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Family Photographs in the Mountains — Visiting Golden British-Columbia and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

by jenaleelaroy Leave a comment

Welcome to my hometown, Golden, British-Columbia and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

I am always proud to tell people that I am from this beautiful town and that I love living and having a photography business here. Each year, many travelers love visiting our area to enjoy the outdoors with their families and friends.

Some people come here to see mountains for the first time, some come to meet Kicking Horse Mountain Resort‘s resident grizzly bear, Boo, and some come here seeking adventure on our endless bike trails and whitewater rivers. There is something here for everybody and we love having you here to visit.

No matter what inspired you to visit Golden BC and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, make sure to document your special moments with whatever kind of camera you have. If you are a do-it-yourself type of family, you can read my Tips for Great Summer Family Photos here.

Or, if you would love to have your family vacation professionally documented here in the Rocky Mountains, consider booking a season with Jena Lee Photographs while you are here.

Here is everything you need to know:

In-Person or On-the-Phone Pre-Consultation:
A quick pre-consultation is required to arrange a date, time, and location for your Portraits. This can be done in person if you are already here in town or via phone-call if you are planning ahead. At your pre-consultation, we will also discuss what you should wear, what kind of groupings/moments you would like to capture, and how you would like to display your portraits afterward (printed, digitally, or both).

Your Photo Session:
During your photo session is your time to relax and enjoy spending some time with your loved ones. Sessions are easy-going with lots of chatting and movement, which is perfect for families that might be a bit nervous in front of the camera and for kids who love to be busy. Sessions are designed to make you feel comfortable, create authentic moments to capture real emotions and to leave you feeling connected and full of love for one another afterward.

*Parent disclaimer: Kids are encouraged to run around and have fun during photo sessions. They are free to be themselves and you are free not to have to worry about them sitting still. We play lots of games and move around a lot so they are entertained and having fun while also creating beautiful portraits without even knowing it. That being said, if things really go south and the kids are in full meltdown we can try your photo session again the next day at no extra charge.

Your Ordering Session:
After your photo session, you will meet with Jena one more time to view your beautiful gallery of images. At this time, you will be guided through choosing which images you would like to purchase for printed display or digital sharing.

Most families love a lot of their photos and end up purchasing an Album and one or two favourites for hanging on the wall. Plus, each photo purchased for print comes with the identical web-sized digital copy so you can share with everyone online too! You can have your digital images right away and your printed products will be drop-shipped to you back home (for Canadian and U.S. residents only).

Same Day Service Available:
In most cases with enough notice, Jena Lee Photographs can offer your family same or next-day service. This means that you can see your photos a few hours later or the next day, which is ideal for families who are only visiting Golden or Kicking Horse Mountain Resort for a few days.

If you are visiting Golden or Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, consider having your family vacation documented here in the Rocky Mountains.

Jena LaRoy completed her Professional Photography Diploma at Langara Collge in Vancouver British-Columbia and then returned to her hometown Golden B.C. to launch her photography business (2017). Jena Lee Photographs helps you create meaningful portraits and offers full custom design, framing, and image-printing services so that you have physical images to enjoy, not just digital dust. 

For more information about booking your own family photographs, please visit the Client Guide:

Client Guide

The Michener Family

by jenaleelaroy Leave a comment

In many years time, when your children look back on these family photos, what do you hope they feel?

That they are unconditionally loved and that our family moments together are cherished.

Family Photographer Golden BC

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Jena LaRoy completed her Professional Photography Diploma at Langara Collge in Vancouver British-Columbia and then returned to her hometown Golden B.C. to launch her photography business (2017). Jena Lee Photographs helps you create meaningful portraits and offers full custom design, framing, and image-printing services so that you have physical images to enjoy, not just digital dust. 

For more information about booking your own family photographs, please visit the Client Guide:

Client Guide

Capturing Great Family Photographs This Summer — Jena Lee Photographs

by jenaleelaroy 1 Comment

We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.

— Winne The Pooh

Family vacation time is a lot of things. It’s exciting to spend quality time together and also sometimes hard to be so close for days/weeks on end. It’s fun to try new things together and to create new memories. Sometimes a family member is being missed or sometimes a new family member is being eagerly anticipated. Whatever season your family is in, when you strip everything down it’s just nice to be together and to explore new areas.

Here are a few ways you can be sure to capture some great moments together and to document your trip:

  1. Bring the device you are most likely to use: It’s great if you have a big DSLR camera and a giant lens for zooming in on your family; however, your big camera won’t be much help if it’s too annoying/heavy to take out of the bag. If your phone or a small point and shoot camera is what you are most comfortable with and what you are most likely to use, then that’s the perfect tool for the job.
  2. Get yourself in the frame: Bring a tripod or get creative by carefully using your surroundings to prop up your camera/phone so that you can be in the picture too. Alternatively, take a good old-fashioned family selfie… Bonus points if you have a selfie stick.
  3. Attach great memories to your photos: The best time to take a photo is during or right after a moment you never want to forget. Our favourite photos are usually the ones we associate with a valued memory or experience. If your kid is discovering something new or you and your significant other just accomplished something together, make sure to capture that moment.
  4. But also, be present: Taking family vacation photographs is important, but so is being present for the actual moment. It is all about balance, try not to live your vacation through your phone screen. Enjoy your moments together, take a quick picture, and be present for your family.
  5. Print your photos when you get home: Living in this digital world is fun because not only can we see our photos right away but we can also share them with friends and family pretty much in real time. I always remind my clients to keep it classic by printing out a few favourites so they have them forever, even if they just go on the fridge or in a photo album. Printing your photos is the only way to guarantee their longevity, because we are all too familiar with lost phones, broken phones, software updates, corrupt files … Plus, printing them lets you see pictures of your favourite people every day 🙂
If you are here visiting Golden British-Columbia and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and would rather have somebody else do the documenting, consider booking a portrait session with Jena Lee Photographs. I would love to help you create beautiful photographs of you and your family here in the mountains.
Otherwise, I wish you a Summer full of relaxing days, warm nights, and effective bug-spray.

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Jena LaRoy completed her Professional Photography Diploma at Langara Collge in Vancouver British-Columbia and then returned to her hometown Golden B.C. to launch her photography business (2017). Jena Lee Photographs helps you create meaningful portraits and offers full custom design, framing, and image-printing services so that you have physical images to enjoy, not just digital dust. 

Please visit the Client Guide for more information about photography sessions with Jena Lee Photographs:

Client Guide

 

Tuesday Thinklings.

by jenaleelaroy 1 Comment

When I put the turmeric in the fridge and the coconut milk in the cupboard this morning, I knew that after an incredibly productive week and weekend, it was time for a day at home.

Radio off. Phone off. Tea kettle on. Lists of everything that needs to be done get written out so the unlimited tasks can stop swirling around in my head and live on paper instead. My workspace and house get organized. Everything gets put away. The plants get watered. I make sure to take a few minutes to admire our garden and to watch the quiet street outside the window. I enjoy the fresh green leaves finally erupting and I take in the peacefulness of a morning after a Spring rain.

Listen to yourself and give your soul what it needs.

By taking care of yourself, you take care of your partner, your neighbor, your family.

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Blooming — My Artistic Journey with The Unraveled Academy

by jenaleelaroy 2 Comments

As with anything, it is important to continually further your education and to rehearse your skills…

This Spring, I have been participating in a three-week online workshop with The Unraveled Academy. For our second week of the course, we were given a series of questions to answer and then challenged to dream up and style a masterpiece photoshoot, just for ourselves.

Here is my submission for the Becoming Unraveled Workshop and the answers to my questions. My inspiration was to be truly honest. I ask my clients to do this for me all of the time, so I should have to do it too.

If I dug deep, I already knew what being truly honest was for me. Before I knew it, I had foraged a small bouquet and was visiting my Dad’s headstone, for the first time at my own will.

Self-Portraits, for Dad.

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Why are you an Artist?

I think that I have an open mind and heart that accepts all kinds of people and their circumstances. I like to think that others can sense this about me and feel like they can be open to sharing their story. Sometimes I think too much about all of the bad things happening in the world and working with people helps me feel like I am doing something to make it a better place (or at least more kind and more accepting of diversity place) … one photo shoot at a time. 

Why do you create art?

It feels good to create something with someone. A portrait session is a special occasion where people get to share their true selves. We have created a space where it is ok to be open and explore whatever emotions come up. Sometimes people need something that is fun and silly and sometimes they turn out more serious, it’s never the same.

Who or what is part of your dream photoshoot?

Somebody with a story close to their heart that wants to use Photography to explore/validate it. 

Where will this happen?

A meaningful space for them, either in their home or outside somewhere that resonates with them.

What kind of connections are you hoping to make?

I hope they can forget I am there taking their photo and that they turn inside to feel their feelings or to enjoy themselves. Or they use a photo session to connect with somebody they love, like friends, a partner, or their family. 

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Your Baby’s First Year — Jena Lee Photographs, Golden B.C.

by jenaleelaroy 1 Comment

Select three or more occasions to document you and your baby’s first year together.

As a new parent, you already have a million things and questions running through your brain. Learning how to breastfeed or wondering about bottle feeding, being unsure of how much crying is within normal, adding up the few hours you slept last night, trying to figure out if you have ever loved anything so much before …

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Before you know it, you will be feeding them with ease, getting into the swing of things, and sharing your experiences with other new parents. Before you know it, a year will go by and they will start walking and talking. Then you will have a toddler, a child, a teenager, and you will lovingly hold on to the sweet distant memories of them squeezing your finger with their tiny hand. 

Jena Lee Photographs wants to help you preserve your favourite moments together forever and is pleased to introduce Your Baby’s First Year photography bundles. Available photography sessions include Maternity, Fresh 48 (first 48 hours of life), Newborn, 3-Month, 6-Month, 9-Month, and One Year Birthday. 

Available sessions include: Maternity – Fresh 48 – 3 Month – 6 Month – 9 Month – One Year Birthday

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Always remember your first moments with a Fresh 48 session and capture their growing personality with lifestyle photography throughout the year. You can build an heirloom album, a custom coffee table book, or a signature wall collage to display your photographs and enjoy them forever.

Jena Lee Photographs is located in Golden BC and also serves Invermere, Banff, and Canmore areas. Get in touch for more information about Your Baby’s First Year bundles today.

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The B.C. Wildfires — Your keepsakes and your photographs

by jenaleelaroy Leave a comment
Bc wildfires, Jena Lee photographs, mountains, rocky mountain photographers

This week, I can not stop thinking about what I would grab from my home if we were evacuated.

For the first time in 14 years, British Columbia has declared a state of emergency due to the 200+ wildfires across the province. My heart breaks thinking about the families who are forced to leave their homes and who have to decide within minutes what to bring with them. My stomach turns at the thought of having to leave our home.

I am privileged to have never really had to think about where I would go if Golden has to be evacuated. Our sweet little mountain town always seems safe. As I drove through Rogers Pass this weekend, I pictured burning forests and flames rolling over the mountains. I asked my colleague:

“What would you grab if we get evacuated?”

We both had a similar list of things; mine included photo hard drives, photo albums, my cameras, the dog, the cat, my dad’s old sweater. I even thought about bringing all of these things to work with me today, just in case an evacuation was issued and I wasn’t at home (except the cat, he would not have been impressed by this).

These are six out of the hundreds of things in our home, what makes them so meaningful that I would delay leaving a burning area to save them?

Well, the cat and dog are obvious because they are living creatures that I love. My dad’s old sweater is the one thing of his that I kept after he passed away. The hard drives and photo albums are full of memories, frozen moments in time that tell my story here in this life. They are so important that if my hometown, my house, my belongings are all destroyed, I would be thankful to be alive and to have my photos.

The more people I asked, the more it became clear that photographs are one of the first things people think they would grab in an emergency.  Chances are, your list is also very similar to mine: in an emergency, you would grab your keepsakes and your photographs. You would grab the photos that will forever preserve your memories and the people that you love.

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Jena Lee Photographs is thinking of the 10 000 residents who have been forced from their homes and everyone who has been affected by the wildfires in British Columbia. I would like to take this opportunity to remember that it is the people around us that are most important in life and am wishing everyone a safe return to their loved ones and homes.

The Canadian Red Cross is accepting donations. You can text FIRES to 45678 to donate $10 to the Canadian Red Cross BC Fires Appeal.