New Studio - Before Pictures!

Scott and I just signed a lease on a photography space!  We are so excited to be moving on to this next step!!

There is a lot of work to be done, but we are getting it done with help from family!  We are going to have a lot of great room for taking photographs!  So excited to see the portraits that come out of this new studio!!

Also, remember if you book a January 1-hour studio session with us before the end of 2011, we're waiving the normal session fee. Give us a call (268-0463) or email (jsvphotography@bresnan.net) if you want to book, or if you need more details!

Wurlitzer, Alive@5

In Great Falls, Montana, one of the things to enjoy in the summer is Thursday evening's Alive@5.  (Yes, I know it's almost Christmas, but I believe I have mentioned before that I am just a little behind!)  Back to Alive@5. . .  It is held every Thursday from June until August in the Great Falls Downtown Historic District.  They sponsor a local live band, and there is food and other entertainment.

Scott was asked by one of the local bands, Wurlitzer, to come and photograph them playing on August 11th, at Alive@5.  Each of the bands gets to set up in an enclosed utility trailer.  Since it is set up facing the street, there is room for dancing!

So, thank you, Wurlitzer, for trusting JSV Photography to photograph your performance!

Boys' Basketball

The great thing about having brothers and sisters is that when you grow up it will be a good possibility that you will have nieces and nephews!  Yeah, there are a few other good reasons for siblings, but go with me on this one!

Anyway, one of our many nephews is old enough the play in 5th and 6th grade basketball, and he loves it.  He loves it so much that he really wanted his uncle to come and capture some moments for him.  Scott ended up going to watch a tournament game.  The game that Scott photographed was one they won, the next they lost.  :(  

Scott really does like sports photography.  There is a challenge in every sport.  The ability to handle the light, whether it's outside at night on a football field or in a dim gymnasium, can make getting a good shot a bit of work.  The challenge is to catch the action, hopefully getting the important pieces in focus!  (Okay, I'm simplifying it a lot, if you want a detailed description you'll have to talk to Scott!)  Although 5th and 6th graders don't move as fast as CMR varsity basketball players, it is still a great time to practice working on those skills needed for a great shot.

So, here are few of the photographs from our nephews game.  Can you guess which one he is?

 

Our Family's Portraits!

It's that time of year again (*sigh*).  It has been a year since our last family portraits, and we want new ones.  I went shopping and clothes were found that kind of match.  The children are a year older.  Scott has another year of photography under his belt.  We are ready. . . well, as ready as we can be!

So we got to the studio, and 3 hours later (granted that included set up and tear down), we have a few pictures that we are willing to show you!

We must have tried this shot over 20 times.  It's a challenge when you aren't behind the camera to get all the kids to look at the camera and have a half way decent expression on their face!  It was definitely shoot some shots, go check, shoot some more, go check again.  We are very thankful for digital images!  :D

It was a little easier to get pictures of the kids!  Especially since Scott was back behind the camera!

So there we have it, one family picture, a couple of children pictures that are fun, the individual pictures, and even a few with a child and one parent.  

Definitely glad that it is easier to shoot other people's children and families than our own!!  Over all, I am satisfied with the results!

Santa Clause Came to Longfellow

Santa Clause is coming to town. . .

CTA and several Great Falls businesses come together to give the kids of Longfellow Elementary School a gift and some Christmas cheer.  Frank, a Great Falls CTA employee, dons his Santa outfit, slings a bag of gifts over his shoulder and enters Longfellow with some additional help from some CTA elves!

The children enter with excitement!  They give Santa their wish list, and receive a little bag with gloves, hats, toothbrushes, and candy.  Scott gets a photograph of each with Santa.  (The portraits will be printed off, courtesy of Sam's Club, and given to the children before Christmas break!)

 Thank you to all those who donated their time and money to bless some kids with a little Christmas cheer!

May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Great Falls CMR Football

Well, I know this is a little late, but. . . we were asked to take photographs of several football players on the CMR Football Team back in September.  ;o)  Better late than never!

It was a great opportunity for Scott to practice low light, high ISO photography.  He rented a lens again this year, and the shots were amazing (okay, okay, part of it was the fact that the guys made some great plays!)

Check out these great sports photographs:

Thank you, CMR Football Players, for showing us some of your best!!  We hope to see some great plays next year, too!

The Blue Angels!

This last weekend we had the pleasure of having the Blue Angels come to Great Falls, Montana.  They put on a show up at the airport Saturday and Sunday.  And, Scott being the photographer that he is decided to use the opportunity to practice catching crystal clear pictures of fast moving jets!

Since it was quite a job to get up to the airport (traffic and all).  Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that our kids seem to have a very short attention span!  We decided to view the air show from Warden Park, one of the higher elevations in Great Falls.

Warden Park also provided a great place to get a patriotic photograph.  The Blue Angels were so awesome to watch.  The tricks they performed were incredible!

The formations were so precise and my hat goes off to them.  I was definitely impressed!

Thanks to the Blue Angels for showing us some of the capabilities of fighter jets flown by very capable pilots!

The Alaskan Family!

When Scott worked for Maxim Technologies, he became good friends with an engineer who worked in the Helena office.  Soon the whole family became friends of our family.  Then Aaron took a job in Alaska, and he and his family moved to Anchorage.  Even over the distance, Scott and Aaron have remained friends.  They email and call each other (mostly Aaron calling, but Scott enjoying the chat) and have kept up the relationship.  It seems that there are only a few people that come into our lives that actually stay friends over time and distance!

Since Aaron and his family return to Montana once a year, they decided to have Scott take some family portraits for them on this trip.

We decided to do the photography shoot at Ryan Dam near Great Falls, Montana.  There is a beautiful island right below the dam that has been turned into a park, Ryan Island Park.  The rocks were great for adding some texture to the portraits!

Scott even had some fun with one of the old frames that had been put on a rock!

Thank you, Aaron and Julie, for trusting us to capture this memory!  We enjoyed working with you and your family.  It was great to visit with you and see you again!

CMR Senior Shoot

So on Saturday Scott broke out the new camera for a studio session with a soon to be Senior at CMR High School in Great Falls.  This wasn't just any Senior though, this was one that he had seen before at CMR Football games and even photographed at CMR Basketball games!  But, Saturday we actually got to meet him for the first time!

This was one spectacular young man!  Not only did he come with a ready smile and great demeanor, but  he came ready to get some great pictures taken!!

He was great to chat with, and he definitely likes basketball!  I love that Scott took this from a perspective that made this Senior look larger than life and definitely a tough opponent!

But. . . like I said, he also had a great smile!

Thank you, Bryan, for working with us for your senior portraits!  We had a great time with you!!

On the Road Again!

Lately Scott has been heading to the western side of the state quite a bit!  While he's not wild about traveling all over the state of Montana, he did take his camera and got some neat photos of some of the sights.

It seems that this winter has been great about making sure there is a snow storm at some time on his drive.

 
But then the roads can be dangerous even if it isn't icy!

As long as the large animals stay off the highway. . .

(Love the snow flakes!)

So for those of you not from Montana, or even some of you (like me) who are, but didn't know, Libby seems to be the City of Eagles.  It is also a great place to take a new camera and play around taking some photographs!  

Scott was informed by a local that the eagles are made by the mayor's brother.  I am impressed with his metal work, and I love the way Scott captured them in these photos!

He did a little photo editing on this one, and the result is a gorgeous portrait!  

Overall, I'm glad that he is home, but he did get some great pictures!