Personal | JJ Horton Photography

March 22, 2016

Weddings | How I’m Different

We all photograph with the same camera bodies, same lenses, film shooters send to the same labs, we follow the same trends, we submit to the same blogs and magazines for publications. Ultimately, we all produce the same thing… so what makes me different? It’s really easy to get bogged down as a wedding photographer and feel like you are just fading into the fog of “competition”. We often compare our worst against everyone’s best…. Ultimately, we all have to work hard to be different in some way. I’ve chosen for my service experience to be different, and not rely on my skill. After-all, anyone can master a skill… but no one else can be me. How do I do this? I’m a self-proclaimed, lightning-fast email responder. Nothing is worse than wanting/needing information fast and you can’t get it. When Jeremy and I got married, if you couldn’t communicate with me via email, I didn’t work with you. Plain and simple. As a creative, we are often not associated with left-brain people… we are free flowing, free spirited and heaven forbid we be tied to a device returning emails! You won’t get far with brides (or their mamma’s!) if you are not responsive. I know if I can get back to you faster than anyone else when you inquire about a service, I probably have a better chance of being hired. I’m also showing you that I am here for you, and I won’t leave you hanging. While I do try to keep work separated from personal time (emailing and calling) only between 10AM-7PM, I do make every effort to personally respond to emails within an hour during my 10-7 schedule. If I receive it outside those hours, expect a response by 10AM the next morning. Scheduling. At some point during the wedding process, you have to work on your schedule… either figuring it out on your own, with your venue or your planner. I don’t want to get 2 months from the wedding day to find out you’ve left 20 minutes between the ceremony and being introduced at the reception… all while the sun has gone down or me to do all your portraits (family, groups and just you two). Ultimately, you’ll be disappointed with me and the lack of photos you receive. It’s my job to educate you on how much time it takes to get the photos you want to receive. I decided on my contact form, I would ask you specific questions about your wedding day when you inquire about wedding photography services. Based on the information you provide me, when I meet with you or chat over the phone/skype I make you a timeline that works well for me to complete all the photos you want… this way we are all on the same page from the get-go. I go over it with you and even include a list of items that can impact your timeline. Planning assistance Something I’d wanted to do for a while., finally came to light last year when a fellow photographer did it first… it kicked my butt into gear to get it done! I’ve created a huge magazine that you’ll receive once your retainer and contract are in, full of planning tips to make your wedding day less stressful and my job easier! It’s a beast of a document, that I am incredibly proud to offer my clients! I stick to the contract. I see over and over people post on social media about the length of time it takes to get their images. Your contract might say 8 weeks, and you just hit week 9 with nothing delivered. This is unacceptable! You WILL get images from me well before my cut-off time of 6 weeks. Period! No chasing me down for images, I promise! Now…. a mini house update! Last time we were still looking at studs…. Drywall is complete, brick was done on Friday… microwave is back up in the kitchen, door hardware arrived (I’m in love!). They are starting tile today, completing the bathroom floor first before an inspection of the shower floor. Hopefully the inspection will go well, and they can finish tiling the shower this week. I’ll be doing a full reno updated next Tuesday, hopefully lots will be different! We are so close to getting moved in the new bedroom!

March 1, 2016

Kitchen & New Master update

It’s been 5 weeks since construction started on our new master suite and laundry room. I was hoping the project would be slightly farther along…. but they’ve been moving at a pretty good pace. Above is peeking through the plastic from the old garage door into the small hallway. The doorway straight ahead leads into our bedroom. There’s a doorway out of sight to the right that goes into the laundry room, which you can see below with the hot water heater. The workers stayed past dark last night finishing the sub-floor, and they should be putting drywall up today! Stepping into the bedroom we have 2 giant windows. The one on the left was moved from beside the one on the right. Moving into the room and looking back at the closet. If I turn around from where I am standing in the photo above… I’m facing into the new bathroom. The rub will be in the corner, stretching under the window. The toilet is the back corner, vanity and shower to the right. From standing where the tub will be, looking at the shower and vanity. Below is a little drawing of the new space. The green marks are the windows. Back before Christmas we began working on the kitchen… you can see a before photo here! We made a few modifications to our initial plans (decided on big drawers instead of doors for some of the lowers) All the upper cabinets are in, and new hardware is almost finished being installed. We have some lowers to finish up and we are waiting on the electrician to put in wiring for the pendants that will hang over the island… and a new outlet behind the cabinet next to the fridge so we can move the Kureig into that cabinet. We got the new pendant over the sink and I looooove it! You can see the plastic up in the door that will lead to the new hall with laundry and our bedroom.

February 9, 2016

DIY | Big Bows

In the south we put bows on everything… presents, Christmas trees, wedding dresses, our hair…. anything! When I was a little girl, my mom learned to make bows and immediately her gifts were almost too pretty to open. I learned to make them too, and it’s become a thing I’m known for… my gifts will be the prettiest, damnit! I hosted a shower for Jeremy’s sister last month, and decided to make a few for it… and then decided I should make a tutorial! Below are step-by-step instructions on how to construct the perfect bow! I couldn’t locate ribbon I liked in a timely manner, so I made my own from some cotton fabric I bought at Ikea. The fabric needs to have a little stiffness to make it work. You could use softer fabrics like silk or chiffon, but your bows will have to be much smaller. My one piece of advice not addressed in the tutorial is the ratio of ribbon size to finished bow. The skinnier your ribbon, the smaller your bow will need to be. The loops will be floppy if your ribbon is too narrow. You can start with step 2 if you are using actual ribbon. With one yard of fabric folded in half (hamburger style… not hotdog), cut one section about 4″ wide and unfold the section once done. I just folded it to make the cutting go faster.. but it doesn’t matter. Take your long skinny piece of fabric (or ribbon) and roll it up in about a 10″ loop. You’ll have a little extra, leave it hanging long. Now, take your scissors and make a cut 1/3 of the way across the rolled up piece, cutting through all the layers. Do it again on the other side, so now you have 2 cuts across from each other. Now repeat steps 1-3 again! You need 2 identical pieces to make your bow! Take one of your pieces and tie a piece of scrap ribbon around it, going through your cuts. It should make your fabric/ribbon pinch together a little. The larger the bow you’re making, use a wider piece of ribbon. My scrap piece was about an inch wide. *TIP* When you lay your looped piece down to tie the scrap through, make sure your tail of ribbon you left long is on top! It’s pictured backwards here! Take your second piece and tie it on top of the first at a 90 degree angle to the first piece. Again, put the tail on top (pictured wrong!) Flip the whole thing over, that your scrap ribbon hangs in the back. Pull all the loops apart, twisting them so that the cuts you made now catch on the fabric it’s twisted against… thus making your loops stay open and fluffy. Use your excess scrap ribbon to tie it on something!

February 2, 2016

The Midwest

Each November my day job sends me somewhere usually really obscure for our annual meeting… I’ve been to places like, Cromwell, CT, Boise, ID, Tulsa, OK…. and so on…. last year took me to Lincoln, Nebraska! Corn country! The older I get, the less I enjoy flying… and the less I enjoy flying on small, regional jets…. which is of course the only aircraft that goes in and out of Lincoln. So, I opted for a big plane for (a cheaper) flight into Kansas City, MO and rented a car for the 3 hour drive. I got in before lunch and had plenty of time to peruse the flat, farmlands of Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. Once I arrive in Lincoln, I got to tour the Nebraska Cornhuskers football stadium, athletic facilities, the Tractor Test Museum and the Capitol. A few weeks later, we hopped a plane to Dallas to see the Panthers destroy the cowboys on Thanksgiving Day with Karen, Paul & Porter… it was glorious!

@JJHORTON