Meet This Week's Judge: Jeanna Ludwig!

This week we have Jeanna Ludwig of Jeanna Ludwig Phtotography. Her natural portraits expose the true emotions of daily life, and frequently feature that life withing the country, hence this week's theme. 

1. Tell us about yourself: 

I am a photographer from a little town in Ohio. I am blessed with twin 3 yr olds and a 6 yr old. I was married at the age of 20 to my high school sweetheart and have been happily married almost 8 years now. We live on a little farm where we raise chickens, pigs and a massive garden. I would love to expand our farm someday. I love yard sales, antiquing and camping. My favorite type of music is bluegrass. I am a lover of God and although I still have my struggles, I believe he has blessed me immensely.

2. What inspired your love of photography, and what fuels it now? 

I really started liking photography when I was in high school and my husband had bought me my first digital camera. It was nothing fancy of course but I loved taking pictures of nature. When I had children it took it to a whole new level. My passion for capturing their lives grew so much more and they are what fuels it today. I am self taught and have never taken a workshop or class but would love to attend one of Molly Flanagan's workshops someday.

3. What's in your camera bag? 

I have a very small list of equipment I use. I have a Nikon D800 and never take my 50mm 1.4 off of it. That's the only lens I own right now but may try out the 35mm someday. I love a wide angle. I really want to dabble in some film photography also.

4. What is your dream shoot? 

I've never really thought about it but I think it would be an amazing experience to travel to a different country and document people from a different culture and lifestyle.

5. What is your biggest struggle? 

It is the same thing a lot of photographers struggle with, being too critical of ourselves. One of my weaknesses is being a little too defensive.

6. If you had $500 to spend of photography, what would you do with it? 

I should probably spend it on sending my camera in to get cleaned up because I never have! or getting prints of the hundreds of pictures I have on my computer that I haven't printed yet.

     I would like to spend it on a film camera

     I would probably go with prints, because they are more important.

7. What do you wish someone had told you at the start of your journey? 

I wish someone would have told me to embrace the imperfections! That's what I love most about my images. I don't try to spruce them up. I love the dirt under my kids nails, or the mess in my house, or my children's bedheads. It means I'm human and doing the best I can.

Thank you so much for joining us this week!