Remembering The Meaning | A Personal Post

When thinking about what I wanted to blog about this week I knew it was going to be a crazy week for me. This weekend is the Explore North Workshop which is the very first workshop I have ever planned and hosted. That being said, I thought it would be nice to just take a little breather and have just a little time for reflection.

With all of the final details and busyness of every day life you can easily forget why you're doing something in the first place. You put in countless hours, sleepless nights, elevated levels of stress, and then you get to the big event and forget the reason behind it. This can happen with any work project, but unfortunately I see it happen all too often with my wedding clients as well.

That's why today, just a couple days before we head to the Northwoods of Wisconsin, I want to remind myself why I've been working so hard on this new project. I love helping others, creating a community, teaching, exploring, and most importantly sharing in a unique and valuable experience with others. April, Shaunae, and I have poured everything into this workshop so we can create the best experience possible for all of the wonderful photographers coming and I can't tell you how excited I am to see everything come together!!

I wanted to take this week to remind myself, but to also encourage you to do the same! If you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed with your wedding plans, just remember to take a step back, take a deep breath, and just remember why you're doing all of this work. It may be stressful now, but it'll all be worth it in the end :) 

Kacie + Matt | Adventurous Engagement Session | Pewits Nest, Baraboo

Whenever I meet with a couple I always love to find out more about them, their story, and their wedding day but I also want my clients to know who I am so they can not only feel comfortable with me, but trust me as well. Haha I always joke that I'm going to be your new BFF on your wedding day, but really, it's true! Your wedding photographer is someone that you are spending a great deal of time with and someone you are trusting to capture all of the memories from one of the most important days of your life. Trust is kind of important :)

From the first time I talked with Kacie and Matt I knew that they just totally awesome people and I wanted to get to know them better and work with them. The best way to do that is at your engagement session! What was even better though is that they had already put their trust in me to try out a new location that I hadn't photographed in! And even better something a little more on the adventurous side.

I am suuuuper afraid of heights (climbing up ladders makes my heart race) but I don't let that stop me from trying new things and I'm so excited that Kacie and Matt were up for the challenge as well. They braved some steep ledges to get some beautiful views at Pewits Nest, and I think it was totally worth it! They trusted me when I suggested this new location and I think we got tons of beautiful and unique portraits because of it!

Mattie | Madison, Wisconsin, Senior Portrait Session

I often get asked, "besides weddings, what do you like to shoot?" The answer? Senior portraits!! That's why you'll notice a mix of wedding, engagement, and senior portraits in my portfolio. I should probably create a different website just for seniors, but I'm all about simplifying my life right now ;)

Senior portrait sessions are so much fun for me because it's a time dedicated to bringing out each person's personality and interest through portraits. If I have extra time some day (haha sorry I usually don't have that much free time) I'll scan some of my prints from my senior portraits and share them with you, but for now you'll just have to see some of Mattie's awesome session last summer!

Mattie is a super busy senior this year with basketball and softball, but she also loves the water so of course we just had to go in the lake for a bit! Why not?! I love the variety of locations we used in downtown Madison and just how effortless is was to photograph Mattie!

Destination Elopements + Weddings | Hiking Washington National Parks

For a lot of wedding photographers it is the dream to get to photograph a wedding in some exotic or adventurous location. Haha I know I will raise my hand and yell "pick me!!" any time someone asks to travel somewhere for their wedding. But for me it goes a little further than that. I seem to have this burning desire to see the world and all of the unique and beautiful places in it.

For those of you that don't know, photography is actually my second career! I started my adult life as an accountant, but a semester studying abroad in college taught me that life is just too short and you shouldn't settle for anything. That is why I'm now following my passion as a photographer, and that is why I want to photograph more destination weddings and elopements! I LOVE getting to photograph so many beautiful weddings here in Wisconsin, but I want to push it just a little further than that. There are so many amazing places to see and experience and I want to do that with my camera in hand.

Last summer I spent some time exploring Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, and the North Cascades. I will hopefully be going back to the area of the PNW soon, but it's just a little reminder of the gorgeous places even right here in the United States that we should all take advantage of and visit. Haha and of course take advantage of having portraits in these epic locations :)

I've been posting a lot more images like this in my Instagram feed (@jendederich) to hopefully inspire people to not only get out and explore but to try something new and adventurous for their wedding, elopement, or portrait session. Happy traveling!

Winter Engagement Session | Madison, WI Engagement Photographer

It's only spring, it's not too late to post winter images right?! Haha I know, I'm thinking about warm weather too, but these are just too cute not to share! And it shows just how awesome my couples are. It was definitely below zero the day that Theresa, Aaron, and I met for some engagement portraits in downtown Madison. Brrr!! But can you tell? Nope. I had so much fun with them and these images just prove that no matter what the weather is like you can get gorgeous images!