Blog – Page 5 – Jan Kentala Photography

Only 4 days old!

Posted on April 6, 2011May 5, 2011 by Jan Kentala

This is definitely the tiniest baby I’ve ever photographed. The parents called me from the hospital. I asked “when was your baby born?” and Kristi replied, “last night”! She took my advice when I told her newborn babies should be photographed within 2 weeks of being born. At one month, their hands and feet are already twice as big! So, this session was photographed when their new baby Emma was only 4 days old!

It is always a joyous phone call when one of my past wedding couples calls me to announce that they are expecting a baby and they either want to schedule a maternity or a newborn session.

I have fond memories of Kristi and Todd’s April wedding: they were thinking of a SPRING wedding, but it ended up being a WINTER wedding, with a fresh snowfall the day before. Kristi quickly found a beautiful white fur cape, which made for fabulous outdoor photos at the Van Dusen mansion….. in the snow!

“And our youngest child is three”

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Jan Kentala

As I’ve said in the past, a child usually reaches the magic age of reason at 4 years of age. That means you can bribe them, as in, “I have a toy/treat for you when we’re done”. With children younger than 4, a photography session can be hit or miss: a 3 year old is totally egocentric and does exactly what HE/SHE wants to do…. or not do! A younger child also has a smaller attention span, and all of my stupid puppet tricks, songs, and silly shenanigans fail to impress after about 10 minutes. (Did I also mention that, with very young children, the photographer has to be a good sport about losing a large quotient of dignity?) Ya gotta get the shot FAST. I always ask the parents to rate the shots they want taken in order of importance so that, hopefully, we capture the most important grouping before the magic wears off.

Jake was truly as good as gold for a 3 year old boy. I had his complete attention and cooperation for the full 10 minutes. Then, the comedian in him came out, and he discovered that he could make funny faces, put his head down, or put his hands over his face. Hey – he wasn’t crying or misbehaving, but he was getting the attention that 3 year old boys love!

Now that we are doing slideshow presentations for the first viewing, I’ve discovered that the “blooper shots” add much interest to the slideshows! They certainly aren’t what the parents will choose as their wall portrait or Christmas card, but the slideshows are alot more fun!

Here are some perfect examples of photographs suitable for a framed wall portrait, and some funny ones to add some spice to the slideshow…..

001 — It is also helpful to have the young child perched on something where they can't make a quick getaway!

002 — well... the squirrel puppet was waving, so Jake is waving back!

003 — another option: have the youngest child pinned in so he can't move!

006 — this also works (dad has Jake on his shoulders)

007 — at about exactly 10 minutes into the session....!

009 — big brother Nathan is having a good time!

010 — "I don't want to jump on the count of three!"

011 — big brother and sister trying to "convince" Jake that it's FUN to jump!

A Fun Senior Session!

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Jan Kentala

Vanessa, from Woodbury High School, has been a gymnast since she was a very young girl. She and her mom wanted to do an entire session devoted to gymnastics, since she has many different outfits, props, and a letter jacket that she wanted to feature in the photographs.

It is always fun for me to do a “specialty” session. Even though I don’t know very much about gymnastics, Vanessa helped to give me lots of ideas about poses. It is very handy that I have 2 large “hi key” areas (one is 16 feet wide) when the photos involve action – in this case, flips, leaps, and jumps! She had so many beautiful outfits to choose from and the most ENORMOUS medal collection I’ve ever seen! See the photo below with all her medals – WOW. Like I said, this was an exciting session with Vanessa, her mom, and me all contributing to the creative effort.

She just picked up the proofs today. Both she and her mom were very pleased with all the photos and gave me their permission to share them on my blog.

Destination Wedding Albums

Posted on March 4, 2011November 10, 2020 by Jan Kentala

Many brides are opting for destination weddings these days. Often, the destination site will offer a “package” to the bride that includes a photographer. The photographer gives the bride her images on a CD. Then what? She will probably put them in a folder on her computer to share the wedding photos with family and friends via social networking sites. But what about a wedding album?

My goal for all my brides is to have a beautifully designed wedding album. We have won several awards for our wedding albums, including the coveted ICON award from the Twin City Bridal Association.

Shannon and Sam got married on the beach at her parent’s Florida home in 2009. As a one-year anniversary gift, her mother suggested a Gift Baskets for Women and she contact me to have a wedding album designed by me from the images taken by her Florida wedding photographer. We sat at my computer and loaded in her CD of images. She selected all her favorites and then I got to work designing a beautiful album for her. Both mothers also ordered albums. A few weeks later, I uploaded the final album design to the company in Italy that produces my albums, Graphi Studio. Approximately two months later, Shannon got the fun phone call that her albums were ready! She loved her album and gave me permission to share it on this blog.

If you had a destination wedding and are wishing for a wedding album OR if you are a Minnesota bride who only got a CD from her wedding photographer, I would love to design an album for you! Here are some pages from Shannon and Sam’s album.

First Comes Love…

Posted on March 2, 2011March 2, 2011 by Drew Geraets

As the old saying goes, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes… puppies? If you’re not ready for that baby carriage, as our recent wedding couple Kristin and Tim weren’t quite yet, the next step in their lives was the addition of a new puppy.

Oddly enough, Kristin and Tim live on the same street as my husband and I, something I found out when we were shooting their wedding. We quickly bonded over dogs, as the couple has an older dog, Sparky, that they knew they’d eventually have to breed as per an agreement with their breeder. Last fall, we learned the good news that Sparky was pregnant and shortly thereafter, she gave birth to six bundles of fur.

Kristin and Tim had the pleasure of raising the puppies during their first few weeks of life before sending five back to the breeder and keeping the female pup, Beckett, as the newest addition to their family. They wanted to remember the whirlwind few weeks that they had seven dogs in their home, so Joe and I spent one evening photographing the six wriggling, non-stop puppies and one tired mom. Let me tell you we needed all four adults to try to wrangle those dogs! Puppy photos definitely fall into the category my mom calls “sweaty photography.” Boy, were they a challenge!

While we may not have gotten a photo where all six puppies were looking at the camera, we got pretty darn close–and snapped some funny shots trying. We also grabbed a couple of pictures with Kristin, Tim and the puppies. We wanted to stick Sparky in, but anytime those puppies went near their mama, they immediately tried to feed. So puppies only it was! I also took some candid shots in their pen. It figures that as soon as the big photo shoot was over, they all fell asleep. Timing is everything!

Updated Senior Photos

Posted on February 20, 2011March 2, 2011 by Jan Kentala

Most high school seniors come for their senior pictures the summer before their senior year. But, what if you have a new look or want to add an outfit that you wished you’d brought last summer? Both of these applied to Sam. His hair is much longer. He no longer is sunburned from playing golf all summer (!) And he really wanted some photos in an all black tux. In fact, he brought a magazine photo of a guy in a black suit on a black background that we all thought was very cool and knew we could easily duplicate the look for Sam.

Another reason for a return, updated photo session is to have new photos for your grad cards. We are adding many new, exciting grad card announcement designs this year and some of these designs incorporate up to 8 photos. (Information will be mailed to the Class of 2011 in early April). It can also be fun to include a baby pic along with a variety of your senior photos – start digging through your old family albums!

Any senior who has been photographed at our studio can return for an Update Session. The cost is just $40 per outfit. Sam also brought his letter jacket, which includes some newly added patches.

Here are some new photos of Sam, plus a few taken last summer. It was fun to see and photograph Sam again!

Images of the Year

Posted on December 30, 2010March 2, 2011 by Drew Geraets

We thought it’d be fun to put together a little slideshow of some of our favorite, funniest and most memorable images from the past year. While it was darn near impossible to narrow down our top 70 photos, we managed to get just about all of them in there. (Though when I came to work today, I still had to cut the slideshow by 27 images!) We hope you enjoy a look back at 2010 through the lenses of the Jan Kentala Photography staff.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Photos by Jan Kentala and Molly Kentala Broman
Music by Neon Trees

All Through The House

Posted on December 12, 2010March 2, 2011 by Jan Kentala

My two favorite things about Christmas are: decorating and baking. And since I’ve discovered the joy of online shopping , I can now skip the thing I like least about Christmas: shopping at the crowded malls! We have just received our third major winter storm since November 13th with 18″ additional snow. I must say, the two feet of snow on the ground does add to the Christmasy feel. Here is a little tour: From My House to Yours.

My favorite new addition to my Christmas cookie collection is the mice, pictured below. How cute are they?!

001_Stenvick_120810 — The view as you walk in the front door

002_Stenvick_120810 — We had to cut this 11 ft. tree to fit in the house!

003_Stenvick_120810 — The view outside: where did our deck go?

004_Stenvick_120810 — The tree at night. So cozy - makes me want to have a tree all year!

007_Stenvick_120810 — You may recognize this table; it was the Crate and Barrel 2009 decor which I bought at 75% off after Christmas last year

011_Stenvick_120810 — I like snowmen because you can leave them up all winter

013_Stenvick_120810 — This always hung at my mom's house during Christmas - I made it many years ago

This photo could also be called "what I did during the two blizzard days when you couldn't leave the house"!

014_Stenvick_120810 — My favorites! Dip a stemmed cherry into chocolate, stick it to a Kiss, insert almond ears and make eyes and nose with a toothpick dipped into the melted chocolate

Savannah and Cosette

Posted on December 7, 2010March 2, 2011 by Jan Kentala

Savannah and Cosette returned to the studio to be photographed in their Christmas dresses. If you have a good memory, you will remember an earlier story about the ‘Perils of Cosette’. Somehow, Cosette likes to have her photo taken about as much as you and I enjoy a root canal! She will be three in the spring and we were all hopeful that “this time it would be different”.
Dad suggested that we start with the family photo, as last time, this didn’t happen – Cosette had posed for two or three photos with her sister and then would have none of the family grouping.
Smart smart dad! THIS time, she was perfectly happy for the first two family arrangements. When I bought Sammy the Squirrel puppet at the Arboretum this summer with Molly, I was actually thinking about children like Cosette who need extra happiness in the studio for a smile to sneak out 🙂
Sammy was a hit! I got THREE pictures of her smiling with delight and glee.
Well, after all; she is three. ……I remembered belatedly that a two to three year old is usually only good for about 5 minutes of smiling in the studio. Alas, the 5 minutes was up when we tried to take photos of the two girls together. It didn’t help matters when the two girls fell over backwards after an extra vigorous hug from big sister, either.
But, Cosette’s mom and dad left feeling confident that there were a few good images of the two sisters. With the help of Photoshop and head swapping, I was able to patch together a few sister shots. I also like the collage of the sisters interacting.
We are all looking forward with optimism to their summer garden photos when Cosette will be THREE AND A HALF! 🙂

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