Can I be honest?

Cool. Because I'm really not good at hiding what I'm really thinking.

I know that you don't care to hear about how I've had a camera in my hand before I was born or how I used to bathe in photo developer.

What you likely are more interested in, is 'who is this person who I might hang out with for a few hours and is she going to make me feel uncomfortable when she takes my picture'.

So, hey, I'm Jill.

Catskills & Hudson Vally Family Photographer

Is this where I'm supposed to tell you my favorite show, if I like Taylor Swift and how I like my coffee?

Oh you don't care? Imagine that!

I guess I'll try to figure out what you might actually care about.

Stuff I think is relevant

hates fake stuff

I mean, I have no qualms with vegan leather or artificial sugar.

but when it comes to family photography, I really am so over the performative nonsense. I am probably only going to create photos of your family that resermble your family and who you all actually are, not some ideal, Instagram version of you to impress people from highschool you don't even like.

Light obsessed

And I don't discriminate. It probably started when I discovered golden hour light, and backlighting, but I've come to love every type of light. Yes, the OG, golden hour light, but also direct sun, chiaro-oscura, Rembrandt, blue hour. I will still turn off overhead lights at your house, because mixed lighting is not my bag, and that's one light type I will probably never love.

Semi - Local

Livingston Manor is definitely one of those towns where it's hard to have any street-cred if your great - great grandfather wasn't born here. But I've been coming here since 2007, and moved here in 2011, and married a guy whose family has been here for that long. So I would say I'm pretty familiar with the area at this point (aka I can show you all the good spots.

Experience

I have been at this since 2013, more or less, and learned pretty early on that my favorite thing to photograph was people, especially families. In that time I've photographed hundreds of families, each year, totally galvanizing my adoration for this genre of photography.

Also a mom

I mean, probably a duh, but what I think is worth sharing that I'm a mom to a kid with ADHD and one who's autistic. So what, you say? Well, I'd like to think my kids have taught me to withold judgement & expectations from children and just go with the flow. This helps a lot as a family photographer.