Bouquet toss...

I love the bouquet toss.  Usually, there is a mad scramble for it, and the girls get very competitive.  It can make for some action-packed pictures!  You can bet these ladies got a few bumps and bruises by the time it was done...

If you want to see more fun bouquet toss images, keep an eye on www.jasonjanik.com and keep checking this blog.

May 2nd wedding pics, set three...

OK, so I finally had a little free time to play around with more pictures from my May 2nd wedding.  I've finally made it into the dancing pics.  I also want to try and dig through my last two weddings, because they had a TON of really nice images, but they'll still have to wait a little longer, I guess...  

I decided to do a few color images, a few black and white, and a few sepia toned images on this batch.  I wanted to show the options available when finishing out wedding pictures.  They don't have to be full color.  The album might actually look better as a mix of color and B&W, or maybe all B&W pictures.  That would definitely give it a more classic feel.  And the sepia tone keeps the B&W feel, but warms up the images a bit... keeping them from looking too cold and harsh.  

But enough talking, here's the next batch of pics.  I might still do another batch or two from this wedding if I have time.  There were so many good images with a lot of potential.  It's just a matter of finishing them out like these:  

 

Feel free to look at other fun wedding images at www.jasonjanik.com or keep checking this blog for updates!

Great wedding DJ...

I met an amazing wedding DJ this last weekend.  His name is David Allen and he can be found at djdavidallen.com, for those of you in need of some great wedding tunes.  I've shot a LOT of weddings, and the DJ is a place you just don't want to skimp on.  Besides the cake and the venue, the DJ is a "make or break" element for the evening's success.  

I'm not saying that photos aren't important.  However, if you didn't have a photographer at all, the evening would still go fine.  Of course, you wouldn't have any sort of historical record of the big day, but that's not the point.  The point I'm trying to make is that no DJ or a bad DJ could very well make for a dull and/or awkward evening.  A good DJ can keep things moving, keep people excited, and make sure everyone is having fun.  

I've worked with a bunch of good DJ's over the years, and Dallas seems to have some really spectacular ones.  And I've worked with some really bad ones.  I wonder how they even get hired in the first place...

Sparklers!!!

I love sparklers at weddings.  They are my favorite way to send off the bride and groom.  If I had to list my favorite wedding send-off materials in order, I'd definitely choose sparklers first and bubbles second.  Then maybe flower petals and rice...

 

More fun wedding send-off pictures can be seen at www.jasonjanik.com, so be sure to check it out!

The jumping bridesmaids...

It was dark and the bridesmaids wanted to have some fun.  They decided to start jumping and laughing.  Soon it turned in to this:  

Sometimes you will see some wild, silly, fun things at a wedding.  This one was filled with great moments like the one above.  I'll try to go through it and post some images online soon...  This one took place at Chandler's Landing Yacht Club in Rockwall, TX.  Instead of leaving the reception in a car or a horse and buggy, they left in a boat.  

I don't think I've done any reception exits in a boat before (and I've been shooting weddings for about twelve years now), and suddenly I shoot two in one month.  Last weekend's wedding had a Venetian-style Gondola exit, and now this one left on the lake.  Interesting...  maybe boats are the in thing right now?!?

May 2nd wedding pics, set two...

I finally had the chance to go through another section of the May 2nd wedding.  It's amazing how you can actually get work done once you aren't sick anymore...  Anyway, I'm finally catching back up with a bunch of work, and I thought I'd share some more images from this fun, beautiful, energetic, rainy wedding.  

I still have one more batch of images to look through, and I think they'll be the best.  This wedding got more active as the night went on.  Lots of dancing and singing and laughing.  But, until I make it to those shots, enjoy these:

A nice thank you...

It is customary to give an extra "thank you" to many of the people who serve you on your wedding day.  The preacher normally gets a gift (usually in the form of a check or cash), as well as others that attend to you on your big day.  The photographer is usually not one of those people.  

I have received some very nice "thank you" gifts from wedding couples in the past.  Quite often, they will give an extra hundred dollars, or a gift certificate to a nice restaurant.  However, I'd say that happens at maybe one in ten or one in twenty weddings... so not very often.  

Well, I recently booked a last-minute wedding and helped out the bride and groom (who would've had NO photographer if they hadn't found me).  To show their thanks above and beyond our contract, they gave me the best gift ever!!!  

 

Those gold coins are gift certificates to NorthPark mall.  Each is basically a fifty dollar gold coin that can be spent throughout the mall.  Leave it to NorthPark to do something more cool than just a paper gift certificate!  

The big envelope contains another gift certificate.  That one is for McCormick & Schmick's, which is my favorite place to eat at NorthPark.  If the babies weren't sick, I'd load us up right now and go eat there!  

I haven't opened the card yet (I was so excited over the gift certificates that I had to come blog about it ASAP), but I assume it's a nice little thank you for helping them out with photos on such short notice.  

Anyway, it was such a nice treat to get these extra little "thank you" gifts from the bride and groom.  It was such a great wedding, so this was just icing on the cake!

May 9th wedding, part one...

I had a chance to look through the first half of this weekend's wedding and I thought I'd share a few images from it...

...and don't forget to keep an eye on www.jasonjanik.com for more fun wedding images!

May 2nd wedding pics, set one...

Here is the first section of wedding pics that I glanced through and liked, for one reason or another.  Some pictures are more traditional, and others are just more fun and goofy.  It was such a fun and happy wedding, even though the rain came down in buckets that day.  

Everyone at the wedding had such an energetic and exciting attitude (despite the gloomy weather).  I tried to capture that movement, that emotion in the images by allowing a lot more motion and movement to come through visually.  It's a technique that creates a lot more throw-away images (because sometimes the added motion blur can be distracting, instead of complementary), so it meant I had to shoot a lot more frames that evening.  

I think the extra effort was worth it, though.  many of the images almost feel more like a video, the way they captured the moment in time...

...and remember, this is just the start of the day up until the end of the ceremony.  I still have an entire reception to go through.  I'm guessing I will probably post two more installments of this wedding by the time I work through all the images.  

We want cake!!!

I had planned on posting several weeding images from this weekend, but I wound up getting really sick.  I still am (I currently have a 102 temp... ugh), but I couldn't resist hopping on the internet for a few minutes to share this shot.  I just love the way all the children are huddled around the cake, anxiously waiting for it to be cut and served.  I can't blame them... I love cake, too.

It will be a few more days before I post anything here (I need to rest up and get well), so in the meantime, take a look at www.jasonjanik.com for some other fun wedding images!

baby pictures...

Having three baby boys in my family, I get to practice taking pictures ALL the time!  The oldest boy (my three and a half year old) grabbed his little Disney digital camera and came up to my studio.  We played around a bit, and took some fun photos together:  

This would make for a great little set of images hung on the wall together.  For more info on children's portraits, visit www.jasonjanik.com and read what I can do for you and YOUR family!

Testing...

A quick test...

Recent shoot and a fixed blog!

OK, it looks like I had my blog uploading issues resolved (thanks to one of the best web IT and design guys I know - Brian Young), so I can finally share some recent shoots with you.  These three images are from a couple weeks ago.  These two teens were great to work with!  We wound up getting a ton of images to choose from.  These three are just a little taste of the entire day's shooting:

Be on the lookout for more fun teen, family, and wedding portraits at www.jasonjanik.com or keep checking back here.  I'll be posting my most recent wedding shoot in the next few days...