Jackie Blair | The blog » {JACKIEBLAIR.NET}

I wasn’t really feeling up for anything today but I decided to take free pics of the halloween kids that came trick or treating. Yeah, …didn’t get many! More up in the gallery!

EDIT//NOTE. Keegan is a huge Thomas fan. He knew all the of the little train names before I even realized they had names. And he had them all right (I can check because the names are written on the bottom of them!) One smart cookie I tell ya. It was nice and cozy warm for trick or treating (or maybe I still had a fever) and he was warm enough in red cordouroy shirt and black cord pants from last Christmas. He was always talking about his Thomas costume and wanting to wear it but then the day came and he wanted it off. I think its because I cut open and stuffed the bottom with plastic bags to make it stick out properly. We were sad we couldn’t see his cousins that night in St. Clair but I really wasn’t feeling well enough to drive there and back. PS…my mom took the pic below…I edited these with my brightness way down without realizing it so the color is a little off. Oh well!

These two made it official on Saturday at Fore Lakes. It was my first time shooting there which is surprising since I am a Port Huron native….and that golf course & banquet center is pretty much the place to go! Gotta say though…it was great having walls of windows again during the reception, especially with the pretty sunset!

Congrats you guys! These snowboarders plan to hit the powder sometime in the near future either on the east coast…or west. Undecided!

These two tied the knot at the Rattlesnake Club in downtown Detroit near the river. Robbyn chose bright oranges and pinks for the wedding and it looked so tropical with the true blue sky. And I love how the guys all wore white, so sharp, and I’m sure they were much less hot in the summer warmth! They had an outdoor ceremony on the grounds and a reception in the sky high atrium. Here are my favorites from their wedding:

Gorgeous flowers, …and some more details:

I love tall centerpieces, they look really grand and elegant….although…it makes it hard to see across the table! For you girls planning weddings out there, tall flowers on the head table do not work well if you want some clear shots of the speeches & such, especially if your table is raised! (Robbyn & Edward had short ones and a non-raised table so it worked out super well.)

The dress in the atrium

The rings….times three. 

 Congrats you two! & Thanks to Dustin for second shooting!

I made a little progress setting up my studio this week and I did a ton of wedding editing last night. Now, today its off to shoot Lauren & Derek’s wedding near Port Huron at Fore Lakes.

Since I love all things wedding related…here’s Katy Perry’s recent video for HotnCold. I liked this single this summer! QUIZ: Katy and I have a specific thing in common. Do you know what it is? Hint: its about family…..and jobs….

I am the featured blog of the week on the Bliss Weddings blog! Go check it out here!

“At Bliss Weddings, we strive for perfection in every event we do. From the grand scope of things, all the way down to the little details, we treat each and every event as something special and new. We bring fresh energy, design and perspective to the wedding business and work towards a stress-free and enjoyable planning experience for every one of our fabulous clients.

Are you a Bliss Bride? Bliss brides are looking for a planning experience like no other. They want a planner/coordinator with a great attention to detail and a professional personality to handle as much or as little of the planning as they desire. Whether you are a bride, a groom, a family member, a friend or a vendor… we can help bring a confidence and satisfaction to your event that no one else can.

Bliss Weddings is an event planning & coordination company located in Southeast Michigan. We specialize in personalized wedding planning services and Day-of coordination. If you would like more information, please visit www.yourblissweddings.com”

I am taking one of my last classes at OU, digital imaging II. We did something really interesting this week…and I was kind of excited to try it out because it was a new process to me. We used digital images to make negatives…to print in the darkroom. Crazy huh? I converted a digital image of Keegan at the farm into black and white, then inverted it to make a negative, and then printed in on specific transperency paper. Then, I used the negative photogram style to make a print in the darkroom. I can’t believe its been 4 years since I’ve been in a darkroom! I was a tiny bit rusty but I have some paper left over so I’m going to make some more prints before the semester is over.

Here is the pic I took last week at the farm on a day out to get pumpkins….before I made it into a negative. It was a total random moment.

and another cute one for the Grandma’s..

On Friday I drove Keegster and myself to Grand Rapids for a semi-surprise birthday dinner for my Grandma’s 85th birthday. Coincidently enough, I didn’t have a wedding that weekend AND Keegan was around so it was fun to be able to share some time with my mom’s side of the family. In fact…my aunt Nancy (who is probably my closest aunt) hadn’t seen Keegan since he was a newborn and he’s practically three now! A lot of my family from that side has moved out of state so we didn’t have everybody but that rarely happens anymore. Anyhooooo…here are some pictures from our family-style Italian dinner at Pietro’s.

I meant to take more pics of the food but I was too busy eating it all!

Mes cousines Laura and Betsy. We three are the youngest! And everyone is in their 20’s now…I remember when I was a teenager and my older cousins were about 23…and now thats how old I am and it boggles my mind!

Ok so I didn’t really want to color correct all these or super-edit them so I decided to just make them all black & white! I like them like that though…makes them more of a memory. For some reason they all really remind me of my Grandpa {who used to be a photographer too} probably because he would record family events from time to time.

Baby Audrey was so big! I haven’t seen her since she was a newborn last Christmas!

doH! actually…I think her toys were on the floor. =)

Grandma and 3 out of 4 of her girls. My mom asked me to photoshop her in..but that was kind of impossible!

GG, me, and Keeg!

I’ll be adding these to Facebook maybe tomorrow-ish. Don’t ask me why I am blogging at this hour…although it maybe had something to do with the fact I was at Starbucks twice today. Thats what happens when you open up your laptop in bed to write one more email….yeah one more email turns into editing photos! I’ll be sending the fam a link to the photos without my logo on them for you to download, theres even more that I didn’t post. If any one wants pro pics, they will be up on my client site for ordering too in awhile =)

I shot Amanda & Greg’s engagement session today…I hooked up with these two through Amelia, Amanda’s sister, who was in water polo with me during freshman year at GVSU. Check out their sneak peek..here is an edgier shot that I liked while scanning through the frames of what I took. Congrats you two! They are tying the knot next July..

This was quite the interesting gig…Angela booked me after seeing the work I did for her friend & business partner, Tonya. I photographed her son’s first birthday party and I also did a portrait session with them. Well…Ang wanted to do the same thing for her own birthday party- some family portraits, but more relaxed, candid photographs of the party at her home. WELLLL….Tonya decided to shake things up a bit. You see, this was a milestone birthday for Angela, and Tonya wanted to throw the party for her, so she put together a surprise event at Casa Real in Oxford, MI. So Angela was still getting her pictures…but not all at her house like she expected. Actually, it was kind-of funny having to leave her house after the portraits, and just being like…well…I guess there was a change of plans!

Here are some of the more posey family pics in their beautiful backyard:

Then it was party time! Here are just a few from their get together at the loft in Casa Real:

Angela- your pics will be up in a gallery later & your disc will be on its way this week. =)

Jb

I bought a Trendy Camera Strap a little while back and I’m lovin it! The cute black & white strap looks so much  better than the GORGEOUS yellow & black ones that Nikon cameras come with {sense the sarcasm….}. Anyway, just wanted to share that they featured my testimonial on their website. They are based out of Michigan so I was happy to support them & buy myself a new strap. I’m a little jealous now though…they have a new baroque design out, and I currently own the scroll. And funny, I also just noticed they did a shoe contest that I never knew about….much like the one I just ran!

Last Thursday, Sandy Skoglund came to Oakland University for a visiting artist lecture. Let me tell you, I sooooo enjoyed it. I first learned about her in my History of Photography class a couple years back and it was so great to see such an accomplished artist in person talking about her work. She has a lot of her installations in museums all over the world. She describes herself not being “the photographers photographer”. She creates these amazing installations, which she first started doing in New Yorks around 1979, and then photographs them. So she has learned a lot of craft in the process with sculpture. So I find that kind-of interesting that she has two facets to her work…the photograph, and the installation. I really love art that is colorful, repetitious, and has themes so I’m not surprised that I’m in love with her work now. I would love to get a book of hers. Man, I need to go to the DIA again soon, and more art shows once the season slows down more. 

Radioactive Cats, pretty well known.

This one made me crave cheesy puffs REAL bad, I’m not going to lie. 

Keep in mind, she started doing this BEFORE the digital age. It just totally blows my mind. I don’t think I could make anything this good WITH photoshop!!! She says she photographs digitally now, but all her installations are handmade. She used to make them all be her self, but sometimes has assistants. 

Something more recent. THe walls and floor are made with pipe cleaners. The tree people hybrids are just furry, and the tree buds are made with those little fuzzy yellow easter chicks.

Picnic on wine.

Here is something a little bit Jackie-related, its titled “The Wedding”. It would be cool to have a reprint of this one.

This morning I did a mini-shoot with Ashley to get her some headshots for her senior recital at OU. She was so easy to photograph….here is her un-retouched sneak peek…..definitely more to come from this one later!