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

Last week I had the chance to hang out with Katie and Bryan and photograph their engagement session. Their wedding is this September at Firesky Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, and they pretty much brought their A-game to this session. We started in and around Bryan’s condo and then headed over to The Sanctuary Resort & Spa… I love the images we got!

Gor-geous!

Katie and Bryan, thanks for the fun session & I can’t wait for your wedding this fall!

My J-bird turns five next month, so I had to take some recent photos of her on this new green chair I just found and fell in love with. I bought it for my office but thought it would work beautifully for certain portrait sessions as well!

As for the child…well, I fall more in love with her with each passing year. If that’s even possible.

If you are interested in a “Green Chair Portrait Session” just drop me a note for more info. :-) Locations are more limited due the ability to carry this far from the car, but there are so many great places this chair can work.

My 2010 wedding season officially kicks off this Saturday and I’m excited to photograph so many super cool couples this year!

One such couple is Jenna and Jimmy, and they are getting married later this month at the always gorgeous Royal Palms Resort & Spa in Phoenix. I recently completed their custom-designed Guest Signature Book from their engagement session images and I wanted to share.

These books provide such a nice alternative to the more traditional guest books where people simply sign their name on a line. They get to see all of your favorite engagement session images and write you nice sentiments in a professionally printed book that you can keep forever. Some couples opt to provide the questions that guests can answer and others prefer to leave some or all of the pages blank.

I use a professional lab that uses higher quality papers than you can find online with consumer sites, plus it lays completely flat, so guests don’t have to worry about funky writing angles. Plus all the books are completely custom designed by me to showcase the images from YOUR engagement session and YOU. Since no two couples are ever exactly alike, neither are engagement sessions and hence the final books.

Look at this adorable little family! We are working on a montage storyboard print from their session a little bit ago so I wanted to share the cuteness. I love storyboards because its a great way to combine several shots from your session into one large print. Order it as a canvas and its ready to hang as soon as it arrives!

My good friend and fellow photographer Kimberly Jarman hired me a couple weeks ago to photograph her ENTIRE family. Kim wanted to give her whole clan a memorable gift for Christmas and she thought up the idea of having semi-formal (and fun) family portraits done for them. Isn’t that the best gift?! I was extremely flattered and honored that she hired me to shoot them. Well, it took a few weeks to get everyone’s schedules to line up, so in mid-Feb, we trekked out to one of Kim’s secret spots (she said I would fall in love instantly and I did) with this borrowed — and quite fantastic — antique couch. Special thanks to Miss K for letting us borrow it. (I don’t want to inundate her with requests to use this since it was a favor to Kim.) It served a two good purposes… allowed for Grandma & Grandpa to sit comfortably for the almost 2 hour long shoot and added some fantastic color to this locale.

What follows are my favorites from the day – mostly the “outtakes” or moments in between the posed moments. If you know me, you know these are always my favs :-)

But first we needed the more formal full-family photo…

Kim and I hooked up the off-camera lighting for a more dramatic feel for this, which came out pretty cool.

And then moved back to natural light…I love these of her grandparents David and Darlene

With their great-grandchildren

Kailee, Kim’s adorable daughter…

I liked both of these equally, so they both made the blog :-)

Kim’s cousin Rae with her baby brother Anthony

Five little monkeys on a couch… luckily no one fell off.

Eric and Jennifer (Kim’s cousins)

Another sweet one of baby Anthony – who was hilarious during this shoot!

I love LOVE, L-O-V-E this one

Kim’s newphews Aiden and Liam and her brand new neice Audrey

Pure sweetness

Kim and her sister Jamie, with their parents Joyce and David

Kailee and Grandpa – a quick candid

And then we started to get a little silly… Eric, Danny, Andy with their dad Bob in the back

I bet Bob had this look a lot when they were growing up ;-)

Not sure….. what…. is …. happening ….here….

Or back there.  No broken bones resulted. I think Christy’s face (bottom left, Kim’s other cousin) might be my favorite.

Kim sissy, Jamie with her hubby Josh. They are a-dor-a-ble.

Kailee doing her “yo-yo-yo” move. Is she flashing a sign here?

Another one I LOVE. (We are now pushing about 2500 ISO since the light was falling quick.)

Love this one too.

Cheryl, who often assists me during weddings, came along for this shoot to help and she took this great shot

The boys

One more Cheryl took of Kailee – Love it!

Kim and Jaime

And the last one for the day, another one I love. We were working in almost darkness here. I love the feeling of it.

Thank you Kim and your wonderful and fun family. I had a blast and hope you treasure the images for years and years :-)

In January, I had the chance to meet and photograph the Stein family. They live in the Silverleaf community, so we went over to the Country Club there to take some family portraits and to capture some fun candids as well.

They brought their ADORABLE dog Nelson along for some of the photos

Paul and Margie

I couldn’t resist. I just loved Nelson and that face!

The whole family

Hillary and her Dad

One more of that face

A family session is not complete without a pillow fight

Thank you Stein family!