Janelle Rodriguez Photography Blog

I started a video series for you future brides and grooms of tips and tricks for wedding photography. Don’t get me wrong, leave the photography expertise to us! But there are some things you can do to help make the photography run smoothly throughout the day. So here’s the first tip. Look out for more coming your way!  Now time to start scouting locations and set up final consultations!  So excited for wedding season!!!

You know how some woman just glow when they’re pregnant?  Well, that’s definitely Sarah.  She looks amazing pregnant and is so excited to have Rockwell.  Great name, right?  Thanks so Sarah for inviting me into her home with her great friends and family.  It was a beautiful baby shower and I’m looking forward to meeting Rockwell very very soon!

I had an awesome time shooting with Brittany who is an absolute sweetheart.  We shot her portrait session at a beautiful Inn by the river.  She’s beautiful and that black shirt is killer.  I’m going to be on the search for it!

I was not going to do a year in review but then I started organizing my wedding DVDs and became sentimental.  Put on a romantic flick, I’ll cry.  Let me pet your puppy, yeah … I’ll probably cry.  I think I cry after every season of Glee ends.  I’m THAT person.  So when I was flipping through all of the work that I’ve done, I just felt so lucky.  In 2011 I’ve met so many incredible couples, their family, friends, and also DJs, coordinators, chefs, planners, the list goes on.  I’ve been lucky to work with amazing and kind people.  And getting the chance to see them get married, come together, work together, and celebrate together is why I do what I do.  Here’s to another year of beautiful weddings and couples that I’m SO excited to work with!  Below are some of my favorites from 2011.  2012, I’m comin atcha!!!

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I went to Navarre Beach with a good book and my camera.  Book, camera, the best combination ever.  Navarre Beach hugs the Gulf of Mexico and shares the white sand with Pensacola, Florida.  It’s absolutely breathtaking there and I recommend walking the fishing pier around sunset.  It’s the perfect spot to go on a date or in my case take a lot of photographs!

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and I set off fireworks with my family!  It’s kind of a tradition and blowing things up never gets old!  There will be photographs to follow.  I hope everyone has a fun and safe time into the new year!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays!  I sure did as I’m currently spending them with my family in Pensacola, FL.  I don’t get the white Christmas but all I need is my family.

My cousins took me to Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida on Christmas Eve.  It was 60 degrees, sunny, not very Christmas atmospheric but I had tons of fun frolicking around and taking pictures.  Fort Pickens is known for imprisoning Apache Indian Geronimo.  It’s gigantic and was built with 21 million bricks.  Most of which was done by slave labor in 1834.  It was fascinating to see how they transported cannons and the architectural strategy planned for guarding.  Ever step into a place and just feel history?  Fort Pickens is one of those places.

This was taken in one of the larger tunnels.  Most of the tunnels were actually tiny so you had to crouch down to go through them.  Not to mention, they were PITCH BLACK.  Of course my brother and cousins had to have a “band” picture taken.

As much as I love living in upstate New York, there is nothing like Pensacola sunsets.

I was really into textures that day so I took photos of the bricks, rust, and sand on the beach.

Fun with silhouettes!

My brothers name is Joe!

How was everyone’s holidays so far?

I had the pleasure of working with Nickel for her headshots.  It was interesting to hear about the acting business and how funny some of the expectations are for castings.  You would think your look or your fashion choices wouldn’t really matter if your talent shines through but it does!  It seems these days that talent and fashion have to coincide when you have television shows like Pretty Little Liars or Glee where fashion really creates a character.  Fashion truly is an art form!

Acting seems to be a tough thing to get into but if you’re as determined as Nickel you’ll be getting work.  I had a lot of fun shooting Nickel who is sweet as can be.  My favorite photos turned out to be the ones that aren’t even considered headshots but I think I just loved the glasses on her.  You go Nickel!!!

Every time a baby comes into my studio, I’m just amazed at how tiny they are!  Sandhya and Chester created one cute baby.  Good job, guys.  Priyavani is adorable!!  And Sandhya and Chester are going to be fun parents.  They are lively and such enthusiastic people.  I have a feeling Priyavani is going to be a firecracker!

Although I did take the standard family portraits, I also tried to shoot from a graphic designers perspective because if we’re thinking holiday cards, we’re thinking negative space in some cases.

Below you can see what I mean.  Before with negative space and after using the negative space.  There is a lot of creativity that can be applied!

I spent a great weekend in Syracuse meeting a plethora of people from graphic designers to engineers to brilliant software developers.  It was my first Hack-a-thon experience and I’m so glad that I could be a part of it photographing the process.  The main goal of Hacking-4-Muzik was to develop software for a touch screen music stand.  Pretty cool right?  So Friday through Sunday (some spending the night even) people were working hard to make this happen.

Robert Cessna is the great mind behind this digital music stand product and hopes to move forward with it’s development … now.  The Hack-a-thon did just that because he found new employees through this event.  If you’re at all interested, there will be another one in the near future filled with technology, music, food, fun people, and great opportunities.

Photos above taken by Jeff Mahon.

Team PyeStand working hard!

The best thing about exposing myself to different events is definitely meeting cool people.  I had a moment to have a quick portrait session with my new friend Jay.  He’s an incredibly talented graphic designer and you can check out his work at Shelanskey Designs.  He’s also a person that’s fun and filled with a sense of humor that is contagious.  You will absolutely love working with him!

I attended LifeFinder in Brooklyn this past Monday with Jeremy Cowart.  I went in hopes of getting pumped and inspired as an artist and I left completely fulfilled.  If you don’t know who Jeremy Cowart is and you love photography, get to know him.  If he’s touring near you, GO!  It seems with the large amount of success he already has it unbelievably continues to grow.  And why?  Because he’s a rad person.  That’s all there is to it.  He’s talented and rad.  Yes, I will continue to use the word “rad”.  I strongly believe in being a good person.  With being a good person and having virtue good things will come back to you.  And in Jeremy’s case I believe that is what happened to him and his career.  By working hard and being genuinely kind, big opportunities have gravitated to him.

Thanks to Jeremy I’m inspired once again to be the creative artist that I sometimes forget lives in me.  I suddenly want to jump start on ideas I’ve had but never had the guts to actually make happen.  I’m even more passionate about helping others and doing what I can to use my tools to better the world.

If you don’t already know, every year I volunteer for CNY Portrait Project.  This is a project that stemmed from Jeremy Cowart‘s idea of Help Portrait.  Amazing connections and stories have been created by Jeremy’s idea alone of finding someone in need, taking their photograph, and delivering it to them.  It’s a heart felt project that anyone can get involved with.  A huge part of Jeremy’s tour was about humanitarianism.  Which is something I really want to get involved with.  So if anyone knows of any way I can donate my photography knowledge to help, let me know!  I’ll be writing more about CNY Portrait in my next blog post.

So of course in addition to photography, I bopped around the city.  Some amazing places I discovered:

Do or Dine (Brooklyn) – DUCK. I stole a bite from my boyfriend’s plate and holy heaven deliciousness!!! Get it!

Rockwood Music Hall (Lower East Side)- The atmosphere was so dream-like.  Think subtle red lights, cozy space, a stage where you can high five the performers, and great live music.