Acros 100, Canon AE1

A roll of black and white came back from Italy showed up in my inbox late last night. Each time I get a new set of scans it’s a mini trip back to paradise. Love love love.

I’m sending my #Euroand15 film in slowly, savoring the way it feels to rediscover our trip through the lens of my camera. This is Castellabate, a teeny tiny town with the narrowest streets I’ve ever navigated via car, in the province of Salerno, located in the Campania region. We had several different interactions with the locals that proved them to be some of the friendliest, kindest people I’ve come across.

I’m thinking in particular of the woman working in a bait and tackle shop who listened patiently to me explaining in broken Italian that my film had broken off the spool and I needed some sort of black cloth to protect it from the light once I removed it from the camera. She pointed to a bag used for holding fishing poles and indicated I could have one for free, and then when I mentioned that I also need a pitch-black room to remove the film from the camera she allowed me to go into the back of the store all by myself to unwind my film and stuff it into the bag she had provided. To top all of that off, she offered me some free farm-fresh eggs as I left the store! I wouldn’t have this image if it wasn’t for her kindness and trust in a complete stranger.

Portra 800, Canon AE1-p, TheFINDlab

San Francisco’s Baker Beach. Acros 100. Mamiya RZ67 Pro II

Our family photographer for 2014 not only delivered images of our faces and happiness and love that set a new standard for what I want out of family photos, but in that set she included a few shots of the beach where we did the session. I love them! So I’m trying to do the same for my Jenna Cole clients this year. It doesn’t always work, based on the light and the setting and such, but when it does I think it’s really special. And it illustrates why the work of a professional still manages to outdo the capacity of an iPhone 6.

This shot is a happy mistake. I think I didn’t wind the roll enough before I started shooting, but I love the combination of the tape on the left edge and the branches at the top. Shooting film has helped me embrace the title of Arist without feeling like a fraud.

We haven’t had an official family photography session since Kelli Nicole (Houston) photographed us in our Chicago apartment before T2 arrived on the scene, and since that time my ideas about photography and my dream family session have changed a lot. It’s less about the perfect posed portrait with everyone looking into the camera, and more about trying to capture who we are and what we are like at this stage in our lives. The kind of thing I want to provide for my own clients.

I tried to fly Samantha Kelly (Utah) to the Bay Area by recruiting one of you to hire her as well, which I didn’t make much progress on. But then I lucked out and she was able to squeeze us in for a session during a romantic getaway with her husband. We talked about a few different settings, but I kept coming back to the beach. I wanted something that documented the glorious beauty of the California coast, and would capture how much we love living in an area that looks and feels like this. We don’t make it to the beach very often, but when we do T1 can chase the waves for hours. It took a lot of tricky maneuvering to keep him dry as long as we did!

After I decided on Cowell Ranch Beach for our location (crossing my fingers that it would be one of those rare sunny days in Half Moon Bay) I poured far too much time into putting together our outfits. I actually put together two separate combinations for each person because I wasn’t sure if it would be warm or cold, and it was a top priority for me that everyone be comfortable and relaxed. I didn’t want “props” to pose with, but I did want to bring a few things that would keep the kids engaged and distracted (before we turned our oldest loose in the waves). I packed a quilt from the thrift store, a few different headbands for both kids to play with, a cupcake sand set for pretend snack time, white and dry snacks that the kids could snack on without dirtying their outfits (tip: clear gummi candies allowed TH and I to get a few photos alone while the kids took a little snack break), and a dozen mini beach balls from Amazon.

One really important thing to note: We told her that we didn’t care if there was a single photo of all of us looking directly into the camera and smiling. That’s not what this is about for us (and it probably won’t be what any of our photography sessions are about from now on.) If you’ll allow me a moment to get on my soapbox - in the age of Instagram and Facebook, our nearest and dearest know what we look like. They see our selfies and snapshots all throughout the year. The best photo, in my opinion, is the one you look back on 50 years from now and smile on because it shows what you were really like at that stage in your life. A slightly happy polished version, but still, reality.

Samantha shot the entire session on film, and returned so many amazing photos that I had a hard time narrowing them down for this post! I can’t believe how spot on her exposures and focus were as we dashed all around the beach. We picked up the film photography bug around the same time and I’m in awe of how fast her skills are developing. I can’t recommend her enough if you’re looking for someone to photograph your family. She’s based in Utah but I know she’s interested in traveling sessions as well!

We don’t just love the result, we loved the process. Even That Husband said he is looking forward to doing this again next year. (I promise you guys, he said it and meant it.) Taking these was as enjoyable as they seem. There’s something about the bond between the people you feel the most passionate about that is hard to capture, but I think the images below come as close as I dreamed they would.
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My Jenna Cole Photography website makeover is nearing completion, and as I look through the images for the site I can see some gaps in my image selection. I did a call for portfolio subjects in May, and as I prepare for family portrait sessions this fall I’d like to have diversify my image base a little bit more.

I’m looking for either a family with older children (pre-teen and above) or a couple (you don’t have to be married, or even thinking about getting married, and if you’ve been together awhile why not do a session without the kids for once?) If you (or someone you know!) live in the San Francisco Bay Area and would be interested in working with me you can fill out my form and I’ll be in touch if it’s a good fit. Sessions need to happen before the 27th of August and I’m only planning to do 2-3 total. After that I think I won’t be offering any more free opportunities like this for awhile.

These sessions will be done entirely on film. Wondering what that will look like? Here’s a sampling of my favorite film shots from the last few months.

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