Website Launch: Not Yet

Website launch: not yet. That's the current status of Jessica Fike Photography's website progress. I only have a few things left to do for the website and it's killing me that they aren't done yet. A little bit of blame goes out to the company from which I bought my website, but I won't point any fingers.

Yesterday afternoon, I strolled around Liberty with my photographer friend, Zach Marlowe, to get some pictures for my website. Zach is our Lift Operations Supervisor here at Liberty and does a lot with the Mountain and Challenge Course teams during the off-season. He, too, recently started his own photography business so we are constantly talking about photog and business and cameras and everything!

We had a great time during our little photo shoot. He helped me out tremendously by getting some greats shots of me for my website. Consider these a little preview to what the website has in store.

Maybe my fave.

Maybe my second fave.


We had to get a little cheesy.

This one is totally on the website right now!

Oh! And my business cards came in on Wednesday!! I cannot wait to start passing them out! Just wait world. Jessica Fike Photography is coming in full force!

Double Sneak Peek Excitement!

My fabulous free portrait session promotion is in full swing! I had two sessions last week, I've got one this week, one next week, one in September, and three in the works - hhoollleeerrr!!! A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to all my friends who have kindly passed my name and information along to their friends. Can I hire you guys as my official networking and word-of-mouth team? You're just awesome. :)

Last Thursday, I visited Julie, a friend of my friend Rebekah's, in Greencastle, PA. Julie is in town visiting her parents with her sweet, adorable, cute little family. We did a "girls only" shoot since daddy was busy working. Julie, Riley and Gabby were so wonderfully cooperative and just generally happy to be around each other. It was my first time shooting a newborn and a toddler so I learned a lot. Boy did they make me smile. :)

On Friday evening, I met the newly engaged Kayla and Scott. They were only in the sixth day of their engagement and Kayla already had her wedding dress! Now that's impressive! I was so excited for their session because they decided to humor my idea of taking a couple to an ice cream shop as part of their session. Kayla and Scott were absolutely fabulous in front of the camera - so much kissing, hugging, looking into each other's eyes. It was pure love.

Here's a double sneak peek from my two sessions last week. Enjoy!

Oh, and the website launch goal of this Friday is looking pretty darn good. Be on the look out!

Josh and Angie's Wedding

Oh my goodness it's been a week since my last blog post. SO SORRY! Here's a beautiful wedding to make up for it. :)

On July 18th, our friends Josh and Angie finally tied the knot. After years of dating and many months waiting for a ring, they made it official and got hitched in front of all of their closest family and friends. Literally, all! Angie told me that they only had six people out of their 200 some person guest list, that were not able to attend. Just SIX PEOPLE! Have you ever heard of such a thing!?! That's just plain awesome and amazing.

To start things off at the church, here's Angie's brother Corey seating the mother-of-the-bride, Phyllis. The Wyand family is such a sweet bunch! (Note: I was not the photog at this wedding. Just a friend with a big camera...hehe).

The cute little flower girl, Nina. She looked like a princess.

I love taking pictures of people taking pictures. :)


Here comes the bride!

I love this shot of the church.

Mr. and Mrs. Josh Hoy - hitched!

The reception was held at the Price Parlor. It's a family farm and is used often as an event venue, mostly church picnics. This was their first wedding at the Parlor and everything was great! The Price family and others cooked all the food, did all the decorations and had everything planned out to a T. I told Angie her family needs to consider going into the wedding business. :)

Hey there, cowboy.

The Parlor was definitely a unique venue for a wedding. Think old western town meets backyard country living.

This was one of my favorite details of the day!

How cool lookin' is this place!?! This is where the food was served. The delicious homemade food.

I took Josh and Angie's engagement pictures back in May. I was so excited to see them on display at the reception. I was kinda proud. :)

Just to give you another idea of what exactly the Parlor looks like...

This dad and his sons were sooo cute sitting on this bench! And how perfect that a nice wooden wall would be in the background. This picture helps to sum up the feel and atmosphere of the reception.

More of their engagement pictures on display! YAY!

I loved, loved, LOVED all the chinese lanterns that hung from the ceilings throughout the Parlor.

When this happened the first time, I missed it. A few friends helped me to repose. CUTE!

Me and Honey! Fun fact: my outfit (dress and sweater) is from like 11th grade! It's about six years old and still fits!

The lighting was so beautiful in some spots.

Josh and Angie were able to stand tall (and high) above their guests.

Rachel Norris. One of the cutest little girls I have ever seen. Here she is being a cute little diva and admiring the bride and groom.

Just another beautiful and favorite detail from the reception.

A wonderful shot to end the day! Angie just happened to catch me snapping this picture and gave me a beautiful smile!

A Real-Life Licensed Battlefield Guide

Have you ever met a real-life Licensed Battlefield Guide in Gettysburg? Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a real-life Licensed Battlefield Guide in Gettysburg? I never did either (to both those questions), until I met Ellen.

Ellen is our Administrative Assistant in the Liberty Mountain Admin. Offices. She brings a new kind of spirit to the offices and always makes us laugh at a few times each day. She does a great job greeting and entertaining guests that visit our Admin. Office Front Desk. She is a great spell checker and puts Word documents and spreadsheets together like no other. She is also a Gettysburg Battle freak!

Every so often, Ellen will sneak around the corner and throw some random Gettysburg Battle fact or story at me. After I found out she would be giving us all a battlefield tour, I knew it was going to be good because she knows so many random facts and stories about the Gettysburg Battle.

Some of us Liberty folk were fortunate enough to have Ellen as our real-life Licensed Battlefield Guide last Friday during our tour of the battlefield. And let me just say, if you've never met a real-life Licensed Battlefield Guide or ever wondered what they go through to become one, just take a tour with them. I promise you'll be impressed and I promise you'll find a newly gained respect for them, and the Gettysburg Battle for which they are so passionate.

Licensed and ready to go!

Here she is, the infamous Ellen! She absolutely demanded attention on that tour bus, even before the tour officially began.


We stopped at a public picnic spot for some lunch before the tour. There's always something to laugh about when Eric, our General Manager, gets to talkin'!

The beautiful and action-packed Lincoln Square in Gettysburg. I would love to do an engagement session here! How cute of a setting would the old buildings and structures make for pictures!?!

There are so many beautiful open fields across the battlefield grounds.

Ellen LOVES cannons, I mean LOOOVVEESS cannons. She gave a great demonstration on how the cannons work. Did you know that it took eight soldiers to operate one cannon? Talk about manpower!

Ellen gave us a complete run down of the battle's first day events.

This is what I want to do! Take a tour of the battlefield on horseback! Brian won't do it. I guess I'll have to go alone. Horses are so pretty!

What a beautiful landscape.

A group shot at the end of the day. What an amazing tour we had thanks to our lovely guide, Ellen!

Anyone that wants to learn a TON about the Gettysburg Battle, let me know, and I'll pass Ellen's information along to you. If you're looking to do a battlefield tour, I highly recommend going with a real-life Licensed Battlefield Guide. They'll rock your world! Actually, maybe they aren't all as awesome as Ellen. She gets so into it and everything about Gettysburg just gets her excited. Yeah, maybe you should just stick to going with her. :)

FREE Portrait Sessions!

Well, it's official. I'm starting my own photography business! After many discussions with fellow photographers, co-workers and Brian, and a few years experience in the photography field, I've decided to "go for it" and turn my hobby into a career.

I've probably already told my story of how I became interested in photography, but because I can't remember when or if that happened, here's my story!

I've enjoyed using a camera and taking mounds and mounds of pictures since I was in high school. My mom bought me my first camera (point-and-shoot and a Canon, of course) as a Christmas gift during my sophomore year. I took pictures of anything and everything! I was constantly going to Wal-Mart to get my mounds and mounds of pictures printed, and had tons of albums and scrapbooks to flip through and fill with memories. It's not until my mom allowed me to shoot with her second camera (she's a photographer) at a wedding did I really become interested in photography, not just as a hobby, but as a career.

After working with my mom at a few weddings and tagging along with two local studios for the past year, I realized that my hobby of taking pictures was more than just a hobby. It was a joy, an excitement, a passion. One day I said, "I can do this!" and began my quest to become a professional photography with my own booming business.

I'll be registering "Jessica Fike Photography" as an official operating entity in the state of Pennsylvania sometime this week. Soon thereafter (I hope), will come the launch of my website. While in the process of getting things ready for launch, I'm offering a special promotion. A fabulous promotion, to be exact.

Before the launch of my website (projected date is July 31, 2009), I am offering all portrait session services for FREE! Whether you are a mommy-to-be, graduating senior, engaged couple, or fun family, I invite you to let me make you look fabulous, and sign up for a session! Here's what you'll get:

• Up to two hours of session time at location of your choice
  
• Unlimited photos taken
  
• Multiple outfit changes
  
• Online viewing gallery of your portrait collection
  
• CD of all high-res edited images so you can print at will wherever you'd like!

I'm also booking weddings and other special event coverage. Contact me for pricing and details.

Here's a little ad that I designed for my fabulous promotion:

Remember, you must sign up for your session before the launch of my website to get your session for free. I can't wait to hear from you and put you in front of my camera! Thanks for reading. :)

Myth: The first year of marriage is the hardest

On the 4th of July, Brian and I celebrated our one year anniversary. It's so hard to believe that our wedding was a year ago! It seems like just yesterday I was dreaming about the day and planning for every little detail. Time sure does fly when you're having fun, and boy, did Brian and I have a lot of fun this past year.

After two long years of long distance, getting to see Brian everyday was awesome. I used to cry many tears during my junior and senior years of college. Brian and I visited each other a lot over those two years, but saying goodbye was the worst. That's usually when I ended up in tears. I was so excited to finally wake up to him every morning and come home to him every night. We had an amazing first year together and seem to fall more in love each day. I know that's mushy gushy, but it's true. Our first year of marriage was not the hardest. We sure proved that myth wrong.

Brian and I spent our anniversary just hanging out. We walked to the Waynesboro 4th of July Jubilee, ate some Rita's Italian Ice, watched our wedding video (which was so cool - it's amazing how much I've already forgotten about that day!), ate our frozen wedding cake, spent the evening with friends, and of course, watched fireworks. It was a lovely day!

So you know about the wedding cake tradition, right? You save a layer or a few pieces of your wedding cake, freeze it for a year and then eat it on your one year anniversary. Brian was convinced that the cake was going to be gross and that he would not be able to eat it. Surprisingly, our frozen wedding cake was quite good and we both ate it.

The cake was yummy. I had a vew bites. :)

Brian and I didn't exchange fancy shmancy anniversary gifts. We are saving our funds for bigger and better things, like a cruise in the spring and my future photography business. :) So we just bought each other cards. These were the perfect cards for us. Make sure you read the one on the right very carefully. That's Brian's card to me. He is such a stinker.

Yes, Brian signs his cards with a jar of honey because he is my Honey!

The Waynesboro fireworks were quite good.

Here are my favorites!

Moral of the story and this post: don't believe that crazy myth that says the first year of marriage is the hardest. Brian and I had lots of fun, fell more in love than we were on our wedding day and didn't experience any major bumps in the road. Marriage is awesome! I love my Honey!!!