Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you'll want to know about working with me, you'll find below — I hope! Feel free to email jen@jenchanyi.com if there's something you'd like to know more about!

Why do I focus on moments through my photography?  

Because moments string along the narrative - one leads to another and then another until you have a complete story. Whether I'm shooting a wedding, a portrait session, or a branding / commercial assignment, I'm always thinking about the story. It helps to fuel my creativity. So I look to the little moments to create the big picture. Sure, I can create these moments and sometimes I need to. But the genuine moments are the ones I watch for because they happen organically. You can't fake the good stuff... 

So you’ve taken my photos, now what?

First, I edit edit edit! It actually is a three-step process, so those aren’t extra edits for emphasis. Step one, I cull through everything I shot. I weed out the badly timed expressions, closed eyelids, duplicates, etc. Not every shot is a winner sadly. Step two, I edit for color, exposure compensations, cropping. Step three, I go back through with a fine tooth comb. I remove minor distractions, spot check faces and white dresses. Just because I’m capturing candid moments doesn’t mean things need to look sloppy! For weddings, this all takes about 5-6 weeks. Smaller commissions, 2-3 weeks. I go over timelines and expectations ahead of time with you to make sure you have everything as soon as possible. When all of your images are ready, I upload them to the online gallery and you get a happy email :)

The gallery is great, but I want to hold my photos in my Hand!

YES!!!!!!! Musicians love digital playlists and streaming services for convenience, but nothing sounds better than vinyl…and nothing makes a photographer feel better then knowing the art we have created will live somewhere other than cyber space. Photo printing isn’t always the greenest process and as much as I want my photos to live in the real world, I also take the environmental impact seriously. It’s taken me awhile to find the right print lab, but find it I have! You have the choice between Lustre (semi-gloss), Matte or Fine Art papers. The Lustre and Matte papers are terrific papers at a lower price point - perfect for smaller prints to share or put in albums. The Fine Art series is archival in quality and is 100% cotton naturally, no chemicals have been added to the paper to achieve a pH neutral level. I’ve specifically chosen to print on Hahnemuhle fine art paper for their environmentally friendly practices and documentation in the creation of their papers —

https://www.hahnemuehle.com/en/about-us/social-responsibility.html 

Additionally, the finishing products my lab uses are also archival in nature — the mat board is 100% cotton the same as the papers and the matting tape is made mainly of linen fibers. They also donate all of the scrap mat board to teachers in public schools that can use them in their classes for art or other activities :) The wood for the framing is also ethically sourced, with offset tree planting happening with harvest.

Shipping
This is the area where I always look for reducing the environmental impact. When I ship out USB drives and my lab ships prints, we are all currently cutting out all plastics where we can. We use recyclable cardboard boxes, recyclable paper to wrap drives and prints to protect them during transit, and a paper / water-based tape whenever we need to adhere anything during transit. 

Let’s Talk Wedding albums . . .

I’m going to be honest, Steve and I celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary this year and I still haven’t created a wedding album from our day. Not because I don’t want to, i just always find something else to do instead. Please don’t be like me. I still love looking through my parents’ album that is almost 50 years old. Having an album, one tangible item that holds one whole day of incredible memories and moments, there’s nothing better. So take the time to sit down with a bottle of wine and look through your gallery and flag all of your favorites. I will take these selections and create a comparable album layout. We can adjust things via a Zoom chat where I can share my screen and make changes in real time. And within one month you will have a gorgeous album to cherish for years, And I promise to have my own album done by our ten year anniversary :)

This all sounds great, but I’m not getting married (or I’m already married). Is wedding photography all that you do?

No, no it is not. But it is how I was able to launch a full time photography career, so I’ll always be grateful to the industry. Honestly, if you had asked me 15 year ago where I would be, I’m not sure I could have told you. But I would have said, I won’t be a wedding photographer. Twelve years ago, I went through a rough patch, threw all the fucks out the window, moved to Manhattan like any 28 year old who needed a fresh start would do and started a part time job as a nightlife photographer. It got me out of my comfort zone and made me see photographing people wasn’t so bad. A friend asked me along to help second shoot a friend’s wedding and the rest of that story is history. But now I am older and the world is changing and I’m finding my photography growing with it. I love weddings — I love the diversity, the pace, the challenges it brings. But I’ve found I also love creating in a more controlled environment. I love brainstorming sessions with small business owners, finding a creative solution to their brands, finding ways to create content that is fresh and new and different. And the best part? Because weddings tend to be more seasonal, I get to do both! So if you’re looking for web or social media content, lookbooks, overall visual branding, let’s talk :)

What if my Small business needs an overall business strategy?

So you need more than visual content? I partner with a brand strategist who is literally the bees knees in helping brands get off the ground buzzing. And thankfully she and her team are much better about not using bad dad humor than I am. For real, Alchemy Brand Works has the tools for building your brand’s fundamentals while we work through visuals. Everyone wins when everyone wins…