Jodi Hattery

I'm Jodi.
I'm a military wife,
mom to three,
and photographer


Jodi Hattery Photography

February 1-15
January 2010
December 15th +
December 1 - 15th
November 15 +
November 1 - 15th
October 16 +
October 1-15th
September 15th +
September 1-15th
August 15th +
August 1st-15th
July 15th +
July 1st-15th






More Wedding Peeks February 15, 2010

Here's a few more sneak peeks to tie you over til all the proofs are available :) ENJOY!












CONGRATULATIONS to Christopher!!! February 14, 2010

Wedding, schmedding!!! A VERY exciting update here from the Hattery's. After disgusting me out all dinner, Chris lost his top tooth with desert.



I know, I know... how stinkin' cute is that?!?!?!





CONGRATULATIONS to Jenny and Jason! February 14, 2010

Yesterday I got to photograph my first wedding at St Johns - which looks like one of three between now and next summer. I don't know what they plan on doing for Valentine's Day, but I'm looking forward to emptying out memory cards and starting to go through pics. Here's a quick one I pulled up real quick. There will be plenty of sneak peeks in the next few days of course.







And The Winner Is... February 12, 2010

ME! Last night was competition night at the Wassenberg Camera Club. The theme was ''hearts/love'' and I entered a digital image of my husband's wedding band sitting in the Song of Solomon.



The image won :) Yea! While it was just a photo for me, having been told that you could make a heart with a band and I had to try it, I am sure I will duplicate the image in the future for weddings. I love wedding band still life photos, and, well, all that oooey, gooey, sappy stuff that goes along with shooting a wedding and happy couples.



So much so, in fact, that I've decided to make 2011 my year for Weddings. I haven't focused much on weddings in the past. If you're a photographer then you know - they are LOT of work (not just a few hours on a particular day). Granted, I'm not going to be one of those people who do weddings every weekend and really have no desire to do that. How can they remain special to photograph when it's just another day at work? Well that's my philosophy anyway. But, you will be able to find me at Willow Bend Country Club on Sunday, March 28th, for the Van Wert Bridal Show.



It's shaping up to be a wonderful event for couples looking for everything from catering, to flowers, and well, photographers. I plan on having a drawing to give away lots of goodies from $200 off a wedding package to free engagement sessions, prints, and so forth. So if you've got a 2011 or 2012 wedding in the works, definately stop by Willow Bend to see all your options, and make sure to hop on over to say hi to me!




Sick Day February 11, 2010

The kids are back for a half day at school, then off again Friday and Monday. Nataley unfortunately has been battling a nasty cold all week (which I had a week ago) and had a bit of a fever last night and thismorning. Some tylenol cold & fever later and she's up and happy, playing Wii.

Of course I was hoping for a day of cleaning, getting reorganized, laundry and equipment testing, without children. But since I was graced with Nat's presence, she became my little subject while I was getting everything gathered for a wedding I'm shooting this weekend. I'm trying a few new things at this wedding. For one, I'm going to use my good ole rebel with a 50 mm 1.8 lens for natural light, high dof, more 'artsy' pics.



The 50d is already to go with my new collapsable lightsphere - if possible I think this works even better than my old lightsphere. The shadows are almost non existant. One of my pet peeves is seeing 'photographers' who have pictures with harsh shadows. I suppose that reminds me of my own terrible wedding pics. So, all that to say how lovely these subtle shadows are looking to me.


The girl, on the other hand, still looks pretty misserable. I hope she feels better soon!!!





Lofty Ideas February 10, 2010

The winter storm hit us hard the last couple days. I had the idea that being stuck at home was the perfect time to attempt to capture a snowflake mid flight. My initial prediction was for a shutter speed of 1/3000th a second, f/stop 5.6, and ISO 1600 (it was a dark, winter storm after all). If I would have remembered the winds that were to accompany this storm I probably would not have even tried to do this... and I certainly would have jacked up my shutter speed.


At its gustiest point, this was the real view from outside Nataley's window, looking over to a conifer from the neighbors yard. I should have noticed right away this wasn't the big, fat, flakes that are fun to catch on your mittens, but the tiny little clusters the size more of rain drops. Still, I took more shots, adjusting settings and moving around the house to fing a great spot to get a snowflake pic.


Here's one looking out to the garage. The exposure here was only 1/2500 ss, and ISO of 800, but this was still too high making the one clear snowflake overexposed and loose it's details. :(


With shutter at 1/8000 (which I didn't even realize my camera went that high) and ISO of 1600, I finally got dark enough to see some details of the snowflakes on these two pictures... but they sure aren't the traditional pretty little flakes you think of in books or swirling around in a movie.




With this shot above, I was happy to have some clarity on several flakes in one shot. Still, not the picture I imagined... for that I had to cheat a bit... taking a black sheet I took some photos of flakes before they melted, and did a bit of copy and paste... and voila!!!


So it wasn't a flake mid air, but sometimes you have to compromise a bit.






Oh So Studious February 8, 2010

Nataley was named Student of the Week at her school this week. Those who know Nat, know that Nataley is anything but studious, which according to Webster is concerned with, and zealous, about studying. So thankfully the boys let me know right away that it was for always being joyful. Joyful, yes she most certainly is!!!



In other news, snow is coming again, and more than I had first thought. People are going NUTS. Walmart was crazy with hundreds of people stocking up on the essentials, just in case we are really snowed in. Knowing I had plenty of coffee at home already, I got what we needed for two days off of school - rented Wii Monopoly and Wii Put Put Golf.





Snow Going Away February 7, 2010

Another bright day here, and the snow and icicles began to melt away. There are thick spots where it will take a bit longer, but for the most part, roads are clear and anything but hazzardous. There's still a bright spot on the horizon for us 2-hour delay lovers with another bit of snow coming Tuesday. Looks like we get to sleep in Wednesday. It's a fine line for us moms though... between loving the two hour delays and dreading the school closed :)



It was a quiet day on the homefront with rented spongebob, cookie baking, and valentine's.



And as the sun sets on another day I hear Nataley singing Christmas Carols outside in the middle of a snowball fight with her brothers and a neighbor girl. I just now noticed they've switched to sledding down what must seem like a fabulous hill in our front yard - which I think is about 4 feet tall. Fresh baked cookies, still hot from the oven, and delicious hot chocolate awaits them for when they come back inside. I feel all warm in cozy inside - not just inside the house, but all the mushy gushy heart stuff. I love my life.







Snow Day February 6, 2010

The kids and I took a little trip out today for a very tiny sledding event. The snow was near non existant after we got off our side road, and the little resevoir hill had snow only halfway up. But the kiddos still seem to love getting out of the house and playin in the snow.


Once Nat got out to to the top of the hill she decided she wanted nothing to do with this sledding idea afterall. Instead she wanted to head home and have a nice hot bath with her new bath salts.


Chris had fun... but it only made him want to go snowboard *really* badly.


Then there was Josh. He didn't want to sled either. He wanted to slide down the hill on his bottom. You'd think this would hurt!!! But he loved it!





'Bout Time! February 5, 2010

Yes, I went on photo/blog strike. I had some equipment failure that left me in a funk and rather uninspired. :( But it's all up and running now! So, I'm back!



My first share is of dear Alyssa. Way back in the day Alyssa was my go-to girl for practicing picture ideas, and now I'm taking pics for her graduation party invites! Awwww... I'm so going to miss Alyssa as she goes off to college next year.



As I took some traditional studio shots for Alyssa this week I talked about a storm coming. I had hoped it would come a bit earlier. With a start time estimated of 7am, I was afraid the storm would come fast and furious, After school was already in session. If it came early, we could get a delay :) Hoping didn't work to well, as I kept watching and waiting, and no snow... It was nearly time for school to be out by the time the storm showed up. Despite the kids (and my own) dissapointment of a full day at school, it was still pretty to look at. All I wanted was one day to sleep in!!! How fortunate for me that Saturday morning basketball/cheer has now been cancled and I get a sleep in day afterall.

Speaking of which... here's the official shots of the kids this season.