Jennifer Bowen Photography » Engagement, Wedding, Portrait & Family Photographer // Scottsdale, Phoenix Arizona

Are you looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? Well, I have one unique idea for you…

I’ve always had custom gift certificates available, but Im now also offering special gift cards. These make the perfect gift to give in any increment from $25.00 to the-sky-is-the-limit amount. Recipients can use these towards anything they would like, including:

Photo sessions
Albums
Prints
Storyboard Portraits or Canvas Wall Art
Weddings

These make special gifts for expecting or new parents, brides & grooms, granparents (so they can order prints or brag books of their grandchildren from that session you just booked), friends, or anyone else who may appreciate fine art photography or photography related products. They truly are the gift that keeps on giving!

Order them here!

I’ve been putting lots of albums together recently and wanted to share Joleen and Tom’s. They had such a beautiful destination wedding back in late May at The Westin Kierland resort in Scottsdale. Both Tom and Joleen are from Chicago and I hadn’t met either of them before their big day as Joleen booked me right over the internet. They were absolutely wonderful and the day was perfect! Click here to view their full 10×10 album.

Wow, it’s been a busy summer for baby sessions! I have several yet to post and more booked, and with holiday portrait season hitting (more on that very soon), there will be lots of cute kids gracing this blog! However, for now, I want to focus on simply beautiful baby Giavanna. Her parents are friends with some other fairly new clients of mine who referred me to Joanna and Tomas to capture sweet little Gia. Here are a few favs… it was so wonderful to meet you all!

The beautiful new family. I loved this chair in their living room and really wanted to incorporate it into the shoot.

I loved her pink and brown room, and this fun wall art.

So I’m finally getting around to posting some wedding albums! I’ll start with Lindsay and Eric’s wedding at Sassi this past March. I loved everything about this wedding! It was fun, emotional, beautiful and both families were so incredibly nice. Click here to see the full slideshow of their album.

Since my fall wedding season is about to start back up next week, and these books are always big sellers, I thought I’d share a few additional pictures of the various types of custom albums and coffee table books that I offer. Albums range from extrememly high end, one-of-a-kind LaVie Albums to fun and trendy economical coffee table books, with options nearly everywhere in between. Covers can range from contemporary brushed metal, to hot red leather, to soft sage green, to silk lined, or hard bound books like you find in a book store. My most popular sellers are the leather-bound, flush mount collage albums (like Lindsay and Eric’s above.)

Parents, these books are not just for weddings! Many families want a way to preserve their memories in custom coffee table books for infant, maternity, children or family sessions throughout the year.

If you are ever interested in learning more about album options, just shoot me an email or call!

I spent much of the past week at the Pictage Partner Conference in Los Angeles. This was my second year attending since they started these conferences about 3 years ago, and it is always good to meet and share with other professional photographers who are committed to growing their business. There was a good lineup of speakers again this year, many of whom shared useful business strategies. I also enjoyed seeing what the sponsors had to offer this year as there were a few new ones with products I’d like to start offering, like beautiful, large canvas prints.

Some speakers that stood out: The uber-successful David Jay is always inspiring to listen to, and he has made such a name for himself through his photography, creation of Open Source Forum and ShowIt Slideshows, and by just encouraging the photography community in general to share and learn from one another.

Lauren Hillary gave some great tips for getting published, and the always entertaining Davina Fear delivered a good presentation on keeping your sanity while juggling a family/personal life. I saw her last year when she spoke for the first time and she really inspired me because she is also a mother (but she has FOUR!) who seems to balance the fine art of running a family and a successful business at the same time. I also attended my friend Melissa Jill’s session on the benefits of blogging. This was her first year presenting and she did a great job! Her blog has been consistently growing over the past year or two and I think she is up to 500 visitors per day now. Go Melissa!

All in all, it was a good week…here are a few snapshots from the point-and-shoot.



Buddy Kim Jarman and I hanging out in the lounge with the Phoenix crew.

Melissa Jill showing us how she can solve the Rubix Cube.

Fellow Phoenix PUG’ger Jared Platt trying to take credit for Melissa’s handiwork.

And a personal highlight, getting to see my younger sister Shannon (middle, with her friend Vanessa from Barcelona, Spain on the right) who was also in California during the week. We had a fun evening in Hermosa Beach and a great dinner at Union Cattle. Since she lives all the way in Florida, we never get to see each other enough. Can’t wait until she and family move back to Santa Barbara!!

I just checked my Google Reader to see what new blog posts were out there, and I saw my friend Megan Resch, a fellow wedding photographer whom often second shoots with me, posted a link to a beautiful article by photojournalist Matt Mendelsohn. “Getting the Picture” was published last week in The Washington Post and is a thoughtful and moving story about the power of weddings, the beauty of marriage and family, and why those of us who call ourselves wedding photojournalists get so much meaning from our jobs.

Couples getting married will appreciate the article as much photographers will. In fact, I think anyone interested in the human condition will find it moving. Take a moment to read it. It really is worth it.

And a note about Megan… She also conveyed quite beautifully the effect it had on her and why most of us are so passionate about what we do. Megan is a beautiful soul. I’m sure we are different in many ways (I drive a SUV and I think she would prefer to always drive a bike), but we get along wonderfully, have fun together, and always connect on the important things… like appreciating the beauty of life and capturing the truth of moments. In all its forms. Thanks for sharing this piece Megan!

Here is a shot I grabbed of her at San Xavier Cathedral (south of Tucson) when we were on our way back from Erika and Andy’s wedding this past June.