jklaasmeyer blog

Last weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to Tulsa to work with a fabulous group of aspiring photographers at the Elite Photo Institute.  While I was there, Josh and Kristin Atkinson, from EPI were the most amazing hosts to Emma & I.  We were treated like royalty, referred to as “rockstars” (we even had our own dressing room complete with a goodie basket) and scored tickets to a concert being held at the event center that weekend.  Just wanted to share a few images and then some images that we shot, on stage of two lovely little models…Thank you to everyone that attended.

Driving in a BLIZZARD, our 3 hour drive ONLY took 8.5 hours…and a few scary tears.

Emma and I with the lovely, Kristin.  Yes, we are photographers, yes we know it’s bad lighting;-)

Doin’ what we do best…Goofing off!

meeting and greeting a few friends…

watched country music star, BRANTLEY GILBERT, do his sound check…ON MY STAGE, ha!

met and got autographs from KIP MOORE!  My 15 yr. old daughter was not happy that she didn’t get to come;-)

and met the super friendly, down to earth, country singer, Brian Davis.  If you don’t know these guys OR their music…check them out.

Love this shot of Emma and I on stage shooting…snagged this off of Facebook from an attendee, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

AND FINALLY, the BABIES!

We just returned from an amazing show at this years Imaging USA.  A professional photographers convention with one 12,000 in attendance.  As co-owner of a set design company www.designrevolutiononline.com I had a 20×20 booth overflowing with props and fun items for professional photographers.  I’d like to share a few images…

One of the industries greatest photographers, Audrey wouldard~  www.alwphotography.com, this woman has done it all!  She has worked with Ford modeling agency and  pottery barn kids catalog just to name a couple.

A quick jaunt out for pizza one evening with the entire crew.  From left…Emma Dixon, Kelly Hood, myself, Lesley Bragg and my mother & father in law who generously drive our truckload when we travel.

We always try to find a “must go to place” while we travel.  Antico pizza~ www.anticoatl.com  This was incredible, wood fired pizza, so rustic and delicious.  But i didn’t get the memo that you can bring your own wine or beer:-(

Our booth before the rampage;-)  You have to understand…our booth is mobbed from the second we open until the last moment of closing.  We have so many exciting new products that people literally rush to our booth before we sell out!  If it weren’t mine, i’d be running there too!

This year we decided that it would be fun to add a different tag line to our name, Design Revolution.  So we wore trench coats and had stickers on our back with our logo, booth number and the tag line “we’ve got you covered”  Where else am i going to get away with pink hair, cheetah trench coat, pink tights, funky jewels while in my forties?

some elevator fun!

So this beautiful woman traveled all the way from Iceland just to meet me and the girls from Design Revolution.  She was such a sweet girl and she also got to who a bit;-)

no, we really aren’t upside down but thats how it loaded so we will just have fun with it!  This night PPA had an incredible party at the www.georgiaaquarium.org  this was honestly one of the best events i’ve ever been to.  If you ever are in Atlanta, you have to take your family here.

Another important friend.  I met Lori Grice at one of the first conventions that i ever attended.  She had such an impact on me and my career.  Love this girl and hands together for a cancer survivor!

and meet Kerri, from www.wildsorbet.com  she and Tana have this crazy cool frame company.

More great friends, Beth Forrester, a crazy brilliant photographer and designer of www.photoduds.com a template company.

My sweet friend Chanel and her little beauty that i finally got to meet;-)  She stole my phone, my heart and my shiny purse the first three seconds i held her.

and finally…I SIGNED AN AUTOGRAPH!!!  i think i can count on one hand how many i have signed and they are usually for a charity book give away or something like that.  Just thought i’d share as this is the closest i’ll ever come to fame and fortune;-)

I have some exciting news!! We are back!! As a lot of you all already know, Julie has been extremely busy lately! I can’t wait to share with you all everything new that’s going on here at the studio AND the latest happenings at Design Revolution! Get excited!

I will go ahead and introduce myself, my name is Emma and I have been working for Julie for a little over 6 months now:) I’m 18 years old and I have known Julie since I was 7. I was first introduced to her when my mom had booked a fun session with Julie for us kids back in 2001! Please refer to the GORGEOUS black and white picture Julie caught of my two brothers and I. Julie has taken my family’s pictures a handful of times, my favorite session of course being my senior session, also a pic attached. Just in the few hours I spent with Julie at that time, I fell in love with her personality. Just last summer I was with a friend who was having her pictures done by Julie, as I was walking out of her building she stops me and asks me to come work for her… no interview, nothing… just a simple question, will you please come work for me? Obviously I said yes, got in my car to drive home and I just started bawling my eyes out… pure joy… this is a internationally known photographer… an opportunity of a lifetime! Needless to say the rest is history, I love her like a mother.

Enough about me!! Let’s get to what’s new here!!!!! If there are any of you headed to imaging 2013 in Atlanta we hope to see you there… it’s right around the corner!!! Come check out our AWESOME Design Revolution booth! We’ve got TONS of one of a kind sets just for imaging! Hurry to our booth because so much of the fun stuff sells out right away! I swear we are all going to turn into strands of LACE! So much of our stuff is handmade you really can’t find a lot of it anywhere else!

I hope you all enjoy all the updates that are going to be coming your way!! Follow Julie on twitter at @julieklaasmeyer for even MORE exciting news on what all is going on and watch for more posts from me soon!

Count us in!

The Grand Format (our favorite backdrop supplier) is having some awesome Black Friday and Months End specials!

Download your OWN images to for a custom backdrop or chose from their data base of tons of amazing pre-installed images..

Including the ones we use every day!

With the New Year right around the corner.. who doesn’t want to refresh their look a little?

Check out their website for more info @

www.theGRANDformat.com

I just can never get enough!  Mwah!

The little nugget below belongs to this beautiful mama who also had a session with Julie, what a great addition for the baby’s nursery!

…And we couldn’t be happier for her! Katrine and Curtis got married this past Saturday in a beautiful ceremony on a perfect summer’s evening. She sent us this e-mail a few days before the wedding and wanted us to share:

“I have some exciting news! This Saturday, August 13th I am getting married! I am so excited to be marrying my best friend of many years! And after all the long planning, the wedding is just about here. We have had so much fun preparing for the wedding and could not be happier. I know it’s going to be such a great day, and a great honeymoon! After the wedding, Curtis and I will take off on Monday for our 7 day all-inclusive getaway to Negril, Jamaica! And not only will I return with a tan, but a new name… I had the realization that I will only be introducing myself as Katrine Copeland for 3 more days… And I am so happy I can hardly contain myself at times! There will be plenty of pictures to document our journey through our wedding day and honeymoon! So, I will be returning in about 10 days as Katrine Sharp with sun kissed skin Happy Wedding!”

Congratulations! We can’t wait to hear all about it Here are a few engagement and bridal portraits Julie took of the beautiful couple before the big day!

Just a tiny update to fill you in on some exciting new things going on here at j.klaasmeyer…we would like to welcome a few new CHERISHED BABIES to our studio and our hearts!

I spent last week with a group of wonderful, eager and talented photographers. They came to my class from all over the midwest to grow and polish their skills. I love seeing, teaching and watching “the a-ha moment” in a willing individuals eyes! It takes a lot of experience to become a true “professional photographer”. Even thought it seems everyone is a photographer these days, there is actually a lot more to it than owning a camera and giving yourself a business name. So before you invest your hard earned money in a portrait session…think about it, would you go to anybody that owned a pair of scissors (and looked at pictures on the internet) to cut your hair? As i like to say…INVEST IN AN ARTIST, PHOTOGRAPHY IS FOREVER! How will you remember?
here are a few of our fabulous class models…

She may have given us a run but it was totally worth these beautiful images;-) thanks mom for the great afternoon!

I’m editing and editing and then one like this comes up;-) i think i’d have to have a huge canvas for my wall…