{Lily} Sneak peek

A sneak peek from my recent morning spent with the lovely Lily. More to follow soon!

Jen x

www.jenowensimages.com

{Laura & Andrew} Engagement

Laura and Andrew. Andrew and Laura. What can I say? A couple so in love that you can see it in their eyes. No really, you can.

Taking their pictures during our engagement session in Glasgow recently I came away thinking: "that went really well, I'm fairly certain I got some great photos of the two of them and captured how happy they are together". In the flat door, I waved a quick hello to Mr O and went straight to my computer to back up the images: I had a quick glance through them and couldn't believe it - I could ACTUALLY SEE IT IN THEIR EYES! I'm very lucky to spend so much time with couples who are so in love and these guys are no exception. It was a joy to not just take their photographs, but also to spend an afternoon with such creative (they're both amazing illustrators), genuine and lovely people.

Here's a few of my favourite shots from their engagement shoot, taken near and around Glasgow College of Art, where they met.

I'm so excited about shooting their wedding later this year. The ideas and details, the thought and affection, the creativity and personality that they've put into it - it's already a special day in my head: Can't. Wait.

Jen x

www.jenowensimages.com

{Fiona & Mike} Reaction shot!

I recently met up with the lovely Fiona & Mike to present them with their completed wedding albums. They opted for traditional photo albums with printed photographs and they found the most beautiful leather-bound black paged books for which to hold their photographs. They placed their trust in me to put them all together and I think, judging by their faces, I did a good job! Phew!

It was such a wonderful moment, handing over an album packed full of memories from their day, just another amazing reason why I love this job!

Jen x

www.jenowensimages.com

{Laura & Andrew} Sneak peek!

A sneaky peek from Saturday's fantastic engagement shoot in Glasgow with the lovely Laura and Andrew. More to follow soon!

Jen x

www.jenowensimages.com

{Nicola}

I first met Nicola when I was 18. It was my first day of Uni, in halls, I popped next door to introduce myself to my new neighbour - a particularly tall, dark and handsome bloke who I would, years later, marry. With him, he had his little sister who was helping him carry his worldly possessions into his new home...

Ten years later and the lovely Nicola is still as gorgeous as ever and is now my sister too! At the weekend she agreed to be my model while I tested out my new lighting kit. A lover of shoes, we thought it would be fun to get her favourite pairs in some of the shots as well - and what fun it was! Giggling pictures are always my favourites. Although as suspected, the ones I'm most happy with ended up being from when the flash was turned off, no surprises there then :)

Jen x

Thumbs Up | Thumbs Down

I'm a list-maker and always have been. There's nothing quite like the satisfaction of being able to TICK - a task accomplished! Fellow list-makers (of whom I know there to be many) will appreciate this. I think, when also teamed with my love of stationery, these lists of mine can get a bit out of control. Do I really need another new notepad? Do I really really need a new pen, even if it is purple?... But then I'd be able to start a whole new list in a new pad with a new pen!

With that in mind, I've decided to blog a new kind of list - I welcome you to what I hope to be a regular set of lists of a few of my favourite and less-favourite things.

Thumbs Up List

- London. Heading from one capital city to another is always fun, especially when there's friends and new sights to greet you at the other end. I have never (ever) had a bad experience in London and I can't wait for my upcoming trip at the start of March.

- Muji. We don't have one in Edinburgh. When I was a teenager I remember regularly visiting one in Manchester, but I've heard rumours it might now be gone...? Yet another reason to visit London! If you buy but one item from Muji, make it their 0.38 fine pens. They're only 99p!

- Fujifilm Instax. I know this is possibly the third time I've included this beauty in my blog in the past couple of weeks, but I'm still on a high from it arriving... sorry.

Thumbs Down

- The Postman. If I get one more red card through the door saying 'the package was too big for your letterbox', when in fact it WOULD HAVE FIT, I will, well... be annoyed!

- Winter. I love winter and I love snow, but even I've had enough of these cold, dark, windy days now. Spring hurry up please!

- Noisy neighbours. Please stop thumping!! Surely you can walk around without doing an impression of an elephant on a trampoline?

On an amusing note to finish up: Two images came to mind when I starting thinking about Thumbs Up | Thumbs Down... It was a scorching hot September day in 2008. Mr O and I were on our way up the east coast of Australia, a few towns south of Cairns and our trusty Greyhound bus pulled over to allow us travellers a quick bathroom break. We couldn't help resist taking quick pics of the shop-keeper's special way to let us know which gender should use which door...

Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down (and yes, that is my tan...or lack of)

Jen x

www.jenowensimages.com

Moving round this crazy town...

It's become something of a joke over the past few years that Mr O and I can't stay still.

Since we moved to Edinburgh in 2005 from Stirling, we've lived in no less than FIVE different flats. That's five flats in just over six years (and that's not including the various moves we had between us whilst at Uni. So in total, between us, in 10 years we've lived in TWELVE different places).

It's not like we love to move flat, it's just always been the case that each year, when we've come to renew our lease(s), something has come up and we've had to find somewhere new.

Our first flat was on the Royal Mile. Yep, that's right - only the most famous street in Edinburgh! It was a horrible, horrible place to live. Grimy, noisy, sometimes scary, strange little flat. To be fair, at the time of signing we were fresh from the streets of Stirling and having had little notice, we needed to find somewhere to live and quick. On the up side it was great fun being smack bang in the middle of the city, especially at Festival time, with street theatre literally on your doorstep and I think looking back it was the perfect place to find our feet. But the cons crept in and after a year of learning the ropes of this fab city, we knew there was somewhere else out there that would better suit us.

Cue a move down to the lovely Stockbridge. Closer to work and a village feel ticked all the boxes for us, as did our lovely flat with its own courtyard and friendly neighbours. We still look back so fondly on it, especially as we got married whilst living there. But our travel plans took form and in 2008 we packed our bags and set off on our dream trip for 6 months, and so giving up the flat.

Since our return, our range of reasons for leaving the various accommodations has ranged from one landlord not paying his mortgage (nothing quite like receiving someone else's court order hand delivered through your door!) to another deciding to sell up from under us...

Where am I going with this (and where are we going next?!)? Well yesterday we took a trip out east, a nice drive on a rainy day to see the sea at Portobello, Joppa and Musselburgh. A trip with intention, as we can see ourselves finally finding somewhere to stay for longer than 12 months in that part of East Lothian (at least, that's the idea...) and I thought my new fun-filled camera would like an outing :)

Mr O enjoying the calm sea view at Musselburgh harbour.

To the family and friends whose Christmas cards chase us across this fine city, I do apologise... it can't be easy trying to find us and I'm sure there are at least five people cursing our names as they see even more post for us fall on to their doormats, our failure to change address information with no doubt numerous people. Let's hope that someday soon we can give you a more permanent address.

Jen x

www.jenowensimages.com

A new addition to my camera family...

I've spent a lot of time recently (and I mean A LOT of time) researching camera equipment. Not just because I'm such a camera geek, but because I want to make sure I keep on bringing some fun into the shoots I've got planned.

A quick glance over the coming months in my diary I don't have a weekend free. Yep, I've packed them all full of photography-related wonderfulness. Be it weddings, engagement shoots, trips to see friends or something altogether different from the norm, I'm looking forward to bringing out my new addition - a fun-filled Fujifilm Instax Mini camera. (It's pretty much like good old Polaroid, but with smaller film.)

I was so excited when it arrived last week and so far I've been very good at not taking pictures of everything I see... which is a good thing seeing as the film ain't cheap! Sure, I've got my 'real' camera, which I love and always will, but I'm looking forward to this one making a regular appearance to add a bit of fun!

Here's a couple of quick attempts...more effort needed I reckon! But a fun start :)

Mr O concentrating on something amusing on TV (I think it was Austin Powers...)

Obligatory mirror shot...kinda like how the flash has gone black. Check out the photo-booth pics - a very fond souvenir from our trip to NYC in 2006 :)

Mr O getting in on the Instax fun and turning the camera on me!

Jen x