Christmas 2009
January 17, 2010, by Leslie JanousHere is a handful of photos I got over the holidays. Unfortunately I just wasn’t on top of my game this year after my surgery. My goal for 2010 is to be better at documenting our family!
I have to start with my favorite holiday photo! This is our sweet little Brie. She found a candy cane one of the kids left in the floor and decided it was hers.
Our cousin, Carrie, decided to be Santa and hand out the gifts.
Brittany..always ready to tear into her gifts. She’d been begging to open “just one gift” every day since presents were placed under the tree!
Travis was just as eager to rip into his…well…almost. I don’t think anyone comes close to Britt!
Patiently waiting to open some presents…
Leigh and I weren’t wearing our family holiday pajamas to match everyone else. Every year I go to great lengths searching online to find cute matching holiday pajamas for all of us. Unfortunately, I ordered the incorrect size for Leigh and me. They were soooo big! Way to big to wear…sad face…
Carrie marveling at the creative wrapping job.
And here we have Travis… he is modeling a lovely floral print eye mask Leigh got me to help me sleep on our next flight.
Ok, so Travis LOVES Cookie Crisp…and recently he came over and had to vent because his buddy ate his box of Cookie Crisp. It was a very big deal. We wanted to make sure he didn’t have that problem again.
I think he’ll be good for a while…
Their first Christmas together.
I finally manage to get in one shot and this is what it looks like…
With Travis behind the camera I was scared, but he managed to get one decent shot for me! Thank you Trav!
Later Christmas day we celebrated with Leigh’s family. Sadly enough this is the only photo I got while there. It was total chaos with all of the presents!
January 3rd was my 35th birthday. Leigh ordered a yummy strawberry layer cake for me from www.veryvera.com
It was super yummy!
Leigh and Brittany gave me this beautiful Reed & Barton silver tea & coffee service I’ve wanted for a while. I just adore it!!!
So pretty!!!
It’s hard to believe the holidays have already come and gone. It happened so quickly! I am looking forward to a busy but fun 2010! I promise I will be better at documenting our lives this year.
Happy 2010 everyone!
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Hawaii Trip 11-20-09 – 3rd Post
December 26, 2009, by Leslie JanousToward the end of our trip I rode along with Leigh, Brandon, Rachel & Big Brandon (nephew Brandon’s friend) while they played 18 holes of golf at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel where we stayed. Here are some of the shots I got of the four of them playing golf.
Leigh spent a lot of time in the sand…
Big Brandon and Little Brandon.
Rachel, Leigh & Brandon on my favorite hole # 3!
Leigh teeing off on hole # 3.
Brandon teeing off on hole # 3. Did I mention this is my favorite hole??
…
I love this pic – such concentration!
I love this photo of Rachel – so cute!
I’m not a golfer but I wanted to get some photos of Leigh playing golf in such an amazing place. I am so glad I went. The course was absolutely beautiful!
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Those are so fun! Love the last one of Rachel… And YES, YAYA did spend a lot of time in the sand… But she played FANTASTIC!!! She put it on me a couple of times… I’m so glad you got to shoot her in her element! These are so great Leslie… The more I see you do, the more amazed I become…
Comment by Brandon — December 27, 2009 @ 9:58 PM
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I love them! The scenery is beautiful and I miss Hawaii! You make us all look like professionals! Thank you for going with me and documenting my awesome swings! LOL
Comment by Leigh — December 29, 2009 @ 8:10 AM
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Awwww…. I miss Brandon and Rachel so much!
Comment by Rich Smith — January 27, 2010 @ 7:37 PM
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Hawaii Trip 11-20-09 – 2nd Post!
December 6, 2009, by Leslie JanousHere are some photos I took while we were in Hawaii, once I started feeling better.
By the way, I am ready to go back!
This was the view from our room’s balcony as the sun came up each morning.
This is a view of our hotel from the end of our private beach area.
The entrance area of our hotel, Mauna Kea Beach Hotel.
The funny signs posted at the beginning of the treacherously steep trail down to the black sand beach on the other side of the island.
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Hi Leslie,
Love your photography!! And your logo turned out really nice. Good job to whomever designed it!!
Take care,
SteveComment by Steve Hamaker — January 14, 2010 @ 9:09 AM
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Our trip to Hawaii 11-20-09
December 3, 2009, by Leslie JanousAs many of you already know from the previous two blog posts, we decided to go to Hawaii to spend Thanksgiving with our nephew Brandon and his fiance Rachel. We had a crew of nine people! It was a truly amazing trip and just what I needed to help me recover from a difficult surgery.
Thank goodness our good friends Rich and Heather took plenty of photos because I was pretty limited in my movement and definitely wasn’t up to lugging around photography equipment. Here are some photos they captured from the beautiful Big Island!
This is a shot of hole 3 on the Mauna Kea Golf Course
LOVE palm trees!
The fabulous soaps at our hotel!
Heather parasailing!
Rich parasailing!
Love these signs!
The road to our resort.
Above the clouds on Mauna Kea Mountain…Rich and Heather made the long drive up there not realizing it would be freezing when they got to the top! Everyone was bundled in ski gear and they had on shorts and flip flops!
The sunset from Mauna Kea Mtn.
Heather in this crazy awesome tree.
My mentor, Rich.
We took a drive to the other side of the island to see this black sand beach.
We stopped for lunch at the Bamboo Restaurant. The “Today’s Special” sign advertised “Naked Chefs and Wild Women”.
I will be posting some more photos from the last part of our trip when I felt a little better and got out with my camera!
A big thanks to Rich and Heather for sharing their photos!
3 Comments »
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These photos are so amazing and bring back so many great memories! You are so talented
Comment by Rachel — December 15, 2009 @ 2:17 PM
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Leslie, the pictures are so awesome!
Comment by vickie — December 15, 2009 @ 3:38 PM
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Amazing! I hadn’t had a chance to look at all these until today, they are awesome! Great job Leslie!
Comment by Brandon — December 20, 2009 @ 9:03 PM
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Rich and Heather in Hawaii 11-27-09
November 27, 2009, by Leslie JanousWe invited our good friends, Rich and Heather Smith (Rich also happens to be my photography mentor) to go to Hawaii with us. I wanted Rich to help me shoot our nephew, Brandon and his fiance, Rachel’s engagement session, as well as just hang out and enjoy the most beautiful place any of us have ever seen. We wanted to document the trip with mini photo sessions of each other. Rich had been checking out the property and had some very specific ideas in his mind of where he wanted their photos taken. It was my job to make his vision happen…no pressure there…
Rich and Heather are obviously fantastic to work with, they’re so sweet and so in love that their happiness together is easy to capture in photos.
Here are our favorites from their session.
I adore this photo of Heather…it’s so serene.
I love the intensity here.
Heather has THE best laugh. It lights up her entire face – I love it.
We were all in love with this amazing tree! Such a breathtaking location!
I love love love this photo!
So my priority for this shoot was to get “the wave shot”. It was the one photo Rich wanted above anything else…again…no pressure. The second one in this series is definitely “the wave shot”, however, we all really like this first one as well.
The Money Shot! Pretty fabulous, I must admit.
This is my absolute favorite photo of Heather from the shoot. I love the way the way the wind is gently blowing her hair back and the sunlight is showing through it. Gorgeous!!
Aren’t they a beautiful couple?? It was such a great experience for the student to photograph the teacher! Of course I was terribly nervous my shots wouldn’t live up to his vision, but they were actually thrilled with the images – yay!
Rich and Heather, thank you SO much for joining us on the trip! It was so fun hanging out with you guys.
Thank you for the opportunity to photograph you guys as well. It was a blast! I can’t wait for our next trip together…I’m thinking Bora Bora??
7 Comments »
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Les, these photos are amazing! You did a fantastic job…no way they couldn’t be pleased:) So proud of you:)!!
Comment by Michele P — December 13, 2009 @ 2:54 PM
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Leslie! It was SO much fun to look through these photos on YOUR BLOG! How exciting! The photos are incredible and we love them so much…and they are particularly awesome with your logo and on your blog with your crazy awesome post-processing. Wow. Thank you so, so, so much!
Comment by heather smith — December 13, 2009 @ 4:15 PM
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OMG! this pictures are so awesome!
Comment by Brittany J. — December 13, 2009 @ 8:30 PM
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Leslie,
These are fantastic! The only issue that I have is that Rich didn’t get his jeans wet enough and that you didn’t make him lay on sharp edged rocks… For real real though, you did an amazing job with these. They look so great!!!Comment by Brandon — December 13, 2009 @ 8:56 PM
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You are so amazing!!!!!!! You truly have a gift. All of the pictures are gorgeous
Comment by Aimee — December 13, 2009 @ 9:16 PM
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Love all the pictures!!! So proud of you.
Comment by hope — December 14, 2009 @ 5:22 PM
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Leslie you did an amazing job capturing some incredible moments! Of course I love “the wave picture” but the ones with the palm trees have to be my favorite
And the sunset one is breathtaking! Congrats on an awesome session!Comment by Rachel — December 15, 2009 @ 2:21 PM
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Brandon and Rachel – Engagement session in Hawaii 11-26-09
November 26, 2009, by Leslie JanousWe went to Hawaii to spend Thanksgiving with our nephew Brandon and his fiance Rachel. They moved there about a year ago and have missed spending time with family, especially around the holidays. We stayed at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Big Island where Brandon teaches golf. It is a gorgeous resort!!
It was so great to see Brandon and get to meet Rachel. We instantly loved her and cannot wait for their wedding in March! She’s such a beautiful person inside and out…she’s going to make an absolutely stunning bride! They’re so perfect for each other. Way to go, Brandon!
A huge thanks to my photography mentor and good friend, Rich Smith for taking the lead on this session. I wasn’t fully recovered from my surgery so I wasn’t able to do as much as I would have liked. I kind of took a back seat and just roamed around getting shots that didn’t require too much of me physically. These are some of my favorites!
I love Rachel’s expression in this one.
We found a black sand beach – so cool!
I love this…Rich told them to lie on this bed of rocks and pretend they were comfortable. This amazing photo is definitely worth their pain in my opinion!
Love this shot!
Love their footprints in the sand.
This is the perfect photo to visually describe Brandon and Rachel. Between every shot they were playing around and having fun with one another – so cute!
I’ve heard several people comment that this looks like a movie poster…so true. Absolutely gorgeous!
All I can really say about these next two shots are wow and wow!!!
Congratulations Brandon and Rachel! Thank you so much for being such good sports – Rich and his crazy ideas! They certainly paid off – this is the most beautiful engagement session I’ve ever seen. I love you both!
6 Comments »
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Leslie, These are incredible. Every picture seems to capture their love and excitement. These are photos that their grandchildren will look at and think, “wow, look at how in love they were!” You should be very proud of the work you’ve done here, it’s beautiful!
Comment by Laura Hand — December 13, 2009 @ 1:13 PM
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Leslie,
You truly are amazing! This pictures are so freakin great! Rachel looks stunning as usual, but you even made me look ok, so I appreciate that a ton. You should be very proud of these Leslie as I’m blown away by your talent! Thanks so much for taking the time to do those for us, we will cherish them forever! Love ya Leslie!Comment by Brandon — December 13, 2009 @ 8:53 PM
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Aunt Leslie,
Their pictures are amazing. I’m so glad Brandon took a second to show me the pictures. They actually look like they are in love, im kidding. No really you captured them both in moments that expressed their love for each other. Keep up the great work.
Comment by RJ — December 13, 2009 @ 8:56 PM
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I love these! As I told you, I not only think these are great photographs, I can feel the emotion between Brandon and Rachel. It takes a special talent to capture emotions in a photograph that the viewer can feel. Love, Love, Love them!
Comment by leigh janous — December 14, 2009 @ 10:33 AM
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Leslie I can’t thank you enough for capturing such beautiful moments between Brandon and myself! Your session shows the fun side, tender side, and passionate side of our relationship. Everytime I look through them I get chills and everytime I think we will have these moments forever I get teary eyed! Thanks again for sharing your incredible talent with us! Love you so much!
Comment by Rachel — December 15, 2009 @ 2:35 PM
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Hey Leslie, just got the email for the Lyon Shop in Vegas and sadly won’t make it to the dinner the night before so I just wanted to reach out to everyone and say HI and introduce myself!
It will be my first year to WPPI! Anyways your work is beautiful, love your angles and processing on these! Hopefully we can talk more at the Lyonshop! YAY! -KayleenComment by Kayleen T. — February 19, 2010 @ 6:08 AM
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Brittany Janous Senior Session – Chattanooga, TN Sept. 2009
September 12, 2009, by Leslie JanousFor my daughter, Brittany’s, senior photos I wanted to do something different – more along the lines of a fashion shoot. My wonderful mentor Rich of Rich Smith Photography in Chattanooga, TN agreed to get outside his comfort zone to help me make this photo shoot happen. He found the perfect location and told me who to line up for hair and makeup in Chattanooga. It was very fast paced and we were limited on daylight so I just followed Rich and tried to keep up while staying out of the way! It was super fun – he’s an amazing photographer and mentor. Rich’s gorgeous photos of Brittany are posted on his blog at www.richsmithphotography.net
A huge thanks to Darin Wright from Elea Blake Cosmetics in Chattanooga for enduring the heat to make Brittany look amazing for every shot! Thanks also to Darin’s daughter Blake for helping with Brittany’s outfit selections and accessory coordination.
Another big thank you to hair stylist Rose Riley of Chattanooga, wrr00@hotmail.com, who worked magic with a brush, a comb and a couple of styling products!
Here are some of my images from the shoot.
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BEAUTIFUL work – you did an awesome job – she looks fantastic!
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I love it. They’re awesome!
Comment by vickie — December 12, 2009 @ 8:25 PM
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Amanda & Kyle 7-26-09
July 26, 2009, by Leslie JanousI had a weekend mentoring session with Nathan Holritz of Holritz Photography in Chattanooga, TN. We met Amanda and Kyle at the Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia bright and early that Saturday morning to shoot their engagement session. They were super sweet and great to work with.
Nathan showed me some great ways to work with the bright morning sun.
This is my favorite pic from their session! I love the way the sunlight is coming through the trees.
Here I got to enjoy lying in the dirt with little bugs crawling around – definitely worth it!
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Watts Grandparents Session – Chattanooga 7-3-09
July 3, 2009, by Leslie JanousWhile my parents were here visiting us from Washington state, they wanted to get some photos with the grandkids. We went down to Chattanooga for the day and had fun at the park! Here are some of my favorites from the day.
My mom with my adorable baby nephew, Keegen.
He really liked the merry-go-round.
I love this photo! His face is precious with his little curls blowing in the breeze!
Brittany and her boyfriend Travis.
My parents.
I love his cute little scrunched up nose! He makes this face all the time!
This is so sweet…his little tongue…
Some kids kicked their ball our way. Keegen grabbed it and had no intentions of returning it!
Learning to walk with Mamaw & Papaw.
Precious!
I think this might just be my favorite from the day!
LOVE this!
Such a sweet moment.
Sweet moment…younger version.
That little face…
Okay, maybe this is my favorite from the day…
My beautiful niece, Chloe, with her Mamaw.
I am so happy I got some photos of my family while they were here! I love you all!
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Robert & Aston 6-13-09
June 13, 2009, by Leslie JanousThis was my first official mentoring photo shoot with Rich of Rich Smith Photography in Chattanooga. It was terribly hot but Aston was great, even though I am sure with her being 8 months pregnant, it was miserable!
I love this photo of them by a stack of wooden pallets…as Rich said….we made the ordinary extraordinary!
And my favorite shot of the day…Rich is so clever!
Thanks Robert & Aston! You guys were so patient with us in that heat! Congrats also on your sweet little girl. She’s adorable!
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Ummmmmm… I’m just a little upset that Rachel and I didn’t get any matching PJ’s from y’all??!?!?!?!
Comment by Brandon — January 19, 2010 @ 4:44 PM
Well Brandon, if you would come spend Christmas with us, you would get matching pj’s too!
Comment by Leslie Janous — January 20, 2010 @ 8:44 AM
Next year we’re coming over. It looks like you all had a blast!
Comment by Rich Smith — January 27, 2010 @ 7:34 PM
I LOVE the pictures!!! I’m so glad I was able to celebrate with you guys! Love you, mean it!
Comment by Carrie — February 2, 2010 @ 8:46 PM