Since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day we figured that we should share a bit about our relationship & love! Of course that is after we share this fun photo that we took on a few new pieces of studio furniture that we got a week ago. Jenny took her (honestly very, very painful stretched) pose inspiration from an Al Green album cover and we used $60 worth of flower garland & faux wedding bouquet all of which we got out of a $5 grab box at Michael’s.
What we didn’t notice though until now is that Jason’s pose was much like Al Green’s album back cover-!
Anyway, if you haven’t yet gotten to know us as friends or via working with us, here’s some more about us and our relationship (as well as weird self portrait creations we’ve put together through the years). We’ve been together for 5 years (starting in on year 6 coming up this summer). We actually met through friends after our last week of classes in our additional Professional Photography degrees (Jenny for her Fine Art Photography MFA & Jason finishing his Commercial Photography additional undergrad degree of BFA) out in Santa Barbara, California. When we met we’d both had our own websites up for about 5 years as we were already practicing professional photographers who did professional wedding photography throughout those first 5 years (in Indiana, Ohio, & California mostly). Since we met in person though mutual friends, we first hung out a few times amidst friends, then started hanging out at Jenny’s very cool mountain house (Jenny’s house was great reprieve from the chaotic area of downtown Santa Barbara where Jason lived). Shortly after we met Jenny got strep, but still went out on a limb and burnt some chicken on the outdoor grill for Jason as a dinner date. You could say that this is very “on brand” for our relationship: The great outdoors, one-on-one dates, food, and one of us making comical mistakes.
VV ^^ (These are a couple photos from living in Santa Barbara, California both in the mountains & downtown.))
Jenny found out that we were official when Jason was chatting after work one day and said that he told his co-workers that “his girlfriend” had gone to Peru on her own and hiked the Andes. (It took Jenny a second to figure out that he was talking about her). We’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since. Throughout our first year dating in California we each had two roommates at our homes, but those got replaced after graduations and such, so within that first year we went through 8 roommates (and Jenny had 4 different doggy roommates additionally throughout that time). Since there was always a lot going on, we spent most weekends at Jenny’s mountain house taking hikes on the private property or through some of our 5 favorite hiking spots up in the mountains. We also frequented the beach which was about 5 minutes from Jason’s place at our favorite spot by the cliffs down about 100 steps at Mesa Lane. Within our first “semester” of dating (wherein neither of us was in school) we took it slow for the first few months with photography together, then started collaborating on photographing fun personal projects as well as some clients’ weddings as well as ads for magazines & brands while in California.
VV ^^ (These are a couple of our professional portraits from right after we moved across the country to Michigan.))
As most of your probably know, the cost of living in Santa Barbara is exceptionally high and made sustainable living as photographers very difficult especially since we wanted to own our own home & studios/ offices. This coupled with the fact that Jenny already lived in her own place without roommates for over 3 years before going to get her MFA helped to drive our move out toward the Midwest to re-establish & re-brand our business with trusty clients in South Bend (Jenny’s hometown where she’s been photographing weddings for the past 9 years). The move did take some adjusting for Jason since he had never lived outside of California, but after some time he was able to adapt to life here and he truly enjoys the seasons (snowy winter and beautiful fall the most). We stayed temporarily in Michigan for less than a year and adopted our elderly cat Kevin from the Humane Society about 3.5 months into our move back to the Midwest. Months earlier we’d also gotten a tank and adopted some fiddler crabs, so we were well on our way to becoming pet fanatics. The collection of animals, plants, and various living organisms under our care continues to grow daily what with our big dog Coco who we adopted 2.5 years ago, our late great Marco the bunny, and about 30+ exotic tropical plants.
VV ^^ (These are a couple of photos from after we moved to Indiana with the bottom being right near our front yard in South Bend.))
So far throughout our time together we’ve lived in 3 states together, traveled to 15 states & 2 countries together (within Jason’s recent first year of having a passport), have had 3 furry pets and countless fiddler crab pets together, and have camped in 5 states together so far. We hope to continue to love each other and help bring our clients the best work that only a close-knit team like ourselves can. We hope you’ve enjoyed a bit of our story in this blog post!
VV ^^ (Fall requires costumes annually and summers require a LOT of inflatable fun.))
V (We’ve gotten to camp in Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey, Michigan, and Indiana in the past year! The photo below is from camping in Ohio in 2017 though...))
You can catch us next Weekly Wednesday sharing a 7 Year Anniversary and capturing an Engagement Session for our couple Jimmy & May whose wedding we’re capturing in about 3.5 months! Jimmy is coming in from New York City to see May next week, so we hope to make it a great Engagement Session for them here in Indiana! Catch you next Wednesday.
VV ^^ (2018 was a hell of a year. There was SO much travel as well as photography!)
VV (See? 2018 Travel in the below photo! Alaska, Canada, Mexico, resort, cruise, expos, conferences, California, Washington, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, etc)
