I had so much fun taking pictures for the Pollard family! Stephanie found out about me because I photographed her living room for an interior designer a few months ago. The Pollards recently moved into their new home and so they wanted updated family pictures and a few pictures at their new home. We also took pictures in their backyard which backs up to a creek and we had a blast wandering through the woods! Here's a few of my favorites from their session:
2015 was filled with some pretty amazing weddings! These wedding were amazing not only because of the beautiful locations, venues, and flowers, but also because of the once in a lifetime moments, interactions, and experiences that took place between new brides and grooms, moms, dads, sisters, bridesmaids, and friends. Weddings are incredibly important and emotional and I consider it such an honor to be able to capture some of that emotion and preserve it for my clients to remember for years and years to come! Here's a few of my favorite wedding moments in 2015:
1. Josh and Caroline's Wedding on 5/1/15. I love this picture from Caroline and Josh's wedding! It seems to fit them so well! They are such a sweet and laid back couple and I think this picture really shows that. I also adored that they got married on Lake Hartwell, you couldn't ask for for a more beautiful spot!
2. Rachel and Tim's First Look on 5/23/15. Rachel and Tim's first look was one of my FAVORITE first looks ever! They were so happy and excited and Tim's reaction was SO sweet! He smiled, cried, and laughed. It was beautiful and it actually made me tear up a little behind my camera.
3. Jesse seeing his bride walk down the aisle on 5/31/15. Oh man, Jesse's reaction to seeing Christina walk down the aisle was SO sweet. It was written all over his face how happy and excited he was to marry her!
4. Lauren and Sudeep's Wedding on 6/26/15. Lauren and Sudeep's wedding was one of my favorites for sure! It took place in Charleston which is one of my favorite cities in the world and Lauren and Sudeep are an amazingly kind, sweet, and godly couple. They also had the MOST fun bridal parties!
5. Morgan's time with her mom and bridesmaids 8/29/15. Morgan and Matt's wedding was filled with so many sweet an emotional moments. It was really hard to narrow it down to just 2! These 2 are some of my favorites because I think the first one captures Morgan's amazing and close relationship with her mom and I think the second one capture Morgan's love for the Lord and the prayers prayed over her just before she walked down the aisle.
6. Rachel and Hardee's Wedding 9/12/15. Fire breathing dragon. Need I say more? But seriously, Rachel and Hardee's wedding was UNBELIEVABLY beautiful and fun! If I had to pick one wedding from this year that captures my style and my brand, this one would be it. I LOVED Rachel's dress, flowers, decorations...everything! It was soft, romantic, classic, and beautiful!
7. Kristen and Colin's Wedding on 10/3/15. Kristen and Colin's wedding was filled with so many amazing and special moments. One of my favorite moments was the time Kristen got with her niece right before the ceremony...SO sweet!
8. McKenzie and Lou's Wedding on 11/7/15. McKenzie and Lou were so sweet and they had such a gorgeous wedding! I absolutely loved McKenzie's style and her dress, flowers, and details were impeccable! I also loved how laid back and kind McKenzie and Lou were.
9. Alexa and Dan's Wedding on 11/21/15. Dan and Alexa's wedding was one of my favorites for sure! First of all it took place in DC! Secondly, they had an amazing bridal party and Dan and Alexa are such a kind, loving, and Christ-like couple. I love the picture above seconds after their ceremony is over when they're getting ready to hug their friends and family. The joy and excitement on their faces is so evident and overflowing!
10. Christy and Marcus' Wedding on 12/6/15. My wedding season ended with a bang for sure! Christy and Marcus' wedding was the final one for 2015 and it was gorgeous! Christy and Marcus were so sweet and it was clear that they love to joke and laugh together! They also had THE MOST epic cake display of all time! Their winter, Christmas wedding was magical!
Thank you for following along with some of my favorite moments of 2015. There was SO many and it was hard to narrow it down to just a few! I can't wait to see what 2016 holds!
The Lord has abundantly blessed Alex and I this year and I'm amazed as I reflect back on the ways He's grown DiPrima Photography. It's so easy for me to just how my business is lacking or all the places I wish it would go and to forget to celebrate all the ways its changed and grown! So, before I share my goals for 2016 I want to reflect back on my 2015 goals:
1. Get to know wedding vendors and other photographers in North Carolina
2. Continue Re-branding from "Jenna Wayment Photography" to "DiPrima Photography"
3.. Shoot 8+ weddings in 2015
4. Attend one photography workshop (Katelyn James' workshop would be my dream but it's pretty pricey!)
5. Purchase a Canon 5D Mark III and 50mm 1.2L lens.
Again, the Lord abundantly blessed in this area! I was able to purchase the Mark III, Canon 50mm 1.2L, Sigma Art 35mm 1.4, Canon 70-200mm 2.8L, and the Canon 600 EX-RT flash. I was able to buy all of this by working 2 jobs in addition to my photography business. So there was several months where I was working like crazy but it was worth it to be able to put all of my profits towards equipment and to invest into my business without going into debt. I HIGHLY recommend working full time or doing whatever you need to do in order to take your profits and re-invest them rather than buying equipment on a credit card and having debt looming over you (Dave Ramsey all the way!).
5. Train my husband Alex in photography and take him shooting with me!
6. Run a few give-aways throughout the year.
7. Blog regularly. I'd like to blog at least 2-3 times a week with pictures of my work, wedding/photography related posts, and personal posts about my life.
Some other notable things that happened in 2015:
My Goals for 2016
My Business Goals:
1. Shoot 15+ weddings in 2016.
2. Create a wedding welcome packet and continue to work on branding (new business cards, stationary, etc.).
3. Continue building relationships with other vendors and photographers.
4. Purchase more gear.
Specifically the Canon 100mm 2.8L lens, Canon 24-70mm 2.8L lens, and another 600 flash and a light stand (so I can start doing off camera flash).
5. Serve my clients well and find ways to bless each of them individually!
6. Attend a workshop and continue developing my photography skills.
Specifically I'd really like to focus on learning off camera flash this year as well as continuing to grow in lighting and posing and framing pictures well.
7. Do at least one styled shoot.
8. Make a sample album and begin selling albums.
9. Improve my culling, editing, and blogging process and make it more efficient.
10. Blog AT LEAST 3 times a week every week.
I really want to work on getting better at pre-blogging so that I don't get so overwhelmed that I neglect blogging.
11. Start offering business mentoring and coaching and design and teach a class for beginner photographers.
I have to admit, this goal REALLY scares me!! I still have a lot to learn and in a lot of ways, I don't feel ready to teach others. But I've had a few precious women seek me out for mentoring and I'm truly amazed and honored that they want to pay me in order to learn from me! I love mentoring and would LOVE to incorporate more of this into my business this year. I've also had a lot of beginning photographers and moms wanting to take pictures of their children reach out to me and so I want to create and teach a class for them to learn beginning photography skills.
My Personal Goals
1. Spend time in the Word and prayer daily.
I want to spend at least 30 minutes every morning in the Word and prayer.
2. Memorize a book of the Bible (probably James because I'm studying it with a group of women right now).
3. Work out at least 30 minutes 3-4 times a week (I REALLY failed at working out this year!).
4. Grow in loving my husband better, encouraging him more frequently, and exercising more self control by withholding mean or unhelpful words.
5. Continue finding ways to serve at Grace and continue working on building relationships.
I want to accomplish this by getting coffee with at least one woman per week and having at least 2 women/couples/families over for dinner each month.
6. Read 10 books.
A few on my list are: Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, 1776, The Speechwriter, Spurgeon's Autobiography, The Measure of Success, and Iain Murray's biography on the Life of Martin Lloyd Jones. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!
7. Spend less time working and more time with Alex and with friends.
I've struggled more than I have in the past with work/life balance this year. I'm learning that when you're an entrepreneur and you're the ONLY employee at your business, it's easy to work constantly because the tasks never seem to be done! It's also easy for me to get very wrapped up in work because, thankfully, my business is something I enjoy and am passionate about. However, about six months ago I started to see that I was neglecting friendships and doing a bad job of pursuing people. I think I've improved a lot in the past few months and have begun meeting regularly with a few women, going through Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God with a friend, and attending a bi-monthly bible study on the book of James. I really want to continue learning to work more efficiently and to be more organized so that I can choose people over tasks more frequently!
8. Take WAY more personal pictures this year!
This one kind of makes me sad. I used to be SO good about documenting everything. When I look back on the last year, I have almost zero pictures of friends and family. Yikes! Its so easy to get caught up in photographing everyone and everything else that you have no time or energy to photograph your own life! I'm going to make a really intentional effort to photography for myself more, even if I don't feel like it. I also want to spend more time growing creatively and photographing just for the joy of creating art.
9. Learn basic sowing skills.
I don't want to learn anything complicated, but I just want to learn how to sew up holes, hem pants, etc.
10. Continue to grow in being frugal and saving money and BUY A HOUSE!
This is a big goal that I'm not sure will really happen but Alex and I are hoping for it! We would love to buy a house by this time next year. I think it's pretty doable if we do a really good job of saving and spending carefully. I definitely struggle in this area because I have to admit that I love shopping! Marriage and God's grace is helping me learn to be more frugal though!
2015 has been an amazing year for my little business! I was able to shoot 14 weddings and second shoot 6 weddings. I had 5 different wonderful second shooters work for me: Sammi, Lauryn, Heather, Sharmila, and Kristen (thanks girls!!!). I've really enjoyed going back through pictures from this year and digging out some of the behind the the scenes pictures! It's amazing to reflect on all the people the Lord has allowed me to meet this year and all of the places I've been. Having a photography business can be difficult sometimes because it means that you miss a lot of nights and weekends and time with family and friends, but it also allows you to experience so many amazing things! This year photography has brought me to the Library of Congress and the Capitol, inside an exclusive and private garden with a fire breathing dragon, to the charming streets of Charleston, and to many other wonderful places! Here's a few behind the scenes pictures from 2015:
Shooting weddings with Sammi is always a blast! Just about every wedding we're together I have her stand in various spots to test the light before I take pictures of the bride and groom or wedding party there.
I have a lot of pictures of Sammi fluffing veils for me! She's the best!
Shooting Lauren and Sudeep's wedding in Charleston was definitely one of the highlights of my year! For one thing, Lauren is a dear friend and her and Sudeep are a really great couple. Their wedding also took place in CHARLESTON, need I say more?! And Alex got to come with me and learn some photography skills as my third shooter! We had a blast!
I got to photograph my first styled shoot in August and it was SUCH a wonderful experience and it really pushed me to be creative! Randi with Carry Your Heart Events (pictured above) did an amazing job of coordinating the shoot. I'm getting really eager to do another shoot soon!
We had a hilarious time trying to get pictures of Joe and Melissa. The horses kept trying to eat her bouquet!
This was one of my favorite engagement sessions! Alex and I took pictures of Dan and Alexa in Georgetown (one of my favorite parts of DC) and we had a blast!
Can you spot the photographer?? :)
You can't really tell here but there's a giant stone fire-breathing dragon behind these girls! :)
I've crouched down on many busy streets this year (the picture above is right downtown Raleigh) to get the perfect ring shot. I'm sure people think I'm crazy! But hey, whatever it takes!!
The above pictures were taken in the midst of the hurricane earlier this fall in South Carolina. If only we could have gotten a shot of Sammi holding an umbrella over me while I stood on a stool with the wind and rain almost knocking me over (ok that may be a slight exaggeration) to get bridal party pictures!
Shooting in the middle of Union station was amazing and HECTIC! What you don't see are the TONS of people walking by us that we're trying to work around. Oh wait, this guy in the picture below might give you a better idea of what it was like...ugh... :)
I'll end with three of my favorite places I got to shoot this year: DC (IN the library of congress!), on top of table rock, and Charleston!
It truly has been an amazing year and I'm so thankful for everyone who has believed in my business and supported me! THANK YOU! I can't wait to see what 2016 holds!!
Alex and I had a wonderful Christmas with his family in Easley, SC! I'm very thankful for the DiPrimas and for the sweet family they've become to me. They are definitely one of God's greatest blessings to me in marriage!
We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma Judy's house and had such a fun night. Grandma Judy goes all out and we feasted all night on wings, mac & cheese, ham, desserts, egg nog... you name it! We also opened all of our gifts from her in the evening.
Christmas morning we got up and all put on our coordinating Christmas pajamas made by my mother-in-law. I was pretty impressed that she made pajamas for all 12 of us...that's a lot of pajamas to customize! We had a great time opening gifts and hanging out together. It was also very exciting to have the first DiPrima grandchild with us, Romi! She just turned two months old and she is ADORABLE! She was in high demand this Christmas. :)
