links on wednesday

Feb 24, 2010 | Uncategorized | 6 comments

I meant to get a 10 on Tuesday post out yesterday but life happened and it didn’t! Oh well, who really minded looking at those three sweet babies one extra day?

Ok, HERE WE GO!

1. Just finished (for now) revamping the blogsite! Take a look at the AWESOME links we now have on our “the links” page and if you are a client/prospective client you will LOVE how much easier it is to see what sessions we offer on our “the sessions” page! Whew! It makes me so happy to have those things done and updated!

Also, we had a couple emails yesterday from people who had already noticed the LINKS page up asking WHY in the world we would link other St. Louis photographers on our blogsite! And our answer is simple. We believe in our work enough that we think you could look at other sites and still choose to hire us for your photos. BUT. We also know we are not the photographers for everyone and so we’re giving you some of the best options out there to help you find someone else that might fit better with your family! The photography world SHOULD NOT be competitive. There are enough clients to go around and Kim and I feel very strongly about helping raise up our community in friendship.

2. Love what my friend Sara is doing HERE. Very proud! WAY TO GO SARA!

3. I think I need THESE post-its! And the paper plates are awesome too!

4. THIS video is incredible! I love watching creative people work!

5. The girls and I will be doing THIS activity this afternoon! We haven’t painted in a few days so we’re due.

6. Our sweet bride Stephanie blogged about us HERE (I love when we pop up on other blogs!) and I just have to share with you the hands down nicest thank you note we’ve ever received…

Oh, Kim. Oh, Jodie.

My hands are trembling as I write. Tears are flowing down my happy face, so I’m taking a break looking at the wedding photos (can’t even get through them!) to send you the first of many thank you notes.

I cannot believe what I am seeing. I cannot believe how you two–clearly kin to ancient fairy god-women–capture and bend the light, and disappear around frames, to capture true love and friendship. How your eyes spy details, and folds, and the way we all look at one another…  it kills me to think, how if you weren’t there at all, the hundreds of moments that we’d miss, they’d stream by us like beautiful wind, uncaptured.

I really don’t know what to say, except marvel at your work, and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Do you know that my area of study, at Columbia, is Byzantine hagiography– the stories of saints.  And in my work, I have seen so many icons, those holy paintings and mosaics, gilded with gold and precious metals, stained over the years by so much human devotion. And I’ve marveled, when at work unearthing ancient hymns, or writings about these images, at how much *an image* means to a person.

You will know, because you’ve thought about this, being artists– but think about the difference between trying to hold the best moments, even holy moments, in one’s memory, and having an image to keep and hold, to pass down, to honor.  In Eastern Europe, when the Soviets forbid anyone from practicing Christianity, old grandmother women hid icons (small paintings, often, on wood) in their hope chests, in their kitchen cellars, anywhere… and these women became the literal keepers of the faith. For when Communism fell, it was hard for people to _remember_, to re-begin the traditions and actions.  And then, the icons were taken reverently, and put back in their places, where in their everyday actions, people could see them.

This is your work, this is what you do.  You are the keepers of the images, and allow for us ordinary folk to _remember_.

Otherwise– that golden night would have flown by, I would remember the love of Matt and my family and friends in my bones like a warmth, but I would not be able to capture, through years and age and time, in my mind’s eye the details, the speeches, the beauty, the color, and our happiness.  The staircase, the blue, blue winter sky, the rings, the champagne, the true love friendship that held me close that day.  I wouldn’t know these things as well, at all.

I am sure I will write properly soon, and talk of orders, and particular photographs that we will need and want, and questions of size and type.  But for now, I just wanted to tell you how much your work means to us, and to me, in the every day.

with marveling, with gratitude and with love,

Stephanie

I mean, WOW right? Thanks Steph! It still brings tears to my eyes reading it!

7. We have a Love Light session this Friday night and I am so excited! Also praying it will be warm enough because shivering does not photograph well! But thinking of Love Light reminded me that a few weeks ago at our church’s Mardi Gras my old friend Betsy and I were screwing around when we decided to do an iPhone Love Light session! HA! She used her phone as the light source and I used mine as the camera. Seriously, we are NERDS! HA!

8. Did I blog THIS link yet? I get so confused. Well, even if I have it is seriously the BEST idea for a gift! Totally doing that next year!

9. Did I tell you that Chris gave up soda for Lent? OMG. So in support of him I bought us each a new fancy water bottle from Target the other day. And I’ve been carrying mine around with me everywhere. Hoping it tempts me to not want to drink as much soda too. So yesterday I only have ONE soda! And today I haven’t had any yet. Of course the day is still young and my headache is already raging so we’ll see how long I last. BUT I AM TRYING! Oh, and something that’s helping? My water bottle has a STRAW… it is seriously helping me pretend like it’s the sweet nectar of Mnt Dew in there! HA!

10. Taking THIS idea and using tape instead to make an obstacle course for the girls when they get home from school! Great for balancing and for fun inside winter play! Oh spring… come faster!

AND THAT’S IT! Happy Wednesday!

6 Comments

  1. Abbie
    Abbie on February 24, 2010 at 1:10 pm

    LOVE #5 and might even be willing to try that with Sam today…we’ll see how nap goes! But if you do that with the girls tell them Aunt Abbie wants a painting!

  2. Sarah
    Sarah on February 24, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    I drink more water when I have a straw too!

  3. Katie
    Katie on February 24, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    WOW! Thanks Jodi and Kim, for putting me on your links page! I seriously squealed like a little girl when I saw my name {too much…probably, but I’m easily excitable}!

    And Jodi, as for your latest post about not feeling like yourself…..it MUST be part some sort of right of passage into motherhood. Before kids and marriage and two stressful careers, I didn’t struggle with being a happy, nice person…I just was. Now, I feel like I have to work at being who I used to be. I do attribute some of it to sleep deprivation and am {kind of} working on that…..but I have also decided to seek therapy. If anything, it’s just an outsider to talk to {with some professional advice}. I hope you, too, can figure out how to get out and stay out of your “funk”…..maybe some sunshine and fresh air is what we all need? C’mon Spring!!

  4. gina
    gina on February 24, 2010 at 6:25 pm

    I think I might have to do that painting/tape project with my students at school. It’s hard to find cool stuff that kids with motor disabilities can do!

  5. Elizabeth
    Elizabeth on February 24, 2010 at 10:14 pm

    That was seriously one of THE best thank you notes I’ve ever seen. Wow. She has a gift for words!

  6. Abbie
    Abbie on February 28, 2010 at 8:42 pm

    Okay, I blogged our attempt at #5. Not quite as cute as the example but Sam loved the painting and the result was pretty cool.