I love Montana!  I do!  It is my home.  I recently got to go to Montana to visit for almost 2 weeks!  It was great, and probably the longest I have been there since I left to go to college.  I was a working girl, so I never got to go home for the long summer breaks.  What do I love about Montana you ask?  Well, I love the people!  I love that the largest town is still relatively small (almost half the size of Boise) and that everyone, for the most part, is friendly.  I love that I can drive just about anywhere and see cows grazing and wheat growing on the side of the road.  I love that I know the roads like the back of my hand, and even the names of the smallest towns are written into my memory!  I Love the openness and beauty of it all.  From the majestic Rocky mountains, to the cool of the lake.  From the open fields to the mighty River beds.  From Highway 2 to Interstate 90…it is my home!  Here are a few photos I took while taking my tour of the western part of the state, and if you have never had the pleasure of driving trough Montana, do it!!!  what are you waiting for?!?  Its great!

Oh…its haying season, by the way!  :)  The Next photo I took while I was driving…I like to call it my safe version of drive by shootings!  ;)  However, I dont recommend anyone trying it…both hands on the wheel please!  :)

I did not bring a tripod with me, but thought I would still try to take a photo of the full moon…it is a little blurry, but  I think it looks like a painting!  :)

Wildflowers make me happy!

You cant go to Big sky country and not take a picture of the sky!  :)

I got to reconnect and see a lot of great people: family, friends, and friends that are like family!! I love you all!!! I got to get some much needed fresh air and I got to clear my head.  I also dreamed up some pretty creative things to try with my photography!  ;)   (A 12 hour drive there, and a 12 hour drive back gives you a lot of thinking time…one reason why I secretly want to be a truck driver!)  When I get old, I want to have a porch swing over looking a golden field of wheat with the rockies in the background, and family all around!!!  Thank God Im a country girl!  Ahhhh…life is good!  ;)

I recently got to go on a road trip to Casper Wyoming!  If you pay attention to my blog, you know why I went…but I am not posting any photos from the reason yet…you you will have to wait.

As some of you know, I was born, and for the most part raised in God’s Country, MONTANA!  I would not have it any other way!  I love Montana and all it has to offer, and it will always be my home!   However, sometime between birth and 6th grade, I lived in Casper, Wyoming.  I only lived there for 9 months of my life, but I am still friends with alot of the people I met there!  I just want to say a quick Thank you to all the Wyoming people, not just in casper, that have played a part in my upbringing and helping to make me the great, wonderful, and humble person I am today!  Im glad the event that took place this last weekend was in Casper, so I could reconnect with all of you, and see you all again.

For those of you who have never been to Wyoming…they have some great natural resources there…one of them being WIND!  Im glad to see they are putting it to use!  This beautiful photo was taken out the window in a moving vehicle, with me holding on to my camera for dear life.  Let me tell you…The wind was blowing!!!!

We also decided to use the wind to our advantage.  E-man has recently become interested in kites.  Here in Boise he runs up and down our long gravel driveway, with a kite behind him and about 6 inches of string let out.  He loves it!  While we were in Wyoming he asked us several times if he could fly a kite.  We went and got him one, and to his horror…it actually flew…and he did not even have to run!  Now, I say horror, because he was so worried it was going to float away and he would never get it back…he kept yelling up at the sky “OH NO! Kite mine!”   Haha!  I love being a mom!  :)

Stay tuned for more Wyoming trip photos soon!

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This is the reason I Love being a mom:

Also I have a wonderful mom and a great mother in law, but I dont have any recent photos of them, because they live in different states!  :(  LOVE YOU BOTH!!!

To all you moms out there:

Recently I got a photography catalog from American Photographic Resources. They offer a lot of really neat things, some of which I want to order. However, they also offer things that make me glad I am a lifestyle photographer and not a studio photographer.  Such as this:

Though this shot is great, it is so posed and so unlikely!  I mean, really, when will your daughter ever be a mermaid?  Do you really want to spend hundreds of dollars getting your child’s photos taken, and have them dressed up?  Would you hang a photo of your child like this on your wall?  If yes, then I am not the photographer for you.  I do however know of some great local photographers that do EXCELLENT work and will take photos similar to that one.

I would much rather have kids be kids!  Let them run through the field

Let them pick flowers

Let them stand up and completely block the shot

Let them run away crying

Copyright PBJM!

Copyright PBJM!

Let them play

My promise to you:  Wether or not your family is big or small, consists of four legged children, or two, is just starting out, or has been established for generations, I will capture you as you are in that moment of life!  That is what memories are made of.  Not of props and costumes (unless maybe it is halloween).  Who you are is what will make your photos unique.  Though I might pose you and help you look your best, I want you to be you!  If you want to have props in your photos that is great, but lets make them mean something.  Instead of having a mermaid tail, lets have your daughter wear the football jersey that her dad wore in college when her parents met, or lets have a family picnic in your favorite park.  I can help you make the pictures about you.  So it is up to you.  Do you want a mermaid hanging on your wall and everyone to laugh at her senior slideshow, or do you want true, genuine photos that make people say “awww”, and maybe even cry?  Its up to you.

I want to leave you with these song Lyrics by Lonestar:

Please, let them be little,
‘Cause they’re only that way for a while.
Give them hope, give them praise,
Give them love every day.
Let ‘em cry, let ‘em giggle,
Let ‘em sleep in the middle,
Oh, but let them be little.

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Elijah LOVES eggs! (lovingly referred to as eggies) He asks for them for breakfast almost every morning. So we decided to try our hand at dyeing Easter eggs. As I was steaming the eggs to get them ready, (steamed eggs are less likely to have the shells crack and the mis-colorations of the yolk etc. that can go wrong with boiling. If you dont believe me try it! Just ask me for directions and Ill gladly tell you how!) Elijah kept asking me for eggies. He wanted them scrambled. I made him scrambled eggs and he ate them as I prepared all the dye and put the steamed eggs in a ice bath. Then I showed him how to dye the eggs. At first he was really apprehensive, but after he saw a blue egg with his name on it he was excited and started doing his own. He LOVED it! Here are some of the results:

All the eggs came out similar colors, because Elijah dipped each egg in each color!  ;)

The next photo is a little blurry, but I wanted to show you the aftermath of a two year old dyeing eggs!  :)

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!  Have a great day!  ;)

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Recently I had the privilege to go visit my Grandmother in Great Falls Montana.  I learned alot form her through out my life time, but during this trip, I got to reflect on family and the stories that  had been told to me through out the years.  We sat down and looked through some picture albums together.  She shared memories with me, of things that happened in the past, some while I was alive and some before my time.  I had heard the stories a million times, but I had not seen all the photos.   As I lay in bed one night, I said to Seth, “Do you realize that when we die, our grandchildren will not have the privilege of  getting to “discover” who we are by photos and writings they may find in the attic, garage, basement or wherever?  Instead if they want to know about us they will have to look on our computer!”   To which Seth replied, “or read our facebook status history!”  OUCH!!!

Take it from me, a girl who still hurts form her grandfather’s death, it is a real treat to “find” a photo of him, hold it in your hands, and have someone tell you about a part of him you never knew.  It is sad to me that so many of my family photos are stored on a hard drive.  I want my grandchildren to be able to experience  flipping through pages of the photo album of my trip to Scotland (if I ever go that is!), and holding the photos in their hands as they make discoveries about their history.  I am going to try to make it a point to print more photos of Elijah as he grows up.  Part of my childhood is in a closet somewhere in my parents house, because I was born before the age of digital cameras, but eman…digital is all he will know!  (though I do shoot film occasionally, It is dying out more and more.)

For any of you thinking of booking with me, let me encourage you to order the prints!  The digital copy of the photos is great, but dont live your life behind a screen!  Enjoy the prints while you can, decorate your house, and then when you have grandchildren, you will have something to show them besides just a hard drive!!!!!

And because all posts are better with a photo, here is a picture  I took of Montana mountains, while we were driving.  I rolled the window down to avoid dog nose window smears (anyone who lets there dog ride in the car knows what I am talking about!)  Thats right folks, the car was still moving, because if we stopped to take a photo of everything I thought was interesting, we would never have made it home!!!  

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Its that time!  I need to order new business cards.  Before I liked my cards, but the design was not 100% what I wanted.  I have designed a business card that I LOVE, but need your help.  What photos would you like to see on my business cards?  To enter your favorite photo email me at joncee@photographybyjonceemay.com or post the photo on my fan page! I look forward to seeing what photos you enter!   You do not need to be a client to tell me what photos you want to see on the new cards, but only clients will get an 8×10.  If you do not have a digital copy of the photo a brief description will work.  In order to be eligible for the 8×10 you must let me know your submission by March 24th, 2010.  Thanks for your help!

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I love Oragami!  I love creating something out a a simple piece of paper…Im not sure why I just do!  It is really fun!  My awesome brother got me a “Origami a Day” calendar for Christmas, so my desk is littered with little birdies, boats, and other animals.  The other day my husband decided to fold an origami from the calendar.  he chose to do a pig…then later, after he went to work he texted me, “dollar pig!”   When he got home he produced this little guy.  I thought it was cute so I wanted to share it with you!  :)

What is something you like to do that is out of the ordinary?

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This last Saturday I was invited to go watch my co-workers child do a demonstration for Boise Throwdown.  I had never seen it before and did not know what I was in for!  Some of you might know, I was really into Gymnastics growing up.  I loved it.  Because of a move I did not get to continue my training like I would have liked to.  This demonstration, however, was everything I wanted gymnastics to be!  I use to dream about this stuff!  I always had a “I can take care of myself” attitude, and because gymnastics is what I knew, I have had more than one dream in which my cartwheel turned into a roundhouse kick and I saved the day…BUT THEY WERE REALLY DOING IT!!!!  It was not a dream!

If you have not ever seen the Throwdown preform and you are in the Boise area…DO IT!!!  you will be in awe as 5 year olds do backflips and 13 year olds that could take out a linebacker with one kick!  :)  WOW!!!!!  Here are a few photos from the demonstration.

These kids move FAST!!!!!!  I did not want to use a flash and distract them so allot of photos have motion blur, had this been a paid shot I would have set up proper lighting to eliminate it!  :)

and las but not least…Kayjah, she is just starting out at Throwdown, but did an amazing job and will soon be fighting like the rest of them!!!  I am proud of all of you!!!  GO THROWDOWN!!!

Yesterday my son and I had a fun time exploring our yard.  I thought I would take some fun photos and give them different black and white treatments.  We explored the garden, the neighbors car that he is going to fix, and the fence!   I love doing this, because it reminds me why I love photography.  While I love capturing emotions between people, what I really love is bringing beauty to things that may go unnoticed!  

After taking these photos I felt refreshed and ready to bring on the weddings and portraits!  I want to encourage you to take time today to do something that inspires you!  :)