It has taken only a year for Noah’s mom and I to get our act together to photograph Noah.  But we finally did it and I love it.  I just have to say I love Noah’s hair.  It has a mind of its own and when I heard he wanted to cut it I said if we can only find 15 minutes we have to do this.  Noah did great and I have to admit he is the shyist kid that I have ever photographed but he did such a great job.  He was such a great listener and has such a sweet person he was a joy to be around.  To view some more of his session click here.

I have to say that I love the colors the florist and brides are mixing together the last couple of weddings I’ve attended.  The colors are just bursting making the event such a cheerful day.  Rick James out of Santa Cruz designed the beautiful flowers at the wedding of Mike and Carolyn.  Their big day was held at the beautiful Chaminade in the Santa Cruz Mountains and was officiated by wedding minister Barbara Boyd who is always so warm and genuine.

I loved the playfulness and sentimentality of the details they had.  From the photo of her mother on her bouquet, to the donation to breast cancer, to the very humorous cake topper.  Since this was my first wedding to photograph at Chaminade I had a great time taking the couple on a walk thru the grounds and finding some little spots to photograph them.  One of my favorites is the last of the night.  The two of them had snuck out for a quiet moment at the end of the night and enjoyed the warmth of the fire.

To see more of their day click here to see their slideshow.

Pilar and John had one of the most colorful weddings I’ve seen in a long time.  The exchanged vows at the DeAnza hotel and I have never seen the atrium look as wonderful as it did on their wedding day.  It was transformed into a magical oasis of color and happiness. As guest entered they were entertained by the beautiful sounds of  Jay Alvarez’s acoustic guitar.  You couldn’t help but smile while you were there.  Pilar and John both looked amazing.  I loved John’s reaction when he saw her coming down the aisle.  I actually heard him say “Wow”. He was so happy that I could tell as soon as she got to the alter he wanted to touch her.  I loved it!  It was such a sweet moment.

They paid so much attention to the details and they had a star line up of vendors that helped them pull it off.  Plus to top it off Pilar had two amazing dresses.  One for the wedding and then one so she could dance the night away.  You could say she was “Supersonic” as her contagious laughter filled the air.  You couldn’t help but be happy for them.  Some of their vendors besides me were Nicole Lisane wedding coordinator, Asiel Design for flowers, North American Theater Tech for lighting and mood, Wildflower linens, Big Fun DJs invitations by www.marizette.com and Tia Reagan for hair and make up.

To see more of their day click here to see their slideshow and let them know what you thought of their day by making a comment below.

This shoot is by far the fastest kid shoot I’ve ever done in my life.  If I wouldn’t of had 4 other adults, an expedition, and a break in the weather I never would of been able to pull this one off.  We went to Minnesota to visit our good friends and their new baby.  The plan to spend some quiet days up at the cabin, relaxing and having fun.  Well of course we have to throw a photo shoot in there somewhere because why not add to the chaos.  Well we had a time and day planned but the weather didn’t agree with the schedule.  So, we were expecting rain and not sure how we were going to pull this shoot off  when low and behold while cooking dinner the sun peaked out.  I turned off the stove, looked at my friend and her mom and said “get the kids dressed asap” , the dads loaded the couch in the expedition and we were headed out within 20 minutes to a field right up the street from their family cabin.  In fact, if you look down the road that is  Uncle Ernie’s cabin.  I laugh when I say that the session was less then 20 minutes because it could of been shorter. It was all a whirl of barking out orders and doing silly things to keep the kids attention.  We had a 5 day old and three other kids under 9 with more storm clouds coming and us battling a swarm of mosquitos.  Of course we forgot to spray the kids so dad ran back to the cabin to get some OFF while I snapped and mom batted mosquitos away with a burp rag.  If someone was taking video I’m sure we would of won the $10,000 award.  As you can see from their legs and arms that they had battled the blood sucking beast all summer but what would a midwest summer be without mosquito bitten arms and legs. They are the battle scars of youth!  You have to do what you have to do.  They are only that small once in their life.  All in all it was a memory and I was blessed to be the first to take Miss Emma’s first photo shoot with her siblings.  Welcome to the Chaos Miss Emma!

Someone mentioned to me that they missed hearing about some of my crazy adventures in my personal life.  With the introduction to facebook I have to admit I’ve been doing more personal stuff on that and keeping the blog a little more business.  More out of convenience then anything.  So by request I thought I would make an attempt to start adding a little of the behind the scenes life of Jill Johnson.  Here are some photos from our trip this summer to Minnesota.  Our first visit to the land of the Vikings as we visited some of our best friends.  We had the oppurtunity to spend some relaxing days at their cottage.  I loved it because my kids were getting a similiar experience to how I grew up in Michigan. Here is the gang from the cottage.  Quite a crew!

The next couple of shots is the boys with a Schultz character which is all over the twin cities, the dino from the science museum, and the yellow brick road in Grand Rapids where Judy Garland is from.

The next couple the view from the cottage after a rain, a walk in the woods with a sprinkle, and the boat ride on the jungle cruise in Disneyland. (not really but it felt like a hippo was gonna come out of the water)

The Tubing, the water slide, my initiation in to the cabin life, fishing with daddy in the rain, and dancing in the river by door.  It rained like 4 inches in 2 hours it was amazing.  We had a great time, relaxing before the big rush of fall.

And the winner of the best “Dip on a first dance”  goes to Valerie and Brendan.  I’ve been shooting weddings for years and I always get told look for the dip at the end.  Almost always they forget to look where I’m standing,  ready to shoot,  and they do the dip away from me.  No, no, no, goes off in my head as I scramble to capture it somehow.   Well thank you Brendan you nailed it.  I don’t know who was more excited him for not dropping Valerie, or for me just getting the shot.

Ruby Hill’s makes a beautiful background for a wedding and theirs was no different.  They had a great day filled with love and laughter.  These two are such wonderful people and you could tell by the speeches that everyone gave about them.  I loved how Valerie incorporated so much of her family and friends.  Her usherettes in the black and white dresses were adorable.  One of my favorite parts of the day was photographing them in the vineyard.  I thought we were going to get in trouble by the police but they were just pulling someone over so we laughed and just continued with our fun.  Michelle, her wedding coordinator of MPO Events, was fantastic as she really helped to work the day out so that we could get the photos Valerie wanted.

Some of her other great vendors were Elegant Touch of Strings,  The Flower House, Primrose Bakery, Le Grande Affaire, and Lumitone.

To see more of their wedding day images click here.