to help her succeed too. I will be taking a lot of photos of Wandaland Ranch in the coming weeks and months for her to put on her new website and promote her business. Today was sunny and beautiful. As I arrived, Bobby had just brought his horse, Rebel, back from a trail ride. Nikki wanted to ride Rebel around for a little bit before he was unsaddled, so she took him over from Bobby and Bobby went to help stall Nightstar, who wanted to go chase after Wanda, who was riding Fawn. (Are you lost yet?! ;)) Nightstar thinks that Fawn is his girlfriend and gets jealous of any rider who takes her out of the barn and away from him! So Bobby helped keep him happy with lots of ear and neck rubs and a piece of peppermint.

I followed Nikki and Rebel out of the barn to begin taking some shots and some of the very first ones I got were of their dachshund, Dackle, trying to get Nikki to let him come up on Rebel with her! I don't know how he thought he would stay up there, but his Mama was up on Rebel and so he wanted to be too! Check out this series of photos that tells the story of a poor baby dachshund who wants to be a cowdog!

Maybe one day when we have a little extra time, I can get Dackle a doggie western hat and a bandana and sit him up on the saddle for some awesome Cowdog portraits! :)

My first dance portraits job

2010-06-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (May 29th) I went to Axis Dance Center to do their spring recital portraits. Last year I did the action shots at the actual recital and had a blast. I loved it and so was VERY happy to be asked again this year. The recital is this coming Friday, June 11th. Amy contacted me at the last minute last Thursday to ask if I would be available to do the posed portrait shots as well. I didn't think, I didn't hesitate, I just said "YES!" I knew that I would be able to get childcare for my 4 darlings fairly easily through family.

I arrived at Axis at 8:45 Saturday morning and set up my backdrop and umbrella lights. Clay arrived with the Cadenhead kids and once they had changed into costumes, Amy and I got to work. While I took their portraits some of the other dancers began to arrive. First we got the entire group for 10 or 12 shots (to be sure no one blinked or moved!) Then Amy would get each dancer individually into place, pose them and step out of the shot so I could capture it, then we would do another pose, lather, rinse, repeat. Each child got 3 or 4 poses, then would be excused to go change into the next costume. In all we did about 35 children and there were 15 costumes. Neither Amy or I took a lunch break and I was there until 5:30 p.m.

Once home I immediately offloaded the images from my camera to my computer and then made a CD of the original images. I then went and grabbed a bite of supper with my husband! I was starving! :) It turned out the be the last good meal I would eat for a week, however, because Sunday night I got up at 4 a.m. with a stomach virus. All Monday, Tues, and Wednesday I tried to edit and watermark and save the 1300 images I had taken, but I really felt soooooo awful and mostly slept. Finally by Thursday it had gotten better and I worked around the clock until Friday at 6 p.m. when I got them posted online. I promised the parents that the proofs would be up on Friday, June 4th, and so they were! Nothing like getting a job done down to the wire. ;) Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day:

There are a few things I made a mental note of to do differently if (or, rather "when", I hope!) I am asked back to do another one of these portrait shoots. Firstly, I would like to have a list of each dance, with a description of the costume and a list of all the dancers who appear in that number. That would have helped tremendously to keep things running smoothly and in order. Second, I would bring an adult assistant to guard the door and see that all parents stayed out of the photo room. I know they want to see their baby posing for pictures, but the end result is that the child looks at the parent instead of the camera. Very frustrating for me. I would also employ the door guard to keep all other dancers who are not having their image taken OUT!!! At one point around 1 or 2 o'clock, there were 3 different classes of ages 2 - 12 in there just hanging out, waiting for their turn. That equates to a lot of jumping around and chasing and noise and distraction! Amy's set wound up having a hole kicked in it by a group of 7-9 year olds climbing on and messing with it. I don't think I've ever seen her face turn quite that color red before! No one blamed her because the set took her and Clay a long time to build and was a ton of work and the kids had already been told "Do NOT mess with the set!" several times. So, yes, that would be one major thing for next time: Security/crowd control. And thirdly, I would insist on a scheduled lunch break! I was having a blast shooting, but was so starved 10 hours after breakfast when I finally got home!

But all in all, for my first time it was FANTASTIC! The recital is this coming Friday night, so look for a blog soon about how it went!

Bringing you up-to-date!

2010-05-11T06:10:00.000-07:00

It's been almost exactly a year since I set up the JRP blog, but only posted one entry. The reason for this is mainly that getting the bulk of my business up and running left no time to update the blog. So here I am, a year later, and things are going great! My camera has nearly paid for itself, which is nice. Nicer still for the fact that I found a studio lighting/backdrop kit on Ebay recently for a really great price and now will be looking to get that paid off in portrait work. The studio set was a good 2K less than the DSLR, though, so it won't take so much time to compensate for that investment!

In the last year, I have had MANY wonderful photography experiences. I've done 2 weddings, an East Indian engagement ceremony (which was a wonderful experience in itself and will get it's own blog later!), a 50th wedding anniversary, a slew of portraits, and some action shots with a dance recital and a costumed fantasy scenario. I have made many new friends this year who have helped me to grow and learn in my art.

I am still operating debt free, which leaves precious little for advertising, etc. after the cost of basic equipment is factored in. I am very thankful to friends and family for their love and support and shameless promotion of my goods and services wherever they go. I'm getting several posters made that will be put up in community areas soon, and I'm advertising heavily through that ever popular social media site: FACEBOOK! I'm averaging 5 new fans a week and hope to reach 300 fans by the end of May. What's that? YOU want to become a fan of JRP on Facebook?? Why, certainly! Just click here:

I have a list of several blog topics that I hope to address in the near future. In the meantime, though, I have to finish up sorting and editing a costume session from last week. I will post a link to the Facebook albums here when they are done. Thanks for checking in and see you soon!

Testing...testing...1..2..3..4...

2009-05-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

This is the new blog of Jenny Ray Photography. I am Jenny Ray. I will use this blog to provide a running commentary/update on my photography jobs and experiences as they unfold. Let the adventure begin!