Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Introduction to me

Hello,

My name is Jeanette Brown, the name of my company is In the Light Photography and this is my first real blog.  I've thought about blogging in the past but could never bring myself to actually do it.  I was always stumped right out of the gate with the question, "What do you want to name your blog?"  That in itself seemed overwhelming.  I finally decided to go with a revised quote from my grandfather.  His saying was, "Never ruin a good story by failing to exaggerate."  Being a wonderful story teller and lawyer from Louisiana, the saying fit him perfectly.  I however, am pretty much of a stickler for details when it comes to stories.  Pictures, on the other hand....  I managed the digital department of a photo lab for ten years, need I say more?  Actually, when I first started at the lab I was horrified at what clients wanted me to do.  "Could you please remove my ex-husband from our first family portrait?"  This was one of my first jobs.  Then there was the bride that didn't like the facial hair or personal hygiene habits of any of her husbands best friends, my job was to "groom the groomsmen".  After a while I began to realize that people didn't really care if a moment really happened or not, they wanted an image of what would have been in their perfect dream world.  I could give them that.  I still can.  Photoshop is AMAZING!  Over the years I have come to realize that I don't always care if the picture actually happened in real life.  Okay, that's not 100% accurate. I still strive to do as much as possible through the lens, but I have gotten a lot more liberal when it comes to creating my own dream worlds!  Which is probably obvious when viewing any of my art portfolios.  So, as a photographer, that is who I am; a girl who loves to capture the "perfect image" and then really perfect it on the computer.

As a person I'm a Christian, a wife, a mom, a friend, a daughter, etc.  You name it.  Most of my time is spent with my three daughters.  I'm homeschooling them, or more accurately, I'm learning to homeschool them.  They are still pretty young.  The good news is that they are pretty bright so even if I'm not the best teacher ever they are still going to learn, thank God!  They also provide most of my entertainment, and for those of you who decide to follow this blog, they will probably provide most of yours.   Quoting my kids is one of my favorite things to do.  That being said, I will leave you with a quote from my five year old daughter Emma: I'll set it up by saying that if I see a bug in the house, I kill it.  Lately my daughters have been watching a show about bugs and they strongly object to me taking the life of the creatures.  They object with the statement, "That bug is my friend!" A few months ago, Emma saw a spider on her pool toys and yelled, "A spider on my pool toys, KILL it!" I said, "I thought spider's were your friends." Her response, "I made a rule for my friends and when they touch my pool toys, I kill them."
Emma




Anyway, that's me in a nutshell.  I look forward to sharing pieces of my life with you and hearing about yours as well.  If you have time, please check out my webpage at http://inthelightphotography.zenfolio.com  I would love any feedback you have.  Please also consider me for any photographic or digital restoration needs you have.


Thank you and have a great day!

3 comments:

  1. i'm glad you started a blog! I enjoyed reading it and look forward to more stories and photos. I think its a little scarey that people want to live in a dream world and not enjoy the flaws and fun of candid or non-candid pictures. Its hard for me sometimes to look at myself. I'm aging and don't look quite the same as i did when i was younger but i know that 10 years from now my pictures today will look great because i will be 10 years older:)love you(in case you didn't know ...its me peggy)

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  2. Yay! I can't wait to see what you do with your blog! Ditto to what the above person said - flaws are a part of life, and sometimes it's those "imperfect" pictures that capture a great moment! (Although if you could air brush my derriere to make it more slender, that would be great!)

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  3. Thanks ladies. I agree, I try not to retouch too many "flaws" but it is hard to know where to draw the line. My rule of thumb is, if it's a permanent part of the person, leave it there, if it's temporary and they don't like it, take it out. Unless, of course it's a cut on the face of an "accident prone" child who wouldn't look like themselves without some sort of bump or bruise. I will confess though that my first two daughters had SEVERE baby acne and it was all I could do not to remove it all from every picture. So, I left a few blemishes in a couple pictures. My parents laugh at me and say, "Jeanette's kids have ALWAYS had PERFECT skin." Acne though, is in a category of it's own as far as I'm concerned. The reason I believe this is because when you talk with a person who has acne you stop noticing it as their personality shines through, it's not a part of who they are. The camera doesn't take that into account. It captures perfectly every dot and blemish. When I photograph someone with acne I have a tendency to remove at least some of it, just enough so that the picture actually reflects my memory of who they are and what they looked like to me.

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