Zoe the Bunny

Last Sunday, we opened the doors to the studio and welcomed over 50 children to have their portrait taken with Zoe the Bunny. Thank you SO MUCH to V.I. Pets here in Holland for allowing us to borrow the bunnies!

In exchange for a donation (100% of which went to the Holland Community Action House) we did a portrait of each child with Zoe. AND everyone also received a free 5x7!

Please, take a moment to visit the Community Action House's website and learn a little bit about what an amazing organization this is for our community!

While the majority of the day was filled with smiles, there were a couple of kids who didn't quite know what to make of Zoe. I love this one of the poor little guy definitely NOT liking the bunny while big sister is perfectly content!

And my favorite, this progression as she realizes that this isn't a stuffed bunny. Her reaction was PRICELESS!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out and helped this great cause! It was so awesome to have the studio packed with people!

Also, a special THANK YOU to Jason and Kate who volunteered their afternoon to helping us collect information and donations! Your help was invaluable in making the day go as smoothly as it did!

Looking back, and thinking ahead

"Motherhood cannot be touched or held, but wraps itself so tightly around her soul that she knew she'd never been complete before it,"

Our youngest daughter, Emma, is growing close to two years old. From her conception, to the tiny idiosyncrasies of her personality, she has been a surprise to us every day. She is our last child, and though we have a large family, full of life and love, I still look back at these photographs from the last 20 months with a bit of sadness in my heart. Every mother and father knows the joy and pain of watching your child grow, and so I thought I'd share some of these pictures of our own child with all of you. For us, this is a joyous retrospective, and I hope you enjoy it. For any of you who are parents or considering parenthood, there is no greater journey, and this post will also give you an idea of what you can expect from us in your baby's first years.

The hospital photos just wouldn't do, so dad had to bring the "big" camera up to the hospital.

Heather actually constructed this flower blanket from the bouquets people brought her while she was in the hospital giving birth. There's no end to her talents!

Of all the newborn pictures we've taken, I think it's ironic that our own child was among the most challenging to photograph! She definetly isn't lacking a strong will!

Emma has always been subjected to our new prop and set ideas, thankfully, she seemed to enjoy it!

We call this, "Amnio Emma"

The wooded background is something I made and have used more than once here in the studio, but there's actually a lot of backstory to it. If you come in, make sure to ask us about it, I'd be happy to share the story!

6 months is just about the perfect age for that first picture with siblings.

She hasn't sat still since she learned to walk at 10 months! Emma designated this little studio couch "her couch" so we thought we'd do a little photoset with her on it. Too cute!

No need to ask if that's a mischievous smile!

Heather snapped this while playing around with the girls one afternoon, one of my favs!

She may be a daddy's girl, but she sure does have her mom's eyes(and attitude)!

Emma is now 20 months old. Can't wait to show you what the next year brings us!

~Jason

"Fatherhood is a journey with no parallel. No other venture holds as many challenges, or rewards,"

Holland Michigan Infant & Child Photographer

Try Love!

There's a song on the radio right now that proclaims all the world needs is "peace, love, happiness" I firmly agree, and for two years, I drove down Lakewood ave under the 31 overpass, and when I looked up at the overpass, I saw the words "Try Love" in graffiti on the concrete. Now, I know graffiti is vandalism, and a crime, and should not be condoned, but every time I looked up a that writing, I got a little bit of a shiver, followed by a little hope-that yes, we could all try love, and yes, it could very well make a difference. Since I first saw the Try Love graffiti, I wanted to do something with it, but it took me a couple years to figure it out. Finally, one afternoon I took our daughter up to the overpass to photograph her, she was a great sport and gave me an expression that was simply "her".







Almost seems to me like its her that's making this statement



After posting a copy of this picture outside the studio, Jen approached me and told me she loved the idea and wanted to do something similar with her little one. I happily obliged, and we braved the "hill" to capture some very cute pics of her little one.






This little one was just adorable, and very fun to work with.




After these pics I was ready to retire the "hill" as a shooting location, but Heather and I had the idea that it would be fun to bring a couple up for some engagement pictures. So....Aaron and Liz climbed up for what would be our final shoot with the Try Love wall.

These two were crazy cute, and were "monkeying" around the whole time.

And they didn't need much direction either, this is one happy and in love couple.





Several days ago, I was driving my kids home from school and saw that the Try Love graffiti that I had for so long admired, had been painted over by the city. While I am not "upset," I am rather bummed, because as you can see now, I had quite a passion for this wall, and for the message I always felt it gave. Well, it was only graffiti, and I suppose the city has a right to clean up its overpasses.......but the funny thing was, they didn't scrub it off-they actually painted over it...
~Jason

Hello from Jason and Heather!

Hey everyone, we're finally joining the world of blogging! We thought this would be a great way to not only introduce ourselves, but also to show you recent work coming out of our studio!

So first, the introductions! Absolute Photography consists of two photographers-- Jason and Heather. Yes, we are a couple (and actually expecting a baby ANY DAY now!) and we have a large family. The new baby will make 4 children for us(wow)!

We are family orientated (in our type of work, how could you not be??) so don't be surprised if you sometimes stop at the studio and we're not there! We are open by appointment only, so as a general rule, it's a good idea to call ahead because we are often photographing on location, or maybe we're at the pool with the kids!

We both went to school for classical fine art black and white photography (think darkroom) -- in fact, that's where we met! We like to take this non-traditional portraiture background and apply it whenever we can to our work.

Give us a call (616) 644-2428 or drop us an email (info@absolute-photo.net) to talk about what Absolute can do for you and your portraiture needs or to schedule a time to come in and see the studio! (It's right next to Captain Sundae-- do you need a better excuse?)