NEW BLOG!!!

We are so excited to announce our NEW BLOG!!! CLICK HERE and check it out! You can update your URL with www.brandyjblog.com.

We hope the everyone enjoys the new look of our blog! Stay tuned for many more updates and surprises from Brandy J Photography!

amanda | designer headshots

Amanda contacted us a few weeks back about doing some new head shots for her exciting wedding company called Baci Designer. We had the honor of photographing her and her husband Ilario's wedding back in the Fall of 2007. Like so many wedding professionals out there, Amanda's own experience planning her wedding led her to this exciting entrepreneurial venture. We love to see clients pursue dreams and we could not be more happy to photograph these for Amanda!

We always encourage models to have hair/make-up done by a professional artist, it truly makes such a difference. Amanda chose our favorite make-up/hair artist, the one and only Jordanne Clyde.

Thanks again to Amanda and Ilario for stopping by our sleepy town to visit and capture these. And congrats to Amanda, cannot wait to see what the future holds for you!

ONE conference | washington, il

WOW! WOW! WOW! We knew that this workshop would be good but we had no idea how much it would change the way we treat ourselves and our relationship. We attended the One Conference in Washington, IL last week, very close to Peoria. Every year we try to make it to at least one photography workshop in order to nurture our business and learn more from others. This year we made an unconventional choice b/c instead of it being about shooting, marketing or branding it was about working with your spouse in this incredible photography field. For everyone who owns their own business out there you know how much of a strain it can put on your personal life and especially your life at home. This conference reminded us that we need to balance our relationship and business. So often Stick and I are business all the time and we forget that we need to put focus on just us. May sound simple, or even silly, but giving that time to just us will not only improve our quality of life but our business as well. There was a key point of being "on automatic" with your everyday life. I will not go into too much detail but I will say that consciously switching to manual mode makes a huge difference in how we talk to and treat each other. All in all the whole experience was amazing! As I am sitting here typing I am having trouble coming up with the correct words on just how incredible it was.

Our welcome gift when we arrived in our room at the incredible Mark Twain Hotel in Peoria.

The following images were taken by the talented Kenny Kim.

The amazingly talented couple who made all of this possible, Jeff and Julia Woods.


On the panel, Jeff and Julia, the Bebbs and Dane and Tami Sanders.


Sticky and I on our date night!


The rest of the cooking class crew on date night. I think we were the rowdiest bunch and looking at this image I am not surprised=)


The entire group of amazing couples! So many friends we already had and so many new friends that we are looking forward to getting to know better! Truly could not have asked for a better group!


If you own a photography business and are married this conference is a must!!! You will not regret it! What we learned in these few short days were invaluable!

osp indy=)

Earlier this week Sticky and I had the pleasure of attending OSP Indy. This is actually the third OSP Indy but the first time that we wre able to make. The Reynolds had a big hand in making it all happen. They did a wonderful job and we all had such a good time!!! Here are a few images from shenanigans:

Lil'g capturing an image at dinner=)

Me and lil'g


Mr Turtle has gone mad!!!


The adorable Anne Ruthmann.


Timco giving the thumbs up to Garrett's gauc making skills.


Oh yeah, there was some weird guy there named Jim Cook.


We met so many cool people that I unfortunately do not have a images of. Click here for a slideshow of the majority of them. Courtesy of KC Ferrill.

happy love day.

Sticky and I are not doing anything particularly special for Valentine's Day. This is because we are soon leaving for our honeymoon (we opted to take it on our one year anniversary and we absolutely cannot wait!!!). I did however receive a very nice gift from two of my friends/business partners, Jordanne and Tara. We are working on a project together that we are very excited about (visit the tre blush blog to check it out)! These two lovely ladies sent me flowers because I have been a bit under the weather. It was such a wonderful surprise to see on my desk today! I loved one flower in particular so I thought I would share that with the rest of you.

Also is an image from our soon-to-be completed gallery. We began work on it last year but then decided it was too much to try to complete in the middle of wedding season. Things are now moving along nicely and we are very anxious to unveil it to everyone. I know, it's just a pillow, but I really do not want to release too much just yet.

it's fun to eat with turtles.

Stick and I have been wanting to have dinner with our good friends at Turtle Pond Photography, Nate and Amanda Reynolds, for so long!!! We finally had the chance and it was so much fun. Nate found a eatery that was exactly half-way b/t here and where they live near Indy. It was quite the dive but it didn't matter b/c we had good company=) I think we could have chatted for many more hours but it was a bit smoky in there and Nate and Stick wanted to make it home in time for their online poker tournament (geeks!!!).

Thank you Reynolds!!! We are so exited to see you soon (Vegas, right??!!).