jana

Two years ago certain Patty called to inquire about wedding photography for her daughter’s wedding. Little did we know she was the Patty – the wife of Mike’s best friend from high school. Fast forward to the wedding at One Atlantic where I watched Mike’s reunion with all of his friends, especially Betta. It was the first time she had seen him in over thirty years! If you have teens, you know how inseparable they are. That is what Mike and John’s friendship was like. Betta was like a mom to Mike.

After the wedding we stayed in touch and Mike and the Crownes reconnected. When Ella was born, we couldn’t resist to go visit and join them for their traditional Sunday family dinner of pasta and home made sauce with meatballs. I was apparently talking about them for three weeks! Yes they are that good.

It was amazing to document all the warmth and love this family has for each other and for their friends. Betta shared her favorite photos with us on her iPad. She is more then eighty! She called her husband “Ed you are sooo funny!” after 60 years of marriage! Betta cooked and Ed did the dishes…He did take a break to come check on baby Ella though.

The photos are a slice of their lives. Not necessarily arranged and posed portraits, just moments as they happened that day. Baby Ella will have them to remember her great grandparents! This is when I LOVE what we do the most. Making history.

jana

DOCUMENTED MEMORIES….. the PHOTOGRAPH.
We need them so we can reflect on the past, they can make us happy or sad, they help us remember the precious past.
Every day we experience connections with people, it may be family, friends or people we don’t even know. One very powerful and lasting way to preserve and reflectlife’s journey is through recorded images. PHOTOGRAPHS…
How do you remember a close family member who has passed on or a child who is now grown? PHOTOGRAPHS…
What can make you cry when you look at that printed memory and reflect? PHOTOGRAPHS…
Images have always been a very powerful form of media that documents the past. Before photographs we remember people and events throughout history from paintings and drawings. It is a vital testament to documented history that what we see in an image actually occurred.

A true story:
A few years back we were commissioned to photograph a birthday party for a client’s mother. She was turning 90 and her daughter thought to have the party photographed. It was set in a museum, ancient dinosaurs as the backdrop. How appropriate She loved the idea, after all they were the only thing older then her that evening… We witnessed everlasting love and interaction between the grand mom and her charming husband.
After decades of marriage, they still had it. We captured this and other very special moments between family and friends. We were only documenting a 3 hour pieceof history. That 3 hour piece of history was represented in a book that not only told the story of the elderly couple but also the spirit and mood of that wonderful evening. All of the people that attended, their unique personalities and interactions.They were the “characters” in the pictorial storybook.
About a month after the grand mom and her husband received the book he passed on….
So now that book, the PHOTOGRAPHS and the memories contained are a priceless treasure for the grieving wife. It is her memory of a good time with close family and friends. Her daughter told me she looks at it almost every day it helps her remember the “good times”. It makes her smile now, it heals it comforts her.
So just remember that it is very important and necessary to record these little slices of life…. We never know when we may need to look back, reflect and savor the memories of life.

Here is my piece of history…

jana & mike

jana

mike & jana

jana

jana & mike

jana

jana