Jessica Hill is one of my wedding photographer friends in Portland. I think I met her in early 2010 at one of those Wine Country Wedding Professional meetings. You know- those networking meetings. I knew of Jessica before I met her in person. I had stumbled upon her website when we were researching our Portland move, and was instantly impressed. In addition to being a great photographer, Jessica is also a savvy businesswoman, and if I had to describe her in a single word I’d choose “real.” She is sweet, lively, opinionated (in a good way), and passionate about what she does. All good qualities to have in a friend and artist.

It’s no big secret that I want to photograph everyone I know. If I haven’t taken a photo of you, I want to. It is however, somewhat intimidating to take photos of other photographers. With a photographer there is no secret or mysticism to the large piece of metal you have stuck to your face. Jessica also has no shortage of photographer friends who would probably enjoy taking pictures of her. So when she asked me to take some photos of her and her assistant Lindsay, it was much like the feeling you get when you’re 6 years old and you’re pulling up into the Toys R Us parking lot. Excitement! It took us awhile to nail down a date, but finally our schedules managed to align and we got our photoshoot.

I arrived a little early that day because I knew Kirstie Wight was going to be doing Jessica’s makeup. Kirstie has done the makeup for a couple of my senior shoots, and she is lovely- so I thought I’d pop in and shoot a bit of the getting ready. Now I’m not going to lie and tell you Jessica is easy to photograph. She’s unquestionably beautiful, but you usually only have about 20 seconds between her giving you a serious look and then completely spazzing out. It was definitely a great time, and even though Jessica only wanted me to shoot for a few minutes I managed to coax her into going a little longer. Thank you Jessica for giving me the chance to photograph you, and introducing me both to Kirstie and Lindsay. It was so much fun!

- Josh