Need some updated photographs of you or your family?  Want to help a family bring home a child?

Meet the Cook’s.  The Cook’s are adopting their second child from China and this is your opportunity to be a part of it.  They are an amazing family and an inspiration at our church.

Take a few minutes to learn about the Cook’s on their website and their journey to bring Drew(pictured below) into their home.

• When: August 6, 2011
• Where: The Bailey’s Barn at 2700 Emory Road
• Times: Sessions will begin at 1pm and finish at 8pm
• Sessions will start on the hour and half hour and are 20 minutes in length
  • 1:00
  • 1:30
  • 2:00
  • 2:30
  • 3:00
  • 3:30
  • 4:00
  • 4:30 – Booked
  • 5:00 – Booked
  • 5:30 – Booked
  • 6:00 – Booked
  • 6:30 – Booked
  • 7:00 – Booked
  • 7:30 – Booked
• These sessions are recommend for small families, individuals or couples
• Assorted poses and candid photographs

Sessions are $50 (all proceeds going to the Cook’s) and include:

• Time and processing of the photographs
• 6-12 final edited photographs uploaded to an online gallery for proofing and a la carte ordering
• 3 Facebook/Web-ready watermarked images for sharing
• 1 4×6 prints and 8 wallets (1 pose/image chosen by you)

For booking information contact Jarman Photo today at 865-236-1818 or photos@jarmanphoto.com

On December 16th, we had our last Knox SMUG (SmugMug User Group) of the year.  What do photographers do to unwind and have fun? Well, we setup a photo booth, added props and let the craziness begin.

To start, here is Shannon Kelley and myself.  Shannon is the main host of the Knoxville SMUG and I am the co-host.  Shannon is a great photographer and has such enthusiasm to help the Knoxville photographic community. Checkout Shannon’s write of the night on her blog.

And on to a few more from that evening.

And a group shot.

To enjoy more photos from that crazy evening, check out the slideshow below or check out the gallery.

If you are interested in photography, check out our Meetup page and come hang out with us in 2011.

What Is Custom Photography

The photographic art you choose to place on your wall is ultimately the result of the vision of the photographer. This vision, coupled with what you wear to your session, the environment, the lighting, even the mood the subjects are in at the time of photographing creates the work that you will want to proudly display on your walls forevermore.

Your first step in the process is more about determining who you are, who your family is and then seeking a photographer that reflects your style. For instance let’s say your family is extremely outdoorsy and loves playing on the beach. You start determining what style you like, browse through photography website portfolios and determine if any of the styles exhibited there would be a good fit with your life and family style. You have already determined that you should probably seek out a beach type photographer (that is if you live near a beach) and then begin narrowing the field down a bit.

Finally after a bit of internet research, you have narrowed it down to two photographers who do what seems like solid work, the sort of outdoor beach look you desire. It is now time to ask yourself: Do you like photographer A’s style over photographer B’s style? Is it because the people in the images of A’s style are having a great time and it seems very caught up in the moment vs. B photographer more posed, looking in the camera images? If this is a case, you probably like LIFESTYLE photography or perhaps even take it a step further and define your desired style as a PHOTOJOURNALISTIC photography style. The photographer you probably should choose is photographer A because their style is very similar to the style you desire.

What custom photography ultimately is all about is choice and experience. Custom photography is about finding someone who will photograph your family, give you devoted 1:1 attention without worry of who is next ‘in line’ or the feeling of a crowded portrait studio. A custom photographer will typically show you a fairly extensive gallery culled to only show the good images that meet the photographers’ creative sensibilities. Often the images are fully edited images-color corrected with blemishes and undereye circles removed. Custom photographers are also known as boutique studios, offering a range of products and unparalleled service. Think Lexus vs. Hyundai, think Nordstrom vs. WalMart.

A custom photography experience should have you, the client and your experience in mind.

Why Choose Custom Photography

Custom Photography as something “special”

Custom photography is more of a luxury than your entry level cookie cutter chain experience. Custom photography truly is not for everyone, it requires a level of commitment, investment in time and money, forethought and planning on the part of the subject/client and requires a larger time commitment for the photographer as well.

Clients who enjoy taking a more active role in the creation of their families’ memories have the desire to have portrait art that is truly personalized. These more discerning clients have been known to budget and allot time for a custom photography session. Many clients opt for it to be a once a year special experience, some opt to have custom photography sessions done to record their child’s stages in life. Having said this, it is clear that custom photography is not in everyone’s budget, it is something that most families save for to splurge on from time to time to memorialize their children as they really are (not posed and primped in the cookie cutter studio setting).

There is a great deal of time involved in creating high end custom photography sessions for a client. The luxury of great service, better choices and a supberb end product. The result of all this are heirloom quality images. The time invested at the session is only a small portion of time involved in this process.

Custom photography has been likened to purchasing a fine vehicle. To get to point B from A let’s face it, even a bus ride would suffice. If you want to luxuriate in a finely appointed vehicle, customizing your own experience by listening to smooth jazz while sitting in a climate controlled setting adjusted purely for your comfort in a body hugging leather interior, perhaps that Lexus you so desire is your cup of tea. Custom photography is much the same cup of tea. It is the Lexus of the photography world. It is where the intangibles make the experience truly wonderful and the images themselves make the investment of money and time truly worthwhile.

Custom photography can be broken down into even more levels. There are on location, studio, mixed studio/on location, specialty location and destination type photographers. The beauty of custom photography is in the choices and in the luxury of thoses options. The customized service level you are sure to experience will be amazing. The knowledge that your final images are the result of someone caring about those moments so much that they take extra time ensuring that the artwork you receive is good enough to stand by with their name on it. That level of quality and commitment is all but lost in the age of “mass produced,” “mass marketed,” corporate “everyone is a number”. Custom photography is based on being unique to you. How great an experience would be, to be able to sit back and allow a photographer to do this highly custom work for images that you will most likely cherish for a lifetime?

Keep in mind more than anything that the Lexus will never appreciate in value the way your portraits will. The portrait art you become invested in from your custom photographer will no doubt increase in value and become more priceless as the years pass.

Thanks to Marianne Drenthe of Professional Child Photographer Consumer Guide for providing this great resource.

I recently took a trip to Nashville, Tn for WPPI and a workshop with Mark Wallace. I’ve been incredibly busy lately and have been trying to catch up on my photo processing and posting.  I had an amazing time in Nashville with my friend and fellow photographer, Steve Chastain of Expressions Photography. We visited Union Station and I had a blast wandering around taking photographs. I also was able to play around with a 15mm fisheye lens. This lens was a lot of fun and gave me a chance to experiment with a different perspective.  I hope you enjoy the photos and can’t wait to share more soon.

Today I had the honor to participate in the Help-Portrait movement started by Jeremy Cowart of Nashville, TN.  It was such an honor to work with a great group of photographers and the wonderful families that participated.  As of the last update that I saw, over 10,000 people were photographed today. This is amazing and awe inspiring  to see photographers giving back to their communities.

I was blessed by the families that we had the honor and opportunity to photograph today.  Today wasn’t about the photographers, it was about the people who came to get photographed. We had the chance to meet a young man (13 years old) who was in remission of leukemia for three years. This young man had such a great spirit about him and wanted to get a photograph with his parents, but especially his father. The family traveled for an hour to come get their portraits made. I have a hard time putting into words the experiences I had today.

I hope that everyone takes time in this season of giving to find a way to fill a need in their community. It will bless you and the one you help in ways that you cannot imagine.

Here are the people that participated in the Knoxville Event.

I had the wonderful opportunity this past week to participate in the Saving Little Hearts Charity Event at Club LeConte on Thursday night.  I was one of the paparazzi for the evening, photographing everyone as they came down the red carpet.  I had a wonderful time, as I always do when I have my camera, and I hope the attendees enjoyed themselves as well.  If you haven’t heard of Saving Little Hearts, their mission statement says it best,

“Saving Little Hearts is dedicated to helping children with congenital heart defects and their families by providing emotional assistance and educational information primarily through the distribution of Care Packages.”

Check out the Saving Little Hearts website for ways you can get involved or to find out more information.

Enjoy the photos.

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The second day of the Rob’s workshop was as amazing as the first.  We had the opportunity photograph a beautiful young woman.  We had a wonderful time and I got so many amazing images from that day.  The young woman was an amazing model for us. She was so willing to work with us and try new things.  Rob taught us many posing techniques and how to find locations for lighting and backgrounds.  It was an amazing time seeing how Rob works, finding locations and creating beautiful portraits.

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I had the opportunity to go to a lighting workshop led by Don Giannatti, an amazing photographer and teacher, 2 weeks ago.  You can find more information about Don’s workshops at Learntolight.com and see his personal work at DonGiannatti.com.  I had so much fun and learned so many new techniques.  We had the opportunity to work with some amazing models and get some awesome photographs.

Here are some of the photographs that I took while at the workshop.  I hope you enjoy them.

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I recently added a backdrop stand and white seamless paper to my photography tool box and of course my daughter, Emma, was my first model.  I had so much fun working with this new setup and cannot wait to use this setup with more clients.

Emma posing in my new portable backdrop setup.

I hope you enjoy these photos.

Let me know what photographic needs I can help you with.

With the birth of my daughter this past year, I’ve realized the importance of documenting a child’s development and growth over the years.  So to help everyone with that, I am offering a special to all my facebook fans.  Facebook fans will get a free 20 minute child photo session for their child’s birthday.  The session must take place within a week before or after his/her birthday.

Emma

Become a fan of Jarman Photography on Facebook and then contact me to schedule your session.