Monthly Archives: September 2010

Graham the newest addition| Baby Photo session

Posted in Baby/Maternity, Family, Personal on

This little guy is the newest to the Johns clan and he actually looks like us unlike his sisters (but they are still pretty cute).  Well, he had no choice on where his session was gonna be because both of his sisters around the same age had their photo sessions down at the family beach.  Much like his sisters sesssion before him, the day of his shoot was the coldest day there during the  camping trip.  No time to reschedule so he sucked it up and did what good models do when his great auntie lives 3000 miles away-he urinated on his dad.  Graham actually did really well and stayed very warm in his daddy’s arms.  Welcome to the clan little one.

Piper 4 months Milkaholic What? | Baby Photo Session

Posted in Baby/Maternity, Family, Kids, Personal on

Piper came to visit me back in the spring and yes I am lame because it has taken me this long to get some personal work done.  This here is one of the many great nieces that you have heard about.  This one lives in South Carolina so I guess we’ll be having a real southern lady in our family.  But her new mini session is sitting on the computer and I just wanted to share a few of her before her new debut.  We had a little fun with her bling and milkaholic attitude, she loved those beads so we had to incorporate them.

Bryce “I don’t like my picture taken” Johns

Posted in Family, Kids, Personal on

Be prepared because this will only be one of many post that you will see about my family and my great nephews (and nieces).  This one woke me up every morning while we were camping singing ” I like to move it move it!” To my horror though he put forth a challenge-Bryce hates his picture taken, he won’t smile.  Which just cracks me up because he smiles all the time and he is like a live cartoon character, but if you put the camera in front of him he just stares or  you just get side or back of his head.  To give you a little background about the guy he calls his grandpa, my brother, Ta Da!  Not grandpa or grandfather but Ta Da because it is what my brother said to him when he walked in to visit, “Ta Da I’m here!” Well, I made the mistake of singing Happy Birthday and adding Cha Cha Cha in to it, guess what my name is?  So, I literally did this session in about 5 minutes and that was enough for his patience.  Near the end he looked at me and said “Aunt Jill Cha Cha Cha, can we just swing now with no pictures?”  But yes I conquered!  Really the kiddo had no choice I was going to get one out of him if it killed me.  Fortunately I’m still alive he was having to much fun to care that I had my camera in my hand and catching his smile.  If only I could of captured his laughter but I have it in my mind.  Happy Big 3 Birthday!

Hotel DeAnza| Come Join Us at the Event Fair

Posted in events, press, Weddings on

Just engaged and looking for a venue for your wedding? Looking for a place for your corporate event?  Come out to Hotel DeAnza in beautiful downtown San Jose, on Monday September 13,  from 6-8p.m. to check out the venue and to meet me along with some great vendors in the business.  You’ll have the oppurtunity to meet with many people who can help make your party a success.  To RSVP for the event and to find out more please click on the link here. We hope to see you there.  IF you would love to see an event from Hotel DeAnza please click here.

Turks and Caicos| I’m on a boat celebrating 15 years of marriage

Posted in Personal on

This past June my husband and I celebrated our 15th anniversary and we wanted to do something special.  For those of you who don’t know I grew up with my parents owning a travel agency. ( Some of you may ask what is that but it was a place where people would help you plan a vacation and find great fares before the days of expedia and travelocity.)  So, the love of  travel comes very natural for me.  Fortunately, the love of my life loves to explore and experience the world as much as I do.  We didn’t know much about Turks and Caicos.  We had read about it in a magazine a couple of years back luring us with its beautiful photos, so we put on the to do list.  Well, the perfect timing came for us and we were fortunate that some of our dearest friends were able to celebrate with us.  We had wonderful time.

I know many of you have seen Turks and Caicos on House Hunters International because many of you have told me.  But this is an amazing and beautiful location. I swear so many places were probably filmed for the Pirates of the Caribbean.  It hasn’t been commercialized much and because of that it has an island quaintness to it.  In fact, hotels can’t build higher then 5 stories tall and most of the resorts keep quite small except for places like Sandals and Beaches.  If your in to total relaxation, great food, deserted  beaches,  and love the water it is a perfect place for you.  The diving and snorkeling was fantastic and we had such a great time we did two different boat tours.  The first one was a much more typical tourist tour but we had a blast.  The sea was a little rough that day (a tropical storm/hurricane was headed in that night) but we dove in and harvested our own conchs.  It was fun but a lot of work as you swam in swells of waves.  Thank goodness they gave us noodles so you could rest.  They even taught us how to take the conchs out and then they made us fresh conch salad right there on the beach.  I’m not a huge conch fan but it was really good. (My husband on the hand had a daily dilemma of conch fritters or fingers?). The beach we prepared it on was deserted except for all of the Iguanas that lived on the island.  On the way back we even got to drive the boat!

The second boat trip was a much calmer day and not your typical tourist ride.  We showed up to a beautiful sailboat with about 15 other people on it besides us.  Simply an amazing day as we snorkeled and sailed.  I swam with a shark, baracuddas, and sting rays.  I so wanted to swim with a turtle but none were around.  We explored beautiful reefs, a shipwreck, and more untouched beaches. Simply said,  “Breathtaking.”  This was a day that my husband got to sail the ship and I think he was in heaven.

I think part of us being married 15 years is that I’m not allowed to take my work camera unless we are there partially for a job(he’s not allowed to bring the work computer).  It’s good because it does make us relax and step away but I still have my little tourist camera.  How could I not capture some of these memories.  But I couldn’t help but inquire about weddings there.  It’s a phenomenal backdrop for a ceremony.  Beaches alone had over 106 wedding there in June.  So, I’d love to go back if your in need of a destination photographer. :)

I feel so blessed to of found the perfect man for me.  I can’t say we have the perfect marriage but who does?  But I can say is we are the  perfect match for each other. I’m looking so forward to spending many more adventures with him and can only hope that the couples I photograph will be blessed in the same way.  I’m a firm believer that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been married a year or 50 years it is good to spend some quality time with the one you love.  Thanks to my family for watching my kiddos.