We have a new BLOG!!!

We are so excited to announce that MichelleAllen Photography is officially Kimberly Jarman Photography. We still have a few things that have not switched over but we are making the switch!

Also, we are VERY excited to announce that we now have a new blog. Click on the image below and it will take you to our very own new handy dandy beautiful blog!!! Make sure to add it to your subscription feeds!! - For all you Xanga users, for now I will try to continue to update this blog and eventually I will get a new Xanga for Kimberly Jarman Photography.

So this means..... GO TO OUR NEW BLOG... This will be the last post here!!!

I am still alive

It has been a few days since I posted and I just wanted to let everyone know I am alive. I will shortly have some amazing baby pictures and maternity pictures to post, but this week and weekend I have been very very busy with the studio. It is looking so wonderful and we are almost all moved in. Everything is pretty much in place except for the pictures on the wall. Isn't that funny, a photography studio with no photography? Well soon that will change and I can't wait!

Once it is totally ready I will post up pictures. We have been down with access to phone and email for a tiny bit, so please be patient while we answer emails and calls. We are getting everything set up again and will be running fully shortly!!

Fun Conference

Yesterday I had an awesome opportunity to go to a conference with 2 world renowned photographers, Jerry Ghionis and Bambi Cantrell. It was a jam packed day full of a ton of good information. Everytime I go to a conference I always learn some great things to take away and use on my shoots. Jerry and Bambi are both very talented and have won numerous awards; They both spoke in great length about advertising, marketing, creating assignments for your self at every wedding, posing techniques, album design, outsourcing, lighting techniques and so much more. (words excerpted from Jen Bowens Site:))

I was able to hang out with two great friends as well, Jennifer Bowen and Melissa Jill. I love having friends in the community that I can do these type of things with. There were a few other great friends there as well, but really a lot of faces that I didn't know.. which is kind of weird to me!

I was able to shoot a few shots and was so happy with what I got.

First, this was a posing technique that Bambi was sharing with us.. Mandy, Elizabeth, and Melissa were all a part of this.
This is Jerry in Action.
These are shots that I got, but Bambi and Jerry set them up; however, all day I was eying this location as an amazing place to shoot, so that was exciting. These turned out so great!






The girls are going to kill me for posting this, we all look horrible, but I wanted to put something up. This is Jen, me and Melissa.

Finally I can share the exciting news!!!

Hello Friends. The time has come.. I now get to share the exciting news that I have been talking about all summer. There are 2 major things that have been going on this summer and I have been wanting to tell them to you so bad, but have had to refrain.

The first exciting news is something that I have been contemplating doing for the last few years now and after much thought and consideration we have decided that now is the time...... We are CHANGING the name of MichelleAllen Photography. I know, this might come as a shocker to all of you, but there has been so much confusion as to who Michelle Allen is that we have decided that we need to start going by my name to help with the confusion, so the company soon will be officially be changed to Kimberly Jarman Photography. Within the next few months you will be seeing subtle changes. You will still be able to access everything as you have before.. nothing other than the name has changed... I am still the photographer, my husband is still my assistant, we are still the same company, but with a different name.

For those of you who don't know the history behind MichelleAllen Photography I will briefly share that with you. When I first started my company I was trying to figure out what to call my company, it was before I was married so I didn't want to call it my maiden name because at the time I was engaged and knew my name was going to change, but I wasn't married yet, thus the debate of what to call my company. After much thought we had an amazing brainstorm to call it MichelleAllen Photography, which is my middle name and Jamie, my husbands, middle name. It sounded great and was the perfect solution.

Little did I know that the name would confuse people like crazy. Everyone wants to know where Michelle is or why my company is named someone else's name. For the last 4 years we have been debating on what to do. Finally I realized that for everyone's sakes we had to change the name.

Therefore, MichelleAllen Photography is now Kimberly Jarman Photography. Below is our new logo!
The second part of the exciting news is that we now have an official studio in Downtown Mesa. The space is phenomenal and I am so excited to work from there and meet clients as well. We are in the process of renovating it and getting it ready to open.

This really is an exciting thing. I have been needing a place to meet with all of you for the longest time and now we have the perfect place to look at pictures, talk to you about your wedding, show you albums, and have fun. We will be having an open house in the next few months so keep checking the blog to hear more news about that.

Below is a sneak peak of what we have been doing over the last month.





My wonderful husband doing the manual labor.

My daddy came down from Pinetop for 2 weekends and helped so much. I couldn't have done it without him. Thanks dad!!


By the 2nd day of laying floors down Jamie was hurting so bad. It was quite funny.. he was moaning and groaning and limping:) Tonight we are going to go to the jacuzzi to help relax his poor legs!
Keep looking for more updates! We will post more pictures as well as share the new updates with the name change.

What has been going on...

I know.. I know it has been a long time since I have posted and I apologize for that! I just wanted to share a little update for all of you my faithful blog readers. Things are going very well over here at MAP. Angela Davidson, my last assistant has come back for a couple of weeks to help us get caught up with color correcting and album design, so the last 2 weeks we have been working non-stop to get it all done! Soon, very soon we will be caught up and then will be able to start working on a really fun secret project that we will be sharing with you later on.

So, thank you all for your devoted reading.. soon we will post more pictures and albums and you all will be very happy!!!

Enjoy your summer all.. it's gonna be a hot one here!

Light

Light has always been something in photography that I want to learn more about. I've always wanted to know how to do cool fun lighted portraits. During weddings I work mostly with natural light... we are always on the go, so we don't have lights that we carry with us. Even during portriat sessions I usually shoot with natural light... I love doing it that way and it has worked wonders for me, but it is always good when you find something different to do that really makes you go... Gosh.. I love what I do.

Well, this conference that I was at is called "One Light Workshop". The goal was to show us all how to use one light and get some killer shots. As I knew would happen, Zack did not dissapoint and I learned so much and had so much fun with some AMAZING photographers.

Light is such a cool thing when you learn how to use it and today I learned some neat things.

Below are a few of my favs from the day. I'm hoping that tomorrow I can post a few of what happened during the day, but these are actual ones that I shot.. I love my job.






This is the wonderful Sara France posin' for the camera.


And thanks to Pepper for being my subject in this crazy shot! It looks awesome!!


I have had such a blast. I'm exhausted, but it's been good. The next few days we are going to relax and enjoy San Diego. I love it!

San Diego

Well, I don't have any pictures to post, but I made it safely to San Diego. I am staying with a great photographers friend of mine, Melissa from Organic Photo and going to an amazing lighting conference with some great photogaphers. Melissa Jill is out here with me as well and we are going to soak in so much knowledge and come back with some amazing lighting techniques. I love going to conferences because there is always so much more that I can learn in the photography world and I always come back with something new to experiment with and some great friendships of amazing photographers along the way.

Tonight we had a mixer to get to know everyone and I got to talk to some great people, like Sara France, Pepper Nix, Zack Arias (the One Light Genious), and more. I'm so excited to get to know everyone and hopefully will have some killer shots to post later this week.

Right now it is off to bed for me, I have a jam packed day ahead of me.

What a Week!

Well i'm off to Las Vegas for an amazing Trade Show! This is the big one of the year and i'm so excited. I'm meeting my great friends, Mary Beth, Melissa, and Jennifer there and we are all gonna party like crazy and learn a ton of great things about photography.

What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas; but i'm sure i'll post a little for your viewing enjoyment!

After Las Vegas I get to photography one of my dear friends weddings, Melissa Palmer!! It is in Austin, so when we get back from Vegas we are off again.

Because we will be gone all week, we will have little access to phone and email. If you need something please email before you call. I can check emails much easier than voicemails and will try to get back to you ASAP!

Have a great week everyone, I know I will!!

Exciting news about Prints from Pictage

We have exciting news for anyone who orders prints from Pictage. Now, when you order a print from me from Pictage each print will be custom printed.

"Each print is individually color corrected by an experienced imaging professional and printed on the finest photographic paper. Pictage will reduce facial glare/shine, facial blemishes, eyewear reflections and fly-away hairs as well as provide light dodging and burning to even-out harsh lighting or shadows on each print."

I am so excited about this because now you know that you will be getting even better quality prints than we were already offering!! Just another way we are trying to go to the next level on our service and make you a happy satisfied client!

Brianna and Daniel

Well i'm off to shoot a wedding! Daniel and Brianna are getting married today in North Scottsdale.


It's going to be a great wedding. Stay tuned for pictures!! Have a great weekend everyone.

Bridal Fair with Two Be Wed

I know... 3 posts in one day.. and there is so much more to share with you. We have been so busy over here, but having a blast

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The first weekend in January we joined Two Be Wed at the Bridal Expo. The show was great and our section of the Bridal Expo was phenominal!

It was a lot of work but we had a great time. I took a picture of the booth because we put so much work into it!! I thought it turned out great.




If you were at the show and stopped by my booth I would love to hear from you. Please email me and we can talk more about your wedding!!

Happy Emails

I love when I receive "Happy Emails" from brides!!!! I just received this email from Sarah and Jeff who were married in November. Thanks Sarah for sending this to me!

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Hi Kim,

I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful work that you did at Jeff and my wedding! Everything that you and your team did was wonderful, from helping me get dressed and carry my heavy dress around to organizing my family in a very nice but efficient way for all of the photos. The wonderful pictures that you took mean so much to my entire family. Everyone at the wedding commented how wonderful and pleasant all of you were, and the slideshow that you showed towards the end of the wedding of the pictures that you had taken ealier in the day amazed everyone. I had so many wonderful comments on how beautiful I was and how handsome Jeff was in every photo and that was all because of the wonderful work that you do and the knowledge that you have. I'm getting comments every day from those who were unable to attend the wedding that the photos let them experience it and how you surpass any other wedding photographer that they have ever seen. Thank you so much, you made our day so special and the phots will always be a perfect reminder of the greatest day in our lives.

Much love,

Jeff and Sarah Abraham

November 4, 2006

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You guys did look gorgeous and I had an amazing time with you.

Pictage Partner Conference

On September 6 - 7 I was in LA for the Pictage conference. It really was an amazing time of learning and community! We had over 15 people from Arizona go to this conference and most of us hung out the entire time and have really become great friends! I have learned so much from this amazing community of photographers and have truly been blessed! I have learned that community really is a wonderful thing.

Above is Jen and I. Jen is a great photographer in the Arizona area and we had a blast hanging out.. she was my roomie, along with Melissa.

Pictage

Pictage is a huge part of my business. I have partnered with them to do so much for me. They are how all of you view your images and they are also my wonderful lab. I have been with them for 3 years and have grown because of it! This conference was put on by them and we had some great speakers that shared so much! One of my new favorite photographers who really inspired me is Me Ra Koh. She is an awesome person and had so many great things to say. A few others how were amazing speakers were Nathan and Amber Holritz, Pepper Nix, and Davina Fear. Of course there were so many others, but I think those were some that really impacted me and hopefully will make my business even better.

I'm really excited to implement some of the things I learned to help and benifet all of you!! Davina talked about fun and different engagement sessions, Amber and Nathan talked about working from your home and how to make it work for me, Pepper Nix talked about sharing the love. There really was a lot of love going on there!!

Well, I must go. I have a wedding today in Tucson and am very very excited to show you more great images from the wedding! And to leave you with a fun picture.. this is Tim. He is a great photographer located in Florida and is a ton of fun! He took some of my pictures of me for me last time we met in Indiana and it was fun photoshoot. So here is a tribute to Tim!!

So in closing, I would LOVE to hear feedback from all of you checking out my blog! Feel free to comment and even maybe tell me what you would like to see or hear from you! I want to update this blog regularly with things that you are interested in!! Thanks everyone!!!

Leavin on a jet plane....

Well right now I am in LA for a Pictage Conference. I flew in yesterday with some friends; there were actually 7 of us Phoenix photographers on the plane at the same time... how fun!!! There is such a great community of photographers here in AZ and it's so much fun getting to know them!

Anyways, Jen, Melissa, and I all sat together on the plane and Melissa took a cool picture of us!!


I will be back Friday morning, so please be patient if you are trying to get ahold of me!! I'm checking email and will respond as I can!!!

Have an awesome week everyone!! Saturday I will be in Tucson doing a wedding for one of my best friends in High School!! I'm so excited for that wedding!!!

I am blessed

I am so blessed to be able to do what I do!!!

I just received an amazing email from one of my brides that just got married in May. It is so much fun that I had to share it with you all. I am honored!

To see their slideshow Click here

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Kim:

I do have another note on the way but I can't let another minute pass
without letting you know what an absolutely incredible experience Ron
and I had working with you. I can't think about the wedding without
crying let alone get through that slide show!!

You were absolutely phenomenal Kim - I say that knowing how much fun it was to work with you. You are truly remarkable and so incredibly talented. All that have had the opportunity to view the slideshow are in awe of your talent (and let me tell you - it is being sent to absolutely everybody - people we don't even know!!)

From the day I spoke with you on the phone last fall, I know we had a match. You were unbelievable to work with every step of the way. You made our dreams come true and created and experience that far exceeded our expectations- we are truly overwhelmed!

We can't begin to thank you enough for giving us the most memorable gift - capturing the essence of how we felt on our wedding day - for us, it was truly a magical day. We are so excited to continue working with you through the process of creating our album.

We can only hope to have the opportunity to work with you again, and again and again!!

All our best and many thanks:
Robyn & Ron Ransom

P.S. Costa Rica was fabulous..... We never left the resort!!

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Indiana Conference and Bridal Shoot

This week has been crazy. Monday I flew into Chicago for a conference in Indiana. I arrived and drove 2 hours to pick up my sister-in-law in Michigan and then 3 hours to go to Indiana. The last couple of days I have been shooting with some amazing photographers and learning some great techniques!! It has been fun. Today we finished up and I drove another 3 hours to Chicago where I am going to pick up my husband tomorrow for a wedding we have in Michigan this weekend... it has been nuts!

On Tuesday we did a Bridal shoot and found some great spots. Below are some of my favorites from the shoot.