Tampa Photography Blog

Want to help others in the fight against cancer? Want to support survivors like Vicki Odioso Peters? Want to impress fitness trainer Carrie Kukuda?

Well, if none of those questions light your fire, you can at least get some free photos of yourself competing in this year’s Miles for Moffitt! Jessica Leigh Photography is teaming up with Get A Grip Total Fitness (GAG) to provide free  photos on the day of the race to anyone who signs up for the 1-mile, 5K, 5-mile or kids races under the “Odioso/Peters/Get A Grip Total Fitness” team. Photos will be shot before the race at the GAG tent, at the finish line to the 5K race (and possibly the 1-mile) and after the race. Please wear your blue Get A Grip shirt so Jessica can identify you as the cross the finish line.

Photos will be available the week of May 14th on the JLP blog and on the JLP Facebook page. Please check both pages that week to find your photos.

Although Jessica would rather do anything but run, she did participate in the 2011 Miles for Moffitt as a runner and it was a wonderful experience. “There’s a level of camaraderie and passion that you don’t expect to encounter when you first show up for the race," said Jessica. "Seeing thousands of people coming together for one cause is a moving moment. Representing survivors we love and those who had their life cut short too soon makes it worth it to donate, race, volunteer or sponsor.”  

Jessica Leigh Photography is proud to call Vicki Peters and Carrie Kukuda clients and friends. We hope you will join us on May 12^th to celebrate survivors and raise money to finally find a cure.

To register, please visit Active.com and sign up under the team name "Odioso/Peters/Get A Grip Total Fitness". If you have any questions, you can contact Jessica Leigh at jessica@jlpflorida.com.

*Photos from 2011 Miles for Moffitt courtesy of Get A Grip Total Fitness.*

If you've been thinking you need to update your family portraits, now is the time! I'm running this special in April because as Tampa Bay residents you might have noticed it's heating up already. Don't wait until July when your clothes are soaked in sweat, your kids are irritated and sun burnt and the humidity reaches 100%!

I shoot family portraits year-round but always recommend that clients try to avoid the months of July and August, as those are usually times for record temperatures. Of course if your family can only get together during the summer, we will make it work! (Just bring a cooler of cold water and umbrellas for the seniors in your family.)

Portrait sessions can be scheduled seven days each week, just after sunrise or before sunset. Weekdays are a little more flexible but I will always do my best to get you on the schedule. If I am unavailable on all the days you request in April, I will extend this special to the first week of May for any new client.

JLP Family Portrait Package:

*Personal phone consultation with Jessica Leigh (to discuss location, wardrobe, etc.)

*90 minutes of photography by Jessica Leigh

*Combination of styles--posed and candid

*Combination of portraits (just kids, just parents, everyone, etc.)

*CD of retouched high-resolution images with release to print at any color lab (20 images on CD)

*Option to choose your 20 retouched images from a raw image gallery

*Ability to purchase more than 20 images at $10/image

*Digital retouching and toning

*Password protected online gallery (professional prints can be ordered from the site)

*Photographer’s favorite images included in black and white or sepia tone

*Shipping of CD to your home within 2 weeks of image selections

*Photo albums and calendars available for an additional charge

*Choose from these locations for the special: Ybor City (Tampa), Curtis Hixon Park (downtown Tampa), Philippe Park (Safety Harbor), Starkey Park (Trinity), Howard Park (New Port Richey)

Session rate: $350

April/May Special: -$75

FL sales tax @ 7%: $19.25

Total: $294.25

(This special is for NEW clients only please.) 

Yahoo recently posted old black and white photographs, shot on film, that were altered. The crazy thing about these photos is that they were altered (with some precision) without the digital technology that we have at our dispoal in 2012.

One of my favorites is a photograph of Adolf Hitler. I don't particulary care about it's content but the interesting detail about it is that it was only altered to appease Hitler's ego. He had a falling out with a man named Joseph Goebbels, so he simply had him removed from the photo.I'm sure it was a little more difficult in those days to remove someone from a photo without the help of Adobe Photoshop.

Now photographers are getting in trouble for altering photos digitally because they are doing so to make their photo better in some way. Most of the time this is done to photos in post-production that were shot during a war or covering a timely event - where the photographer has no second chance to reshoot the photo and make it right. Many photographers have been suspended or fired for committing this ethical violation while some are just "frowned upon" in the photojournalism community.

One of the more famous incidents was when Los Angeles Times photographer Brian Walski altered a photo he shot outside Basra of a British soldier directing Iraqi civilians to take cover. He merged elements of two different photos to create what he thought was a superior photo. And it cost his his job and his reputation. Most newspapers have strict rules about these kinds of violations.

The first two photos below are the originals and the bottom photo is the composite Brian Walski made.