• studio3z photography {the blog}

    If you have landed here...bless your soul.  Welcome to our little tiny corner of the cyber world, based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Below you will see favorites from our sessions we do professionally, and also loads of personal nonsense that we hope at least will entertain you.  If nothing less, you can keep up on our adorable children.  Really, they are worth the trip back here time and time again in and of itself.

    My name is Jess.  My hubby is Brett.  We are crazy about each other, our 4 babies, and our art.  Welcome to our world.

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Monthly Archives: October 2008

mary {a senior session}

Oh my goodness, WHERE do I BEGIN with the little gal!!! :)  When I received a call from her Mom a couple months back, she told me that Mary was dreading Senior photos because they are all so canned and cheesy.  Her Mom was considering flying her to LA to be photographed by someone who had done head-shots for Mary’s sister (who is out there living her acting dreams).  When Mary saw the blog of her friend Holly that I did back in July, she knew she wanted to work with us!  What an absolute honor!!  Maybe a tinnnnny bit of pressure, but when I heard about what she was into, I was so excited.:)

Mary was a doll and a half to work with.  We had so much fun on her shoot, and she had some amazing ideas/locations/outfits…OH MY GOODNESS!!!  Editing these has been like a treat.  She loves fashion and is inspired by anything vintage, so she was right up my alley. She is almost as big of an Audrey Hepburn fan as I am.  Almost. :)  She also loves photography!  Not to mention she is super happy and sweet as could be.

We began her session in one of her favorite shoe stores Morrison & Me, and big thanks to the owners for allowing us freedom to shoot around their store.  It was beautiful.

Getting glammed up…

How crazy adorable is this girl??!!

Before leaving she found a new pair of shoes.  It was love at first sight.  (In the end she opted for this pair in black and they were AMAZING on her!)

Did I mention I had a blast editing these photos?  Vintage.  Yes ma’am.

Audrey? Audrey is that you??! :)

Mary has the most adorable smile and laugh that is completely uncontainable.  I would try to get her to give me a serious look, and this is what she would do. :)

Oh precious light, how I love you.

FAVORITE.  Like, I am screaming in my chair right now FAVORITE.

A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E.

Wowzas.  She is smokin.

A couple Fred Egan inspired shots.  I love how playful and natural she could be right after being so glamorous.

She had to have her chucks shots.

No prompting….this girl knew how and where to go.

I LOVED this dress she put on last.  Her eyes and hair just looked great with it.

This was a new location, and I arrived 5 minutes early to scope it out.  We had so many fun things to work with.

Ummm, you need to consider following your sister to LA.  You are AMAZING!!

Mary, I had such fun with you!!! Thanks so so much for having me do your Senior photos. :)  All the best to you and your AMAZING future, whatever you choose to do!

October 29, 2008 - 5:01 pm

Annie@VarlandPhotography - Wow. Wow. Wow. She is fabulous and you did a great job!!!

My favorites are the one of her dancing with the pearls and with the umbrella.

October 29, 2008 - 6:30 pm

my B. - You nailed it! You captured Mary’s sweet spirit, sense of style, and playfulness into your photographs. She is just as beautiful inside as on the outside. She is precious to all who know her.

October 29, 2008 - 7:16 pm

holly rouse - jess and mary,
the both of you inspire me to no end.
also–I WANT TO SHOOT IN O’BRYANVILLE NOW! FOR SERIOUS!

thank you for letting me be your assistant for corinne’s shoot, ms. jess! ;)

October 29, 2008 - 7:28 pm

lucy - adorable! love the b/w photo where she’s glamming it up in the mirror and the “dirty alley” photo…too cool. what a fun photo shoot! nice job jess.

October 30, 2008 - 5:34 am

Alex - AYKM???

What a great session!! Hard to decide me for my favourite…
Yours is also mine… but the last couple ones are also HO-HO-HO-TTT!!!

Nice idea to go in a shoe store…
I wish there were much more seniors out here to have a shoot. But that´s “not normal” – unfortunately.

All the best you rockin´ photographers,
Alex

October 30, 2008 - 8:48 am

rebecky - OOOoh my goodness, I am crazy about this session. I can not say enough. I love every picture. Mary has a great look and style. My favorite senior session yet.

October 30, 2008 - 10:03 am

kelly - Amazing Jess! You have had some seriously rockin’ senior sessions this year!! You did a great job of using all of the colors, textures, and compositions to really bring out her personality :)

October 30, 2008 - 10:08 am

Barbie - i stalk a lot of photography blogs, and this one is one of my favorites. such a cute family and inspiring photos. this entry though, is out of this WORLD. you should be an actress or something mary, you are gorgeous. and i don’t have words for you ms. photographer. these photos are amazing. simply amazing.

October 30, 2008 - 11:09 am

courtney - Wow! These pictures are amazing. I’m adding you to my blog reader :)

October 30, 2008 - 4:05 pm

Rachel Brooke - These are incredible!! So many creative shots/poses.

October 30, 2008 - 5:47 pm

mary - OHHH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS. I had so so so so so much with you, Jess! I love the way the pictures turned out… you are seriously so amazing! I had such a specific idea of what I wanted my senior pictures to look like before I had even found a photographer. Guess what! THEY ARE PERFECTLY PERFECT. My vintage obsession was satisfied :) . Your work is so inspiring, and I hope I can be half the photographer you are some day.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for such a wonderful and fun experience for my senior pictures! YOU ROCK.

October 30, 2008 - 7:43 pm

esther - I can’t believe that she is in high school! I wasn’t near that pulled together and flawless when I was in school, wait I’m still not. Beautiful pics!

October 30, 2008 - 10:50 pm

Jennifer Berry - that tunnel shot is ridiculous. so cool.

October 31, 2008 - 9:09 am

mary’s mom - Jess… you are incredible!! These are gorgeous. Everyone keeps asking which one is my favorite! How can I choose? (Although at this moment I’m really hooked on the long shot down the alley with the great light. And the yellow door pose. And the jumping one. And the profile by the glass block window. And the one in the park where her eyes are cut. And… oh you get it!!) You have an amazing eye, and even though I was standing right there I just can’t believe what you captured!! When the sister in Cali saw these she asked if she could do a session when she is back home. You are so talented… not to mention so great to work with. This was a wonderful experience!! Thanks so much, Kathy

October 31, 2008 - 12:37 pm

Jeri Hamrick - Wow!!!! Your amazing!!! I really want you to take my boys picture!!!! CALL ME 513.484.1974

October 31, 2008 - 2:19 pm

Sara - These pictures are GORGEOUS! You did a fabulous job!

November 2, 2008 - 12:02 am

Chatti - She sure knows how to move! What great pictures!

November 2, 2008 - 10:09 pm

gina w - these are fabulous! :) g

November 2, 2008 - 11:37 pm

Laura - Incredible! I am totally in awe! Seriously amazing, inspiring pictures!

November 3, 2008 - 4:10 pm

adam(3) - love your fav.

November 10, 2008 - 1:57 pm

Maya - I agree…she should head out to LA! These shots look like something straight out of a fashion magazine!

January 20, 2009 - 11:35 pm

jason - wow, i don’t know how i missed this one. this shoot is SO good.

January 30, 2009 - 4:06 pm

jason - i LOVE this shoot; did i already post that?

January 16, 2009 - 3:38 pm
October 16, 2009 - 9:03 am

just dance! | Cincinnati Wedding Photographers - [...] The GORGEOUS coaches!!!  Emily on the left, and Kathy on the right who is the Mama of one of my favorite people I have EVER photographed- Mary.  [...]

family of four {a lifestyle session}

I have to be honest here, I totally LOVED this family.  They are just adorable, and oh so loveable.  I am a total sucker for a family that loves all over each other- what can I say?  It is our favorite past time! :)  I espeically love it when brothers and sisters get all googly and lovey.  Am I intimidating you with my big words?  I’m sorry, I just can’t help it. :)

We had this gorgeous fall crisp day, and when we met this family and I saw the COLOR- Wow!  They were dressed PERFECT for some great color pop.  While editing these I really had a hard time doing black and white or sepia tones because I love the colors they wore with the fall foliage.  Great job guys!:)

Didn’t I tell you they were adorable?

We made time to get some shots of just mom and dad.  Meet Dave and Sara.

(Brett: My favorite!)

I love this. One of my favorites!

WOW!!!  Sara pointed out this awesome tree, and I love the shots we got by it. She shares a love of trees, like me.

Sara, you are BEAUTIFUL!

Are these kids just the cutest!!?  Meet Maria and Drew.

Drew went from Mr. Shy to Mr. Ham. :)

Awwww….I love it LOVE IT!!! (Brett: My second favorite!!!)

Thanks V family for spending the afternoon with us!  We loved meeting you guys. :)

October 27, 2008 - 12:55 pm

Adrienne - YAY!! i was waiting for these to come up! i just LOVEEEE this family! Jess the pics are great! I remember you telling me they were easy to work with, and it shows!! You definitely captured their fun, kindhearted family attitude!! awesome.

October 27, 2008 - 2:14 pm

Renotta King - Sara is one of my favorite people in all of the world and is blessed with an awesome family – The pictures are amazing! The colors are brilliant. I love all of the family pics and especially love the ones of Dave and Sara – so romantic.

October 27, 2008 - 3:08 pm

lucy - gorgeous family photos! the colors they are wearing are awesome, esp. mom’s boots! rock those boots mama! love it! soooo many great family pics, it will be hard to pic a large print or canvas. as always, excellent job jess and brett.

October 27, 2008 - 9:34 pm

betsy - BEAUTIFUL FAMILY!!!!

October 28, 2008 - 12:32 pm

Liz Leighton - What an awesome family session!! One of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Your images are so crisp and I love the natural ease of this family’s demeanor that you’ve captured.

October 28, 2008 - 3:13 pm

April - I absolutely LOVE the picture of the parents under the tree with her scarf blowing in the wind. Know what else I love? Those killer BOOTS she’s wearing!

October 28, 2008 - 5:59 pm

melanie - love it. dont you love throwing people in wild grass like that?! so beautiful. i posted barb (lindsey) and zac’s blog. SOOOOOOOOOOexcited you guys are shooting their wedding! yay! :)

October 29, 2008 - 5:16 am

Alex - What an awesome family and even more yummy shots!
Seems you had a lot of fun.

Best from Germany (and some pieces of smoked cheese for Brett)
Alex

October 29, 2008 - 11:38 am

Marlon - The V’s are an awesome family andyou and Bret have taken some killer shots. I especially loved the one small family beneath the three big trees.

October 30, 2008 - 8:51 am

rebecky - This family looks great and Sara could of been a model. great job–can’t wait till my family pics.

October 31, 2008 - 3:32 pm

Sara - Jessica and Brett, I cannot tell you enough how great it was to work with you guys. The afternoon will forever be a wonderful memory for each of us. Thank you for capturing our family. These photos are priceless. By the way, it is really fun reading all the comments. Thank you for everything.

November 10, 2008 - 2:03 pm

Maya - What a killer family shoot!!! I love the trees and the fam underneath them!

July 2, 2009 - 6:08 pm

Kim - Just came upon these pics of the V’s while looking at the awesome wedding photos you did in Miami. Only Sara could get away with dressing the way she does. She is super stylish and everything looks perfect on her! The pictures are incredible. They all look great! I love the second photo of the family (sepia?)…just wish it showed off Sara’s amazing hair color. You are by far, the best photographer(s) around!

January 19, 2009 - 3:17 pm

things that catch your eye. {part III}

I told you it was coming, and here it is. This is the final installment from our recent vacation to Edisto Island, South Carolina. I hope you have enjoyed looking through these with me.:)If you missed part one, click HERE, part two, click HERE.

Out on our porch we had this friend always greeting us. He didn’t move much on his 2 foot long web, which worked just perfect for me because I wanted to make sure I kept an eye on where he was at all times. YIKES. It was a HUGE spider.

Brett went biking alone one day and found this awesome boardwalk that went out into the marsh.

There are beautiful Egrets around the marshlands.

We took a tour of the old plantations around the island and this is one of the huge live oaks.  If you want a sense of perspective, look for little Brett in the bottom left with his butt sticking out. :)

Sea Oats dancing.  They put on a glorious show.

More marshland.  It was so beautiful.

This is an old abandoned fish house that our friend Heidi clued us in on. (Thanks Heidi!)  What a little treasure.

Cool old sign by the fish house.  I want one.

I wonder what this window has seen.

We visited the cemetery where many of the original plantation owners were buried.  I love history, so hearing their stories and visiting their burial site was amazing.

The story of the grave with the bricks was something like this…a gentleman died and his wife buried him in the Presbyterian cemetery, in their family section.  I don’t remember what it was that made the church mad, but they told the wife that there were going to remove his body from their graveyard.  The wife was very angry, so she was determined to find a way to stop this from happening.  She researched the laws of the Presbyterian Church, and found a rule stating that if a grave is enclosed, it can not be touched.  The night before the church was going to dig up her beloved husband, she sent her slaves to the cemetery and had them enclose the grave with brick and mortar.  His body has remained there since.

Remember the place I told you about in part II that I was DYING to see?  It was a plantation that was privately owned which opened to the public for the first time this past summer.  It was unadulterated beauty.  The beaches were lined with huge conk shells everywhere, and it had the look of a  tree graveyard. I stood there thinking, “pinch me- for I must be dreaming.”  I am a tree fanatic.  We saw this on our way out and we had to hurry, but I loved every moment on that beach.

One of my absolute favorites.

Going home.  As hard as it was, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly so going home was easy to accept. :)  This is the tunnel back to reality.  Brett snapped it as I drove.

Thanks for going along on this journey with us. So now that you know what we like, any suggestions where we should go on our next vacation?  We would LOVE to hear!!!  Comment below.

October 23, 2008 - 4:22 pm

jodie - Love these photos! The processing is beautiful. I love the tree photos and hearing the story of the grave… we like historic details like that and have gotten lost on many a trip trying to find this or that historical place! Thanks for sharing your trip!

October 23, 2008 - 5:03 pm

Annie@VarlandPhotography - These are great! I especially like the ones with the trees near the end… The enclosed grave story is neat, too!

October 23, 2008 - 5:20 pm

Heidi - Jessica, I just knew you would do amazing things with the Botany Bay Plantation. I’ve been checking for days in anticipation. On a funnier note…I think we have photos of Brett in the adidas t-shirt from all those years ago. If we find them, I’ll send them your way :)

October 23, 2008 - 6:04 pm

jess w - man, that giant oak tree (with brett in the pic) is breathtaking. i think you should make notecards out of the pics of trees growing out of the sand at coastline.

October 23, 2008 - 6:30 pm

jason - beautiful shots.
i love the tree at the edge of the ocean and the pathway to the field

October 23, 2008 - 8:06 pm

E.M. Skidmore - the story I heard about the grave was that her husband committed suicide and the elders didn’t believe he could be laid to rest in consecrated ground. I also was told the next morning she met the elders at the grave with a gun and that somewhat dampened their enthusiasm for moving the body. All these are stories from my childhood, I suspect the real story is in one of the books like “Tales of Edisto”, but real history should never get in the way of a good story!

Wonderful photos!
Bud

October 23, 2008 - 9:27 pm

gina - you were so right, these are beautiful and worth the wait!
i’m from the south, so the live oaks hold a special place for me and you captured their magic.
especially the graveyard shot…with history to boot.
love your choice of processing too:)

October 24, 2008 - 4:34 am

Alex - Seems that you´re also smokin´ landcape photograhers. Love the boardwalk pic and the tree with Brett.

Next vacation? What about Hanover, Germany ;-)

Best
alex

October 24, 2008 - 4:47 pm

wrecklessgirl - i’m so flabbergasted right now…amazing work. all of it. i love the spider shot…all of god’s creation is so delicately crafted…even the small of our sorts. so wonderful to see this post!

October 26, 2008 - 4:02 pm

lucy - jess i love these photos. esp. the trees sprouting from the sand…so freaking cool! and i love those boardwalk/pier shots, love the length and the perspective. total postcard pics.

October 28, 2008 - 5:33 pm

Amber - LOVE the tree pics Jesse!! You did a great job capturing your love for them in the photos!

October 29, 2008 - 2:23 pm

Erin - WOW!! these are fantastic! makes me want to drop everything and photo exploring to find undiscovered beauty. great images, composition and uncompromised creativity.

mallory + anthony {are married!!}

Remember the zoo couple?  If not, you can go HERE to check out their engagement session.  We knew it was going to be a fun experience to do an engagement and wedding at the Cincinnati Zoo, and we have just been so excited for this!  Mallory and Anthony had one of the most gorgeous fall day. As they stood there at their beautiful outdoor ceremony, surrounded by good friends and very loving family, Brett and I realized again how awesome it is to be invited to experience this intimate moment with a couple.  We love our job. :)

Mallory got her makeup on in a flash.  Her skin is so pretty- she really did not need any.

Then we headed out with her gals to take some photos….guess in what part of the zoo they were married??

Boys playing hide-n-go-seek.

Friends are great to have around. :)

First time together.  Are they gorgeous or what?

The whole gang!

One of my favorites.

We had some pretty light to work with that day!

One of my new ALLLL time favorites.  They are just so stinkin cute.

So happy and in LOVE.

Good luck kisses from her beautiful niece.  She is a DOLL.

Right before the ceremony things were starting to get a bit emotional….no crying here!!  Pump, pump, pump it down!

Beautiful girl and her proud Papa.

We had some on-lookers for the occasion.

Loving looks from her big sister.

Uh OH!  A little wild animal on the loose!!!  I about lost it when I saw her crawling back behind Mallory and Anthony.:)  How ADORABLE.

Yipeee!!  First portraits as man and wife.  Special thanks to whoever left their golf cart headlights on for us.

I loved their Fall themed cake.

What would a zoo wedding be without animals roaming around the reception!  This guy was cute. (I’m referring to the furry one on the stick.) :)

Anthony’s family is Peruvian, and had a great time dancing salsa!!  We loved watching it, and so did the kids.  This moment was when Anthony and Mallory were dancing.

Here is some fun salsa.  Her skirt ROCKS!

What a beautiful wedding!  Mallory and Anthony are so blessed. Brett and I were just amazing at how close and loving both of their families are. You could just FEEL the love at this wedding.  It was just precious.

The love between Mallory and Anthony is the real deal.  Have you ever met a couple and you can tell how much they love each other by the way they look into one another’s eyes?  My heart gets all mushy when I see the way Anthony looks at Mallory.  Without speaking you can tell he is totally mad about her, and that SO ROCKS.  You really can’t ask for more.

Brett and I have had a blast getting to know you two.  We wish all the happiness in the world, and sooo many years together….and babies, because you two would be AMAZING parents. :)

~Brett & Jess

October 20, 2008 - 2:46 pm

bobbi+ - AYKM with that groomsmen in the uhm… bamboo?! YOU BOTH ROCK! Love love love :)

~Bobbi

October 20, 2008 - 3:08 pm

Heather - Shut Up! I think we were there that day! B kept asking why there was a tent in the parking lot – LOL. Great shots, you can’t get much more unique scenary than the zoo! I can’t wait for our session!

October 20, 2008 - 3:54 pm

lucy - great wedding shots! love the bamboo photo too! looks like a fun wedding!

October 20, 2008 - 4:44 pm

Cathy and David - ADORABLE!!! YOU GUYS ROCKED IT! :)

October 20, 2008 - 7:22 pm

Mal & Anthony - oh my goodness…Jess and Brett- we LOVE them!! These are, hands down, some of my favorite photos (maybe I’m a bit biased). You are both so talented, and we couldn’t have asked to have better people to be such a huge part of our day :) Thank you so much!

October 21, 2008 - 3:36 pm

mary beth - just found your website, and can i just say that i love your work? i will definitely be stopping by often. :)

October 22, 2008 - 4:18 am

Alex - You guys rock, really!

Best from “good old”
Alex

October 22, 2008 - 12:27 pm

kelly - So cool!! I’m loving the textured processing too! I want one of those little animals on that stick…Donny and I were totally cracking up over how stinkin’ cute he is!!

October 22, 2008 - 4:50 pm

adam (3) - talk about YUMILIOUS BAMBOO light.
hot.