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!

Days Five, Six and Seven...

First off, KUDOS to all you working moms out there. I had the best of intentions to blog every day of this week as it happened, but by Day 4 I was exhausted when I came home from work! Daniel and I are used to having our own time to ourselves and so we thought incorporating 5 kids into the routine, 5 VERY GOOD kids, wouldn't be all that hard. And it wasn't. The kids were great. Awesome. We were just soooo tired!!

So my big ol' plan of baking a ton of Christmas treats with the kids turned out to be a bust. We got (okay Daniel got) the walls and rest of the pieces made from scratch for the gingerbread house, but never had the chance to put it together. We had 9 kids in the house for a sleepover on Friday night then all but 1 kid went out with friends all day Saturday, my day to bake. SO, I learned a lot about what it takes to have a large family and having kids go here there and everywhere. AND I CAN'T WAIT!!!

This was on Day 4. I don't remember what they were watching but they smiled for my daily photo.

I bought this book for my Secret Santa gift exchange. She said she liked "books" and having no idea what kind of books, I went out on a limb and got her one of my favorite Christian books. It's not an in your face preachy book at all, incredibly well written and to the point. If you haven't read it yet, I HIGHLY recommend it!

Sleepover night! We had our 5 and then 4 friends. Busy, but surprisingly easy. It was great!

I think the kids are starting to get tired of my daily photos... And trust me, they didn't watch movies the whole time as it appears. When they did watch movies it was the only time they stayed still long enough to take a photo!

Duke wanted to play Cranium too!

Tea Time for the ladies!

It wouldn't be Christmas without this! Would you believe I had never even heard of this movie until I moved to America?

And finally, Day 7. Well, this is the only photo I took because no one was home. While the quiet was nice, I missed the kids around!

It got a little snowy and windy last Saturday and Cole rain straight to the heater to warm up everytime he came inside!

So all in all, we LOVED every minute being surrogate parents of 5 for an entire week. Definitely gave us some perspective on what to expect when we have a large family. Daniel and I want a lot of kids. Biological, fostered, and absolutely adopted from within the US and overseas (probably Russia). We want to run a successful chiropractic clinic, live in a ranch with a small herd of buffalo for both our own meat supply and to breed and sell, me as a homemaker, momma, and photographer extraordinaire. Dreams are beautiful, but not at beautiful as working hard to realize them and see them come true. Can't wait!

Week of Treats: Day Four of Seven

I've been having some problems with Blogger the last few days so if this post appears wonky, I'm working on it. One thing I have discovered with caring for 5 great kids is that I would just rather spend time with them than blog! So needless to say, I'm behind on blogging my goal of everyday. Here is what we did on Wednesday!

The Peppermint Pinwheels were more like Peppermint Rectangles. They ended up being too thin and crumbly, so we decided to avoid the mess at Awana and leave them at home. I need to figure out this recipe again...

Duke sleeps in the funniest ways...

My handsome husband!!

Maddy is a leader with T&T (Truth & Training, ages 8-something) and I'm a Sparks leader (ages 5-8) with AWANA at Life Church. Lily and cousins Jackson & Kaleb have been in my class since September, so you'll see more pictures of my class. Carson and Colton are in T&T, Daniel has been helping out since we're really short on leaders, and David came because he just wanted to drive (in a different car than the kids, don't worry D2!)

Craft time during reciting their Bible verses.

Counting their AWANA bucks.

Kaleb's gorgeous green eyes!

Lesson time with Halley and Sparky.

David bored out of his mind, I had to take a photo of him with the red wall behind him.

Singing a song before heading to games.

DODGEBALL!!!

And we won!!

Week of Treats: Day Three of Seven

Alrighty, this was a couple days ago on Tuesday. In a nutshell, DeeDee came over with her 3 cuties (the boys are cousins of the 5) and made us home made spaghetti and buffalo meat, so good and so welcome!! She stayed for a while and it was nice to have some adult conversation between the 3 of us while the kids ran around playing. After they left, Daniel and the kids started doing some pottery projects while Maddy and I made cookies for the next night at Awana. She made some chocolate chocolate cookies and I tried my hands at Peppermint Pinwheels for the first time ever. Enjoy the snaps! I'm having problems with my blog tonight, so if the spacing is waaay off, I will get to it and fix it tomorrow to see if it's a server problem. It's frustrating me!

Not very Pinwheel-ish....

Colton taking advantage of some solo Wii time...

Duke sliced his foot open on Sunday on who knows what. He was limping around for 3 days!

Left over dough, so I baked them up for samples. Contrary to the photos, these were quite small!

More snaps to come!