Category: Personal

So it’s been a long time coming! I’ve watched my brother turn on old cleaners in River Ridge into a place that our community really needed! Over the past week, I’ve seen dancing school girls, sports teams, parents, kids and grandparents all gathering together to enjoy a cup of yogurt. Laughing, smiling, and happy to be in each others company!! My brother made the decision to purchase a Tutti Frutti franchise about 6 months ago. It was a name and a brand that came with a reputation. An unbelievable reputation. It’s known for it’s bright colors, delicious yogurt and fun toppings. You can please the ones who are health conscious with original tart and fresh fruit. Then you can please the ones who love peanut butter and cake batter with candy toppings! Yogurt is something that does our body well, the probiotics are necessary! Yogurt strengthens the immune system, helps prevent colon cancer, lowers blood pressure & cholesterol, prevents infections, reduces inflammation, improves mineral absorption, prevents harmful bacterial and growth under stress. I’ve lost of couple of lbs since they’ve opened!!

The first day of the opening was amazing. I had just finished up a shoot that morning and headed to the store to spend time with my family and help get things ready. It was fun to see all of us in our Tutti Frutti shirts greeting people! I was so happy to see a good bit of my photography clients walk thru the door. THANK YOU!! I am so proud of my brother and it’s really nice to see so many people supporting him. This is something that is going to do well in our little River Ridge community- we’re all like family around here! Everyone knows everyone. People were evening coming from the St. Rose, Destrehan area, as well as down in Jefferson. Awesome!

So here is a peek at Opening Day. June 7th, 2011. It’s been a world wind around here, spending lots of nights hanging out over there now. It’s brought our family closer together and I can’t wait to see all the great things that are to come!

9029 Jefferson Highway in River Ridge, come check it out guys!

My grandmother in her glory!! She has owned a Snowball/Ice cream Stand for 30+ years!! Yogurt is HER THING! She has been an amazing help over the past few months! We love her so much!My fav toppings!!!First customers!! They even rode their bikes there :)Special thanks to my future sis in law Jen Russo for printing these awesome shirts!! Email me if any of you guys need shirts, she has a professional t-shirt press machine and does great work!!A very happy dude! Congrats JIM!!!Proud Mama!! ;)Some of the Tutti Frutti crew!!Happy customer!My mom and her best friend of 40+ years!!! Mrs. Roxie’s daughter Bridgette works at Tutti Frutti and has been such a HUGE help!!Checking out how the machines work in the back kitchen!Mamaw and my Uncle Pat!Some of the Bootcamp crew!!

Some of you may have noticed that now when you type in WWW.JENAMATO.COM it sends you straight to my blog :) This is something I’ve been contemplating for months now, realizing that barely any of you visit the main website. I would say most of you come to the blog to see whats fresh and new. For almost 3 years I have been updating the blog several times per week. The blog is a direct reflection of me as an artist to the date. I update after every single Wedding and Portrait Session. Here is were you will find me in the current. I don’t think I had updated the “main” website it about a year. It just became hard to manage both.

So please if you are someone inquiring, feel free to search around and stay for a while! If you are looking for particular sessions, then click the CATEGORIES section, that should take you right to where you want to go :) If you’d like more detail, then feel free to use the “SEARCH” bar at the top right hand side of my blog. You can type in more specific searches. For example: ‘6 month sessions’, ‘Beverly’s Wedding’, or ‘Pavilion of the Two Sisters’. Those detailed words will pull up the exact posts you are looking for or it will give you samples of sessions I’ve photographed at 6 months or weddings I’ve photographed at that venue. What ever it is that you are looking for.

I swear guys, sometimes its hard for me to wrap my head around it all. For the month of May, I have shot 3 Weddings and 19 portrait Sessions. I wonder how all of this went from zero to sixty in just a few years. I try so hard for each of you. I try to get better on a daily basis, to think of creative ideas, and to stay on top of my editing so that I have something to share here regularly. I kind of have a system down pat now so I know how to manage the work flow. I never thought a girl who grew up in River Ridge and starting up this photography business would turn into this. I shoot, edit, design all my albums, fill all photo orders, update the blog, answer all the emails and phone calls, mail out orders and CD’s…. all by myself. I don’t have a team working under me, I somehow have managed to find the time to get it all done. This does mean turning a good bit of work away so that I am able to still have a life. For Weddings however- I have 3 wonderful alternating second shooters that give me a huge hand during the 8 hour Wedding days! Couldn’t do it without them!

Randy asked me the other day how many people did I think were viewing the website? I told him I had no idea. I pay for this thing called “Website Traffic” from my hosting company which breaks down lots of areas of where people are viewing from, for how long, which city, etc. I never even think to check it. I don’t really have the time to sit there an analyze it all. However- what I did see is that I was averaging around 15,000 hits per month. THANK YOU! That means you guys are coming back regularly to see whats new. I just wish more of you left comments ;) I would love to learn more about you guys and where you are from. It takes alot of work to keep this little ole’ blog FRESH!

There are several photo blogs that I follow and I often leave comments, it’s a great way to say hello and tell them that you enjoy their work. I’ve met some wonderful people through my blog. People sometimes email to tell me thank you for inspiring them to go after their dream of photography. That makes me feel really good inside. Like I said- I never thought I would get to this place. I think it’s weird that people know my name sometimes. Who am I? I just like to take pictures and I am so thankful to those people who have allowed me to document their lives. There is still SO MUCH MORE I want to do, and share and explore! The world is so big, our opportunities are endless and I will continue to push myself to be more creative in every aspect of my life. It’s who I am. I hope to be able to show a lot of it here on my site. Each day is a journey!

Just wanted to say thanks again for all the support- I am happy that this blog is a place where some of you check in to see whats new. To take a break from work, or unwind after a long day. I appreciate each one of you who continues to visit, you have helped me become who I am today.

Much Love on this Memorial Day Weekend!

I don’t really have too much to share picture wise today, just trying to get caught up and organize myself for the upcoming weeks. Been an editing, album design, and photo ordering fool lately when I’m not out shooting. I’ve been back at bootcamp full force too which is always a nice release to just let my mind be in the present moment. I had taken a good month or so off. There is an upcoming race at City Park that our whole workout crew is planning to attend together. As rough and tough as “bootcamp” sounds- it really isn’t. It’s a place where we leave everything else at the door and come to give it all we have. I’ve made some great friends in the group, we now have a running coach named Jennifer that owns Louisiana Running Company. She comes out there with us sometimes and kicks our butt. This morning she emailed us a quote that really hit me. Thought I would share it with you.

“There is no limit to what you can imagine. And with commitment, with effort, what you can imagine… you can become. Put your mind to work for you. Believe that you can do it. The world will tell you that you can’t. Yet, in your belief… you’ll find the strength, you’ll find the ability, to do it anyway.” Ralph Marston

I’m sure we can all apply that to our lives in one area or another. I’ve seen so many dreams become a reality for not only myself but for many people around me. It takes waking up every morning with a different attitude, a certain hunger for something better in life, yearning for a challenge and not stopping until you get there. I think about this all the time. Wondering where I’d be if I didn’t become a photographer – the world would look different to me. It wouldn’t be as happy. I’ve experienced so much in the last several years. Each day I learn something new. I learn what I want for my life. Things I really love doing, things I want to change. Areas of my business that I’d like to re-evaluate, etc. I get down on myself sometimes because I wish there were just more hours in the day to get out all this creative stuff I have jumbling around in my head. One day I will find that balance and things will begin to make sense in my brain. Until then I will continue on while I live out this journey. The growing process is sometimes the best part right? Painful and uncertain, but completely necessary to reach the place we want to be in life. I am working towards a certain goal. Are you? We talk about this a lot in bootcamp. Reaching certain goals – – whether it be physically or in everyday work life.

I can always tell when I have alot going on because I dream alot, do you guys do that? I wake up in the morning and think to myself… what the heck was that all about?? I think my mind is always moving so fast that when I finally do fall asleep it’s like a jumble of thoughts! My latest dream was my dog Lexie swimming at the bottom of the ocean, yet somehow she could breathe under there? (Like a little fish! So freaking weird? LOL!)

Anyway… Happy Wednesday! More posts to come soon ;)

Just wanted to say hello! :) Things have been a whirlwind over here in Jen Amato Photography land. It’s a great time of year for Weddings and Portraits! My mom just left- she came over to help me stuff 100+ dancing school packages, there were photos all over the place! It would have taken me 3x as long if she didn’t come over. Tomorrow I need to edit 3 sessions and design a Wedding album- we will see how far I get! I know I won’t finish, I never finish my to-do lists because I always make them impossible to accomplish in one day! My calendar looks like something blew up, along with my desk and this house. Just kidding- I like to exaggerate. I think I’m delirious from looking at a million photo prints! Off to fold clothes, shower and hit the hay.

Here’s a couple of little sneak peeks that will hit the blog soon. I have several Bridal sessions too that are waiting to be blogged. One is my bride Beverly who’s Wedding I will be photographing on Saturday! She is gorgeous! Can’t wait to post those!

Christina & Eddie’s Engagement Session!

Alex is ONE!

I’m sure most of you will recognize Jen, she is my brothers fiance. I just photographed their Engagement photos last month. It was my pleasure to help host a party for Jen along with my Mom and Aunt Brenda. My Aunt has a beautiful garden that was the perfect setting for what we were going for. It ‘s been fun putting together the little details. (Tissue paper balls, clay pot & seeds party favors, tags for cupcakes and food, sign for the street, baking, making dishes, etc). If anything, it was fun to go back to my creative roots. It kind of felt like arts and crafts at one point. Always enjoy spending quality time with my family, too. Overall, looking back though the photos, I think it turned out really cute. I can’t believe Chris and Jen’s Wedding is just 4 months away. Happy to be welcoming Jen into our family!

Here’s a little peek of our Saturday afternoon: