Just for fun..

And PLUS I totally need to pass the time.  Most stuff is packed up, so don’t really feel like taking my camera out.  If we have to evacuate tomorrow, then no blog posts for a couple days.  Who knows…I’m sure I’ll find SOMETHING to take pictures of!!!  Found this little thing on www.jasminestarblog.com and thought it would be fun to fill out!

I AM … restless
I WANT… to spend 5 minutes with my dad.
I HAVE … an upset stomach
I KEEP … EVERYTHING
I WISH I COULD … sleep at night
I HATE … HURRICANES
I FEAR … loosing loved ones suddenly
I HEAR … guy on the weather channel basically saying THEY HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT GUSTAV!
I DON’T THINK … I will be able to sleep AGAIN tonight
I REGRET … not telling dad I love him last time I talked to him
I LOVE … my Canon.
I AM NOT … eating brownies for dinner….even though  I WANT TO.
I DANCE … all the time
I SING … terrible, but I do it anyways!
I NEVER … forget to tell my hubby I love you before I go to sleep
I RARELY … work out.
I CRY WHEN I WATCH …just about anything lately
I AM NOT ALWAYS … loud…but most of the time.
I HATE THAT …brownies are fattening
I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … GUSTAV
I NEED … pack
I SHOULD … be working on pictures instead of filling this out!!

BYE YA’LL!

Hurricane party anyone????!!!

So my entire town is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Wal-marts almost out of water, totally out of flashlights, and even KOOLAIDE!! Come on guys. I know I know, better to be overprepared. But still. In my opinion, we should all calm down and have a hurricane party No really. Nah, I’m kidding. But you know, no matter how bad my day is, or how much is going on in my life, my camera ALWAYS makes me feel better!

Yea, this is how I feel better. This is how I roll. Those of you that know me, know this. Life’s always throwing curveballs. That’s what makes it worthwhile. Ups and downs. Everyone has that one thing they do that makes the world stop for a minute. And enjoy life. Well for me, that’s it. That’s me. So while I should be getting clothes together, putting photo albums in boxes, and cleaning out my ice box, instead I’m making goofy faces in the mirror. EAT THAT GUSTAV!!! You don’t scare me! Ok ok, well maybe a little

Here’s some things I’ve been up to…Headshots for my gorgeous friend, Dawn. She’s a local photographer and totally rocks the camera. www.photography-by-dawn.com

And then there’s Emma. Ok, so this is pretty much the most fun I’ve had on a photoshoot. The faces this kid makes are priceless. This is the only one I’m posting for now, cause I totally need to go prepare for the craziness that’s coming (ok ok, so I’m really gonna go make brownies, sue me!)

If Gustav comes here, I tell you what, he BETTER take my house away. Cause if we have to go through what we went through for Rita, I tell ya, we are NOT living in Louisiana much longer!!!

MINI sessions

So I’m on this “everyone should have a family portrait” right now. I just think even if you go out in your back yard and have a neighbor or friend snap a picture, EVERYONE should have one. I was chatting with my bestie, Heather, and decided Mel, Josh and Bailey were very deserving. Never had one. And they are BEAUTIFUL, so they needed one Who better then YOURS TRULY to handle that problem for them. If you know someone deserving, email me. I’ll see what I can do.

I really enjoyed ya’ll.

I know all the famous photographer’s tell you about what settings they use and what photoshop actions.  In all complete honestly, I don’t think I’m to the point yet where everyone even CARES!  But if you do.  These were all shot Jpeg at 100 ISO, f/2 and speed varied.  That sun just couldn’t decide what it wanted to do.  I don’t use flash, all natural.  Tried a little different edited technique on these first few.  Did away with so much color pop.  I want my photos crisp and clear.  And I want the color to affect the FEELING of the picture.  This action is called Grandma’s Tap Shoes from Totally Rad Actions.  I used it on each one of the family pics.  Just toned it down a bit.  Seems to soften everything and add a nice vintage color over the photo.  Well bla bla bla,….here ya go!

Bailey wasn’t really interested…

Dad had to step in…

And bribe her with “swinging”

Kisses for mom

and now SWWWWWWWWINGING!!!

I have to finish these up in a couple…I’m what you could say WAAAAAAY BEHIND!! So this should hold ya over till then Heather

Here’s a couple more from Laura’s session the other day. Laura if you’re reading this, your proofs are up at www.jhicksphoto.photoreflect.com. Just got your voicemail and will get you your CD tomorrow!

And between then and now, also met Olivia. Addddddddorable BABY!!

And this shot was by window light.  ISO 240 f/1.4 and honestly I don’t remember the speed!  I’ll have to look it up!

OK WHEW ALL CAUGHT UP!!!

I’ve always wanted people to ask me what’s in my camera bag.  I’m a huge loser ok.  I just think it’s cool, cause as a photographer, if I go to another’s page, I’m alwasy like “I wonder what lens they used”.  Mine is weak right now

Canon 40D (5D coming soon)

50mm 1.4

28-135mm IS

Fisheye

Some cheap Macro lens that is TOTALLY awesome for ring shots.

Coming soon – 17-40mm L , 70-200mm L, 50mm 1.2L and a SHOOOOOOOOTSAC

Muah!  Thanks for stopping by

Real Quick

Yesterday we drove all the way out to Cameron, to the Creole Nature trail. The sun was really bright so we ended up only taking a couple pics there then heading back home. Cameron has been through so much, but THIS SKY. It just takes your breath away down there. There’s no plants in the background, no ugly buildings, no houses. Just marsh. Beautiful marsh.

And Vanessa just HAPPENED to have this totally unbelievably ridiculously GORGEOUS chair. And a beautiful daughter to sit in it!!

And Ciara’s older brother isn’t too shabby to look at either

Really enjoyed the adventure ya’ll. We saw FIVE gators. And almost got ATTACKED!!! Oh well, it was fun anyways

Busy busy busy

So I’m gonna go ahead and post a couple from tonight. Great session with a great group of kiddos. Went all the way to Hackberry for these! Have I mentioned before I HATE MOSQUITOS! Oh well, I have a busy couple of days ahead of me, so probably won’t blog for a bit. But you can always keep up with me on myspace! www.myspace.com/photobyjessica.

And I don’t think I included these two in the post below. If so, oh well here they are again. I just love em!

Much love and see ya’ll in a couple days!

Sneak Peak

At one of the many new things coming up. J Hicks Photography is going places ya’ll. Logo design by Tara from www.TaraSwainPhotography.com. She rocks, check her out!

I’m seriously in love with this one

Just a bit of randomness.

Life goes on, right? Yea it sure does. Seems like it’s just going right along without me. I’m totally in this funk. “Sit on the couch all day and feel sorry for myself” kinda funk. I know ya’ll probably get tired of reading how depressed I am. But, honestly, I’m not “depressed”. I mean, I’m sad, of course, I miss my dad so much. But I still feel like I’m walking around outside my body. Like I’m sittin back and watching the world move on. And I’m just sitting still. I don’t know if that makes sense, but this is a blog, so that’s what I’m doing, blogging. It helps me put things in perspective. You know what I think sometimes, how am I ever going to live up to the kind of person my father was. He was so GREAT, at everything. Such a kind heart and never said a bad word about anyone. HOW can anyone be that perfect. He was. And now, here I am, trying so hard to be just like him. I don’t know if I can, but I most certainly am going to try.

On another note, it’s rained here almost every day for like 5 days. 3 sessions in a row were rained out …. Well the sun is SHINING today! I have a special session today. An adorable baby, a tutu and a big giant bow. What fun! Yesterday, my little sis and I went on an excursion, to see if it was to wet for the portrait I had planned for yesterday. Well, yes, it was too wet, but did that stop us…..NO WAY!

I want to post a slideshow here, but can’t figure out how. I know you are supposed to just post the code, but it won’t work. If anyone out there has a wordpress blog and knows, pleeeeeease share. That away I won’t have to post so many pictures!!!

First I must tell you, this red van totally followed us for like 5 minutes. I made all these crazy turns and he totally made the same ones. Now, maybe he was lost, but it was freaky!

THERE HE GOES AGAIN!

These next couple make me smile. My sister is so beautiful!

And I just LOVE this picture!

As you know, I love the serious sexy look in pictures. But my sis pretty much has the best smile in the entire world, so I must make her laugh constantly!

Thanks for rolling around on the wet road with me Nic!

And thanks to everyone for reading. Oh and thanks IN ADVANCE for leaving comments

Happy Birthday NICOLE!

First of all, I wanna say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my gorgeous little sister. I’m so proud of her. She’s 19 today.
Love you!

Of course we had to do a quick impromtu photoshoot.
She wasn’t happy cause she wasn’t ready, but I didn’t give her much choice!

And this is nearly my favorite picture I’ve EVER taken of her!

Here’s some fun stuff from the partay!
My adorable cousins..Hunter and Drake

My other cousin, Gage, isn’t he just BEAUTIFUL!!??

My Paw Paw trying to avoid my camera

Second, it’s the top of the 4th and the little league Lake Charles team is kicking booty! 7-0.
So proud of them too! They are so cute out there! Go LAKE CHARLES!

And I shot a super fun wedding last night. Well, second shot, but man I sure took alot of pictures! Sorry Tif, I didn’t mean to take so many!!!
Heres’ a couple I have finished so far…

Finally…..SUN FLARE!!!

The most adorable couple I’ve ever seen!

Grandpa taking a picture of me taking a picture of him!!

First try at night photography. Got some kinks to iron out, but I got the idea.

My favorite picture from the day.

I swear, I wanna be just like these two!

**UPDATE**
Took me a while to write this blog, now LC is winning 9-0. WHOOOO HOOO! Go team!

Stop and smellin the roses

Yea two posts in one day. Well, it’s been a slow day. Boring, lots of HGTV and sittin on the couch eating chocolate chip cookies. So what’s a girl to do, get up, grab the camera and go out back. You know….pictures of my baby to follow.

I don’t have any sort of landscaping in my yard. So when I see colorful weeds poppin up, I have to photograph them. I try to tell myself to slow down, and smell (photograph) the roses (weeds).

I miss you dad.

Sometimes, I need to just take pictures. Like back in the day. And now I’m off to pizza and a video with the best husband on the planet.

Mandi – Just Because

Well yesterday started out great, then ended up as a migraine and a sleeping pill. But that’s a whole other story. So Mandi was a bridesmaid at a wedding I photographed. I knew right when I met her, I wanted to *shoot* her (so to speak). She said she is terrible in front of the camera and was so nervous that she wouldn’t know I what to do! Well come-on, I’ll let you judge for yourself?

TERRIBLE??? PSHHHHH!

This lovely little critter was right above our head for all the shots above. We didn’t even notice him. I swear he was as big as a baseball! No kidding! And you know, I don’t have a zoom lens, and he was up high, we it was quite the adventure getting this picture. Being as how I am TERRIFIED of spiders, especially ones that look like that!

It was almost TOTALLY dark in this barn. But this was exactly what I wanted, and I think I got it.

Yea, this girl is really no model, I mean come on!!!!

*See, dad, I CAN use reflectors *

Her fashion coordinator**aka boyfriend

I love these last three…just speaks their personality so loudly. This couple is so far from boring and I can’t wait to visit them in Lafayette!

Today was a good day, all in all. I still don’t really know how to be ok. But photography makes me smile. Makes me feel like everything will be good again. I’m trying to surround myself with positive people. I love reading comments, makes my smile even wider!

Thanks everyone for taking time to keep up with my blog!

**Edited to add**
Here’s some more, before I turn the computer off!

Rock star or what??!

Isn’t this frame awesome.

And I put this together. Pretty much sums them up! I love it!