My Last Exposure

To all my Friends and Clients,

BECKY J. photography is developing its last exposure as of December 1, 2008, after taking its best shot at fulfilling my lifelong dream the past three years. When I started my business in 2005, I promised my incredibly supportive husband that if I couldn’t make ends meet by the end of this year, it would be time to re-revaluate and ask myself some hard questions…sadly, I now have the answers.

But, I can happily say I’ve had more fun than I ever thought possible, especially photographing:

My little, two-year-old girlfriend in her pink and purple tutu;
Two very intimate weddings that made ME, the photographer, cry;
“Pics in the Park Day” at Inniswood Metro Gardens;
A long list of corporate professional portraits;
All the people who let me “practice” on them to build up my portfolio;
A few diehard Pittsburgh Steelers Fans (you know who you are)!;
Twin baby girls who looked completely different from each other, had completely different personalities and completely stole my heart during our session;
Some four-legged friends (especially Reba, Kenya, Bettis, Poppy, and Ed);
Kids in their Christmas pajamas sliding down their staircase at home;
My other little girlfriend all dolled up in her favorite summer dress;
Many blended families, cousins and siblings, couples in love;
Gail's prayer book images; and,
My own mother’s 80th birthday portrait.

I have SO MANY PEOPLE TO THANK – unfortunately, there’s not enough room here to do so. I trust you all know how much you mean to me and how grateful I am for the opportunity to have captured a slice of your life!

Now, before I close up shop, I’d still like to offer creative photography sessions to those of you who typically hire me for your holiday photography needs. This means your session MUST be confirmed and completed by October 15th. Also, if you’re interested in custom-designed cards, I need to provide your selected image and greeting to my graphic design friend by November 1st. Because I’m also working a “real job” now, session times are limited so please don’t delay!

For those of you with outstanding gift certificates for photography sessions, please contact me ASAP so we can get those sessions done this fall when the weather will be picture perfect!

Last but not least, I will keep all your session images archived but if you decide later on down the road you’d like reprints, I’d be happy to burn the digital files on a CD as high-resolution, full-size images, at a reduced rate of $5 per digital file, plus a $25 conversion fee per CD (this offer applies only to reprints - not on new print orders). FYI...I still own the copyright of all images but will provide a usage release form that allows you to resize and obtain your own prints. My only request is that you go to Cord Camera or other professional processing retailer (please, I beg of you, not Wal-Mart or Walgreen’s – you all know what a photo paper snob I am)!

OK, I’ve rambled on long enough…thanks again for making my dream a lifelong memory!

B&W

After I downloaded these images from my early morning session with this little, three year old and her mom at the nature preserve, I just knew they would make a great study in black and white, my very, very, very favorite of all mediums. I also threw in a subtle vignette around the edges - there was just something about their joy and quiet interaction that spoke to me.

Back to School

For most families, "Back to School" means a backpack or two or three filled with school supplies, shopping for clothes that will be outgrown before the year is over, a new bus route and driver, "Meet the Teacher Night," and kids who can't get to sleep the night before the Big Day; however, for the family reflected above, this year "back to school" means most of their adult children will leave the summer nest and drive off into the sunset to college. This mom planned months ahead to arrange our photo session knowing full well it would be quite awhile before memories like this could be captured again. Just as we were wrapping things up, Mom said to me, "I'll bet you don't have too many sessions like this," and she was absolutely right...

I was thinking exactly the same thing as I looked through my viewfinder and found four (actually five now - one of them I learned is now engaged - congratulations, Brad and fiance Sarah!) very bright, successful, and well-rounded people who all seem eager to be in the world on their own terms, yet are still trying to figure out the meaning of life. I'm thrilled for them and for their parents. Especially their parents, who are still able to smile considering all the tuition they're forking out :-)

Short but SWEET!

Our son, Lucas, finally made it home for a short but SWEET 2-day visit from Vegas after a 5-hour flight delay and a CP ("crazy person" on the plane) delay which means he actually arrived in Columbus at 2:30am on Thursday (yawn, yawn). The typical "mechanical problems" delay was bad enough but then as the new plane was finally taxiing out to it's runway, some guy sitting towards the front decided to go bonkers so the pilot just turned the plane around and headed back to the terminal - yep, headed back with the rest of the 165 passengers on board. After removing the CP, they were soon on their merry way (more yawning). The bummer was, the whole delay thing ate up a good chunk of Luke's time here and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it - and no bags of peanuts, either - that's what $400 gets you these days on US Airways.

Oh, well, back to Lucas' visit...its been 4 long years since he's been here and, besides hanging out with us, he wanted to see what had changed or stayed the same around the old homestead. We checked out:

• Grandview Heights (Luke used to work at BankOne on W. 5th Ave. - it's now Chase);
• The North Market (for a cup of Jeni's pistachio ice cream - we hope that never changes!);
• The Short North (he lived on W. 6th for awhile) and the great murals on the sides of buildings;
• And German Village so he could snap a few photos to share with his Vegas friends. Those poor folks have never seen cobblestone streets, stately oak trees and grass lawns (think 105 degrees in the shade, overgrown cactus and smoke-filled casinos).

Our 2 days flew by so fast but I'm thankful for these images to prove to myself and the world that he was actually here, that this wasn't a figment of my imagination, and that I miss him so much it makes my stomach hurt.