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On October 7th, 2015 at 1:15 a.m., I pulled up to the hospital in Temple and knew that I hadn't felt this happy about being awake at this time since I was in high school.This was the first birth I've (Jade) ever had the honor of photographing. Rachel contacted me last April and told me she had a unique challenge for me. Had I ever photographed a birth before? And could I just call her, because it would just be easier to explain over the phone. She wanted to ask me to be present at the birth of their second child, because her husband Willy would be deployed. He couldn't be there, but her Mom and a close friend would be, and Willy would hopefully be able to be there via FaceTime, so she wanted me to be there to take photos because that would hopefully help Willy feel like he had been there when he got to see them. I very enthusiastically said YES. I had no idea what it would be like. But Rachel had been so brave to ask, so brave to reach out and invite a practical stranger (we had met once before) into one of the most difficult and biggest moments of her life. It was one of those requests that just felt so much bigger than me; I would have done anything to be a part of it.Willy watched over Face Time as Rachel became this incredible superwoman during her labor. He encouraged. He made her laugh. He looked on, worried and excited as she made him a Father to his second child. "It's a boy!" Rachel's Mom handed me the phone because I happened to be on the side of the bed where the warmer was, and where little Drew Raymond was now crying big healthy cries. Will looked at his perfect baby boy from thousands of miles away, feeling all those emotions a Father feels for his son, on the other side of the world.It's a miracle, isn't it? All of it. That a woman can carry and labor to deliver a perfect child. That Will is able to use this crazy Jetson technology to be present in a moment where he can't be physically present. That Rachel was strong and fierce and a freaking superwoman. That this little boy will grow to know that his father and mother are brave people who serve this country well, at great sacrifice to their family.Tomorrow morning, Willy comes home. He will get to hold his wife and his babies for the first time as a family of four. And I get to be there to witness this too. These images tell the story of the night Drew was born. And tomorrow I'll get to share the day he meets his Dad for the first time, and I'm already teary about it.
Fantastic times. Gosh we're lucky to get to know these people and that they trust us to make photos of their family. Thank you Stewarts!For the month of May we are offering 10% off home sessions! We can't wait to meet your family in their most comfortable environment.
I can't figure out how to start this one. When we started the year we had a lot of plans and ideas about what would happen in 2015. Some of those things happened, a lot of them crashed and burned. Life is unpredictable.We shot a beautiful and intimate wedding the Saturday after Thanksgiving of a friend from our old hometown. They got married in her grandparents' backyard with most of their family and a few friends, and us, there to witness. I was there with them early that day, documenting grandparents and parents, aunts and uncles and cousins, all turning their home into a wedding venue. At one point they decided to move a big China cabinet over about a foot. Instead of China, this cabinet housed photos of all of their family. Children and grandchildren, some still with us, some not. They opened the bottom of the China cabinet and out came all of the photos albums from 10 and 15 and 20 years ago. There's this phenomenon when old photos come out at family gatherings. It is so moving to witness. When all your family is there...you don't just put family albums away. You look for a while. You share. You remember. You tell stories. You laugh and cry. Then you put them away and move the cabinet. Of course the rest of the wedding was wonderful and meaningful, and meant a lot in itself because it was the beginning of a lifelong commitment. I have found myself unable to forget those 20 minutes from that day. It was one of the most wonderful things I've ever witnessed at a wedding. I told Kyle about it the next day with tears in my eyes. What an incredible reminder of how important this job is.Right after Christmas, this bride sent me an e-mail asking if I could please send a few photos of her Grandaddy to her so that she could share them with the family, because he had just passed away.As we go into this year I am confident of this: At the end of 2016 I will have taken the time and put in the energy to make a lot more important images. I will do this on purpose. I will love my husband on purpose. I will love my kids on purpose. I will mess all this up. A lot. We have some goals and some plans. Not a list of resolutions, really. More like a general idea of how we hope things happen. I want to be as ready as I can for them, but I'm 30. That's old enough to know that I don't know anything, and that surprises and taxes, and old china cabinets full of photos, are pretty much the only sure thing in this world.I hope we can live. I hope we can hope for things bigger and better. I hope we can comfort each other when all those hopes come crashing down.Ready, or not. Here we go. -jade p.s. I did a social media detox designed for creatives for 10 days in December, and decided to extend it to a month. Now I've got some better ideas for how social media should get to play into my life. If you'd like to check it out, my friend Ash wrote it, and it's brilliant. 
