SNEAK PEEK! Everybody Wants To Be a Rockstar {Kansas City Child Photographer} {Kansas City Family Photographer}

A very quick and rockin' sneak peek to our impromptu session Saturday morning at Union Station. I am so excited to show the rest of this session. Oh my gosh. Seriously... I have so many to show... You may remember these handsome little men from here and here last fall.

Much, much, more to come!!

Contact me at photosbystrom@yahoo.com for more information on a session with me! Please view my portfolio on my main website athttp://www.jessicastrom.net or find me on Facebook! Become a fan of Jessica Strom Photography on Facebook page to find out about contests and casting calls for free sessions!! 

Brooke's Birthday Bash! {Gardner Kansas Event Photographer} {Kansas City Family Photographer}

They will celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness. ~ Psalm 145:7

What a joy to capture Brooke's first birthday party last night in a home so filled with love and adoration for their little girl! It was a small family gathering with lots of yumminess and laughter. Brooke's mom Kim (a scrapbooker and Stampin' Up consultant after my own heart!) is so crafty and I loved her designs and little personal touches to the evening. I took about 300 photos in just 2 hours and since it's obviously too many photos to post, it came down to choosing just a few of my favorites. It was HARD!

The cake above was made by the ever so talented Melissa Sherard and it was SO GOOD!! You can find her site and info on her Facebook page located here. She also made Brooke's little cake, which you will see at the end of this post, Brooke thought it was incredibly delicious!

So here are my just a few faves...

Brooke's "pre-party" face. Those eyes could melt an in iceberg!

I tried to get a picture of her giggling at me before she was given her dinner, but she just did this. Sooo cute.

Cousins make the best clowns!

I so wish I could share them all!!

SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PARTY PROMO! If you are having your child's first birthday coming up soon, email me for info as I am offering a very SPECIAL rate that is SO special I'm not even advertising!! Email me at photosbystrom@yahoo.com for more ino and the date of your party! Check out my website at www.jessicastrom.net and my Facebook fan page here.

Getting Ready for Spring {Kansas City Portrait Photographer}

Dear friends, clients, future clients:

I promise you I am still here! I have so enjoyed the last couple months off, it's been such a refresher to take it easy after such a busy year last year and invest my time and energy into a new interest, I have taken up knitting. My family would never believe such a thing from me, but I quite enjoy it! It's calming, relaxing, and surprisingly easy! I have been busy working on things for our baby nursery... someday!! Don't get your hopes up just yet!

I have opened my spring calender for booking sessions and it is steadily getting booked up! All of May is pretty much booked as I will be in Canada for a little under two weeks and have two weddings to shoot, one right before I leave and the 2nd in Canada. Plus I will also be doing a bunch of family sessions while in Calgary, so I'll be quite busy but loving it!

My new price list is ready to be viewed, if you're interested in a session with me, email me for the price list and let's talk some more. I like to meet my clients in person to discuss their vision for the session and how I can best interpret their vision through my lens and artistic style, as well as go over all the other details of the session so when the day comes for photos, we're ready to go and can make the absolute most of our time together. This has proven to be so beneficial for everyone and my clients have loved it.

I will begin blogging my photography in the next post, I have just so enjoyed my time off that I haven't spent much time on the computer. We've been getting adjusted to Daniel's crazy new schedule and gearing up for spring, this is going to be an AWESOME year!

PLEASE READ. Out of ALL session fees and sales, after tithing 15% goes toward helping bring a missionary couple to the Kansas City metro area for a week from Argentina in South America who haven't been home in two years! Please help me help bring them back up north for a long over due visit and to share their testimony with us at Life Church and possibly in the hispanic community.

Will be back to normal blogging here very soon!

~Jessica

To view my work, please visit my main website at http://www.jessicastrom.net/, or find me on my fan page on Facebook. Email all inquiries to photosbystrom@yahoo.com

Family Photo Session Contest Update

Hi everyone, I decided to close the Family Session contest posted in the previous post. I'm sorry I can't go into details, but if you decide you want to book a large family session in the future this year, refer to the previous contest post and I'll give you 10 % off your session fee! Thanks for understanding! I may not be posting as much right now and I am on my own 'summer' break, but I am open to any newborn session at your home!! Just get in touch and we'll talk some details!

Jessica Strom Photography
www.jessicastrom.net
photosbystrom@yahoo.com

VIDEO: And A BIG FUN CONTEST TO KICK OFF 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! Thank you so much for all your love and support this past year! I feel I have grown so much from where I started from and I survived moving 700 miles from where I started from, so life is looking good! I am really excited and looking ahead to my photography here in Kansas! It brings me so much joy to photograph so many different people from different walks of life and hear their stories and capture their hearts. I so so love what I do!! I made just a little video of my families I photographed in Texas and Kansas in 2009, I hope you enjoy!

One thing I value so much is family. I live so far away from mine and Daniel's isn't close either, so we never really get a chance to see our families. The idea for this year's contest actually comes straight from my heart. One of the absolute most precious photos to me is a photo that my dad took of me, Daniel, his wife and him on the night I brought Daniel home to meet his future father-in-law. Dad just set up his tripod and wanted a photo, especially since they all got along so great. I asked Dad to take a couple shots on my camera as I would be developing the film right away instead of waiting for Dad to email me the photos. I had two frames taken on my camera, the rest on his. I never saw the rest and I never saw my dad again as he died two weeks later very suddenly and most unexpected. I can't tell you how thankful I was and always will be to have those two photos.

The contest I am hosting to kick off 2010 is all about family and the importance of family. This is what is up for grabs:

One 4 hour Extended Family Photo Session. You, your family, your parents, your sisters, your brothers, nieces, nephews, grandma, grandpa, the dog. Anyone and everyone in your extended family, all together for photos that will be cherished for generations to come. Up to 20 people. Let's have a BBQ or picnic in the park, anything! Large group shots and individual family shots. Valued at $750.

The session must take place here in the greater Kansas City metro area and in between June and August. Location of the session is to be discussed between the winner and Jessica Strom. The prize is for the session only and does not include the purchase of digital files or of prints.

So how do you enter?

Between January 1st and 17th, each person wishing to enter the contest must submit one mini-essay (about a page) telling me about your family, who they are and why you love them, and what it would mean for you to win this opportunity to photograph your entire family all at once. ANYONE who can have their family session in the Kansas City area is eligible to enter! Videos are accepted but not required. Entries to be submitted to photosbystrom@yahoo.com

How is the winner chosen?

The winner is chosen at random and in the most simplest form. Each entry name will be written down on paper and put in a hat, winner is drawn at random. We'll even film it to announce the winner! Winner to be announced Jan 24th!

And because I said this was HUGE, there is a SECOND GIVEAWAY!!!


This is a refer-a-friend contest! Refer a friend to book a session with me and YOU get your next session fee (up to $150) waived! PLUS your friend gets 10% off their digital file and/or print order!

Phew!!

I can't wait to read all your entries! Tell your friends, have people enter who may otherwise never even have thought about it, spread the love! If you have any questions, post them here in a comment so I can reply and everyone can read the questions in case they have the same questions too.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2010 is going to be AWESOME!!!

SNEAK PEEK! 1, 2, 3, GREEN! {Kansas City Family Photographer}

Here is a little sneak peek from a session I did with this Fab Four on Dec 20th at Union Station. Daniel and I had gone scouting the week before as we'd never been there before (keeping in mind we've just moved to the area in June 2009) and we found all sorts of little nooks and crannies. This is outside of what I normally do (being outdoor portraits) and I wanted to find little spots that didn't scream "Union Station". The place is just awesome, we had a great time, and believe it or not, it was packed with a ton of families to get on the train to see Santa. But with the little places we found on the side, you'd never really be able to tell it was packed. Lots of fun!

Collin is a barrel of fun. He is a very active little boy is in absolutely in love with trains! The only way we could get him to look at the camera was to shout 1, 2, 3, green (being his favorite color). He's a little hoot, and a handsome little hoot at that! Those eyes are going to break some hearts!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H!!!!

And Lexi. Total model potential and she's only 7! She reminded me so much of my niece Felicity who is back in Canada and that I never get a chance to see, so without ever possibly knowing it, this little girl made me feel at home here! So so so sweet!

In Color.

In black and white.

Antique.

MUCH MUCH more to come!! I hope you like your sneak peek J & C!

VIDEO: Better When We're Together {Kansas City Family Photographer} {Olathe Family Photographer}

I haven't had much time lately to play on our new computer, but today Daniel and I played around with iMovie to show a family video of a large session we did in the fall for the same family we were just surrogate parents to for a week. Mom is an avid scrapbooker and I know she'll love this!

I haven't ever used this program before and I really like some of the options and creativity with it, the only thing I am not overjoyed with is that to me not all the pictures are as sharp in the video as they are in the actual files. But that's my only quam with it, it was a pretty fun and quick program to use and I hope you enjoy the new style of video! I'm looking forward to spending more time doing these!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE STROM FAMILY!

Thank you so much to all my clients who have made 2009 a huge success. We booked 68 sessions in 2009 alone, which is awesome considering we moved 700 miles away from where we started the year and I took the summer off to get settled. I am so excited for what 2010 has in store for our lives, Daniel's schooling (he starts his Chiropractic program in a week and a half, finally!!!), and for my photography. Thank you to my faithful clients in Texas for helping me get to where I am today, without you believing in me and taking a chance on someone who was just getting started I wouldn't have had the success I've seen. And I have so much more to offer, explore, and create. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll miss you all so much! And for Kansas, we are going to have some fantastic times and produce some incredible memories for your family to cherish for generations.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the heart of my own heart and let us not forget the true reason we celebrate Christmas! Be safe, be well, and love faithfully!

Thank you to Angie Sandy of Photocard Boutique, who created our simply beautiful Christmas card and to Heather Northrop, who took our photo. You both are incredibly gifted women!