Guys, this session is my whole heart for all family photography. As much as humanly possible, I want you to play and enjoy and  remember how much you love love love being theirs.
Keep in mind, I say that as a parent of a three-year-old myself and BELIVE ME I KNOW that sometimes things are not this playful — that sometimes we have to adapt and calm and soothe and just breathe with our small children to get them through a storm of feelings they don’t yet know how to process. But those moments, of being the calm home-base for our children, can be beautiful too.
More than anything, I don’t want family photos to just be portraits of people standing next to each other. I want them to be portraits of people connected to each other, engaged with each other and enjoying each other.
Here are some of my favorites from Hana + Elia’s delightful mother-daughter session (from a round of mini sessions I did at the Lumen Room last August) where we blasted “The Greatest Showman” and they sang and twirled and laughed and were together, connected.
blissfully engaged , familiar love , first look , in expectation , personal , with this ring
2018 in review // wedding + family photojournalism
I’m going to share with you some of my favorite images from the course of 2018. I am so unbelievably thankful thankful thankful to all the people who trusted me to document their lives this year. I know these moments are precious, I feel it in my bones, and I never take that responsibility lightly. I witnessed the very first day of many families, the additions of new life into the world and homes. I captured the momentous and also quite a bit of the everyday. With my camera I documented stories of love, hope, growth, waiting, beauty and joy. So much joy. What a beautiful year spent photographing some of the most beautiful souls. Thank you all.
It started off with Jessica + Ryan’s Hall of State wedding
Included a whole lot of families photographed in their homes (my favorite place to photograph families)
Shai + Brent made Dallas look real good for their engagement session.
My first ever round of mini sessions at The Lumen Room were so much fun that I planned a second round of mini’s just five months later. Here are some from the first round:
More state park weddings in 2019, please. I so enjoyed Adi + Julian’s relaxed and intimate Huntsville state park wedding.
I got the honor and privilege of photographing several previous brides’ and grooms’ welcoming new babies into their families!
I documented Jacob + Liz in their first home before they jumped into a brand new adventure together.
In April I flew to South Carolina for Emmaline + Nikita’s engagement session on Duke University campus.
Aanchal + Nick had two full days of wedding celebration complete with mariachi + barat!
Esther +Â Trevor’s SMU Perkins Chapel + Filter Building wedding day was a dream dream dream.
I so enjoyed shooting at The Darkroom studio for the first time for Taylor’s bridal portraits.
I don’t always get to do birth photography with my wedding schedule but it just so worked out for me to be at little Ella’s birth and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Taylor + Johnny’s Brik wedding with Cloud Creative Events + Everly Alaine Florals was dreamy as all get out.
Annnnnd then came the second round of mini sessions at The Lumen Room (shot while I was 32 weeks pregnant).
Emmaline + Nikita’s wedding was my first Russian Orthodox wedding ceremony to photography, which was so fun. I so enjoyed their portraits + reception at Hotel Crescent Court.
Jessica + Kolby’s Cliff House morning wedding was such an absolute delight.
And I wrapped up 2018 with Katie + Kyle’s Oklahoma wedding at Southwind Hills.
If you’re still reading, GOOD JOB! It’s a longgggg post, a whole year’s worth, in fact!
 To end, I could think of no better way to further illustrate how much I value documentation and preserving memories than by showing that I do the same for my family. This year we were so blessed by the addition of baby boy Jones Cedar to our family. Here are a few of my favorite images I’ve captured in my own home over the past couple months since his arrival.
blissfully engaged , familiar love
portraits: hannah + jonathan // denton lifestyle photographer
Hannah + Jonathan will always have a most special place in my heart. I’ve known Hannah since college and have always been both impressed, as well as personally blessed, by how fierce an encourager she is. I met Jonathan when I had the joy and privilege of documenting + witnessing their proposal, their engagement as well as their wedding. Because of the season of life I was in during the majority of that timeframe (they got engaged when my daughter Juniper was very much a NEWborn + I have a distinct, sweet memory of having to wake my sleeping squishy baby to kiss her goodbye before I left the morning of Hannah + Jonathan’s wedding) I sadly didn’t get most of those images up on my blog. That first year of my daughter’s life was such a (happy) blur and I was doing my best to balance work + life in this starkly different season of life that I had to learn from scratch how in the world to navigate (MEANING like a grand total of four things got blogged that year hahahah). But oh, what joyful memories Hannah + Jonathan’s proposal, engagement, wedding are for me though. I’ll never, ever, ever, ever be able to wrap my mind around the blessing of being entrusted with capturing those for them. So when Jonathan reached out recently about surprising Hannah with a session just because around some of the same spots we hit up at their engagement session two years before (SWEET HUSBAND POINTS, AMMIRIGHT?) I was immediately on board. Here are a few of my favorites from that session around Denton.
I’ve also had the distinct pleasure of seeing Hannah start her own wedding photography business and just BLOSSOM in that. I am so proud, just as a friend, watching her excel and thrive. You can view her work here.
As I was putting together this post of Allison + Johnny’s cloudy walk through Brooklyn, right up to the water’s edge, I haven’t been able to get the chorus of the Avett Brother’s “I and love and you” out of my head.
“Brooklyn Brooklyn take me in.”
Although these two have no trouble saying I and Love and You — as you’ll be able to tell from these photos.
Not going to lie, I probably edited every single one of these photos abouuuuut seven times. I kept going back and forth between trying to make the photos appear sunnier than it was but then I would hate it because then the photos didn’t feel like that nighttime, cloudy walk through the city felt. So, as you’ll see, I’ve finally embraced the grey that cloudy sky dealt. This session shows one of my absolute favorite ways to take portraits, just exploring with a couple — a general destination in mind but with the photos less about a performance as much as focusing on genuinely enjoying our time, the company, the evening and, in this case, the city.
Goodness gracious I’m obsessed with shooting in cities. I love the natural energy, excitement and exploration that comes with being in New York City. There’s so much story there, hence why I can never get enough and am always looking for an excuse to go back.
And in case you made it to the end of the post and are scratching your head like, “Wait, didn’t I JUST see these people on your blog, Jillian?” The answer is yes and yes. The reason is that they are wonderful and I’m obsessed with them. Which brings me to the second song this post reminds me of, a Whitney Houston classic:
“AND IIIIIIIIII-EE-IIIIII, WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUU-OOOOO-OOOO-OOOO”
That song goes out to Allison, Johnny and NYC — xoxo, Jillian
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