Balloon and floral cake smash | Arvada Baby photographer

Cake smash sessions have become a tradition as much as a senior portrait session is for a high school senior. They are a beautiful way to celebrate a baby’s first birthday and to capture a time when they are growing and changing so quickly. One of the things I am most excited about with the new studio space in Arvada is the ability to do cake smash sessions indoor for those who do not want to do them in their home. This session however is one that I shot in my own home 9 months ago, I cannot believe that I haven’t shared this beautiful baby girl on my bog yet! She is just too precious not to share even if it is almost a year later.

Every cake smash session starts with an idea. Sometimes it’s a theme, sometimes its just a few colors. Little miss Ruby’s mom knew she wanted to have a pink and gold cake smash. She saw another smash that I did last year with pink and gold flowers and loved it but I wanted to make her smash even bigger and better than the last and so I suggested the balloon arch with the flowers and vines incorporated and luckily she loved the idea!

When I do a cake smash I provide everything for the session so our next step, after I found the perfect balloons and floral, was to choose an outfit. I already had this adorable little sparkle dressing in my collection that was perfect with this theme so I just hand-made a custom headband to match the décor and complete the look!

The next step was the cake. I found a beautiful image of a cake similar to this in purples and knew it would be perfect. When you choose a smash cake you want the majority of the design to be on the side of the cake because that is the part that gets photographed the most. Luckily my favorite baker Cherry on Top bakery in Thornton, Colorado always takes my vision and makes it even better than I described!

You can expect three types of images from your cake smash session, first, before cake images, typically taken on the smash “set as your cake smash however the studio now gives me the space and freedom to do a second look for your before images if you would like. New we bring out the cake, this park looks in the photos like to take about 5 minutes but in reality I have had some kids take over and hour to get messy with the cake so don’t worry if your baby doesn’t dig right in. After the cake I can now offer milk bath images in my adorable little bath tub!

I would love to help you plan the perfect cake smash session for your baby. I have a list of theme ideas or I can create your vision or birthday party theme! Send me a message to set up a call and get all of the details!

Jennifer Tavera is a Luxury family, maternity and newborn photographer in Denver Colorado who specializes in creating an experience that will make mom feel confortable, papered and beautiful so she will be excited to turn her portraits into art for her home. Sessions are available outdoors all over the Denver and Boulder area and studio sessions in the studio space in Arvada. Ready to start planning your dream session? Click below to schedule a call.

Jennifer

Newborn portrait art | Arvada Colorado Newborn photographer

4 tips for creating the perfect newborn portrait display

1. “Match the couch”

One of my favorite portrait art mentors tells her students to have your clients “dress to match the couch”. Why? Because it guarantees that your images are going to look amazing hanging above your couch. In the case of newborn portraits this advice isn’t always as simple. First many people want to hang the newborn portraits in the baby’s room, so maybe this looks more like “dress to match the crib”, or maybe you would like to hang the images in more than one location, for example baby alone in babies room, family portraits with your new baby over the couch and a few images in your bedroom. With newborn portraits there is an easy way to make this work, during our consultation we will talk over the places you would like to hang your images and the colors in that room. Mom, dad and any siblings can dress to match the living room colors, and then I can choose outfits and wraps for baby’ solo portraits to match the colors in the other two rooms. This way the images fit seamlessly into each space as if they were designed for it, because they were!

2. Choose a wall art style or frame that matches the look of your home

As much as I love the look of my heritage wood prints, if you have a very modern style of home they are not going to look right in your space. On the other hand if your design style is country farmhouse, a sleek metal framed print is not going to be the best fit for your home. When I sit down with my clients to design their art I take all of this into consideration, I show my clients the options and then I suggest the style I believe will look best with their current décor. For those clients that don’t really have a design style yet I’ll help you choose your favorite option and it may be the perfect base to help you create a look in your home that you love!

3. Choose nontraditional shapes

If your wall art is all feeling boring and the same this might be a great way to mix it up a little. I offer many traditional sizes like 16x24, 30x40 and 40x60 however I also offer square, round and long and narrow images. I will typically design a sample set for each client with more traditional sizes and one with a more unique layout to help you choose which option is more your style. Below you can see several mock ups with both traditional and nontraditional shapes as well as samples with a mixture of both. These are all real samples that I presented to my clients.

4. Consider one large image

I love creating art sets with a variety of sizes and shapes, but sometimes what you really need is one statement piece. Especially in a larger room where smaller images are harder to see from the other side of the room, a larger image is more appropriate. So how do you know how large of an image to choose? One thing to consider is the size of the piece of furniture you will be hanging it over, the image should be 50-75% smaller than the furniture. Another thing to keep in mind is the size of the room, just like choosing TV sizes the further you will be sitting or standing from the image, the larger it needs to be. If wouldn’t put a 20 inch tv in your living room so an 8x10 or 11x14 print is also going to be too small to see clearly and make the statement you are looking for in this larger space.

If you are ready to schedule your newborn session and have custom art created for your home I would love to schedule a call to talk with you. Click the button below to start the process and learn more about my sessions.

Jennifer Tavera is a Luxury family, maternity and newborn photographer in Denver Colorado who specializes in creating an experience that will make mom feel confortable, papered and beautiful so she will be excited to turn her portraits into art for her home. Sessions are available outdoors all over the Denver and Boulder area and studio sessions in the studio space in Arvada. Ready to start planning your dream session? Click below to schedule a call.

Jennifer

Why newborn portraits are the most important photos {Thornton Newborn Photographer}

I am going to say something controversial here, Newborn portraits are more important than wedding photos. Ok, I know that some of you will disagree but, let me tell you why I believe this.

The day we got married was not the most important day in our lives.

I was a wedding photographer for about 5 years. People spend thousands of dollars on their wedding photos to have gorgeous photos and professional quality prints of “the biggest day of their life” created. I photographed some amazing couples that I really loved. But I have watched many of these couples start families and some of them get divorced.

I love my husband and even after almost 12 years of marriage, I want to stay with him forever. But honestly, the day we got married was not the most important day in our lives, the day each of our children was born was. Our love started as just the two of us and has grown with each child to make us who we are today. Each baby has increased our capacity to love and made our family more complete. No matter what happens in our future the newborn portraits of each of my children will always hang in my home.

Each baby has increased our capacity to love and made our family more complete.

As my children grow I trade out many of the photos on my walls for updated images of them, but my newborn photos never get taken down. These are the first image of my babies and I never get tired of seeing them hanging in my home. I invested in high-quality products for these photos like canvasses and wood prints instead of the less expensive traditional prints I use for photos that I know will be switched out in a year or so. For me, the investment was worth every penny.

I want to create a work of art for every client I work with and for me, that does not stop with a perfectly edited digital file.

I want your printed photo to be a high-quality piece of art that you can pass down to your great-grandchildren. Before for say “but I want the digital file to share online and make more prints to send to my family” don’t worry, all of my printed images come with a matching digital file and most of my clients ordering canvas or wood print sets are eligible to receive a full set of digital files with their order.

I would love to create art for your family! If you have questions I would love to answer them during a video consultation. You can set that up or email me directly at the link below!

I'm Jennifer Tavera.

A family photographer and portrait gallery designer in the North Denver Colorado area.

I help moms capture the moments and milestones that matter and turn then into beautiful art to hang in their home.

Learn more about me and a session with Truth Photography below.

Why professional photo printing is important {Denver Photographer}

All of my clients receive both printed portraits AND digital files. I often get asked why I don’t just give my clients the digital files and let them print them. There are several reasons why I chose to give a printed product, if you haven’t read my blog post “how one family changed the way I do business” then go read that for one of the biggest reasons, another huge reason is quality. If you had your images printed at a store that also sold food and cosmetics, you did not get a professional quality print. The same applies if you printed at a discount online printer. These printers are only a small step up from printing on your home printer.

So what is the difference between a professional quality print and those done by these discount printers?

1. Color

Professional photographers work on color calibrated computers. If you have never calibrated your personal computer and are unfamiliar with what that means it basically means that we have set our computers to make sure it isn’t too light, dark, green red, warm (yellow), or cool (blue). Then as a professional, I hand edit each photo to make sure that the color balance of that image is perfect. I want to create a work of art, not just another photo. After all that work the last thing I want is for you to get get a cheap print that makes your skin look too grey, green, yellow or blue. Unfortunately, these cheaper printing labs can be hit and miss with color and often are not true in color to the original edit. The person printing your images is often not a professional photographer or printer and does not have a trained eye. They also typically have little control over the machine they are printing from beyond loading it with new paper when it runs out.

Professional photo lab employees are trained to color correct images that do not match the edited image that they receive. And when you order through me you have an extra line of defense from discolored images since I check each image before delivering it to my clients.

2. Images that last

These consumer labs are also not focused on images that last a long time. They print the snapshots from your phone and your 10-year-olds camera and their focus is to do this for you at the lowest cost possible NOT on printing photos that you can hand down for generations. Their images often fade or become discolored after a few short years.

Professional quality print labs such as the ones that I order through for my clients are focused on a product that is high quality and lasts. From matted prints to canvas wraps to wood prints all of the products I offer come from a professional heirloom/museum quality lab that uses only the best products such as professional-grade paper, ink, and printers to create your finished images.

When you invest in images through me I can ensure that you receive a product that will last longer and look better hanging in your home. You will still receive the digital files for sharing online, creating fun photo gifts or cards, and even making additional prints to send out to your family, but, you will also have high-quality images that I know you will love!

If you have more questions about a session with me I would love to chat! Contact me or set up a time to chat about your session.

I'm Jennifer Tavera.

A family photographer and portrait gallery designer in the North Denver Colorado area.

I help moms capture the moments and milestones that matter and turn then into beautiful art to hang in their home.

Learn more about me and a session with Truth Photography below.

A peek into your selection appointment {Colorado Mountain Family Photographer}

I started to write this blog post almost a month ago now. I had it “fully finished” and just needed to add images and schedule it to publish. Then as if she knew I needed to know what clients were thinking when going into their selection appointment, I had a client ask if the selection appointment was required. I explained yes I require them since it is too difficult to put your order together via emails back and forth and doing the selection appointment is actually less work for me. Then she explained why she was concerned about meeting for her image selection.

The last session they had had with a photographer had gone great, but the appointment with him after did not go so well. After discussing it with her for a while I realized what had really gone so wrong is they had gone into with no idea what to expect. Their photographer hadn’t really given them any information on what would happen at the meeting or what prices for their products looked like. In addition, their photographer had used a common “this is the only time you can buy these” tactic that is honestly meant to scare clients into buying more so they don’t “lose the images”.

I take a totally different approach to my appointments. My job at the selection appointment isn’t to scare you into buying your images now. I actually want to go into this meeting having already discussed with you what you are hoping to purchase from the session based on your needs and budget. My job at these meetings is to simply help you choose the best images for the products you have selected and make sure you LOVE the finished art! So that said let’s take a look at the process from start to finish so you know exactly what to expect from your appointment.

First, you may be asking, “what is a selection appointment?” The selection appointment happens around two weeks after your session once I have edited all the best images from your session. I will come to your home and help you “select” the images you want to hang in your home and then the products you want to use to display them. Today I want to go through what the selection appointment looks like so you know what to expect when I arrive for yours!

Viewing the images

The first thing that I will do for your selection appointment is to show you all of the edited images as a slide show. Because I use an online program to show your images, I will first need to log into your wifi so make sure to have your login information handy.

After I am logged in I will show you all of the images in a slideshow format. Just sit back, enjoy the show and maybe make a mental note of any favorites.

Narrowing down the images

Next, I’ll help you narrow down the images for your wall art. We will go through the images one by one and I’ll have you tell me if it’s a favorite or not. If you are thinking “but I love them all” no problem, if you are purchasing a wall art set or Storybox valued at $1,000 or more you will receive all the images shown as digital files. If you choose to just get a few images you will receive matching digital files for all images selected.

Creating your wall art

By this point, you should have had several opportunities to view my session planning guide that shows all of my products and the pricing. Hopefully, you have a good idea of what wall art you are interested in before we meet so we can focus on putting your favorite images on those products. I will take this time to show you what the images would look like on those products on the wall. We can play with different images and layouts in the designer until we find the perfect wall art to fit your home.

Ordering your products

After we have wall art selected and any additional gift items you need I will submit your order for you. The payment for all collections or a la carte items is due at your selection meeting. After your products are ordered your digital files will be delivered via an online gallery within one week and you can download them from there, your printed products normally take around 2 weeks but can take up to 4 weeks to arrive and I will personally deliver them to your home when they arrive.

Watch me create a gallery on IGTV https://www.instagram.com/tv/By3uiowFfl1/

If you are interested in learning more I would love to set up a consultation with you via video chat. We will discuss all of the details of your session, the selection appointment, pricing and more so you are comfortable with the whole process before you book. Fill out the form below to set up a consultation!

My name is Jennifer Tavera, owner, photographer and gallery designer for Truth Photography LLC. I have created beautiful custom portraiture for my clients here in the Denver and Boulder Colorado areas for the past 13 years! I specialize in growing families including children, maternity, and newborn. I love what I do and I cannot wait to share my passion with all of you.

As a busy mom myself, I understand that you need a photographer who will go the extra mile to help you with every aspect of creating cherished imagery of your family.

I would love to become YOUR family photographer and can't wait for us to get to know each other better!

Skylynn's Clear Creek Newborn Session {Denver Outdoor Newborn Photographer}

The thing I have found about outdoor newborn photography since I started offering it is that people either love it or hate it. I get it, it is not for everyone. Some people just like to keep their baby home for awhile and for some people they just feel indoor sessions are more natural for this age group.

For my clients who hire me for outdoor newborn sessions however it’s the most natural thing in the world. Why is that? Because they love the outdoors, that’s where their family spends their free time exploring all of the beautiful places in Colorado, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine!

I have no doubt that for Skylynn this outdoor newborn session will be just the start of her time out in nature, making this session the perfect fit for her! Plus they are going to look adorable in her forest themed room that mom let me peek at during their selection appointment. Her daddy is hand painting her walls with trees and woodland creatures!

I love getting to know the families I photograph and seeing families grow! In addition to loving this shoot because outdoor newborn is one of my favorite types of sessions, it was even more special because it is not the first time that I have done an outdoor newborn session for this family! This is a side by side from Skylynn’s session and their older daughters session two years ago! Their parents brought this beautiful handmade cradle to both sessions for their daughters to be photographed in and I wrapped them in colors to match each of their rooms for these images. I love being able to see them side by side now!

I can’t wait to see the final portraits when they arrive. Mom ordered a set of my heritage wood prints and I have been checking my email excessively for shipping confirmation for them, I think I may be almost as excited as she is to see them in print! The galleries below are just mock ups I created for her for her selection appointment but she did choose 2 of the images in the gallery below for her set!

I would love to create a beautiful wall art set like this for your newborn! If you are a nature lover like this family, and due with your baby between May and September an outdoor newborn session may be a great option for you too! Or if you are due during winter months or more of a homebody, I offer in home sessions or sessions at my home in Northglenn CO. Let’s chat and we can customize the perfect session for you!

My name is Jennifer Tavera, the photographer behind Truth Photography. I am a Northglenn Colorado family photographer and gallery designer seeking adventurous, free spirited families. I believe that your life is epic and deserves to be captured with photography!

I specializes in creating unique photo sessions that will be an adventure for your child or family and turning the finished portraits into beautiful wall art for your home. I can’t wait to photograph your next adventure!!

~Jennifer Tavera Photographer and Gallery designer

How one family changed the way I do business {Boulder Family Photographer}

A little over two years ago I had the great pleasure of meeting a family that has become one of my very favorite families. Mom is such a sweet outgoing person and one of the strongest people I have met and I have to admit that I loved them even more when her and her son Charlie told me earlier this year that one of their favorite TV shows is Supergirl! (For those of you who don’t know I’m a huge superhero fan!!!) But this post is not really about that family or how much I love them, even though I do, it’s about how they changed the way I look at customer service.

For years I didn’t offer photo prints, I didn’t want to bother with it and I was convinced that no one really wanted or needed that service. What I found is as moms it’s something that we don’t even know that we need, but we do! I really discovered how much I was failing my client and not really serving them about a couple of month after this families first session with me.

A little back story, the reason they decided to hire a photographer for family portraits was not a happy one. This family with two beautiful sons was about to loose one of their boys to a brain tumor. Knowing they didn’t have much time left they wanted to get professional family portraits of all of them together.

We had a beautiful family session with their family of four and grandma out in Boulder. A few months after the session I heard from mom, she even though she had received digital files of her portraits a few weeks after the session she had not printed any of them yet. Her son has since passed and she was preparing for the funeral including trying to print an image of him to display at the funeral. That hit me hard, this grieving mom was rushing around trying to get her pictures printed, instead of spending time with her family at this hard time. Not only was she spending her time doing this but she ordered the images online, accidentally drove to the wrong store and then when she finally got to the right store she realized that she forgot to bring the print release and the lab would not release the photo to her.

Thank God not every mom has to go through this situation. But that doesn’t mean that we have time in our busy lives to go get our images printed, framed and hung. I can’t tell you how many times clients told me more than a year after their session that they still haven’t printed their images, I can’t tell you how many times I photographed my own kids and got too busy to print and hang the portraits.

I don’t want my clients to waste their money on images they are not enjoying in their home. I don’t want anyone to have to search through a dropbox, computer or stack of old CD’s to get images printed if a family member passes away. My clients enjoy their images on their walls each and every day, and I never want to give another client less service than that!

Click the button below for more information on my heirloom quality wall art and gifts. My goal is to provide you with printed imagery that will last to hand down to future generations.

My name is Jennifer Tavera, the photographer behind Truth Photography. I am a Northglenn Colorado family photographer and gallery designer seeking adventurous, free spirited families. I believe that your life is epic and deserves to be captured with photography!

I specializes in creating unique photo sessions that will be an adventure for your child or family and turning the finished portraits into beautiful wall art for your home. I can’t wait to photograph your next adventure!!

~Jennifer Tavera Photographer and Gallery designer

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Isaac's newborn session {Broomfield CO newborn photographer}

After 12 years of photographing newborns you learn all of the tricks to get a newborn to sleep soundly for their session and they all worked on baby Isaac!

This little man joined our world on December 27th and came in to see me mid-January. After a full belly of food and a nice warm swaddle he slept like a dream for most of his session. The space heater and mama’s heartbeat sounds I had going nearby probably helped with that as well!

I am so in love with the images from his session that it was hard to decide which to share here! Even his two year old sister cooperated for some images with her brother!

When the session was edited and ready for the family to view I met up with them in their home in Broomfield to show them not only the finished images, but some ideas for displaying them in their home. After each session I create a few gallery mock ups to show, and then together with the family we can choose a favorite or create a custom look and play with different ways their favorite images until we find one that they love!

To be honest my very favorite part of this session was delivering printed art to the family. When I arrived mom answered the door with her daughter right behind. As soon as she saw the image of her and her brother together that they had printed she gasped, grabbed it from mom and hugged it! It was the cutest thing I have ever seen!

I would love to capture this memorable time in the life of your family for you. Visit my newborn session page for more information on planning your session.