I could use this space to blow my own horn and tell you all about the wonderful awards I've never won for my photography. I could mention all the affiliations I have with these great organizations with important sounding names. But I'll not bore you with all the blah, blah, blah you'll see on most every other photographers site. What you REALLY want to know is, can and will we be able to take beautiful portraits of your wild, often unruly and ever growing family, while at the same time keeping it fun and entertaining. The answer is YES, absolutely........your search is over. :)
So how did we end up here in Emerald Isle? Wow, I'm so glad you asked that, I love talking about myself, so here's the Reader's Digest version.....
After visiting Emerald Isle to photograph a friends wedding back in May 2005, my wife and I decided it was time for us to simplify our life a little. We went back home to our growing little photography studio and started putting the wheels in motion for us to move our family to Emerald Isle. A little over 7 months later, we had closed down our downtown studio, closed our mall studio, sold our home and made our way here to Emerald Isle on a complete leap of faith. (this should stir up visions of the Beverly Hillbilly's riding into town in that AWESOME truck they had!)
In April 2006 we did our very first family beach session and I guess you could say the rest is history. Since that first session we have had the pleasure of photographing well over 550+ family sessions here on the beaches around Emerald Isle. That experience is absolutely invaluable to our clients when it comes to knowing how to handle the changing winds and weather conditions we have to work with here on the beach. Wow, that sounded impressive didn't it. Kinda sounds like I'm part meteorologist and part photographer, when actually I'm just a huge fan of the Weather Channel and a darn good guesser. (picture me standing on the beach, licking my finger and holding it up in the air.......yep.....winds blowing from that direction right there...) If you haven't noticed already, I like to joke around and have a good time......when we are having a good time.......we get great shots........its a proven fact, just take a look around my site at all the smiling faces. :)
I'm a self taught photographer, coming from back in the day of shooting slide film, when you actually had to know a little something about photography to get a decent image. Nothing like now days, where pretty much anyone with $800 can walk into a Wal-mart as a nobody and walk back out with a camera and a lens, calling themselves a professional "faux-tographer." Hey, I own some really nice pots and pans.........doesn't that make me an Iron Chef! Hello...Food Network......I'm right here! :)
If you call or email us about a session, your first contact will more than likely be with my wonderful wife Rhonda. She's our resident SUPERHERO. (She made me write that...honestly...she's looking over my shoulder right now as I type this.) She does so much around here, she handles everything from booking appointments, answering client emails, invoicing, packing and shipping print orders out to clients. On top of all that, everyday she also home schools our very very talkative 12 year old daughter Maggie. I would never be able to do what I do out on the beach each evening, without her keeping everything straight here in our home office.
We celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary in 2016 and we've worked side by side everyday in this business for the last 14 years. We have really enjoyed working with so many families to make sure they have great beach portraits that will be enjoyed by many generations to come. (awwww....that's kinda sappy, but it's soooo true!)
Enough about us........tell me about yourself and your crazy mixed up family that you're brave enough to spend a week at the beach in Emerald Isle with. What were YOU thinking!
All-Inclusive Pricing
$1300
A $300 retainer is required to hold your session.
price includes:
Coming Soon!
So you're probably asking yourself, just how much is it going to cost us to have this bright, witty and talented photographer, come all the way out to our beach house, spend an hour or so chasing my crazy family around on the beach, doing his very best to make all the ladies look young and thin, each child look angelic and sweet, all the while keeping things rolling smoothly so that we get all the images you want, but also doing it in a timely manner so that the men of the family don't start crying FOUL, because they want to get back to fishing, watching sports, drinking or whatever it is they do while they are on vacation..........whew......for someone that can handle all of that and get GREAT images.....that's going to cost ya. :)
Ok, so here's what you get:
You get to talk to my lovely wife Rhonda on the phone or via email and she's going to make sure you get the very best customer service that you've ever received in your life. Yes, she's that good. I have clients all the time tell me that if I wasn't already married to her, that I should marry her.........they think she's the sweetest soul ever! I can't compete with that, so I'll just stick to taking pretty pictures. :)
You get ME, Jeff Pennell as the photographer. How cool is THAT! Not everyone can be so lucky. :)
I'll be coming to you, there's absolutely no need for you to get everyone all dressed up, pile them in several cars and drive them down the island to another patch of sand that is going to look almost EXACTLY like the patch of sand out in front of your very own beach house. (I should charge extra for this service, but hey......you seem like a nice person...I'll throw it in for free..just don't tell anyone.)
I'm going to take soooooooooooo many great photographs of your family. I'm going to do it quickly and in an organized manner. I'll see that all the smaller children get their images done first, BEFORE they go into total meltdown mode. (yes, it happens.......I've seen it and it isn't pretty)
We are going to get every possible combination you can think of. Full Group, Grandparents w/grand kids, Grandparents with their adult children, each family unit, each couple, each child, all the grandkids together, the list goes on and on....trust me I've got this photo thing on the beach figured out. Shoot a lot of different shots, you can't say no to all the great shots, you buy lots of prints.......my wife gets new shoes and I get to live at the beach for another year. Tada.....my secret is out. :)
After the session I'm going to edit through all the shots I've taken of your family and place the very best images up online for everyone to Oooh and ahhh at from the comfort of their own home. We are going to keep them up online for 14 days giving everyone plenty of time to make their selections. Isn't technology wonderful!
We NEVER charge by the person!
You're paying for my time there that evening and I want to make sure you get all the images you could possibly want, regardless of how many people it ends up being in the shots. We are only limited by the amount of daylight mother nature gives us each evening.
All-Inclusive Pricing
$1300
A $300 retainer is required to hold your session.
price includes:
If you've made it this far and you would like to have more information about how to reserve a session time for your family. Just go to the Contact Info and send us a request and we'll make sure you get everything you need.