Ten years of J. Anders Photography
It's been ten years since I established J. Anders Photography. Ten years of learning, growing, and embracing plenty of challenges that have brought me to where I am today. I built J. Anders Photography from the ground up, and I am pretty darn proud of it. My goal has and will always be to create an experience for families that tells their own story. That first year I had two families (which I still photograph today). Fast forward to 2023, and I am averaging 75 families a year, while working a full-time job (which I love as well:)) in marketing.
So welcome to the year of ten. Over the year, you'll see ten stories, with ten different themes, each with a collection of ten images as I reminisce the hundreds of families I have been so grateful to work with...including my own. You're going to see candid, and in some cases incredibly raw and personal moments. I am blowing the dust off a lot of images, but it's going to be an amazing opportunity to reflect on how my style has evolved, while giving a nod to all of those that have supported me along the way.
Up first.
Story #1 - My kids
My kids are the reason I picked up the camera. To be honest, I just wanted good pictures of them. Now, 13 and 9 years old, it has been harder to capture them in those natural moments. Add to this, my respect for their privacy, and I am a little more mindful of moments that are captured and shared to the social media world.
However, I was also that mom…the one that always had her Nikon DSLR. Whether in the diaper bag or car, I no longer worried about if I took the picture...I just took it. The kids would go to bed, and I would edit the story of our day. And it's given us thousands of moments, that I honestly don’t know if I would even remember. As my oldest enters high school this fall, the saying, “don’t blink” is legitimate. I may sound like a broken record, but take those pictures...and more importantly print them.
#1: Chloe Dog
2015. Chloe, our first "baby." If you know us, we love Labrador Retrievers. At 11, she started declining after being put under anesthesia to remove a small lump above her eye. It had been six years since the traumatic injury where a disc exploded in her back, and her body was worn out. While the kids were too young to understand, I wanted just a few more pictures with the three of them before it was too late. We found a perfect red barn in Genoa Township, and Julia stepped in as the natural caretaker of Chloe. Anderson, was only having it if he could hold the treat bag. Chloe passed away a few weeks later.
#2: Dress up
2014. Julia was five, and I'll admit, this was Pinterest inspired. However, I wanted a picture of my little girl in my wedding dress. Initially, she did not have the same excitement that I did:) I pulled the dress out of the preserved box, turned on her favorite Disney princess music, and we began. She was incredibly patient, as I was still very much learning how to use studio lighting, but we did it, and more importantly got the image.
#3: Saying goodbye to our first home
2016. We moved from Westerville to Dublin, Ohio. The work commute and overall logistics of getting two kids to different places was wearing on us. We moved out of our Highland Lakes home Memorial Day weekend. Moving is no joke, and I still don't know when I'll mentally (or physically) be prepared to do it again. That Sunday, we went back one last time after the house had been fully emptied to say goodbye. The reactions from both kids were incredibly different, but if you know either of them, it is 100% a reflection of their true personalities.
#4: Maui, Hawaii
2021. Hawaii. It has, and always will have a special place in my heart. My mom took me for the first time in 2001, and I never understood until I went why it was the only place she wanted to be. It took 20 years to get back, and this time with my own family. This was captured at sunset - we had flown in a few hours before. We were incredibly jet lagged, but the kids begged to go down to the shore. Of course, we said yes. My cue to them was to hold hands and have fun. This was the outcome. Priceless.
#5: Covid shutdown
2020. This was when the reality of the lockdown really began to hit the kids. They had been at home for three weeks, not really knowing what the "shutdown" looked like. Little did we know this would be one of the last times Julia was at her elementary school. Like so many, she never got that proper goodbye as she transitioned to sixth grade.
#6: First broken bone
2015. When this story is told, Julia will make it clear...I was the one who broke her arm:) She fell from my back while I was giving her a piggyback ride, and I still remember hearing the snap to this day. Matt and I were in denial, but I was heading to Florida the next morning for a girls weekend, and needed to be at peace knowing she was ok. She wasn't. I took her to Children's Close-to-Home for an X-ray, for the staff to came out within in minutes with the results. I thought they'd cast her at urgent care. Nope...the break was too severe, and she would need to go to the hospital for surgery to insert multiple pins. While I surely missed my Mother-of-the-Year Award for 2015, the staff at Nationwide Children's Hospital was amazing.
#7: Those quiet moments
2017. It took a few years to figure out the work life balance, and thanks to Covid, I now work 100% remote. However, prior to Covid, I would be fortunate to be able to work from home when a kiddo was sick. Anderson had just woken up from his afternoon nap. You know those first few moments where they're still sleepy and quiet? They're the best. He came downstairs, and just sat outside of the office door while he woke up. Of course, his favorite lovey, Bunny was in tow.
#8: Grandma Carole
2020. You sometimes just don't know when moments will be the last. Taken in January of 2020, my mom was definitely starting to decline. Her dementia was ramping up, and her mobility was slowing down. My stepdad would drop her off for a few hours on Sundays, and I had gotten new lighting I wanted to try. I turned her visit into a mini photo session with her and the kids. To be honest, the results were some of the most natural moments I was able to capture of her. It was meant to be.
#9: Good morning, South Carolina
2015. We went to South Carolina for spring break. I had another vision (like I often do) to capture Anderson at sunrise on the beach. He was already up, so off we went. I gave him the shovel and bucket and put him on the shore. He threw a fit. A hysterical fit...one of those that entailed hyperventilating. Morning walkers had to have thought I looked ridiculous, because not only was I in my pjs, I just let him cry, while I took pictures. Another mother-of-the-year moment. So the reason you don't see pictures of Anderson's face is because he was crying:) After I got shots of my "new vision," we headed back to the room. However, I quickly learned that I forgot not only the room key, but also my phone...and was locked outside with my delighted child for another hour.
#10: The wedding
2018. This is, and always will be on display in my home.. It's one of those pictures that I loved the instant it was captured. It was my niece's wedding, and I didn't have a vision for the shot. I just knew we needed something, because it was a classic late summer evening at Golden Hour. Any photographer knows, that is the most amazing time to shoot. They were hyped up on the millions of cookies from the cookie table, and the energy from everyone around them. You could hear the music in the background, and I simply told them to have fun and dance. They did.