Christmas Vacation | Mikaela Joy: El Paso Portrait Photographer

I finally got through all my photos from Christmas vacation: guys can I go back? I'm missing the snow and cozying up by the fireplace with good books and hot buttered rum.  I could very happily live in a permanent state of winter.

I think little man could too.  To him, there is not much exciting than putting on his Lightning McQueen boots and his gloves to go play in the snow.  And really can you blame him?  Who doesn't love a good snowball fight?

We really didn't do much while we visited home (well I didn't, anyway) and that's what made it so perfect.  Winter is the perfect excuse to curl up on the couch like a cat, soaking up the heat from the fire.  

I didn't take as many photos as I thought I would on this trip, but I did take some.  This was pretty much Riley's first experience playing in the snow (besides about 5 minutes when he was 1 and our El Paso snowstorm) so of course I had to document that.  Probably the best part of the whole thing was when he nailed me in the eye with a snowball (my fault, I asked him to throw it at me thinking he wouldn't hit me).  

I also took a LOT of instax photos that I still need to scan, and some holga photos too.  But until I get those all developed and ready, here are some of the digital shots I took.  I could probably photograph little man playing in the snow all day (except that it was flipping cold!)

Hello 2018- 2017 in Review | Mikaela Joy: El Paso Portrait Photographer

Wow, we are already halfway through January and I still haven't done a year in review for 2017.  Where does the time go? I think I'm still recovering from my Washington vacation.  A 24 hour drive with toddlers and pets is no joke! But more on that later.

Right now I want to talk about this past year.  2017 has been a good one.  It started with a move to El Paso and ended up being a year of self discovery.  This year was focused on personal projects and getting lots of photos of my family- the important stuff! 

In terms of personal projects, the highlight of this year for me was learning film.  I learned to shoot film in several different formats on several different vintage cameras, and then learned how to process both c41 (color) and black and white film.  It definitely didn't turn out great at first, but learning film has been a really fun adventure that I'm excited to continue next year.  

I'm not going to make a lot of big resolutions about what 2018 has in store.  If I'm perfectly honest, 2018 has started with a decent amount of time spent on the couch, watching movies with family and just being lazy.  And I'm ok with that.  Everyone always goes into the new year with big plans and they rarely turn out.  So instead my plan for the new year is just to go with the flow.  I hope to turn out some really cool personal projects this year, spend lots of time with friends and family, read a lot of good books, go on some adventures, and to try new things whenever I can.

Speaking of adventures, I'm planning some awesome road trips this year and I would LOVE recommendations on places I need to see/photograph.  Anywhere withing 10ish hours of El Paso is game- little man and I are looking forward to some road trips!

Vegas! | Mikaela Joy: El Paso Portrait Photographer

Have I told you about my awesome Thanksgiving yet?  

As we are in the midst of our next little vacation to Washington for the holidays, I realize that I'm a little overdue to share the images from our last one.  Over Thanksgiving weekend, little man turned 3, so naturally we took him to Vegas.  That's what everyone does for their third birthday, right?

Just kidding- really Vegas worked out to be a great middle point for meeting up with my family.  My brother in law hooked us up with an Airbnb right by the strip and set everything up where we could spend the holiday and little man's bday together.  Plus he treated the grown ups to a night out on the town, so that was pretty dang cool.

When planning a trip for Vegas I spent a lot of time thinking about photo possibilities.  But when it came down to it I really didn't end up getting my camera out much.  I took some documentary style photos of the kids together, but mostly I just enjoyed the trip.  

My favorites ended up being the black and white photos of the kids playing in the house in their PJs.  I love the realness.  It made me want to shoot a lot more work like this- documentary style photos are fun!

Anyway, here are some photos from the trip. 

Side note-  Get ready for a MAJOR photo overload from this Washington trip.  There is snow here.  And horses.  It's a freaking winter wonderland here and I don't plan on putting my camera down at all!

Our Life in Instax: Mikaela Joy | El Paso Portrait Photographer

Y'all, I've been dying for one of these little cameras basically since they came out. 

These days basically everything is digital.  We record our day to day life on our phones, where we fill up SD cards with pictures we never look at.  We hire photographers for our special moments, photographers who send us USB's filled with beautiful photos- beautiful photos that we post on facebook and then toss into a drawer and never look at.  I'm tired of everything digital.

So there is a major draw for me to an instax camera.  Instead of creating a file, a instax creates an instant print of your image- a print that can be passed around and shared and displayed.  Granted, it's a tiny print the size of a business card, but it's something real.  And it's really fun to play with too!

I spent an entire day chasing little man and all the animals around with my instax camera to test it out and I had so much fun!  This little camera is definitely going to become a staple in my tools to capture my day to day life!

Holga- The First Two Rolls: Mikaela Joy: El Paso Portrait Photographer

I think I have a new favorite camera.  

It's funny, I've invested thousands of dollars into all the amazing equipment that I own, the equipment that helps me to nail shot after shot exactly how I've envisioned it. 

But the camera that is making my heart sing these days is nothing like that gear.  It cost me $30 and is made entirely of plastic. This camera is a holga.

Holgas are funny cameras.  They were made to be a cheap option for a consumer camera back in the film days.  Optically, they are one of the worst cameras ever made.  Yet they are loved by film photographers around the world.  

Why?  Well they have a very distinctive look.  They are known for light leaks and blurry edges, and not being very sharp, all the things that are technically terrible in a photograph.  But they create really interesting photographs.

  Holgas are very basic, which means the photographer has very little control.  There are three settings for light, and three settings for focus. All you can really do with a holga is to pick up a roll of 120 film and go shoot.

And that's exactly what I did.  There is definitely some trial and error in learning how to shoot a Holga, so I've mostly been practicing on my son.  Here's a bit of what I've done so far: 

I've been having a lot of fun with this little camera.  I can't wait to try it out for some more serious uses!

How Riley Sees it- Photos by my 2 Year Old | Mikaela Joy: El Paso Portrait Photographer

I've got a budding photographer on my hands.  Little man has been interested in my camera for a while now, but as he's getting older he's really starting to want to take his own photos.  He's pretty well over modeling for me, and is constantly telling me "mommy's turn" when I'm trying to get him to smile for me. 

But of course he's only 2 and my DLSR is a little complicated for him at this point so I decided to buy him a disposable camera.  I was sure we'd end up developing a blurry mess of nothingness, but he actually caught on pretty quick.  I think my little man might have a knack for this! 

He had so much fun shooting with this that I think I may need to find him a camera of his own (that doesn't involve me developing rolls and rolls of film for him).  If anyone has any suggestions for kid-friendly cameras (preferably with a viewfinder) leave them in the comments below, I'd love to hear some suggestions. 

In the meantime, here's how Riley sees the world!

The Power of Prints | Mikaela Joy: El Paso Portrait Photographer

I'm working on a really cool project this morning. After my vacation my mom sent me home with a big folder of old family photos.  This morning I have been working on scanning these and restoring them in order to make new prints. 

These photos are amazing.  The middle portrait in the image above is a wedding photo from 1906. This beautiful print is 110 years old and in immaculate condition- a perfect display of my family from a century ago.

The other photos were probably home photos taken on a Kodak brownie (one of the first consumer cameras).  They are all taken on the front porch because that's where the light was good enough for that camera.  That little boy in many of the pictures- he's my great grandpa.

When I look at these prints, I am astounded by their longevity.  Many of the photos of my life are stored on cell phones and hard drives, but in 100 years will that ancient technology even be accessible?  I belong to the most photographed generation, yet our great grandchildren will probably never see photos like these of us.  They will be long gone on broken hard drives and cloud storage owned by companies that no longer exist. 

But you know what photos will survive?  The ones you print.  That 20x30 family print above your mantel will outlive you and your children.  And those albums that line your bookshelves- they will too.

This is why it's so important to me to sell prints,  In each of my photo sessions we are creating memories that deserve to last.  It's why I've invested in a high quality photo printer and have meticulously shopped photo labs for the best products.  Just like these photos of my family long gone, your memories deserve to last.

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If you are interested in preserving your memories with Mikaela Joy Photography, please contact me to set up your complimentary consultation today!

My Analog Summer | Mikaela Joy: El Paso Portrait Photographer

You haven’t heard from me in a while.  There are a couple reasons for that.  One is that I’m on vacation.  I’m in the Pacific Northwest soaking up the sunshine and taking in the beautiful mountain views.

The other reason you haven’t heard from me it that this summer I’ve gone analog.

Well sort of.  I recognize the irony of me typing that sentence from my laptop.  But as I type I’m sitting on the front porch of my parent’s house, a slight breeze lifting the smell of lavender to my nose. So I'm outside at least.

And yes, I’ve spent a good portion of my summer glued to my cell phone screen, as per usual, but it hasn’t been all day from the comfort of my couch.  It hasn’t been all summer.

Instead I’ve spent this summer huddled by the warmth of a campfire.  I’ve spent my summer with books- the paper kind, well loved, with writing in the margins and blueberry-stained pages. My summer has been spent loading film into a 30-year-old camera, and the satisfying click of its shutter.

My summer has been perfect.

You see, this summer has brought me a new love- film photography. 

I didn’t grow up with film like many of the older pros.  Although I went through a significant number of disposable cameras at a young age, I was quickly upgraded to a 5 megapixel Olympus in order to save my parents money on developing costs.  I’ve always been able to see my shots right away, to instantly upload to a computer, and to shoot as many images as my SD card (or whatever those cameras used) could hold. 

Shooting with film is a beautiful slow down.   

There’s something so freeing about taking a shot and not looking instantly to the LCD screen to see how it turned out, something in knowing that you only have 36 shots so you better make them count.  And it’s amazing to be using a piece of technology created 30 plus years ago that works beautifully and doesn’t require batteries. 

And the feeling of seeing a roll of film for the first time, weeks after the first frame was shot? There’s nothing quite like it. 

I’m so excited to play more with this medium and see how it changes my work.  But until then let me share some images from my first roll of film. These images were shot on a Nikon FM with Portra 400.

A Day in the Life of Riley: November 2016 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Portrait Photographer

I may be a portrait photographer, but I have a serious love of lifestyle photography as well.  One of my favorite projects are "day in the life" photo stories.  Well little man just turned two and I was feeling a bit nostalgic so the only logical thing to do was to break out my camera. 
o without further ado, here it is- a day in the life of Riley.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday Riley!

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

We are in double duty here baking both pies and birthday cakes, because as we celebrate thanksgiving, we will be celebrating little man turning two as well! 

That's a little hard to wrap my mind around- two.  It seems like he was just a tiny little thing that couldn't do anything but eat and poop.  Now he's a full blown toddler with the attitude to go with it.

Since his birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, it seemed only fitting to do his 2 year photos as a pumpkin pie smash.  In doing this, I learned that my kiddo absolutely does NOT like pumpkin pie.  Which doesn't seem right, considering it's both my and Robert's favorite part of thanksgiving.  Oh well.

We are off to celebrate so I better wrap this up with this message-  Happy thanksgiving! I hope you all have a wonderful day of food, family, and friends.  That's what we'll be doing!

Riley 18 Months | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Portrait Photographer

My little man is 18 months old (well, he was a month ago.  I'm a little slow to share).  I can't believe how fast it's all gone by.

As of right now, Riley is obsessed with wearing other people's shoes, so this photo session seemed like the perfect way to remember this stage in his life.  He's got some big boots to fill!

Dad & Son at the Park | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Portrait Photographer

I'm going to keep it short and sweet today.  Hubby is finally home, so we took Riley to play at one of my favorite places in Pooler, Tom Triplett Park.  Of course I had to get some pictures.  Aren't they cute together?!

Throwback Thursday: Riley 9 Months Ago | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Portrait Photographer

I love recreating photos as Riley grows.  It's so much fun to see how much he's changed in what feels like such a short period of time.  Case in point: these two shots.  These were both taken at the same swing at Tom Triplett park in Pooler, GA.  In the first one, he is 9 months old.  The second was taken very recently (he's almost a year and a half, now).

I can't get over how grown up he looks now!

Riley in the Studio | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Portrait Photographer

Have you been following my 365 Days of Riley project?

I can't hardly believe we are already 6 months in.  This kid is growing up WAY too fast. 
And I'm happy to report that over 175 images later, I'm still not tired of taking his picture.  He's my favorite model!

Throwback Thursday- My First DSLR | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Portrait Photographer

I may be in the minority here, but I really love facebook's memories feature.  Every morning I look back on what I was doing on this day going back 7 years.  Sometimes I wonder what was going through my head, sometimes I laugh at how young I was, and sometimes I am able to see patterns in my life.

For instance, for the past 7 years on this day, I was doing something related to art (except 4 years ago, there's no record of that one).

• 7 years ago I was making a prom dress
• 6 years ago I was a DJ on my college radio show
• 5 years ago I was working on creative writing homework
• 3 years ago I bought my first DSLR camera
• 2 years ago was my first shoot with a model

I loved seeing the old photos.  When I first picked up my Nikon D3100 I had no idea what I was doing.  I had done some online research about the exposure triangle, but with nothing other than a point and shoot to practice on, I didn't have any idea what I was doing.  I was just playing with it to figure it out.

The first thing I did after buying my camera was take a walk around a nearby lake with my family and my dog.  Since it's still nearby, I decided to do the same today.  Check out the difference!

Even though my older photos often make me cringe, it's so fun to see the progress I've made.  It is so easy to get caught up on the things I'd like to change or do better today, and totally forget how far I've come.  
Plus I got have a nice relaxing evening at the lake with Jerry and my little man.  You can't beat that!

2015 Wrap Up

Okay so I know I'm a few days late for this post.  It's been 2016 for 3 days now, and I'm just now getting around to reminiscing about 2015.  I'm a little behind. But I rung in the new year on a Red Eye Flight with a baby, so I've needed a little rest. After my obligatory two days of laying around the house in footie pajamas while playing call of duty, I'm back.

2015. It's been a good year!  I've spent more time behind the camera this year than I have ever before.  I've learned a lot and have finally got some big prints on the wall.  Of course the highlight of this year has definitely been watching my son grow up, but that will have to be a whole other post.  That is just too large of a subject.

Rather than talk about it,  I think I'll just show you what a great year its been.  Riley photos, however are not included in this go round.  You get enough of those on a daily basis, I'm sure.

So without further ado, here are 20 of my favorite photos from 2015.

A look back at 2015- 20 of the best images by Mikaela Joy: Savannah Family and Portrait Photographer

Normally I start the year off with big plans and New Years Resolutions.  Every year I make a  list and resolve to start fresh on January 1st, changing nearly everything.  It feels like such a clean place to start.

But the fact of the matter is, life doesn't work like that.  All my problems, worries, and bad habits don't just reset because of some arbitrary date and time. So this year I decided to do things a bit differently.  Rather than making plans for the new year, I made new plans a couple months ago.  I decided to kick off my new life right then and there and I haven't looked back. 

So while I do have big plans for the next year, I'm changing my focus.  I'm working on my bigger goals by focusing on what I can do this week, what I can do today.

This is the year that I'm going to make things happen, for myself and for my family. How can I be so sure?  Because I won't accept anything else.

What are your big goals and plans for the next year?  Lets chat about it in the comments & start working to make this year even better than the last!