New York City Glamour Photographer | New York City Wedding Photographer | Jasmine E. Photography

Jen’s Before and After Weight Loss Success Story – New York City Glamour Photographer

Jasmine E. — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:00:20 +0000

This is Jen. I think her story is important because in the last nine months Jen has lost over 100 pounds. With a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, tears and the support of her husband and 4 beautiful children, Jen is a new woman! Like many of us, Jen has struggled with her weight, body image and self confidence for as long as she can remember. I’m sure many of you now reading this can relate with your own personal struggles and desires to look and feel prettier or better about yourselves. One day, after having enough, she made a decision that would change her life forever. Jen opted for bypass surgery. Many might ho and hum at the thought of surgery for weight loss. Listen closely. Surgery is not “the easy way out” as some might want to argue. It’s just has hard as any other diet that exist, if not harder! Recovering from surgery without the ability to consume the nutrition your body needs to heal is physically and emotionally exhausting, and beyond frustrating. Your body goes through an intense and excruciating detox – you know that feeling you get on day 2 or 3 of your diet? Now multiply that by 100 and then compound it with the pain and discomfort that comes with a major surgery. If anything, I believe that Jen is a brave and tough fighter. She wanted to make a change for the better in her life, she took control and she did. Today, she’s 130 lbs smaller, an avid Crossfitter, more comfortable in her own skin than ever! And might I add … A total Knockout!! Doesn’t she look a bit like Krisite Alley? Congratulations on all your hard work Jen! You are BEAUTIFUL!

“Having hair and makeup was such a new experience. I felt like I was literally going to be on the cover of vogue! Every girl should be pampered every now and then. I felt instantly more confident with hair and makeup and wardrobe. Posing was made easy by guidance and it was such fun! When I saw the first image I was in awe. I honestly would’ve cried had I not been around so many new faces but to always see myself as a 320 lb woman and then to see myself like this was a shock to my brain. It was like I was looking at someone else. But to know it sure was me after all my hard work….was nothing short of amazing. Jasmine is a great and wonderful artist with a pure ability to make a woman’s true beauty shine through. I’m forever thankful for this experience.” – Jen Morias

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Contemporary Women’s Portrait – How Would You Like to Be Photographed? – Jasmine E. Photography

Jasmine E. — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:12:25 +0000

Whenever I ask someone how they want to be photographed, I usually get “I’m not really sure” or “I haven’t thought about it”.
The great thing for me however, is that although most people never give it a thought, every single woman (or man for that matter) brings their own sense of style and personality to the shoot. I certainly have rules in my studio, about what to wear and styling (no printed garments or logos for example), makeup and hair applications (always mandatory) and posing (suck in tummy, long neck, chin down), and once I go over my rules with you, I like to find out a whole lot of stuff about YOU. What are you favorite colors to wear? Do you prefer pants/jeans to dresses? Do you have anything awesome in your closet at home that you’ve been saving for a special occasion? And before you know it, I get a really great sense of your personal style which certainly helps me tailor a personalized session just for you.

My point is, don’t worry too much if you’re not sure how you want to be photographed. We talk it out together, and come up with a game plan that’s just right for you!

Ready to book your session?

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Stuff I love – Bobbi Brown’s Makeup Manual – NYC Glamour Photography

Jasmine E. — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:16:07 +0000

I’m an absolute huge fan of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. My go to brand for natural hues suitable for ALL complexions and perfect for every day wear. If you haven’t heard, their foundation stick is the best! If you aren’t familiar with the brand I highly encourage a visit to your local Bobbi Brown Cosmetics counter, talk with one of their counter girls and see if there’s anything you like.

One Bobbi Brown product that I think every single woman interested in learning about the secrets to applying flawless every day makeup is Bobbi Brown’s Makeup Manual.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!

I started learning about makeup during my days as a plus size model, sitting in makeup chairs on set for shoots. It was also very important for me to learn the do’s and don’ts of makeup ethics for models, and to learn it quickly! Makeup and modeling is very serious business. After a bit of research, I knew this was the perfect reference guide for someone like me, learning the ropes. Here’s a brief description from the company’s website:

“Bobbi’s 25+ years of makeup artist experience is distilled into one volume that includes over 200 full-color photos and step-by-step instructions as well as a “Ten Step Guide to Perfect Makeup” that teaches you how to apply your makeup in ten minutes or less.”

Who doesn’t want to apply their makeup in 10 minutes or less and look fab walking out the door? Sad thing is most women don’t know the in’s and out’s of good makeup techniques. If you want to learn how to create your best “natural look” quickly and easily, this is the only makeup manual you need. Enjoy!

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Portrait Couture – Victoria Lee Look 4 – NYC Beauty Photographer

Jasmine E. — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:54:55 +0000

I’m pretty sad that I’m nearing the end of the images from my shoot with Victoria. If you’ve been following for the last several days, you’ll already know Victoria is a professional plus size model with FORD models. If you’ve missed the last few post, you can go check out her first three looks here, here and here. I’ll wait while you go check those out!

You back? Good!

Today I’m sharing the Beauty Shot. When working with models and adding to their portfolio, it’s extremely important to be able to provide a great Beauty Shot. A true beauty shot in this instance to models is akin to head shots for actors. The purpose they serve are to show casting directors and all future clients the real and natural you. These images shouldn’t be super stylized or made to “look like” L’Oreal, or Cover Girl ad campaigns. These images however are supposed to help you book those types of jobs by showing casting directors your hair, your skin and teeth, your smile and the overal symmetry of your face. A model is just the blank canvas for a specific JOB.

With that in mind, I knew it would be very, very important to keep Victoria’s beauty shot “Soft, Fresh & Feminine”.

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Portrait Couture – Victoria Lee Look 3 – Plus Size Model Photographer Jasmine E. Photography

Jasmine E. — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:34:25 +0000

I’m very, VERY excited for today’s share. Actually I’ve been very excited about each and every share from this photo shoot. To re-cap, you can see Victoria’s first and second looks here and here. Victoria is a professional plus size model represented by FORD Models. As you can see, she’s really quite beautiful. I feel really awesome about all the work I’ve shared from this shoot over the last few days, but I think I’m in love with these images in particular because they’re composed with two of my most favorite creative muses:

Sun flare and Sequins!!!

I LOVE, Love, Love, love, luuuurve! sun flare. I first blogged about it almost three years ago here. And Sequins?? What woman doesn’t love a little sparkle in her life? Even I, myself am wearing a sequin dress in my profile picture up there at the top of this page, if you haven’t noticed already. Nothing screams feminine and fresh like a sparkly wardrobe. At least, I don’t think there is. But if you know of anything else, be sure to fill me in please! You can see more about my sequined obsessions here, here, and of course on Pinterest here. And perfectly exposed sun-flare makes for a few really soft and dreamy images. There are those three words again “Soft, Fresh & Feminine” – I love this look for Victoria.

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Portrait Couture – Victoria Lee Look 2– Plus Size Model Photographer Jasmine E. Photography

Jasmine E. — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:03:00 +0000

On Friday, I shared images from my photo shoot with Plus Size Model Victoria Lee of Ford Models. You can see images from the first look here. Today, and over the course of this week, I’ll be sharing several images from each look. “Soft, Fresh & Feminine” are the three words I decided to focus on for my work with Victoria. I wanted to be sure I could keep her look, feminine and fashionable, and within the boundaries of the fashion industry for the plus size market.

We decided sequin hot pants, and a black long sleeve zip up would definitely be a fun and memorable look. Victoria is a gorgeous girl, so after a few frames, we got the shot – piece of cake. Below are 2 of my favorite images:

After nailing the top images, I decided it was safe enough to experiment and push myself out of my comfort zone. I love shooting natural light because it’s always so soft and beautiful. In the studio however, around 3PM each day, a hard directional light blast straight through my favorite window. With hard light comes challenges (if you’re not sure how to read the language of light). I usually run far, far away from hard light like this, but on this day, I decided *NOT TODAY*. Time to ramp up my creativity!! With the hard light, I decided we could spice up Victoria’s look just a little. We changed hair, and I directed her into much stronger strong poses. It’s so amazing how light can affect the mood an energy of an image. Here’s what we got …

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Portrait Couture – Victoria Lee Look 1 – Plus Size Model Photographer Jasmine E. Photography

Jasmine E. — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:13:51 +0000

I recently had the great pleasure of working with the very beautiful Victoria Lee. She’s a professional plus size model with the #1 plus division of world renowned modeling agency Ford Models. Victoria works all over the united states with well know clients – Macy’s, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, etc and more recently has started working internationally with major brands. Let’s just say, this girl has modeling engrained in her blood. She’s a model with beautiful skin, perfect measurements and amazing bone structure. Victoria’s portfolio is already so beautiful – so the challenge here for me would be to add something to her already gorgeous collection of work that would be different from what already exist. After discussing her portfolio, and learning what her bookers wanted to see added going forward, we decided that “Soft, Fresh & Feminine” would be the ground work for the direction I would take.

Lace, sheer fabrics, pastels, sparkles, curves, sun-flare, big hair … those are the things that come to mind when I define “Soft, Fresh & Feminine”. Over the course of this week, I’ll be sharing the images from our photo shoot here, so I hope you’ll stay tuned!

Look #1

Very special thanks to family photographer Lisette Torres for creating this fun little snip-it of the shoot as she delves more deeply into the world of cinematography -

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New York City Glamour Photographer – The Flirt – Jasmine E. Photography

Jasmine E. — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:33:41 +0000

First we have Monica’s “Girl Next Door”, then we gave you her “Diva“. For the last look, I thought we could be a bit more Flirty. And for myself in particular, I really wanted to focus on getting her to move her body!

One of the hardest things to do as a photographer is to get your subject to be comfortable in front of the camera – especially when they’re half naked! I can imagine the first thing that comes to fruition is that feeling of overwhelming dread when you realize the bits and pieces you hate or what you believe to be are your “worst” parts are exposed to the ENTIRE Universe!! Well, first I want you to calm down … breatheeee. Yes, you have to be a bit braver should you decide your going to shoot in a bra an undie set or a piece of exposing lingerie BUT, after you’ve made that choice, you can leave the rest to me. The main piece of advice I give to women who are really anxious about the whole lingerie thing, is this:

“Let’s make pretend I’m not even here. And this camera, my camera, is your boyfriend, husband, or hot guy across the street who’s attention you really want to get right now. How would you flirt with him? How would you playfully reel him in?”

Once we’ve got your confidence in check, wonderful things can happen …

The Flirt

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New York City Wedding Photography – Memorable Wedding Cakes

Jasmine E. — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:21:49 +0000

I feel like this is a post I should have come up with at the end of 2012 but for some reason, it didn’t manifest in my mind until just recently. I’m not sure why exactly. I think maybe it’s because my Birthday is only a few days away, and I’ve been thinking very seriously about what kind of cake I want this year? Should I go for my usual default? A white, cannoli cake with butter cream frosting? And my next favorite is pineapple filling! Or should I venture out into the wilderness of the cake world and try something new? I’ve had my fair share of cake viewing and tasting in 2012 from all the weddings I had the opportunity to photograph, so that means, I should be able to come up with something “creative”. Anyway, after thinking about the cakes I saw this year, I thought it might be fun to share my favorite 10 wedding cakes of 2012.

#10. Sometimes less is more. This classic and simple cake is provided by The Fox Hollow. It’s 4 tiers, all white and has basic beading at the base of each tier. This has to be the most basic but still very pretty cake design I got to see in 2012. I also think it’s location right against the sheer curtain and window adds to whole “white” theme. This image was photographed for Ceci B. Photogrpahy.

#9. This cake was provided by the Glen Island Harbor Club in Westchester, NY. Here’s another take on a “less is more” design. However, this cake carries a lot more sophistication in it’s detail and it’s one of the only 5 tier wedding cakes I had the pleasure of working with in 2012. This image was photographed for John-Paul Teutonico Photography.

#8. Cake number 8 in the countdown was provided by Verdi’s of Westbury. It gets credited because as you can see in the back round this brides color scheme included purple … lots of purple flowers everywhere! The bakers of this cake did a great job adorning this cake with cute purple butter cream flowers. I remember tasting this cake and from what I can remember it was DELISH too! This image was photographed for Ceci B. Photography

#7. The number 7 cake is provided by the bakers at the very prestigious Oheka Castle. This cakes is the only SQUARE cake I’ve come across in the last 2 years. There’s lots of detail work going on in the body of the cake. Hearts, dots, crystals, etc. and it’s fondant bow’s are also a very unique touch. Nope I didn’t get to taste this one. This images was photographed for Ceci B. Photography

#6. This cake is provided by the caterers at Dorral Arrowood. This one stood out to me because of its intricately layered fondant frosting and use of REAL flowers. The cake topper is pretty nice too! This image was photographed for John-Paul Teutonico Photography

#5. The number five cake on the list, isn’t the traditional wedding cake so to speak. This is the cake that was provided for a wedding that took place at the Oakside Mansion. The wedding couple choose a top tier layer & topper and choose cupcakes for the rest instead. Cute idea, and the guest loved it! This image was photographed for Katie Jane Photography.

#4. This beautiful little cake was provided by the Bridgeview Yacht Club. If you couldn’t tell by the delicate sea-shell shapes fluttering about the top, this was a cake for a beach themed wedding. How’d they get those pretty sea shells to stay on top of the cake anyway? This image was photographed for Ceci B. Photography

#3. The cake in the number 3 spot is one of my all time favorites! I wish I could tell you where the cake was baked but quite honestly I don’t remember. This couple had a very non-traditional reception in the Hamptons. They served BBQ for dinner (YUM). Their cake was has to be one of my favorite of the year. It has a very rustic look, and is adorned with wild flowers. So pretty! This image was photographed for Ceci B. Photography.

#2. The Hassan Caterers – Temple Chavrim provides a stunning centerpiece of a cake. It’s pretty self-explanatory how regal and sophisticated it is. There’s something about a black and white cake that oozes black tie traditional. It was hard for me decide whether this cake should take the number one spot. So close … so close! This image was photographed for Ceci B. Photography

#1. This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged my favorite cake of all time. You can see the first time I wrote about the cake here. The number 1 cake of 2012 was provided by the Crescent Club. The simple fondant ruching that wrapped along the front of the cake was very elegant. And the diamond ribbon around the base of each layer really added a high end touch. So simple, yet gorgeous. It was lit by basic pin light, but simple lighting makes all the difference in a prestigious display. It deserves number 1 for 2012. This image was photographed for Ceci B. Photography

I also want to give a very special thank you to Ceci B. Photography, John-Paul Tetunico Photography and Katie Jane Photography for having me 2nd shoot with you for all of 2012! Can’t wait to work with you again in 2013!

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New York City Glamour Photography – The Glamourous Diva – Jasmine E. Photography

Jasmine E. — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:48:08 +0000

Last week I shared Monica’s Girl Next Door look. This week, I’m skipping straight ahead to her Glamorous Diva side.

I certainly learned a few things about myself during our session together. Firstly, I’m totally in love with photographing sequins and sparkly things, metallic fabrics and the like. Some photographers feel inspired by photographing other things, like lace, lingerie or cute little props, but as you’ll see in the next few weeks, I really, REALLY enjoy incorporating the sparkle into my Glamour sessions. Perhaps it will be my new trademark in my style?

Second, while I prefer to use natural light during my Glamour photography sessions, I think … and I do emphasize the word “think” since in my eyes, nothing beats the softness of a portrait lit with natural light … Well I think that studio lighting is growing on me. It brings a different feel to my photography style, a certain edge. You can certainly see the difference between last week’s series and this week’s. I think I like getting to know this side of me a whole lot. It will be interesting to delve into studio lighting over the next few weeks!

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