so here's the deal...

I’m not gonna lie. I’ve never been very sentimental. I blame my sorority house rules that required us to pack up our belongings and move rooms every semester. Supposedly it was for “relationship building,” but I think it was really just an excuse to get us to clear out all our junk so the place stayed clean and fresh and frilly and didn’t start smelling like a dingy old frat house. I drove little red Jeep Wrangler back then (…loved that car…) so everything I owned had to fit in the tiny back seat and non-existent trunk. There was no room for sentiment, so all non-essentials were pitched.

I went for a job interview once where they asked me to bring a “brag book” of all my awards and recognitions, and I almost laughed out loud because who really keeps that crap? I’m glad I didn’t because when I arrived there was a room full of applicants clutching bonded leather albums with their life accomplishments proudly glued to the pages inside. I brought pictures. Fifteen snapshots of my life that each told a part of my story: who I was, what I loved, things I’d done and places I’d been.


I didn’t get the job.


But the interviewer loved my pictures and my stories (and I think she secretly liked the fact that I valued memories and experiences over awards and recognitions).

So despite my lack of sentimentality, those pictures (…and hundreds of others since…) are the things I treasure. They are my Relics. They tell the story of my life…and of the people I love…and the things I’m passionate about…and the once-in-a-lifetime experiences that pass all too quickly. I want you to have Relics too. Tiny toes. Baby curls. First smiles. Crazy hair. Belly laughs. Toothless grins. Growing families.Young love. Wedding vows. Real life. Genuine emotion. These are the things I capture, the reason I love photography, and the keepsakes that I hope will make up the brag book of your life. Out of this passion, Relic Photography was born.

more than you ever wanted to know about me...

- Most people call me kj…except my mom who calls me “belle”…my brother who’s always called me “smiley”…and my sweet husband Shane who calls me “sunshine.”

- I grew up a tomboy, joined a sorority in college, and settled into adulthood somewhere between the extremes.

- I have two precious little girls: Emery (who we call “the pickle” thanks to my friend Nicole) and Adley (who goes by “booper,” which I’m sure she’ll talk about in counseling some day)…and two little studs: Maclain (who we call “Mac”, and sometimes (sadly for him) “Mac-a-doodle”) and Reid (who goes by “Diggy” which would require an actual conversation to even explain).

- I’m a big fan of Jesus and am always up for sitting down over a fountain soda and chatting about how He’s changed my life.

- I am married to the most genuine, kind-hearted, hardest working man I’ve ever met and I will forever wonder how I managed to reel in such a catch.

- I’m addicted to Diet Coke, a fanatic of Cardinals baseball, and obsessed with my iPhone (which is hands-down the greatest invention of all time).

- I suck at cooking but rock at slice-n-bake cookies (don’t laugh…getting them just right is a patented skill).

- I love, love, love ice-cream. Love it. Like, really…REALLY…love it.

- When I’m not taking pictures, chasing kids, eating ice-cream, playing with my iPhone or not cooking, I’m using my degree in Physical Therapy to inflict pain under the pretense of “rehab.”  I absolutely love this genre of my life and consider it a great privilege to be a part of a person’s healing process.

- I’m a firm believer that advice is generally worth what you pay for it. That being said if you’d like to know what I think about any particular topic, please come with a large Diet Coke from McDonalds as I think it's safe to say my opinion is worth approximately 1 dollar and 9 cents.

- I owe most everything I know about photography to Chris Croy who gave me a job when the extent of my camera knowledge was “point…and…shoot,” and to my amazingly talented friend Lisa Hessel who taught me how to use photoshop to cover a multitude of sins and answered a million annoying questions along the way.

If all that isn’t more than you ever wanted to know about me, let’s do lunch or coffee or, even better, ice cream!

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