Meet This Week's Judge: Jennifer Vititioe

This week we have with us Jennifer Vititoe of Jennifer Vititoe Photography. She makes the everyday extraordinary! Read about her here:

1. Tell us about yourself...

Why is this one so hard?  I answered every other question first, then came back to this. 

I am a mom, a wife, a photographer, and engineer.  I love my three children and my husband.  I love photography, being an engineer pays the bills.  I read fantasy novel, I love ska and punk music. I love to read, and I am always looking for a new book to read.  I drink lots of coffee, and I LOVE chocolate chip cookies. 

I am quiet and shy, when you first meet me.  But once I get to know you, I become much more talkative.  I am a bit of dork, I love the technical side of photography just as much as the creative side. 

2. What ignited your passion for photography, and what fuels it now?

In college my husband and I traveled around the country as he played in paintball tournaments.  I loved taking action pictures of the team playing, and pictures of the cities and towns we visited.  I had dreams of becoming a documentary travel photographer.  And so when I graduated college my parents bought me a 35mm SLR.  But life got in the way, I had a “real” job, was planning a wedding, and eventually a family.  And so I never truly learned to use my film camera.

When my first daughter was born I sold the 35mm and bought a DSLR. I happily snapped away taking hundreds of pictures of her each month, oblivious as to whether or not they were any good.  They were pictures of my baby and they made me happy.  My dedication (perhaps my obsession) to truly learn and become a better photographer happened around the time I was pregnant with my second little girl.

I have always needed a creative outlet.  When I was younger it was drawing and painting, but with the birth of my children photographing their lives in an interesting way became my new art.

3. What's in your camera bag right now, what do use the most? the least?

·         Canon 6D

·         Canon EOS 3 (I have rediscovered my love of film)

·         135mmL F2.0 lens

·         35mmL F1.4 lens

The 6D and the two lenses get used pretty equally.  I love the 135mm for outdoor sessions.  Its long focal length and creamy bokeh are gorgeous in sunlit fields. Meanwhile my 35mm lives on my camera when I am at home or with my family.   This year I have committed to bringing my camera with me everywhere, and documenting more of our everyday moments both in our home and out and about.  So the 6D with the 35mm have been getting a lot of love lately. 

Sadly my film camera has been a bit neglected lately.  I think I may need to load a roll of film and change that.

4. What's your dream project or shoot?

I still want to be a travel photographer.  I want to travel Europe from the countryside to the major cities, and just take pictures of it all.

5. What is the biggest challenge you face as a photographer?

Believing in myself, believing that I can do this and I  am good at.

6.  If you had $500 to spend on photography...

How should you spend it?

On a new computer

How do you wish you could spend it?

On a 100mm macro lens.  I rented the lens for a week and fell in love.

How would you really spend it?

Buying a computer.

7. Is there any one thing you wish someone had told you at the very beginning of your photography journey?

This is a long never ending journey.  You will not become great overnight. There is no magic recipe, or secret class that will make you instantly better.  It takes hard work and dedication, and even when you have put everything you got into, there is always another step, and so it takes a little more.