There are so many people who tell me they’re too nervous to have portraits taken of themselves.

To everyone who says that to me, I reply that they’re in great hands. I want nothing more than what you want — to capture wonderful images that you’ll be proud to have. It’s genuinely a collaborate, shared, experience, where I’m showing you images as we shoot. If we’re on Path B, and you’d prefer we turn perhaps more toward Path C, I’m making that adjustment with you!

I offer a 100% money back guarantee on all work (except weddings), and in all my years in business no-one has been unhappy with their photographs. Sure doesn’t make me great, or even good, but it makes me human. I wouldn’t dream of charging anyone if they didn’t love their collection of images.

While I know there will always be folks who are scared (I don’t like being photographed, either!!), I equally know that the anxiety is always gone within 10 minutes.

What remains are the great photographs….

Treat yourself to a celebration of your own personal life journey. I’ll do my small part to help.

Doomscrolling has become a part of the American (worldwide?) way of life. It’s nearly unavoidable, as any even momentary glance or overheard snippet from a media outlet tends to floods the senses with negativity. How toxic this onslaught must be for our society’s (and each individual member’s…) overall mental health.

Step out into the natural world, however — away from the chaos, bustle, bitterness, fear and anger — and there’s an overriding abundance of peace. There’s beauty. There’s joy and happiness and optimism and goodness.

That’s my world. I live in a place of visual, mental, spiritual, physical, emotional wellness, where my eyes see inspiration and my senses are tuned toward meaningful, positive, resolutions.

I love collaborating with people who have fascinating stories to tell.

The most important moments in people’s lives…

And we get to be there, share in the joy, and capture the heartfelt raw emotions…

What. A. Gift.

A typical conversation in Bloomington, Indiana….

“What are you up to this coming weekend, Jeff?”

“Photographing a wedding. How about you?”

“Not much. What are you up to the following weekend?”

“Photographing a wedding. How about you?”

And so on.

(insert smile, gratitude, appreciation and a fair dose of bewilderment…)

The talent in this town is astonishing, and I love that I get to be surrounded by it, collaborate with it and offer a heartfelt small boost for it….

I’ve been thinking for months about changing the focus of the business….

While we do roughly three on-location portrait sessions weekly (about 150 each year), I decided this week to cut back dramatically on those, and instead focus the business to essentially entirely weddings, headshots and commercial work.

As such, I’ve deleted the pages “On-Location Portraits”, “Indiana University Senior Pictures” and “High School Senior Pictures” from the website.

This was a hard choice…. The portrait aspect of the business has been extraordinarily successful, and has allowed us to meet hundreds-and-hundreds of fascinating people. The sessions are always amazing, and the resulting photographs and feedback have been universally wonderful. But, the sessions no question require a huge time commitment, and, on that basis alone, I’ve chosen to prioritize free time (golf, running, kayaking, etc.) over revenue and growth.

I’ll keep revising the website as we transition to solely weddings, headshots and commercial. I may even develop an all-new site. But, in the meantime, I’ve expanded both the wedding and commercial photography pages, giving prospective clients more insight into “typical” sessions we provide for folks throughout the Hoosier state….

We’ll absolutely shoot on-location portrait sessions for folks we’ve collaborated with before — they’ve become friends and we wouldn’t want to disappoint them — but will simply steer all upcoming new prospective clients to other Bloomington-area photographers.

Building this business has been a remarkable journey, and it’ll be another fascinating new, changed, step going forward…. I’ll miss golden-hour on-location portrait sessions with interesting people, but, in turn, I’ll no doubt love golden-hour on the running trails, the golf course and the beautiful waterways of Bloomington and southern Indiana….

Every day we earn our honor of being the highest-rated photographers in Bloomington (and South-Central Indiana).

We earn it because we work exceedingly hard to give clients exactly what they want. We talk with clients in meaningful conversations before every session, to find out exactly what their tastes are — what they want for the “look” and “feel” of their images. Once we know a client’s preferences, we shoot to that style. Of course, we adapt and improvise and let spontaneous creativity take over, as well, but we always keep the client’s preferences as the maypole of the session.

This is a wildly exhilarating career…. There is no safety net, no “typical”, no “comfort zone”…. It’s all-hands-on-deck and brilliant and magical and alive and breathtaking and inspiring and transformative. Photography is the rodeo of the art world, and we’re smiling while simultaneously being pulled, pushed, twisted, bounced and challenged on a minute-by-minute basis.

It’s surprising how much “nothing” it takes to shine through in a photograph.

All you need is nothing distracting. Nothing unnecessary. Nothing superfluous.

And to 100% capture the client as themself.

Strip away chaos and show the human as the confident, vulnerable, assured, uncertain, mezmerizing soul that they are….

A couple weeks ago in the Black Hills of South Dakota, I saw what’s surely my Spirit Animal.

I get you, awesome prairie dog. I get you.