One for the Sulsers!

Sorry you have had to wait so long on this sneek peek, I have been on holiday! :)

Feedback on 2008, and My Christmas kids!

I have been enjoying a little time off here right before the Christmas Holidays start! "Time off" isn't exactly true though! I am all caught up on session proofing, but I am working on wedding albums, delivering lots of last minute orders, getting ready to address a pile of Christmas cards, and wrap a million presents! :)

I have been thinking a lot lately about the changes I am going to make for my business in 2009. I would LOVE to hear what some of YOU, my clients, have thought about your experiences with me this past year and what you would like to see me offering or changing in the upcoming year!
I have some plans, but it would be so helpful if some of you would give me some input!

If you have a suggestion or a comment on your experience with me this past year, please leave a comment (I have set it where no one can see it except me unless I "approve" your comment) or email me at info@jessicahollisphotography.com.

If you have no ideas for changes, then I would love to hear about your positive experience with me. Let me know what you liked about my photos or business practices so I will know what NOT to change for the coming year! :)

And to reward you for taking the time to give me some feedback, I will enter everyone who comments or emails me into a drawing for a $75 gift certificate to Jessica Hollis Photography! This can be used towards prints or a session fee. (If you have had a session with me in the past and would like to order more photos you can use it for that, or to pay for a new session!) I will announce the winner in January. Please leave your name and phone number on your comment/suggestion so I can contact you if you are the winner!
Thanks to all of my wonderful clients who have made 2008 such a great one for JHP!

I will leave you with some of my kids Christmas Pictures!
My little "monopod"!

Merry Christmas!

My Ad for the Holiday Tournament Program

At our school, we always have a huge Basketball Holiday Tournament. It usually starts a day or two after Christmas. This year they asked me if I would be interested in advertising in it, and I said sure! At first I thought I would just use some of the photos I have taken of seniors in the gym or who posed in their cheerleading outfits or with a basketball. But I just kept thinking how much I liked my ad I did for the football program, and I didn't want to do something boring or lazy this time when I had such a cool ad last time! So I talked to Kendall to see if he would participate and he said sure, and he agreed to check with the girls for me. I had done senior pictures for both Emmalee and Michelle and really enjoyed the time I spent with them, so I thought they might be willing. They were, so we all met up at the gym and had a little photoshoot. I had Kendall to represent for the Varsity boys team, Emmalee for the girls Varsity, and Michelle who is a Varsity Cheerleader, so we were covering all the teams.
We had to use the giant ladders again (obviously) for these! We really wanted to put Michelle in the basket, but we weren't sure how we would get her out again if we did! :)
And sorry Kendall, I had to add this one! :)
Thanks to my models! I really appreciate you all taking time out of your busy schedules to do this. Just let me know if you'd like copies of any of the pictures!

We went to the boys basketball game on Friday night and Ava wore her cheerleading outfit and cheered her heart out, just like Maddie Kate used to do at the games! Near the end of the second game, she got distracted by some kids sitting nearby who had a Nintendo DS, so she didn't really pay attention to the end. Afterwards, Valerie (Kendall's big sister) told her, "Ava, we won the game!" and she said "Who won?" and Val said, "WE won!" and Ava said, "WHO won?" Val said, "KENDALL WON!" and Ava said, "Yeah! Kendall won!" and started jumping around. So Kendall, you definitely have a fan in Ava!

CORRECTION: I was informed that it wasn't Valerie who had this convo with Ava. It was Kendall's other big sister, Jennifer! Sorry Jen! :)

The Bernard Family

When my very old friend Candace (and I just mean we have been friends since birth, not that she is old!) called me wanting me to do pictures of her family for her mom's birthday, I could not tell her that I wasn't doing sessions in December! It just doesn't work that way with old buddies! :) (My first memory of Candace is her running down the aisle at church in a flouncy dress and her mom yelling, "Candace Jacqueline!" ha!) Not to mention she lives in Tennessee, so times are very limited to have photos done! So we did this session last Saturday night after her mom's big birthday party.
Thanks for choosing me to do your family pictures! It means a lot to me, because you all are a very special family and are included in a lot of my childhood memories! Peggy, I hope you had a great birthday and enjoy your photos!

The Gunter/Harris family

I shouldn't even be awake, but I was getting ready to go to bed about 11:30, and I heard Cohen crying! So I got him up and gave him a bottle, and he was ready to play! He has been cruising around in his walker, getting into the tree and all kinds of silly stuff! I hate to make him go to bed when he is so happy and awake! So I'll just blog! :)
This family was fun to photograph! The boys had all sorts of ideas for poses that they wanted to do. They kept saying, "Or we could do this! or we could do this! Or what if we do this!?" I told them I was going to hire them to come in and pose people for me! :)

Thanks for a fun session guys!

Carter's Six month session

Carter is so cute, but he flatly REFUSED to smile for his pictures the day we did his session. Which to a mommy who knows her 6 month old can give huge beautiful grins, can be disappointing! We tried for almost 2 hours to get a smile out of this little guy, but he was determined not to please us! But when I sorted his pictures, I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of adorable photos of Carter, and a few small smiles...
We started out with the blue...


Then we did Christmas Pictures:
And then we did these adorable football pictures. My favorite is the tough guy with his football pads and his pacifier!So this just goes to show, yes, as mommies, we want pictures of our babies smiling, but there sure are a lot of cute pictures to be had even when they won't cooperate! :)

Brennan's Six Month Pictures

I have had a lot of sessions with Brennan, but this one is by far the smiliest! (Is that a word?) He was so happy and did SO good! We started off with a family pose, and then Brennan with his firetruck things from his room at home. Then we did Christmas ones, some in his Christmas jammies, and some in just a Santa hat & booties. It didn't matter what we did, Brennan did great!
Here he is!Now that's a happy baby!!
Thanks for letting me take Brennan's pictures again! I am loving getting to see him grow!

The Stilley Family Session

This family was so cute and sweet, and I was amazed at how good the kids were! They were so well behaved and did such a good job during their session! I mean, anyone would think that five kids at one session could easily go badly, but it was just the opposite...wonderful!
Here are the Stilley family:
Here's the famous dogpile...the baby wasn't too interested!! :)
Now that is a cute face!
Thanks for letting me spend some time with your cute little family! You all are a bunch of cuties!