Kylene and Eric Enagement Shoot!

Yesterday I took a trip up to San Francisco for Eric & Kylene's engagement shoot! I'm excited because this was my first engagement shoot of the year, and we're off to an awesome start!

The day started off sprinkling a bit (a great excuse for a cute umbrella!), but the rain cleared very quickly. Poor Kylene, I knew she'd be a bit cold when I asked Eric to spin her a half turn, but I didn't know Eric would spin her like a Disney-World ride! Kylene, I promise not to reqest any pictures on the wedding day which would require you to be airborn. :)

Kylene & Eric have such vibrant personalities, I just can't wait for 5/20/2007!

See all the fun in the slideshow!

I'm a Domain Name Addict

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am terribly addicted to purchasing domain names. I mean seriously. I now have 19 (most of which are pointed to http://jilliankay.com). This count includes three special new ones I purchased this morning.

(These were purchased in good fun, I promise I don't have a big head, and I'm constantly working to improve my skills and technique....)

http://www.bestphotographerintheworld.com
http://www.bestweddingphotographerintheworld.com
http://www.bestweddingphotographerever.com

I've been laughing all morning. ;) Mom and Dad, thanks for saying I was always the best. Now I have the domain names to prove it.

Clients, if you feel the need to prove to someone you hired the best, just point them to these domain names. (Please put a smiley face in your email, so that they understand it's just for fun too. I fully recognize and am in awe of the talent of the great Ansel Adams & Yervants of the world!)

So what fun domain names do each of you have?

Erika's Headshots!

I love a double-header weekend! Sunday I got to go out in downtown Mountain View with gorgeous singer Erika! She has really awesome eyes, just like the beautiful tiger-eye stone.

One fun place we found was in an alley behind Castro street (future clients beware! i looooove alleys!). It's not every day you find random cool chairs just sitting around outside. Erika, of course, is a trooper for actually sitting on random outdoor chairs. ;-)

Here's the awesome slideshow!

Gary's Headshots

Gary is yet another awesome comedian I've had the pleasure to shoot lately! Today we took a little trip in and around Japantown in downtown San Jose to take a walk and take some headshots!

Ok ladies, Gary is married, but I won't tell anyone if you take a look at his slideshow! :)

The orange background is from a tracker/machinery/thingy we found. Of course, I can't resist climbing up on top of anything to get the right picture...but this time I got axel grease all over my pants and CAMERA!! Big thanks to Gary for helping me get the grease off my camera. I don't know if my face showed it, but I was terrified for a couple mintues. All cleaned out and good now!
















































Thanks Gary!

New Website, New Year!

HI EVERYONE!!!

Well, it's 5am here on the west coast and I've been up all night getting ready for by birthday, which is, I suppose TODAY since it's already 5am. :)

My bestest birthday present to myself (I often get things for myself, I'm spoiled like that) is my brand new website! Big thanks to Tim of Flashmation Studios for creating it for me! Now as this is the first launch of this new site, please please let me know if you have any issues or questions! I'll probably be making some tweaks here and there in the next couple of weeks.

I'm so excited to present to you: http://www.jilliankay.com

(please note that you must have a recent version of flash installed to view the new website.)

Goodnight! (or Good morning for many of you)
Jillian

Jillian's Been MIA!

So sorry for being missing-in-action when it comes to my photo-journal lately! A lot has been going on that I'm really excited about!

First of all, as one of their "presents" to me this year I requested that my mom&dad, brother&sister-in-law, and sister&brother-in-law let me take them out for couples sessions! Now for some families, it might seem weird for your sister to continually ask you to kiss your spouse while she takes pictures....but well, who said our family wasn't weird? (In a great way, of course!)

First I took out my brother Paul and his wife Michelle:













Paul and Michelle are really funny & cute because they basically just act like high-school sweeties all the time! They watch sports and play video games and tease each other and tackle each other and play with their little dog, Buddy! Don't get me wrong, they are both college grads (Aggies!!), and very responsible adults...but he's still my little brother. :) Here, Paul has decided to spontaneously attack Michelle!:













My next victim was my little sister Katie and her husband Thomas:




















Katie and Thomas are cute too, but a little less rowdy. They're both really quirky and creative, and are constantly throwing cute themed dinner parties (Thomas was planning a Zelda party when I was there!) and Katie has really become quite a cook of international cuisine (yummmy). Katie got a brand new shiny red bike from Thomas for Christmas, and she was just tickled pink about it. :)













Finally I got my mom and dad out on the town for a photo-session!:














My siblings and I are so incredibly blessed to have gotten our model of love from our parents. :) They were never shy about how much they loved God, their kids, or each other. One of the reasons I've been able to really pursue any of my dreams (like moving to California, or starting photography) is that I have no fear because, no matter what, I am loved without reason or end. I know that Katie & Thomas and Paul & Michelle (and one day me too) will have awesome relationships because of the model of love that we learned. Thanks Mom & Dad!
















In other news....I'm hoping to launch my new website on January 13th!! That just so happens to be this Saturday. It'll be my birthday gift to myself. :) Happy birthday me! I've got a little work to do before it's ready though, wish me luck!

Happy Holidays!

Dear Friends, Family, & Clients (who are, of course, friends),

Well, 2006 is coming to a close, and I am very fortunate to be able to travel home to visit my family in Texas. Over the next 10 days I'll have limited access to email, but please please don't hesitate to call me if you have any questions, ideas, requests, or just to chat! I absolutely love my family, but I don't mind a break every once in a while. ;)

I want to thank everyone for being a part of one of my personal best years ever! I also want to thank everyone who helped me through the tough, stressful parts of the year. I am so excited about next year, when I'll be graduating from CMU, taking on some challenging (but fun) projects at work, and of course, seeing my wedding and portrait photography business bloom like a garden! Being a photographer is really a dream come true.

Very soon in 2007 I hope to be debuting a new website, new journal style, and new sample albums! Keep checking back for updates.

Even though I didn't anticipate any wedding bookings until the begining of the year, I am already about 50% booked for 2007! Since I will be in school until August and it is very important to me to be sure I have plenty of quality time for each couple, I havelimited availability. If you're thinking about booking...stop thinking and give me a call!

Over the next couple of weeks I hope you enjoy friends, family, good food, love, memories, photographs and the hope of possibilities in the new year. I am so excited to be a part of that. :)

Happy Holidays!
Jillian
408-206-8684

Jaime Soria

Oh goodness, well it's nearly 4am here, and I *do* have to get up for work soon, lol. But I just couldn't wait to get Jaime's photos finished before the holidays!

Saturday afternoon Jaime braved the bitter cold weather in San Jose for an awesome photoshoot! Warning to all you who haven't had a session with me before....we just take a walk, and we stop wheverever we want to shoot. So that could be 10 minutes away, or more likely, every 10 steps! But she's a trooper and didn't make a peep about having to take her coat off every 2 minutes. :)

Jaime Soria is a gorgeous actress (http://jaimesoria.com, check back soon for the updated site) and was a blast to shoot with! Check out the slideshow, you know you can't fight it!

Here are a few selected favorites:

Oh DRAT!

Well, for a couple reasons. First, my shoot last Saturday was rescheduled due to rain, and that's super disappointing! I need my photo fix each week or I just don't feel like myself. :)

Second, I switched to the new google version of blogger....which would be cool....Except almost all the names from comments are gone!! Now it just says anonymous. Hopefully new comments will be properly labeled, and that was just an artifact of the move. I guess there are worse things that could happen to a gal, but this one made me throw a tiny tantrom (in my head).

Hopefully I'll have new photos to show this weekend from a fun shoot I have lined up. I'm also hoping that I can get my Christmas shopping both started and finished on Sunday!!

Stay tuned!

Bryan Thomas

Yesterday afternoon I took a walk in downtown San Jose with Bryan Thomas, a real photographer's dream! He's stylish, has tons of personality, can laugh on cue, and was up for any idea I suggested. Bryan is an awesome radio producer, owns his own dj company (www.armadillostudios.net), and is interested in venturing into rodeo anouncing!

All right ladies, this slideshow is just for you. ;)

A few of my favorites:

Gregg & Suzi & Morgan!

Saturday evening I met up with Gregg & Suzi and their sweet dog Morgan for a fun E-Session! I don't think Morgan quite understood what was going on, or why we kept telling her to move around, but she sure had fun. :)

As usual, the E-session was a relaxed walk up and down a few blocks, stopping here and there when we saw a spot that caught our eye. Gregg & Suzi are both really sweet, and I just can't wait for their wedding next year!

A Very Sweet Slideshow :)

A-WHOOP!!!

Ok, so this is a little out of the ordinary for a photo-journal. :) But I just had to share with someone! I'm not a football fan, never have been. I didn't even have that "school spirit" thing...until I started Texas A&M. Now I'm an Aggie, I bleed Maroon, and I'd be willing to be the 12th man if they ever needed me. Oh, and I don't like Longhorns. (I'll make an exception for my friend Rosa.)

:) But ever since I became a part of the Aggie family (a rather large and loving family), we really haven't won a game against the Longhorns (University of Texas, or as we like to say "tu"), our biggest rival (at least in our minds....it's a tradition). Still, we love our team, we support them, and it doesn't matter what other team we're playing, we sing in our fight-song that we'll saw off the horns of the tu mascot. We kind of love being weird like that.

Every year the big rivalry game is played at Thanksgiving time, and this year, I admit, I didn't even bother to look up the score....until about 10 minutes ago.

WE WON WE WON WE WON!! 12-6. A-Whoooooooooooop!!

So I just wanted to give a shout out to all my Aggie family...I love you, I haven't forgotten you, I'm so excited, GIG 'EM AGGIES!

Ben & Kim E-Session

Ben was a cubemate of mine for nearly a year (he makes awesome balloon animals!), and I've met Kim on several occasions, so meeting up with them for their Engagement Session was a just like hanging out with old friends. :)

I had a blast and these two are just incredibly cute. I can't wait to shoot their Tea Ceremony next year!

SLIDESHOW!!!
Here's a few favorites.

Trash That Dress!

Bridesmaids at least have a little hope of reusing the dress...but brides, be honest...most of you won't be sporting your wedding dress at the next holiday party. So what do you do with it? Most people choose to have it dry cleaned, and then stick it in the back of their closet for the next 20 years, until one day they realize the moths or mold have ruined it. Or it just won't fit anymore. :) Sure, it's sentimental...but it's entirely out of sight.

So why not use it while you can? That's exactly what Lisa wanted to do with her dress, so she donned it one more time and we headed out to the Mission district and the Palace of Fine Arts to get some extraordinary (and extraordinarily sexy) photos to remember the dress by! It's not called a "Trash the Dress" session for nothing...she sat in alleys, leaned on walls, and finally even waded into the pond in front of the palace. This isn't for the faint of heart!

The slideshow is so much fun!

LA for 2 Days!

Hi everyone, I'll be in LA for the next couple of days without internet access. I'll be available by phone (listed on my contact page) if you need anything!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sandy & the City

Some of you may recognize Sandy from her photoshoot earlier this year....then again, you might not. :) She got this awesome new funky cute haircut to match her funky cute personality and suddenly we needed new pictures! Sandy's always so much fun to work with (hey, she's a comedianne AND a radio dj how could she not be fun?) so I jumped on the opportunity!

We headed back downtown where she strutted her stuff for the camera! Check out the funky slideshow!