CJ Wilkes

About CJ Wilkes Photography

Capturing Your Dance In The Rain is such a thrill and joy to me. Being able to look back on those special times through beautiful artistic imagery makes it a worthwhile challenge.
Learning to Dance in the Rain has been very easy for me. I am drawn to Water & Life! The exciting part for me is to teach you to enjoy your moment in the dance as I capture it from behind my camera.
Looking forward to Capturing Your Dance In The Rain
CJ Wilkes

Tag: ‘Model’



New Spiral Bound Photo Books!

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

Introducing our newest product. The new Spiral Bound Photo Books!

Why ~ I am not a fan of preview books for a couple of reason, one mainly being that they don’t look great to me. I like polished finished looks to all my products. This is a new product that can serve several purposes. It looks great, it presents beautifully, it showcases images perfectly, it can be used as an affordable alternative, and did I mention how beautiful these are?

The new books come packaged in a black box with tissue wrapped around it for protection.

As you can see the book has a custom designed hard cover with image on the front. The texture is linen. Angled just right you can see it. Gives it a wonderful polished feel. If you prefer no texture that is an option as well.

Both the front and back covers are made of hard material. This book is a 5×7 size. I chose that option because it shows off your images so nicely. Not too small and not to large.

I love how the book lies flat because of the spiral binding. This book takes up very little room, yet has big appeal.

The pages turn on the spiral binding quite smoothly. The picture quality is gorgeous. I would not choose a product that does not show well or that I would not want in my own home. This is definitely a product I enjoy in my home. This is a great gift item for parents or grandparents – family members.

The standard book comes with 10 pages (20 images). Up to 10 extra pages (2 images per page) can be purchased so  you can potentially have a total of 40 images. The Spiral Bound Photo Book I have here has the standard 10 pages.

One thing that I enjoy doing each year is making photo albums or books of my children. I would love to have one for each child. Having an affordable option is something that definitely appeals to me as a mom of 5 with many extended family members. This is also a wonderful option for all types of shoots: Model portfolio building, Children, High school Seniors, Couples, Parent books, Boudoir shoot, Trash the Dress shoots.  I am squealing at how cool these are!

The options are currently:

Spiral Bound Photo Books

Hinged Albums

Senior Session Albums

Layflat Albums

Ice Layflat Albums

Would love to have your feed back on any of these options. If you need information like sizing and pricing feel free to contact me.  Now off to work on editing some more sessions to bring to you! :)

Water Tower Bridal Shoot (Modeling)

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

Brides are very much what I truly enjoy shooting. I love that there are so many different personalities, dresses, likes, and overall combinations. All of it makes my mind work hard to create the PERFECT shoot for each individual. I love dramatic when it comes to brides and the look we are trying to achieve. This session worked out perfectly for it!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

Tell me what you think of the Water Tower Bridal shoot!

Jessica Lemmons ~ Trash the Dress

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

One of my all time favorite types of photography is the Trash the Dress shoots!  For me as the photographer it lets me be ultra creative.  The thing that makes it even more fun is other fellow photographers on board with the fun.  I had the pleasure of having my fellow photographer and friend, Jessica Lemmons of  Jessica Lemmons Photography,  have the desire to do a trash the dress session since she is going through a divorce.  We have come to find that Trash the Dress sessions are very therapeutic for those going through such a stressful time, such as divorce, in their lives.  What topped it all off was that I was not shooting this alone!  My dear friend Stacey Hamilton of  Time’s 3 Photography in Racine, Wisconsin was here with me too.  Keep checking her blog out for the images she captured from our amazing day!!!

I can not tell you of the FUN we had!  We had crowds stopping and asking questions right there in downtown Seattle as we worked our camera’s.  We had one man stop and say he wanted to be in the movies and that we should take shots of him because he had blue and green eyes!  :)   We had others just stop in the middle of the road to have a chance to speak with Jessica – our amazingly gorgeous model!  Then we went into an interesting alley way to get a new feel.  After those adventures we took it to the beach – docks – and yes! You all know me – we were in the WATER!!!!  Here it is for you all to enjoy:

That is a Wrap!  Well, at least as far as you know ;) .  We are definitely going to have to have future updates or shoots.  If you are interested in a fun Trash the dress session just email any of us ~ And do not forget to visit both Jessica and Stacey’s blogs.

 

 

 

Rebekah = Happy with a spark of pizazz!

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Again, loving the school pictures this year.  Rebekah was a perfect little model.  She got to the spot and started striking a pose and giving it her best grins without any encouragement needed from me.  It was AWESOME.  If only every child were so easy.  It is so fun as a photographer to see such a bright fun loving individual who knows their own mind :)   I am looking forward to doing another session with her for sure!!!  After all – look at her SMILE: SO CUTE!

Just looking at these it brings me back to the session.  She would shift this way and strike her pose, then ever so slightly shift and strike her pose – then of coarse another subtle but well thought out rearranging and she was ready again!  I loved it!  Mom was smiling as big as can be too because this was Rebekah having her own moment and it was priceless!

Rebekah, next time we will spend much longer with a full session rather than a mini session, K hun!?  Thanks for being so awesome!

 

Model and SPA

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

At the SPA Studio they would have a Wednesday Feature model night.  This is where a model would come.  We would choose the location in our studio we wanted to work in, set up our set and our lights (as a photographer) – then we would take turns working with the model.  She or he would cycle through each of the 2-5 different photographers.  The great thing about this program is that the model would get some fun images for their portfolio, practice working with different photographers, and experience working the camera – the photographer would get to work on their lighting, posing, techniques, communication.   Here are some images from a model that the camera absolutely loved.  For me she was a model that made my job as a photographer a breeze!  (Again – thank you to When for this opportunity to work in your studio and for finding amazing models to work with as well.)

Before I show her images I have a couple images of fellow photographers.  It is great because we work as a team while setting up in that we will stand in and let the photographers shoot us to test their lighting and tweak it as necessary.  These guys John Clark and Ted Leung both were kind enough to stand in and let me test my set up before shooting my model.  Thank you guys!!!

John Clark has a great understanding of studio lighting.  He is quiet and sweet as can be.  Photography is not his day job – he calls it his hobby, but he sure knows how to rock that camera!

Ted Leung is a husband, father, hard worker – and adds photography to his other jobs.  He is creative in his shooting.  It was fun shooting along side him because he is innovative and does not settle for less!

Ok back to our model for that night:

If you are a photographer and you have the chance to work with Kristen Rey do so.  She will make your job that much more enjoyable and very easy to accomplish.  Thanks again to SPA – When, John, Ted, and Kristen.

 

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