this summer has been so busy and it’s just been impossible for me to keep up with posting all the pictures. im hoping this beautiful wedding makes up for the absence.  this is one of 3 photographers weddings i shot this summer. yep, i shot 3 photographers weddings this summer! how awesome is that?! i love my job and it is so amazingly flattering when someone in the industry hires me. what a compliment. i have been smiling all summer because of it.  hope you can see me smiling from your computer right now, because i promise you i am! i am also trying something new with the blog posting to make it more interactive and emotional.  im going to have my couples share the story of their special day.  i, in no way prompted any words or changed a single part of what they wrote.  i hope you enjoy this new format as much as i do. please leave a comment and let me know.  more weddings coming soon! I’m on a roll (0;

Location: Smith Homestead in the Tillamook State Forest

Officiant: Nitin Joshi (friend)

MUA: Julie Lampros Skincare

Caterer: Cindy Thompson & Mother Superior (aka Linda Thompson)

Flowers: Snapdragon Studios – Jen Fish

Guitarist: Josh McArthur

Wedding Coordinator Extraordinaire: Pamela Zoch (friend)

DJ: A Beat Above

without further ado…….

zach and darcie…..a love story

Zach proposed to me and the kiddos on Christmas day!  We enthusiastically said “yes” and decided to tie the knot while staying out in Diamond Lake with his parents just a few days later.  On New Years Eve the kids, his parents, a justice of the peace, and my mom & step-dad (watching via Skype), stood by the frozen lake saying yes to each other and a new life.  We lit fireworks and had a bonfire that night not only entering in the new year, but a life that we had just begun together…the four of us! We now wanted to celebrate the joining of our lives with our friends and family! So we put together this whole shindig filled with love and warmth. I had always dreamed of a fall wedding so it was the perfect timing that everything came together.

It was such a special day for us. Jen was incredible, she captured the natural moments that could not have been arranged, she captured our happiness and the subtle emotions that knits our family together. I have to admit,  driving to the venue I was a little worried because it was sprinkling a bit and kind of grey outside but when we got there and saw the amazing light that was created we were thrilled with the turn of weather!  It made the air just crisp enough to be able to light the fire in our venue.  The day couldn’t have been more beautiful, the food was out of this world, the setting, in the woods, was close to our hearts, the gentle guitar music, the warmth of our friends and family.  It will be a day we will remember for the rest of our lives.  I am so beyond grateful that Jen captured the moments for us that we will treasure and hang on our walls to remind us of the commitment we made as a family!

Hi to all my beautiful followers! I realize I am so bad at blogging, but I am slowly getting better if you can’t tell. I’m trying anyways. I always want to share all my pictures but get so busy that the blogging comes last. Well here is an attempt to remedy that situation…. I had the amazing privilege to shoot this wedding up on Mount Hood this summer with the dear Lindsay. Weddings in our beautiful area, just blow me away. We are so lucky to live here in Oregon, even though we do get rained on a lot. But hey, we have the mountain and we have the beaches so I don’t complain! We were blessed with some gorgeous weather, and all kinds of love surrounding these 2 amazing people. C and A got married at the gorgeous The Resort at The Mountain and the weather couldn’t’ have been more perfect. From start to finish, there was smiles and emotions. I couldn’t quit taking pictures….even though I wanted to munch on s’mores all night. You’ll see what I’m talking about when you look through the pictures.

hi everyone! it’s me! i’m alive!!! (0;  life has been busy and kept me from blogging all the beautiful weddings and families i had the privilege of capturing recently. i know i promised to do better about blogging but somehow managed to get worse. eeeek.  the funny emails and facebook messages i get from clients and friends wondering if i had fallen of the face of the earth brought me lots of smiles. so in the hopes of actually making myself blog some past stuff i am going to start today and plan on doing at least one post a week. i will never get caught up on all the past stuff but i am going to do my best to share some of my favorites. i had so many beautiful weddings, one just last weekend, and i will be flying to california with my sidekick in a few weeks to shoot another one. here is just a quick shot to go with all this text. much more to come soon! oh and be sure to email me to get on my schedule for spring/summer family photos. we are finally getting some sun so my schedule will be filling up quickly!

xoxo

j

So as I am editing wedding photos today I ran across my folder of images from Las Vegas. I can’t believe I haven’t posted them so I figured I better do it real quick. Every year all us crazy photographers head off to sin city to learn some new tricks, check out new gear, compare all the new products from vendors at the annual WPPI convention.  We get to play lots, meet new people and usually grab in a few shoots.  This year I did an awesome shoot put on by the amazing Victor Sizemore. The desert + beautiful bride + amazing styling = one happy Jen.

Here are the awesome vendors that made this shoot possible:

Victor Sizemore Photography

Styling by Summer Watkins

Historical Jewels

Make Up & Hair: Jill Guin of Darling Bride

Video: Elysium Productions

My lovely friend Kristen and I all bundled up. She is one of my partners in crime every year. Can you tell it was sooooo cold and windy?  It was!! Our poor models were such troopers.

i have a million weddings to post and i promise to get to them as soon as i’m done with my last one for the summer this weekend. whew it’s been busy! i promise to post the other shoots as well, but here is one for now. this sweet and adorable couple is getting married next summer in cali and you know how i love me some california weddings! yipeee.  so this is their engagement session we did in portland just a few hours before he had to board his plane back home. they are way too cute and photogenic, it made my job too easy.

busy busy busy in the midst of wedding season, but I HAD TO share a quick screenshot of two of the sweetest people. i had the privilege of capturing these two get married last weekend out in the gorge on a perfect summer day. i promise that there will be a full blog post dedicated to these two but I had to share this real quick.  i love them.

i love love and i can’t say that enough. what i love more than love is seeing two people honestly, truly, wholeheartedly in love with each other. it makes us laugh the whole shoot (which we did) and it makes me smile the whole time editing the photos. the bad part is that it also makes it crazy hard to narrow down my favorites.  yeah it was a little out of control even to pick for the blog. i think you’ll see why.  i am so excited to shoot their wedding in a few months!!!

It’s that time of year again…yeah vegas time!  I’m officially off in the morning to Las Vegas for the annual photography convention WPPI.  Going with my favorite girlfriends to cause trouble, learn, check out all the new products to offer my clients and even squeezed in a couple of shoots that I am super excited about.  I’ll be out of reach until thursday the 10th so if you need anything please email my office manager Brienne at polkadotphoto AT gmail DOT com or through the contact form on the portrait website.  Here is a photo from last year there.  what happens in vegas stays in vegas……. peace out……

I have been working on for waaaay too long but got busy and didn’t have time to work on it.  I finally got it launched today though. I’ll be tweaking some things but you can see it now. I am so excited to share it with all of you.

Click HERE to go to jenifer johnston photography weddings

Olivia and Quinn are the cutest sweetest things ever.  They found me via facebook through another client. I was happy to do their session on the University of Washington campus since I had never been before.  Olivia has an adorable Tennessee accent and Quinn couldnt more of a gentlemen and I had such a fun time with them. So without further ado here is a few to share from their engagement session.  

{p.s. I am trying to get caught up on blog posts from forever ago so please forgive my absense. I have waaaaay to many sessions to have all of them make it to the blog but I am going to try. I have just been so slammed}

xoxo Jen

Before I left for WPPI I got to shoot a lovely vintage inspired wedding with the awesome Kacy Jo. We started off at the lovely Hotel DeLuxe in downtown Portland.  We headed off to the streets for shots of S&C and then onto the Portland Rose Gardens.  The wedding was at The Oaks Pioneer Church which was perfect and cozy for their sweet intimate ceremony.  The reception was at Kells downtown which is where they met. The wedding and reception was filled with beautiful tears, laughs, and duck fart shots. Such a fun fun fun wedding. So fun and beautiful that I think I went a bit overboard with the blog photos to share but I couldn’t help myself. S had everything carefully picked and crafted up a lot of the things herself. The beautiful touches really added to a gorgeous gorgeous evening.

I shot this wedding the day after we got back from Alaska. It was so much fun and the B&G and their family have been so patient waiting for their gallery to go up. It is almost finished and this sneak peek is I am sure going to put a smile on their faces. Thank you Maria and Tommy for having me there on your special day!

The anticipation shows here. I just love the look on her face as she waits to see herself in the dress. Gives me the tingles.

This one was just too sweet not to show on here. The wind kept catching her hair so Tommy tried to fix it for her. It was so sweet.

Can’t remember what made everyone laugh but I just loved this shot.

Officially married! yay!

love

This might not be for some people but I loved this shot of the wind catching her vail.

And of course you gotta do the reservoir dogs shot. Except they didn’t all have shades. Still cool though.

The first dance

And the best for last. At least it is my favorite anyways. oh I just can’t tell you how much I love this one.