i will be traveling the month of january, catching up on some much needed rest and gearing up for next season…we will still be checking email so please feel free to contact us for anything that way…in the meantime, here are some highlights from this past year…wishing all of you the best new year ever!

this year has been one of incredible professional accomplishments and heartbreaking personal losses for me…yet as i look towards next year, the one overwhelming feeling that i have is gratitude…

i am grateful for all the little things that make life enjoyable…big hugs, spicy food, chocolate, my warm and cozy home, baseball, gorgeous sunsets,travel, music, books and the perfect cup of coffee…

i am grateful for my love, my dachshund buddy, who gives me unconditional love and kisses everytime he sees me…

i am so grateful for the gift of living in a place where I can start each morning looking at the sea…i start every morning now smelling the salty air and watching the birds dive for fish… 

i am grateful that G-d has blessed me with the ability to give and receive love freely without limitations, boundaries and fear…

i am grateful for every day i  get to wake up and create work that i love and that is meaningful to me and to the people who put their trust in me…

i am grateful for those who believe in my ability to create something special and who continue to support my business and me…

most of all, i am grateful to the people in my life…my incredible family—my boys, who are growing into men before my eyes, my parents who have always supported all of my endeavors no matter how out there and my amazing sisters, who i could not imagine my life without—and my friends, old and new, who lift me up when i’m down, make me laugh, keep me going and remind me what life is really about…LOVE…i have been showered with love…and not only am i so grateful for the enormous amount heaped on me by those closest to me but i am also blessed enough to experience and share the love stories of all of you…my life is filled with love…i am the luckiest girl in the world…

to all of you who may have had a hard year, grab onto those closest to you, remind yourselves of all the good things you have in your life and breathe…when things are not going so great remember that the beauty of life is that it is always moving and changing and you never know what fantastic people, places and things are right around the corner for you…

i wish all of you new adventures, peace and most of all love…

                                                   xoxo

nothing and i mean nothing was going to prevent samantha’s engagement session from happening on the appointed day and time certainly not a little wind and rain and cold weather…we were supposed to meet in deep cut gardens in holmdel but with the weather not cooperating and having faith that her pictures would be wonderful no matter where i took them i invited her to take their pictures inside my studio…samantha and matt are so incredibly warm and funny and samantha’s excitement about everything is infectious and i thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them and laughed so much…and as luck would have it, the rain let up long enough to go outside and take some more pictures with the last remnants of fall colors on my property and the rose bushes that still had some blooms on them…it was so special to be able to photograph these two great people in my space, they made it look so beautiful and brought their lovely energy and joy to it so i have to thank them for that and for giving me the opportunity to get to know them better…i’m so looking forward to  photographing their wedding next july…

so beautiful…xxoo

i photographed lynn & jeff’s oceanside wedding in 2007 and was so thrilled when lynn contacted me to photograph the new member of their family, their son, santiago who they adopted from colombia…satiago is two so he basically ran the show and they were all really good sports because it was freezing at the beach in the early morning hours a couple of weeks ago…but i think you can really see the love between them and most of all, you can tell they are a family…

xo love

today my nephew gabriel celebrates his very first birthday…he is everything one should be…sweetness, light, love & hope…happy birthday my little man…(from your very favorite aunt:)

can’t wait to photograph their wedding today at avenue…more to come!

i will be away for a couple of weeks taking a long overdue rest but i thought i’d leave you with a selection of some of my favorite images from my blogposts this past year…i will see you soon and in the meantime, enjoy!

www.jerihouseworthphotography.com

…so here we are about to begin another year and we are so looking forward to everything that is ahead of us and all the beautiful people and places that will become a part of my family…i say family because it is truly how i feel about each and every person i have ever photographed…so as we begin a new adventure in 2011 and look forward to many wonderful moments together, i’d like to pause and look back and say thank you to all of you who have continued to bless me with your trust and presence and who honor me by letting me do what i love to do for you…it has been an exceptional gift and joy for me… you have invited me into your lives to share the most special times in your lives and trusted me to give you something priceless and it has been such a priviledge getting to know each and everyone of you and your families and friends…to all of you who have continued to share your lives with me through your pregnancies and children,  family weddings and special events in your lives, you are more than clients to me, i consider you friends…

to all of you who i will be working with this year and next and to those of you i have yet to meet, i can’t wait!

thank you, thank you to all of the wonderful vendors who have referred me and let me share in the art that you produce as well…your continued confidence in us is so appreciated…

as always, i have many people to thank for making what i do so much easier, so a great big thank you to the wonderful artists who have helped this past year create beautiful images for you alongside me…thank you bob and joe for continuing to produce exceptional work, special guest stars like larry evans &  jen rutherford who was such a treat to work with, and as always, my sidekick and partner in crime, sara…words cannot express what you have meant to me…

phyllis, there are no words…she returns my emails, checks my orders and generally keeps me sane…i do not know what i’d do without you!

finally i’d like to thank my amazing family for more than i can even post here…my incredible brothers in law for helping me build my new studio (it’s perfect!) it literally would not be as beautiful as it is without you…to my dad who is in remission from the cancer that took him away from working with me for awhile and who keeps an eye on all of the business paperwork that most artists detest…for my mother’s decorating genius (she came up with two of my favorite things in the studio)…for my sisters and nieces and nephews for all the love and support…my laughter and sweet love, bobby…and finally, for my boys…my incredible son, alex, who was just accepted to college in providence ri…i don’t know what i will do without you here…you have inspired me beyond words and i am so proud…and to my other amazing son, ryan, who helped me even when he didn’t want to and who dug a path in the snow for my customers to get to me and who continues to astound me at every turn…i love you so…and finally my buddy boy…buddy (see pic below) has been my third son since 2001 when i adopted him as a puppy…thank you for all the kisses and unconditional love…xxooxx

okay, so after all these years of photographing weddings, there isn’t much i haven’t seen or dealt with and i know that other photographers have piped up about this and now i’m taking my turn…first, let me say, there are many, many wonderful, talented djs out there who i have worked with and seen…they completely make the night of the couple everything they want it to be and it has been my pleasure to work with these companies and individuals…that being said, over the years and with the evolution of digital photography, many companies that were providing music and entertainment for their customers are now offering photography, videography, etc. services as well…while i understand they sell these package deals and have every right to do so and that there are budget conscience consumers out there who benefit from these types of deals, it has brought real problems when couples book these companies for entertainment but choose to go elsewhere for their photography and videography services…i like to think that i’m a nice person although i would never say that  because i think people who say that usually aren’t as nice as they think, but i will say that i am always respectful and considerate of the other vendors i work with…i always believe that we should all be working to make everything perfect for the couples that employ us…twice this weekend i have had what should have been really nice experiences, tarnished by djs…if a couple hires a photographer to document their day, then they should be the only professionals on site with cameras taking pictures…this is in most photographer’s contracts as it is in mine…what many of these companies are doing is not just providing the music for the event but now they are bringing along an extra person to take photographs during the evening…these photographs are either shown during the night on huge screens or they are burned to a dvd which the company then either attempts to sell to the guests or to the bride and groom…let me explain why this is a problem…first, i work with a second photographer so that is two cameras on the floor plus if there is a videographer hired that makes another camera…add to it these dj” photographer’s” and it’s almost unbearable…to give an example of how this could be a problem, years ago i photographed an event where the families came up in individual groups to light candles on the cake…half the people in the groups were looking at my camera and the other half was looking at the djs camera…when the client came to me later on i explained that i could not stop the events in the middle to do something about it…lesson learned:  i put it in my contract and if i see a dj with a camera i say something right away…first to them and then if that has no effect, to the client…in addition, they put these photos up during the night and guests automatically assume that i’ve taken them…they always look terrible and are of poor quality, certainly nothing that i would want mistaken for my work…also, i take stills and couple’s portraits during the evening as many photographers do…these people are literally putting their hands in my pocket and taking potential profits that should rightly go to me…it is intrusive and rude and it’s at the most basic level a violation of my contract…i’m not bringing entertainment with me and invading their territory…both times this weekend, i was forced to involve my couple’s in this dispute which never should have been…once i spoke with the djs, they should have been respectful to what i do, but they were not…i will not mention the first company as it was my first experience with them but i will mention the second because since 2003 when i first encountered this particular company and after listening to horror stories from other vendors, i will mention dash of (no) class…they are consistently rude, nasty and tonight while i was taking photographs on the floor, the dj actually said over the mike to the crowd “be careful not to stomp on the photographer although it wouldn’t be such a bad thing”…i received that comment because i asked the groom, (who by the way specifically told us that this company was ONLY hired to play music) to tell them that they needed to put their cameras away…i have seen members of this company interrupt church services and pretend to be the official videographers even though the couple paid for a videographer, pick fights with other photographers and videographers and the list of bad behavior goes on and on…to anyone who has hired this vendor i should tell you i will no longer accept work if they have been hired already…to my clients present and future, i would say to you that you have paid alot of money to have me or a videographer document your day and it is our goal to  give you everything you expected and wanted…that is why you hired us or will in the future…i ask for no more than the opportunity to do so freely without having to worry about being subjected to or putting up with the abuse and disrespectful behavior that years ago was never seen and would never be tolerated… a great big THANK YOU to all the fantastic djs out there that make it an absolute joy to work time and time again like nick from imagine entertainment, paul anthony, the guys from elite djs who even though they offer photography and video packages have never shown up to one of my events with a camera if they weren’t hired to do so, be our guest, chris garrow and many more…enough said…