Making a statement in our work...

As a company and Studio we are changing here and moving to something much more artistic and fashion in what we do. So we are going to start showing more creative images along with our studio shots we do and that way people can see who we are better as Artists. While we shoot pretty much everything; our passion is with our Seniors, Couples (weddings and engagement), Fashion and Commercial Ad work.  Our focus is on Artistic and creative in all we do and while we are full service at the studio we do want people to see the other side of why we are here. ~jb and ann

John and Netanya | Invitation Pictures

John and Netanya decided on an invitation that needed a photo of them on the front. John wanted trees and color so we took off to the park and shot a few for them to choose from. They are such a fun couple.

Vintage Wedding | Kansas City

So without talking too much time to talk about the wedding here is a good view of what we captured for them. They decided to do a really cool Pin-up themed Wedding and the colors were amazing!

 

 

  

Riker Family Photos

We had a great time being invited today to the Riker's Family party. We spent a little over 2 hours taking pictures off the kids and family members for this special occasion. It was so nice to see a big family doing things together and willing to get some pictures taken. We should have some peeks up early this week on the facebook page. :) Thanks to the entire Riker Family for having us at your gathering!

Deposits, Why and Why Not

Ann and I both try really hard to make sure that we are doing everything that we can do to make our clients lives a little easier. That is the main idea behind the mini-sessions. To have something simple and fast. Let the parents and kids come in, get a cool backgound and pictures, and leave with the CD closely behind if not already in hand. All for a pretty low price. usually around $20-30. But lately we have been asked more and more about the deposit. It doesn't seem fair to have to pay for something weeks before the service is even provided, but on our side we have been hit hard lately by no-shows. Those appointments when we go out of our way to be there on a day we had plans, or kept a background up for a week because someone wanted it and they don't show up. The deposit is our way to say.. Hey, we are telling others no to possible sales because we said yes to you. In turn we really need you to show up for that appointment. We have yet to have a paid deposit not show for pictures. Yet this week we have had 3 appointments cancel that never called or emailed to say anything. Just didn't show. We know it goes with the territory and its something we are used to dealing with, but remember that when any photographer asks for that deposit at booking. 

:)

Nathan and Abby

Love this that Abby and Nathan made while we were shooting Engagement photos.

Seniors 2013!!! Grats

We have had a ton of Seniors come in over the past few weeks and have had a blast taking pictures with all of them. It is that time of year! Hopefully we can get all these CD's to them real soon! Here is a quick collage of some of them.

Absence..........(yes we are sorry)

We wanted to say sorry for all the time we have missed updating the blog and the readers we have. This past few months have been pretty crazy. While Ann is getting busier at the Studio and with shoots, Jeff has decided to take the leap into a regular job for a while as we pay off a few bills. Opening the Gallery and Studio, Ann moving to America, starting over, marriage, plus all the little things started to need attention. So we took some time to do just that. And in short we took pictures, played, and worked. Just not posting it. Well the time is over and the site is back to the front of our focus. We are going to start getting a few more sessions uploaded and get us ready for more coming fast. We have a new "Nintz Photography" page coming to show off our Art and Commercial work as well. :) SWEET!!! Thanks Ben!

We will be posting more very soon so see everyone then.

~ jeff and ann

Why we do this | Photography

We recently changed our about us page to include the following part and it has a little hidden meaning that we wanted to make known, but not draw too much attention to it.

“We love photography and what it lets us do for others. It lets us capture forever the feelings and the experience of our clients and friends. From that faithful glance a Bride gives her Groom just before they say I do, or the moment that a small child stops to look in the distance and you can see them thinking and smiling, the freedom seen in a Seniors eyes about to venture out into the world, to the moment that a mom holds her daughter and with a hug says goodbye.” We shoot in a mix of styles, making what we call a Photo-fashion-journalistic style and love to capture that perfect moment when people are being themselves and almost unaware of our cameras. Our focus and expertise is in taking Artistic and Beautiful Pieces of Art that can be cherished for a lifetime. We are always there for our clients and the community because it’s what we love to do.

We have been working hard at being the best wedding and portrait photographers we can be. It can be seen in every shot that we take now how much each shot is just that much better then the one before it. But the whole life of a photographer and the reason behind it has begun to grow as well.  We have been looking close at our community and see soo many people that are in need and have a pretty rough life. We have started to really be there for the community, the church and for anyone that we can be there for. In the span of the next 3 days we are having a booth in the local town of Oak Grove, MO to get people to start knowing that we are here. We have a benefit that we provided 2 free shoots for the most part for a silent auction, and we are attending this.

(A Celebrating Life Event on facebook) A gathering for Julianna Stokes she is 8 and has Rhabdomayo Sarcoma, She loves life so in her honor we are having a lil pinata party to help celebrate her life.  She is pretty sick and we all know that it takes miracles at this point to keep her here with us. We are going as friends now that we have gotten to know her mom, Martha, but we are also going to truly capture forever the feelings at this birthday party. I am truly without words to say how meaningful this feels and life changing it has been for me (jeff).

I don't think that I will ever look thru the lens of a camera the same again once I do this and its both scary and exciting. I have lived my life going in circles and trying to find a solid spot to plant and grow. Photography has given me that and let me plant my feet and try to grow. This event is sure to make me grow.

Enough with the sentimental stuff. We have had lots of wedding inquiries this week too, so looks like we might get even busier! yay!

Love ya all!

Helping hands for communities and people in need

We don't talk about the extra work we do for families that are less fortunate then we are on the site at all. We like it being just the photos and about the pictures and art, but this week has seen a lot of people struggling and we wanted to put it out there. We do photos for family's that have had loss, have a love one over seas, recent tragedy (house fire, flood), and for Orphans when contacted for such things. We also do a decent amount of work with some Local Hospice centers to get pictures in the homes or hospitals if need be for the families. We do this for love and because we think its right. As god loving people we have yet to say no to a family. This week have been working to collect pillow cases for kids in Africa and talking to the mom of a terminally Ill daughter that they are fighting just to get her a next Birthday party. I (we both) think that is why we love weddings so much also. So that we can celebrate the good in life and understand what that moment is worth. To see what its worth when the times are bad, helps us to take better pictures and capture more important moments when times are good.

Not sure it makes sense, but the week has had lots of bad and it just needed to be said that we are hoping and praying for every family we help and only hope that we can help them as much as they are helping us. Love you all! ~jeff and ann

Lots of photography in Kansas City going on

Ann and I both have been having trouble getting the blog posts in so please excuse us in that, but it does mean that things are good here. We are getting busy and just starting to say to the local community here in OG. Not to mention all the work we are doing trying to get our art to be the best. We study and work constantly to be the best. We have a few commercial shoots coming up in the next few days. Engagement photos to get planned that are going to be awesome and COLORFUL!, a wedding in 3 weeks and several bookings coming up fast to get solid so we can help the brides get to business and get them rolling in pictures.

We have decided that we have to do Mayfest here in Oak Grove this year, so we are planning an awesome deal for people we meet at the festival. If your coming you have to come find us. Also the local Chamber of Commerce added us to the t-shirts which for us is one of the coolest things EVER!!!

Last (not least), here are few shots of Gabriel from this week. (I really need to post more)

Children Portraits | Abby in Oak Grove

Easter and Candy....
Last week we enjoyed taking Abby's Pictures, this little princess is celebrating her first birthday this month, and we were honored to take her photos... this was also her first Easter... here at Nintz photography we wish her lots of Blessings in her life and family.

                             

Doing wedding pictures for a Wedding Photographer

Whew, The weekend is finally over and we had a great time. There was so much anticipation leading up to this wedding for Matt  and his bride Renee. Matthew is a wedding photographer himself and is quite busy. When he first asked us to do his pictures we thought, SURE!..... Then we started to think about it more. Its got to be like a chef cooking for a critic outside waiting for his best work to come through. We know that we are good and have done a lot of work to get us up to this moment, but still. This is the test for us. We just hoped that it would be a great venue and we would have a rockstar performance behind us. Then it happened. We walked in to the old Hardware Store turned Antique store and started up the dark stairs.  We got to the top of the stairs to a small waiting room with 2 doors. One going to the private waiting room for the bride and one into to a large, high ceiling, dark painted room with 6 small chandeliers on the ceiling. My heart sank and I could see Ann's face and she wasn't much happier. This was going to be a test. I had to confirm. "So.. this is where the reception is?" Matthew replied, "and the ceremony too." :(  Really?!? Ok... Then came in Justin Bond from Cinematic Occasions. One of the best Video guys in town. I looked at him and he had the same face. We talked for a while, got with the DJ to see if he had any extra lights for the ceremony and worked it out to get a little more light. I also had ordered the Canon 85mm 1.2 just for this in case. It stayed on my camera almost all weekend and I thank god I have gotten used to my 1.8 so I understood how to focus the 1.2. After the rehearsal and 200 pictures we had it figured out. Ann was ready and our assistant was too. The day of the wedding was 10 hours of shooting and changing lenses, from the private waiting room with 2 large north windows and back to the dark chamber of solace. :) In all we did great. We had the gear, we had the knowledge and the bride and groom know what it takes to make beautiful pictures in a dark place so with some well placed pauses in the ceremony the pictures are turning out great. Whew....  We do love this couple and they are going to be friends for a long time we are sure. Here are a few picts of the night that we posted before they took off for their honeymoon so they can see them. My favorite comment on facebook was Matt himself, mister wedding photographer.... I am floored.... These are amazing. You actually made me look pretty good. :)"

Thanks Matthew for letting us be a part of the wedding and giving us a chance to shine bright for you! Hope you enjoy them!

~jeff and ann

Our First Video (of pictures)

We had the opportunity from a friend that is in my karate organisation to make us a video of our pictures and put it to some stock music for us. I couldn't say no and Ann loved the idea. We both want a full blown video, but are working on getting into the perfect shape and on what we want it to say. We will probably bring him down to make it for us too unless he is too busy. Until then we have this awesome video of our pictures so enjoy! Most of these are taken in Kansas City, MO with a few others thrown in.  Thanks ~ jeff and ann

Whew.... Coffee! Stat!

We can't believe how crazy the past week has been. We have booked Kathy and her fiance from Topeka and will have that blog up soon. We are getting ready for the wedding of Local Wedding Photographer Matthew Orf and his fiance in 1 week! Plus we have already had a few walkins to the new gallery and lots of pictures left to get wrapped up. Man we still have to talk to (and about) Abby too... whew. So many things that we have like 6 posts all in the works at the same time. We also wanted to share that we have our first Featured Artist in the Gallery. Mrs. Shannon Majors of Grain Valley and a graduate of Oak Grove has brought in some works for us to hang on the walls and to post online. We will be selling them in the Gallery and online for her. Yay!!!! Now we need some coffee, some sleep and try to finish and post the rest of these posts! Here is a little taste of what she has brought in for us. :)

Our First Featured Artist Gallery!

New Friends | Abby & Nathan

     Well, Friday was a crazy day around the gallery and pretty much anywhere we went, but.. We did get to meet Abby Guinn and Nathan Underwood later in the afternoon and talk to them about their wedding coming next year in Jefferson City, MO and the wedding pictures they are looking forward too. Even though we have done this a hundred times it seems each new client meeting is always crazy and nerve racking. We do love our friends and clients, but I like to explain that first meeting a lot like a blind date. They have seen your picture and you have seen theirs. You might have even talked on the phone, but to actually meet for the first time is the bonus. I think its because Ann and I both see them as friends and want to do our best. Many times photographers treat it like a business meeting and we just can't do that. Weddings especially are about emotion and love. How can you possibly make it about business.
     Anyway.. we had a great time and they are wonderful people. Soo many ideas and things they want to try and do we will definitely have a blast working with them. Hopefully once they get some things settled and we get a few pricing things done we can get them to come up to the Studio in Oak Grove and get some first look pictures of the couple! Can't wait!
     Usually I would also post some drive pictures and some other things that went on, but it got kinda rough after we left them and had to drop off the radar for the rest of the weekend., :( Lets just say that I will always listen to Ann now and we will always have a back up for the backup for the cell phone charger.

Oak Grove | Gave us a license

Yeah!!! We finally got signed off on the new Art Gallery and Portrait Studio in Oak Grove today. :)

Ok, back to work, have floors to paint, pictures to hang and an awesome shelf to install.

Kids Portraits | Edwards Girls

We had a fun time last night with these crazy girls. Charlie and Hayden are a handful for their mom at times and it is a good work out for us in how to be flexible with what we are wanting to shoot. So many times we get stuck in our head what we want to take a picture of, but when it doesnt happen we get frustrated. Once that happens we don't get any good shots. What I love about doing this kind of photoshoot along with the weddings and our studio work is that its like training a different part of your mind. To quote the movie Gril Next Door, "Sometimes you just have to go with it." Once we relaxed and start just letting things happen the pictures got much much nicer. We will add a few more later, but here are the sneak picts we uploaded to facebook for now.

BTW - Hayden does a perfect impersonation of "Charlie bit my finger".

Nintz Art Gallery and Photo Studio in Oak Grove MO

     Even though we focus on the artistic wedding photography we wanted to have a small studio in our home town of Oak Grove, MO. So we found this little building that was for rent and gave the owner a gift. We have spent 2 months rebuilding it from scratch in the front to be an Art Gallery for local artists, plus its a nice place to get together with our clients. The city had some other thoughts which meant a lot of work and replacing things to get up and running with the portrait studio in the back. We still have room to expand and create a few sample rooms, but for now 3 rolls of 9 foot paper and a painted wall behind that for floor shots will have to do. We have even been buying up carpet samples to use with it for fun. Well, we finally got the new "out swinging" door in and the lit exit signs, and the new commercial fire extinguishers, and on and on... So even though its not completely done and we have not hung the gallery system or any of the art we have collected we wanted to show what we have been up to for the past 2 months. I refuse to say its done until we can get the 65 inch flat screen and built in cabinet in place of the AC wall unit. (:S)  ~jeff

Wedding Gift Ideas and Traditions

Mother
A double frame makes a wonderful gift for your mother. On one side, use a picture of you and your mother when you were a little girl and on the other, a picture of you together on your wedding day—hugging, getting ready together or something like that. For an extra-special touch, have the frame engraved to read, “I’ll always be your little girl.”

Father
If you wear a blusher veil, it is traditional to give it to your father after your wedding day, as a memento of that moment in your lives. A shadow box is a cute way to display this gift, along with a portrait of you walking down the aisle or having your father-daughter dance during the reception.

Fiancé
Secretly do a boudoir portrait session in your bridal lingerie and frame your favorite portrait. Hide it for him to find on your wedding morning with a little love note. This will be a wonderful surprise for him to enjoy that day and for many years to come.

Maid of Honor
A framed portrait of you together on your wedding day with a necklace or a gift card to a spa is the perfect thank you to your maid of honor. Have each bride’s maid sign the sole of your shoe before the ceremony for good luck. Whoever’s name is darkest by the end of the day will be married next.

Best Man
An engraved flask, a box of cigars or a nice set of cufflinks are all thoughtful gestures to give to the best man in your wedding. Be sure to get a portrait of all the groomsmen and the groom doing a toast. This makes a wonderful framed gift to give to each, along with a handwritten thank you card.

Flower Girl
An engraved locket is a wonderful gift for your flower girl. Alternately, a charming music box would also be cherished for years to come. Take a picture with your flower girl, and wait until her wedding day to give it to her, along with a heartfelt message about how proud you are to see her grow into a beautiful woman.

Future Children
Save a few bottles of wine from your wedding (depending on how many children you plan to have) and box each one up with a picture of you and your husband on your wedding day, as well as a heartfelt, handwritten message. This makes a wonderful gift many years down the road on your children’s wedding day.

New Gallery

Our new Gallery should be opening in the next week. Can't wait to finally have a home for the photography studio and a place to hang out with some friends. 

Engagement Session | Jacob and Jessica

Not sure how we missed it, but when I found out that my local insurance agent was getting married I sent him an email asking about his wedding pictures.  He had decided to go a pretty simple route, but had not had any engagement photos taken. Ann and I decided that we should have them swing by the studio and lets get that fixed, free of charge.  We had a great time and fun taking Jacob and Jessica engagement Pictures, we Hope you all enjoy and like them as we do!!

 

And YES.... Some times I try things that just don't look as good in live as it did in my head. I was going for the "Hey you should have stopped for me" look, but instead..... I don't even know what this is called. :S 

Children Portraits | Meyer Family

I don't want to go back too much in our old work and really would like to keep this new site only for the new work that we do and try to keep it as mostly weddings, but we never really ever posted our shoot with the Meyer Family in Olathe Kansas last fall and I wanted to show it. We have some of these in print on metal at the gallery as a showing of what really good portrait photography can be, I had just ordered them and once they got in it made me think if we ever posted them and I could not find one. One of these was even taken with the oldest girl sitting on the roof of her mom's car while we were all just hanging out. As for our wedding shots, we will get more posted and hoping to post a few gear tips soon too, but once you see these you will understand why I wanted to post these.