St. Louis Newborn Photography: Baby Charlie

Megan and Rob contacted me about a newborn photography session of their baby, Charlie. He's brand new! Take a look:

While in utero, Megan and Rob called Charlie "Glo Worm". Appropriately, he has a Glo Worm stuffed animal to play with:

There were some dicey moments during our session...

...but Charlie quickly recovered with help from Mom and Dad:

Megan and Rob requested some shots of Charlie with his furry siblings:

Thanks again to Megan and Rob for having us out, and I hope I get to come back and take more pictures as Charlie grows up!

Reinvention

Reinvention implies a prior career or course of life and a subsequent change.

Most people who meet me today don't know that beginning in 1998, I worked full-time as a computer software developer programming primarily in C++. Over the past ten or so years, I've been employed by five different companies where I've written and tested code for libraries, entertainment, defense, communications, trading firms, and other industries.

About two years ago, I picked up our digital camera and decided I would try to take pictures for my wife's cupcake blog. If you go back far enough in her blog's archives, you can see some of my first attempts mingled with her own much better cupcake photos; I had a lot to learn.

So I did.

I read about photography, composition, and exposure, and applied both my technical skills and artistic vision to this new hobby. I practiced. I practiced more. I took pictures of all manner of things to learn everything I possibly could.

Some good fortune hit me in March, 2008 - I was at the right place at the right time with the right equipment. The Sauce Magazine team won a trivia night at a benefit for Slow Food St. Louis and I took their table's picture. They published a few of my photos from the event, and I met with Sauce and started shooting regularly for the magazine shortly after that.

Photography was still a hobby at this point, though I started to make a little money doing it. I struggled with some questions: Is it still a hobby if you incorporate? Can you call yourself a professional once you're regularly published?

I brought my camera gear to weddings to take pictures - trying as hard as I could to not interfere with the photographers hired to shoot the event. I was flattered when brides would tell me that they liked some of my pictures better than their hired help's work.

There was no reason I couldn't do this on the side, right? Lunch breaks and weekends and any spare time quickly became full with taking and editing photos.

Inquiries began to come in: Could I shoot families? What about children? How about an engagement session, wedding, or a Bar Mitzvah? Could I go to a farm and take pictures of pigs? Yes!

Photography started looking like a nice backup plan, a successful side business, even, and maybe one day in the future I might be able to switch from full-time coding for a living to part-time.

I didn't anticipate the mental toll that resulted from juggling my side business of photography with the day job in computers. I didn't want to say no to photography assignments, but every waking moment was spent either programming, taking and editing photos, being stressed about my situation, or being stressed about being stressed. This wasn't fair to my wife, family, friends, or myself. I wanted to talk to my employer about cutting back my hours to accommodate the photography business, but they had just asked employees to give just a little more of themselves and to remain busy working on billable projects if at all possible. I tried to keep it all together as best I could, but I was unraveling internally.

Citing bad economic conditions (I hadn't been assigned to any long-term customer projects in a while), I was told that I would have two paid weeks left at my job of five years. Just like that, my employment there would end. They were kind enough to offer me the use of their equipment and facilities for a while to look for work elsewhere or to polish and submit my resume to their sister consulting company where I could be placed.

While that might have yielded a great programming job, I felt that it was time for a change. I chose to view what happened as a great opportunity rather than an enormous loss.

On April 6, 2009, with the support of my fantastic wife, I took the plunge and became a full-time photographer.

Shortly after that, a reporter from our local NBC affiliate, KSDK, reached out on Twitter to locate people who had reinvented themselves. I thought I fit the bill, so I tweeted Kasey back. Within a few days, Kasey came and took footage of me for the story she was working on.

Here's Kasey's story about reinvention. You can read the transcript as well as watch the video from that link.

Engagement Ring Photography

Engagement ring photos are a great way to show off the new shiny rock in your life (if you opted to go that route). Typically done during an engagement photography session, these ring photos are a great way to announce the engagement, to set the mood when coupled with another photo in a diptych, or to get some oohs and ahhs at the beginning of a slide show.

I like to do a large chunk of the engagement photography session first before taking engagement ring photos so that I can get inspiration from the couple. Often the couple has a great idea and I'll run with that.

Here are some examples of engagement ring photos inspired by the couples to whom the rings belong:

Tower Grove Park Engagement Photography of Jennifer and Brian

Jennifer and Brian, the sixth and last couple we shot as part of our Tower Grove Park free engagement photography mini sessions, arrived just after the light rain stopped. The air in the park was fresh and the greens were vibrant. What a great setting to finish off this Spring day of photography!

This couple had the distinction of having what is right up there among my favorite photos of the day (located all the way at the end of this post), and they were all cuddly and had fantastic expressions the whole time we took photos. I hope you have smiles as big as theirs as you enjoy looking at their photos:

Stef and I had a wonderful time and couldn't think of a better way to close two days of free engagement sessions! I appreciate all of the interest in these, and I'm looking forward to offering more free sessions again soon.

Tower Grove Park Engagement Photography of Juliette and Harold

Juliette and Harold were the fifth couple who partook of our Tower Grove Park free engagement photography mini sessions. When they signed up, I told Juliette that I would be working no matter what the weather. "We are a very artistically minded couple, so we won’t mind being drenched," she wrote. Fortunately, it didn't come to that; everyone stayed dry, and we had a great time.

Here are some of my favorites from their session:

I'm thrilled that I'll be shooting their wedding in August! Congrats, Juliette and Harold!

Tower Grove Park Engagement Photography of Lauren and Dan

Lauren and Dan, the fourth couple to take advantage of my free engagement photography mini sessions in Tower Grove Park this Spring, found me through their wedding planner, Carolyn Burke of Wedding Ceremony Services, who both officiates weddings and plans ceremonies. We really enjoyed spending some time with and getting to know Lauren and Dan, and I hope you enjoy some of their photos:

Congratulations to Lauren and Dan on their engagement, and I hope we get to work together again so I can include their dog in some photos!

My Lesson About Model Release Forms

A lesson I learned from holding free engagement photography mini sessions in Tower Grove Park this Spring was that I should have let couples know upfront that they would be required to sign a model release form in order to download their photos in full resolution. For those unfamiliar with such a form, this both protects the model (or in this case, the engaged couple) from my use of their images without permission and also allows me to use their images on this blog, my web site, and other places.

For these free engagement photography sessions, I granted the couples rights to download, use, and print photos I took in exchange for signing model release forms. In my excitement to get these sessions filled and to meet with couples, I inadvertently - not intentionally - failed to mention the model release form when booking sessions.

The third couple I photographed during my two days of sessions elected to not sign the form. They asked that I not even mention their names here. Thus, this touching yet not personally identifiable moment is about all that I can share from their session:

I apologize to them and to other couples for the confusion I caused by not mentioning the model release form upfront. Because I realized the error here was solely mine, I've since given the third couple full access rights to their gallery and they will be able to download photos directly. I hope that they will accept my apology, enjoy the gallery, and ultimately choose to use me as their wedding photographer.

Tower Grove Park Engagement Photography of Jill and Kai

The J. Pollack Photography team had a great time walking around Tower Grove Park with Jill and Kai, the second couple that participated in our two weekends of free engagement photography mini sessions. Here are a few photographic highlights from their fun engagement session (note that Jill's shoes match Kai's shirt!):

I just heard from them that they decided to pick me as their wedding photographer; I can't wait to work with them next Spring! Congrats to Jill and Kai, and thanks for picking me!