Search this site:    

richie and i have spent the last couple weeks designing albums and researching who we wanted to print our wedding albums this year!  today we had our main album come in and we are SOOOO happy with it!  we are THRILLED to be able to offer these to our 2010 brides!  ladies…. you will fall in love with this album!  we also got in the mail two sample albums that are our “parent albums” and the albums that come with our new session packages.  i couldn’t wait to post pics!  so here goes!!…..

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

today richie and i had the opportunity to photograph seven day old ava.  her parents, beth and alec, were so cool to meet and their love for her was written all over their faces!  miss ava was soooo sweet, sleeping right through all our antics, and then waking to look around and eat a little, then right back to sleep!  she definitely spoiled us!  alec and beth, richie and i had a fantastic time at your place today and we hope you love your shots!  i edited WAY too many, as there were so many i loved!  so i know this is a long post, but …. i couldn’t pick any less to share ….  <3

(and this was our first session with our new camera!!  we just got our new nikon D700 last night!  and we are in LOVE!  thats for sure!  … and we like the camera pretty well too!  hehe)

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

it was FREEZING cold and we had bright noon sun, but we decided to get the dress on and play with some shots!  i had my daughters fuzzy aero sleep pants on under my dress and richies kneehigh rubber boots on with two pairs of socks!  we prob should of gotten a shot of THAT! and if only you could have seen me thrown over his shoulder with a wedding dress on and those big boots sticking up in the air, and laughing so hard i had tears falling into the snow… all so i wouldn’t get tangled in briars…  i’m sure people driving by were pretty darn freaked out!!  but i’m very happy with the shots he got!  here are a few of my favs….

and us afterwards….  totally out of focus, camera in snow on the ground, and we had to do this via timer because we couldn’t get the camera to sense the remote for some reason, so it was press-shutter-run-thru-the-snow-one-two-three-four-five-kiss-CLICK….  but i couldn’t help but love this shot….  <3

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

last night my oldest daughter had her valentines dance and although it was rushed, we got to do a super quick session before we left!  she was so brave out there in the Freezing cold!!!  mae… i can’t believe you are 13!!!  i love you so much!  i hope you love these shots i got for you!  i am soooo proud to say you are my daughter!!!  <3

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

“… this changes everything… “  those words richie spoke to me, hand in hand, two years ago this spring.  we knew what we had was stronger than anything we’d known.  i finally had someone who saw in me an unrelenting passion for photography, and who had more faith in me than i’d ever had in myself.  he pressed me to grow, and held me up when i thought i was falling.  all of a sudden, knowing what love truly felt like, i had the drive to capture real love with my lens.  together, we have worked side by side at many weddings, and the way we work together, there’s no way I’d ever want to imagine NOT having him as my partner.
six months ago in july, richie held me tight, never letting go, and we cried together as we brought our son, zack, into the world.  since having our son, richie and i gave up our life as we knew it before with both of us having full time careers, and we gladly accepted the loss of income in order for me to be able to stay home, focus more on my photography, and be there every minute to watch zack grow.  our number of weddings have grown, and we have had an amazing time capturing our brides and grooms, their families, and their love.  we’ve gotten to shoot everywhere from small, country churches full of light and stained glass, to massive, old estates with breath-taking landscapes like berry hill, then getting the incredible opportunity to shoot in ITALY this past fall!
we knew the WPPI convention was coming up this spring but we knew there was really no way we could afford it.  we made a pack together that No Matta we would be there next year.
then, last week, just two days before i saw the email about tofurious’ contest, we got the call that would again change our lives….  richie had been laid off his job.  immediately after he got off the phone and told me the news, we both looked at each other and looked down at our cameras, and knew that THIS is what we would do….  pour everything we have into our photography business…

richie and i have a passion for photographing weddings.  we have the desire to let the same intimacy we have for each other come through our lens for our clients.  we have a love for… love.  what we lack is the knowledge of the business end of wedding photography.    if we are going to survive, and SUCCEED, with photography, we need the skills we can learn from this WPPI convention.  i just couldn’t believe it when i got that email that started with “ten free tickets to WPPI”….

richie, you have my heart.  i love you more than words or pictures could ever explain.  thank you for believing in ME, and for believing in US.  i never ever thought i’d feel love like i feel when your hand touches mine.  you’re the most incredible person i’ve ever met… and i’m honored to be by your side…

this time its ME who holds richies hand and says …. “this changes everything….”

-jamie ray and richie staggs… who, on march 20th, surrounded by thirty of our family and closest friends (including my three children, richie’s two children, and our child together), in an amazingly beautiful restored cotton mill in durham, nc, at 10:30 in the morning, will become MR. and MRS. richie staggs…  <3

email: jaggphoto@me.com

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

we have had lots of people ask us how we make the magnets that we’ve posted on facebook… so thought it’d be cool to make a tutorial on how we do them!  we have made a TON of these lil things so we’ve definately learned what to do, what Not to do, what to use and what Not to use!  these are cool because you can use pictures or scrapbook paper or wrapping paper, or make something custom in photoshop to print out!  so heres the low-down on the cutest magnets EVA! 

MATERIALS:

· MAGNETS:  these are the most important material in this project!  Buy. The. Best. Magnets. …. period.  these we bought at hobby lobby and they work GREAT.  you can buy cheaper magnets to use but the people you give these to will Loooove the strength of these “super magnets”!

· GLASS BEADY THINGYS:  who knows the real name of these lil things… but i know i get them in the floral dept.  these are 3/4 inch clear glass thingys.  i’ve read that you can buy these online in bigger sizes, but i’ve not done that yet.  there are 1 inch ones at hobby lobby but they are iridescent and make it hard to see they picture below it.

· GLUES:  the glue you need to put between the glass and the picture is “clear translucent silicone”.  get the no odor stuff, its worth it.  i’ve tried many types of paper and this silicone works great with all of them.  the best glue to put the magnet onto the back of the picture is tacky glue.

· PUNCHER THINGY:  this 3/4 puncher is the BOMB!  makes your job SUPER easy to cut out the paper!  if you do it with the bottom facing you, you can see exactly where the punch will cut it.

i use photoshop to make these 3/4 circle photos, then print (i used photopaper for these), and punch out with that awesome puncher!!  (i can get excited about that contraption because we cut out like a hundred of these by hand at christmas…. *eek*)

if there is a tricky part to this project, THIS is it…. the glueing on of the circles to the glass beads….  if you don’t use enough glue, it will look like crap.  just sayin.  too much, and its WAY messy.  use about the amount you see in the shot above.  the next part is KEY…. *lightly place the circle facedown onto the glue, then turn the bead over, and press the circle from the back just until the glue seals the entire circle, then put it down.*  you do NOT need to press the circle all the way down to the glass, or all the glue squirts out the sides and its just a MESS and then you get all frustrated and its just drama.  so make a good seal and let it go.

this is what they should look like at this point.  you may see the glue bubbled between the circle and the glass, and that is perfect.    at this point, you must let the glue dry 24 hours.  if you don’t, the magnet will discolor the picture.  don’t ask me how i know that…. *eek*

here are mine after i finished putting them on the glass. (by the way… at this point these are GREAT for those school projects for math!)

these are some that i made for my daughters friends for birthday favors.  each magnet is a letter of their name.  now its time to glue the beads to the magnets.  these magnets are VERY attracted to each other…. so don’t get them too close or you will have a hard time getting them apart… kinda like when richie and i get too close…. so if you expect to get anything done, you gotta “keep em separated…”     so lay them kinda far apart, place a tiny bit of tacky glue on the back of either the magnet or the glass bead, and press them together.

here they are all finished!  leave them to dry, far apart, so they can focus on drying…

i let mine dry another 24 hours before i call them “finished”.  you can find cute gift tins to put these in.  altoid tins work Great, or you can put them in small bags, just know they will all clump together… cause they are SO attracted to each other… 

give these a try and you will be addicted!  if you ever have any problems or questions, don’t hesitate to email me!!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

today richie did the sweetest thing…. he had been working on his oatmeal camera ALL day, testing and perfecting it.  finally pleased with how the pics were turning out, he asked me to go outside in the snow with him and take a pic with it!  i took a shot of the trees and we went in to develop it and as it started to emerge, i said “wait a minute!  theres WORDS on this!”  totally confused, i waited and as the pic became clearer and clearer, i read it…  his eyes all full of tears he smiled at me and said “i can’t wait to make you my wife”….  and in 49 days i will be….  <3

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

Older Posts »