Melanie Soleil | Essence Photography Blog

The photography of Melanie Soleil Jaramillo

About Me….

I fell in love with photography when I was a little girl.

I’ll never forget the day…. My mom was mad that I didn’t eat my dinner, so she sat me down with a National Geographic to show me pictures of “starving children”. Yet when I looked at the photographs, all I saw was…. beauty. I was completely hypnotized by the images, and how the photographer could capture beauty in the midst of despair. I fell in love with the power of film in that single moment.

From that day forward I secretly longed to be a photographer for National Geographic. But I was scared, and so I buried my dream and never even picked up a camera. Instead, I received my Masters Degree in Healing Science and became a somatic therapist, a writer, and a counselor and advocate for survivors of sexual assault. No matter how much I loved what I was doing, deep down I ached to take photos and so finally I went back to school to study Fine Art Film Photography and the rest is basically history.

Now I live in Grass Valley CA, with my daughter Madyline, her two imaginary friends Emily and Asia, a squirrel named Freebee, and our crazy cat Thomas. I feel so honored to teach about and capture the beauty of people in love… in love with their partner, their children, their families, life….. because that’s what life’s all about!

My vision with Essence Photography is to create such an amazing experience for my clients that they come back year after year; to capture the power and beauty of their life in a fun and artistic way; and to create a company that’s constantly giving back to the community- sharing the power of photography as a healing & community building tool.

Feel free to poke around the blog and get a feel for my work and my life. Or, shoot me an email to set up an time to chat over coffee.

Melanie

ps. I'm blessed to be a volunteer photographer for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, Please visit their website & learn about how to support this important cause!

Sep 02 2010

End of Summer | Personal

Hello my friends, Hope you’re having a beautiful week. It’s been busy here, getting back into the rhythm of early mornings, driving to school, etc. Does anyone else have the same issue I’m living? why is it that Madyline wakes up before 6am EVERY SINGLE DAY in the summer, EVERY SINGLE Saturday and Sunday….but if it’s a school day, it’s like I’m a cruel and unusual mother for waking her up at 7:15?
seriously?!? what’s THAT about?

I figure maybe we’re both just in denial that summer has come to an end. Last night I was going through personal photos from the summer trying to get them in order, and was thinking…. really? summers already gone? So I thought I’d share a few photos from Casa De Soleil this summer (sounds fancy, but that’s the nickname we gave to our house- Melanie Soleil, Madyline Soleil, Casa de Soleil… get it?). Yes it’s pretty fun over here…. according to Madyline we’re taking applications for people who want to join our family… When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, her reply was “I want you to adopt a girl from China”. Hmmm, hopefully she’ll settle for a hamster.

So here’s a few photos of our days by the pool & bonfire, and ….. Madyline’s first manicure/pedicure with grandma at the salon. Aren’t grandmas great with the spoiling? now she wants to go every week though… hmmm. who’s gonna fund that one?

Melanie Soleil Jaramillo | Essence Photography

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Aug 31 2010

Bridal Shoot | Nevada City Wedding Photographer

Posted in Photography

Hi Friends,

So many blog posts to catch up on…. A couple of weeks ago I headed out to do a bridal shoot in Nevada City. My friend Linda Baylis came with me on this shoot, and since I’m used to working solo, it’s always so much fun to have another photographer around! If you shoot with me, you know that at some point I’m going to end up cracking up over one thing or another (cracking up laughing that is). This time it was me getting into the freezing cold stream to catch the shots of my bride wearing (my very favorite) red rain boots! Just so you know…. streams are slippery…. make sure your camera is insured before attempting this at home.

I had SO MUCH FUN on this shoot and I’ve been having such a hard time culling down the images. My workflow in lightroom is nailed down pretty well so that I normally cull a shoot in a 20 minutes or less (for newbies, that means to edit down or select the images I’m going to work on). But I LOVE so many of these images that I’m having a hard time editing them out. I want to give a special thank you to the amazing wedding vendors- Rachel at Art in Bloom in Grass Valley and Paula at Stray Cuts & Co. in Nevada City, I love working with those women!

PS. If you have a moment, go check out MeRaKoh’s photography blog today… I’m being featured in an interview on the blog this week, and she is just such an awesome woman/photographer.

Melanie Soleil Jaramillo | Essence Photography

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Aug 28 2010

Family Day at Casa De Soleil | Personal

Posted in My life

So today is family day with Madyline here at Casa De Soleil. (I actually blogged this on Friday night so as not to cheat on our no-computer policy on family day.)

What’s on the calender you wonder?

1) Sleeping in

2) making waffles

3) sitting in the hammock and reading books together (trying not to fall out like I did today- literally did one of those cartoon flips out of the hammock)

4) picking blackberries

5) Having a picnic lunch high up in our favorite climbing tree.

6) making organic chocolate chip cookies, wrapping them in beautiful packaging and taking them to our neighbors and family.

7) working in the garden {which really needs some help!}

a walk at the river

9) finish off the day with a hot stone massage & story telling.

Yes it’s a busy day indeed! Hope your day is just as fun!

Melanie Soleil | Essence Photography

photo recipe for above images: 1000 iso, f/1.4 180 second with white balance set to 5500k.

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Aug 27 2010

WPPI Roadshow | Back to Film

Posted in Photography

Hello friends,
So Wednesday I headed down to Sacramento (in traffic and all) for the WPPI roadshow. It was so nice to re-connect with photographer friends from both near and far. As expected with any WPPI event, I left TOTALLY inspired and on Fire (or FI-Yeeeaahhhrrrrr!!! when said with some real expression).

One of the speakers was Jonathan Canlas, film shooter and leader of “Film Is Not Dead” workshops. Awesome guy! This came at a great time for me, since just last week my Dad and Step-mom gave me this {fabulous} Nikkormat camera setup… full with 2 off camera soligor flash units- HUGE SCORE for me!

I have to say that at heart I am really a film girl, and I’d take this old school manual camera with no bells and whistles over my digital camera anyday. there is just something so magical about film… about shooting it, developing it, waiting for it… that you just can’t get in digital. So on the way home I stopped and picked up some rolls of film and I’m heading out to shoot a roll of film today. stay tuned to see what I get.

Melanie Soleil | Essence Photography

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Aug 25 2010

My beautiful friend’s getting married! | San Diego Engagement Session

Posted in My life, Photography

Hello my friends,

Ok, I’m almost caught up on my editing- just in time to head out to WPPI Roadshow in Sac with my friend Linda Baylis tomorrow {yay}! For now, I want to share a very special engagement session I did 2 weeks ago….

Last year {thanks to fabulous facebook} I reconnected with a very important woman in my life- my {almost aunt} Anna Marie. This woman is…. AMAZING…

BEAUTIFUL….

AMAZING….(did I mention that?)

I just don’t have enough words to express my feelings about Anna Marie… She’s been with me since I was a young girl- was with me through my (not so comfortable) teenage years, and has seen me through my darkest day. I hope we all have someone like this in our life…. someone who sees our light, even when we can’t see it ourselves. So, when she connected with me last year and said she was IN LOVE and GETTING MARRIED I was ectatic! Because if anyone deserves a happily ever after, it’s Anna Marie (well, me too… but this post is about her)!

So a few weeks ago I had the chance to actually connect in person when I photographed their engagement session…. and I was so inspired by how beautiful and IN LOVE she was. Really… THIS is what it’s all about. THIS is why I love photographing couples….Capturing people who SEE each other. people who are SO in love it’s RADIATING from their skin. I’ve know Anna Marie since I was a little girl, but never have I seen her GLOW like this! I’m so happy for my beautiful friend!