Julia's Photo Blog

This is my third and final post from my trip to Puerto Rico, and I saved these pictures for last because they are from my favorite place in P.R.: Culebra Island.   This little island is off the East Coast of the main island, and you have to travel by ferry to get there. It’s a small, uncrowded island, but is home to Flamenco Beach, which was apparently rated the 2nd most beautiful beach in the world by some magazine at some time (as the locals will proudly tell you). I can certainly see why; it is a stretch of beautiful, super fine white sand, calm, turquoise water, and only a handful of people on the whole beach.  This may be because from 1901 to 1975, the US Military used the island as a firing and bombing range and location for other military exercises.  Rusted tanks dotting the island bear witness to this less peaceful period in Culebra’s history. However, I cannot overstate the lovely tranquility that I found on this little island. When I first went to Culebra, I thought, “Now THIS is why I came to Puerto Rico.” I loved it so much, I went back for another day.  The island is charming and calming. It would be the perfect place to get married on a beach, or just spend your whole vacation there (who needs sight-seeing, really?). If I’m ever super rich, I will use my fortune to buy Culebra Island and live out the rest of my happy days there.

I’d been looking forward to Shelby & Tim’s engagement session since the moment they told me they were game to do a snowy winter engagement shoot.  So we just had to wait for a good snowfall, and last week we certainly got one!  I had a great time with these two- they are a super sweet and just too-cute-together kind of couple, and they were a lot of fun to work with!  We started out in Tower Grove Park, which was beautiful wearing all winter white.  Then we headed over to The Hill, a neighborhood that has special meaning to Shelby & Tim since they spent a lot of time together there early in their relationship.  Finally, I was super excited to have permission from Jenny B of the store Jipsi to do a little shooting in her store!  The first time I checked out this “vintage-inspired boho-chic furniture shop,” I knew I wanted to do a shoot there; and Shelby & Tim loved the idea.  The shop is full of cool sets, awesome furniture, and other decor odds and ends. I’m going to have to go back there soon to do some prop shopping!  I loved getting to know Shelby & Tim a little better, and I can’t wait to photograph their wedding in July! :)

Uh oh… Tim’s going in for a snowball fight….

Oh, but she nails him first! 

Snow angels!

In time for Valentine’s Day- the SHOW SOME LOVE Sale!!!  

To show love to my FUTURE clients: Book a session between now and Valentine’s Day (the booking has to happen before Valentine’s Day, but the session can take place after), and receive 20% off your regular session fee!

AND to show my love to past clients: If you purchased prints or a disc from Julia Noack Photography in 2010, I will give you 20% off all new print or disc orders from the same session placed before Valentine’s Day!!! 10% off all Canvas orders!  This is the biggest sale I’ve ever offered and it’s JUST for all my wonderful clients who made 2010 a smashing and awesome year!!! Thank you!

Get in touch today! 314-518-1484 or julia@julianoackphotography.com

So after a few days in the capital city of San Juan (check out my previous post), I caught on to the secret of really enjoying Puerto Rico, which is…. get out of San Juan.  So I took a few day trips.  I split one day between laying on the beaches of Luquillo and hiking in El Yunque, the only rainforest on US soil (because technically, Puerto Rico is part of the U.S., if you didn’t know).  Another day I visited the Arecibo Observatory, home of the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, and then had quite the adventure finding and exploring “Window Cave”, so-named because…. well… just look at the pictures and you’ll see.  :) But my favorite place, by far, in Puerto Rico, was the tiny island of Culebra, and for those pictures, you will have to wait for a future post…

Luquillo

El Yunque

For all my geek readers out there… here it is- the Arecibo telescope.

Window Cave

A little while ago I got to take a personal trip to Puerto Rico to do some relaxing, recharging, and of course some shooting.  I had never been to Puerto Rico before, and so I spent the first few days around historic San Juan (as well as some of San Juan’s beaches). I enjoyed my time in the city, but I have to say it was a bit more touristy (and expensive!) than I had imagined (huge cruise ships go in and out of San Juan every day). I got to see some cool things though, including the second oldest church in the New World, a beautiful cemetery built right on the ocean, the old Spanish fort (where I met a very friendly iguana who kindly posed for me for a good 30 minutes), and a gorgeous sunset. I wanted to share a few of my pictures from San Juan-so here they are! However, I didn’t start to get a real feel for the beauty of Puerto Rico until I started getting out of San Juan and exploring the rest of the island.  Look forward to some future posts to see the rest of my trip!

I really liked this guy. What can I say…. I’m a portraitist at heart. :)

About 5 months ago I got to photograph precious little Madelyn when she was 4 months old. Now that she can sit up on her own, her parents decided it was time for some more pictures- just in time to commemorate her first Christmas!   I LOVED seeing how big she has gotten since our last session! She has the same striking blue eyes that I remember (she got those from her mom! :), but now has an adorable mop of strawberry blonde hair that I think is super cute!  We had a lot of fun with some Christmasy props, got a few family portraits (I love that Lucy the dog indignantly INSISTED that she be included in the family portrait!), took a few pictures in a more Valentine’s appropriate outfit, and finally headed outside to do a few (fast and cold) pictures in front of the house.  I think my very favorites are the ones that show her cute little tush, but you can decide your own favorites for yourself!!! 

My favorite!!!….

Julia Noack Photography is participating in the International Charity Model Search to select North America’s Cutest Kid and to raise funds for the non-profit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation. (NILMDTS.org) 

AWESOME PRIZES

Is your child North America’s Cutest Kid? Well here is the opportunity to prove it! The grand prizewinner will win a $2500 savings bond, a $2500 travel package, and a $100 Target gift card.  The second and third place runners up each will win a $500 savings bond and a $100 Target gift card.

MODEL SEARCH SPECIAL:

Your $60 entrance fee includes a 40-minute model session and one image submitted to the international gallery.  Print collection specials will also be available to all participating families.  

Have more than one child? Great!  Two children can share an hour long modeling session and each have one image entered for $85.  Or for $120 receive up to a 2 hour session with entries for 3 or more children AND include the rest of the family for some family portraits as well!* 

THE FIRST TEN PEOPLE TO BOOK SESSIONS FOR THIS CONTEST WILL RECEIVE A FREE 5x7 FOR EACH CHILD ENTERED!  

Finalists will be determined by online votes. Every family member who registers their information on the Charity Model Search Website will receive 1 complimentary vote. Each additional vote is $1 (no limit on the amount of votes you can cast), and all proceeds from votes benefit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS.org).   The top 5 paid votes, and the top 5 complimentary votes in each region will move on to the final judging round for a total of 50 finalists. Grand prize international winner and runners up will be determined from the 50 regional finalists. The winner and runners up are selected by photography experts.

This offer expires March 18, 2011- so schedule your session today!!! Call 314- 518-1484 or email julia@julianoackphotography now to enter your “Cutest Kid” in this exciting contest!!! 

*Children must be 18 years old or younger to be entered in the contest.  The $120 family portrait session is for up to 8 people.  For more information, visit http://www.charitymodelsearch.org.

I was inspired by a few of my photographer friends to take a look back over my work from 2010 and pick out some of my favorites to share.  This is a very daunting task, since I find it really and truly difficult to limit down EVERY SINGLE BLOG POST that I put up to a reasonable number of pictures.  The fact is, I get attached to the people I work with.  A wise wedding photographer once told me that he tries to fall in love a little bit with the bride for every wedding he photographs… a wonderful idea! So I try to do that not only with my brides (and grooms) but also with all the beautiful children, families, high school seniors, couples, and pets that I photograph! And honestly, I love people (and pets), so it isn’t too hard for me to do. :)  I also sometimes fall in love with a beautiful setting or really amazing light.  Honestly I just love what I do and I love all the people that hire me to do it, so limiting down all the photographs from an entire YEAR to my favorites was INSANELY difficult.  I went through all my pictures and somehow picked out just over a hundred on my first go round- pictures that I love because of the people in them, or because I think they really captured the moment, or because the light was just perfect, or because they were a challenge, or because they make me smile. I figured no one has enough patience to look through that many. So I managed to whittle down to about half of them, and honestly I just couldn’t go any further.  So sit back and relax, and if you have the patience, check out just a (rather large) handful of my many favorite pictures from this past year (in no particular order). Obviously this is not an exhaustive list… and I have to give my regrets that I couldn’t possibly post pictures from every wedding or photo session that I did, but you should know that if I took pictures of you in 2010, I fell in love with you too. :)  

And finally… a self-portrait. I made a decent number of self-portraits last year, and probably some of the others were a little more…. how should I say it… artistic and refined.  But this one took the most effort. And let’s be real, it’s clearly the most fun. :)

Thank you to all of the special people who made 2010 a wonderful year!!!!!

On Christmas Eve we had the loveliest snowfall… the snow was powdery and hung beautifully on the trees. It was the kind of snowfall that definitely makes a photographer want to go out and take pictures! Lucky for me I had a portrait session scheduled the day after Christmas, and the snow was still beautiful, plus it wasn’t even that cold outside! PERFECT winter portrait weather. The Kramer family are dear old friends of my parents, and my siblings and I used to play with their kids when our parents would get together. But it had been years since I had seen any of the Kramers, so it was really nice to get to see them all again and learn how well everyone in the family is doing.  They wanted a mixture of pictures done in their living room and in their yard. I always have a personal preference for outdoor pictures (yes, even in winter!), but I thought the indoor ones came out great too!  The oldest son, John, is applying for business schools and wanted some individual images of himself, so we did some of those as well- headshots and a more “casual” look.  Here are just a few favorite images from the session (look- even the pets cooperated so well!).