Jelani Memory Photography
Portland, OR 97213
(map) Phone: 503-360-6034 Hours: 8-5
I love my Job...I shoot weddings! Its my pleasure to join couples on the most important day of their lives and capture their moments. my packages start at 2,000 and they offer an array of album choices, hours, digital copies etc.
my style is modern with a mix of documentary and commercial influence. my goal is...
read more »
Reviews for Jelani Memory Photography
Jelani, quite simply put, is amazing!
My husband and I planned our 2008 wedding at Mt. Hood long-distance, and Jelani was a breeze to work with via phone and email. On the day of the wedding itself, his easy-going personality and professionalism made him unbelievably easy to work with. You can tell he really enjoys taking photographs and because he had so much fun doing it- so did we!
The photos from our wedding turned out beyond our expectations. They didn't just capture the wedding they captured our personality. He used a variety of lenses and locations within the lodge to give us a variety of photos each one as good as the next. It was not a "cookie-cutter" shoot and you can see that in the finished product. Jelani has an knows what makes beautiful photos eye but what makes him a total standout is his ability to tailor his photos to the client. Most photographers want to shoot you how they see you. Jelani wants to shoot you like you see yourself.
Taking the photos is only one step in the process, and a lot of photographers stop there. But, Jelani takes immense pride in his work and made sure each photo was the best it could be and managed the retouch process himself. He was fast, efficient and provided excellent customer service the whole way through. A joy to work with!
The only hardship was choosing which prints we wanted! He took so many great shots we wanted all of them!
Jelani preserved our day in perfectly. In retrospect, I could not imagine trusting the most important day of our lives to anyone else. I whole-heartedly recommend him!
-Sara & Stewart Scott-Curran
Jelani's style and professionalism are truly one of a kind. Creative quality work right here folks.
I just wanted to leave a note and say that Jelani was the best find of my wedding! We got married on Mt. Tabor July '08 and the pictures are AMAZING! I heard so many raves about him from my friends and family at the wedding. He has a great personality and has awesome vision. He takes creative, candid, and thoughtful pictures. Jelani made all of us feel so comfortable all day. I wanted a lot of candid shots instead of posed and he did a great job. He has a creative modern edge to his photos and people often think our wedding pictures are from a magazine. When we show the pictures to our friends and family they often say, " I didn't even know he was taking that picture," or " How many photographers were at you wedding?" There was only one! He is quick on his feet, very professional and seemed to be there for every single important moment of the day. He gets five stars in my book.
My wife and I got married in the summer of 2008. She found Jelani Memory online and I had heard of him through a fellow wedding videographer. I do wedding videography. When we met with Jelani we immediately knew that he was the person we wanted to shoot our wedding photos. He was very friendly, professional and impressed us with his work and knowledge of the art of photography. We love our wedding photos, they are incredible and we've received more compliments on them than I can remember. He blew us and our guests away with a slideshow of edited photos at our reception. I highly recommend checking out Jelani. He gave us a perfect blend of traditional photos with his own amazing modern style. He's just a fun guy too!
We had the honor of being Jelani's second wedding ever a few years ago, and it was a great experience. Jelani, my wife, and I have been friends for years, and we loved his work even way back in the day. He just keeps getting better and better. With a super fun personality and a unique creative eye, Jelani would be a fine addition to any wedding! I highly recommend him!
Jelani is one of a kind. We had interviewed a few other wedding photographers but found Jelani's style to be much more refreshing, creative, and interesting. We could tell just by looking at his work that he truly enjoys what he does and has an amazing talent for it as well. You won't be disappointed, unless perhaps you are looking for a very traditional, rigid style. He thoroughly documented our wedding from start to finish and I was so delighted that he caught many of the special moments which the bride and groom can't possibly realize until after they get the photos.
The wedding album (coffee table book) he put together for us after we selected about 100 photos was excellently compiled in a very classic way. We had also done the engagement photo shoot about a year and a half earlier, and that was fun to have photos of us in a more relaxed setting.
Jelani responded promptly to my emails and phone calls, was very easy to work with and doesn't make himself obtrusive at all during the wedding. He is a very easy-going guy and will make you feel at ease while he is doing his shoots.
We highly recommend him!
i loved working with jelani. he is creative, imaginative and fun. he took the most beautiful pictures of the wedding...picture i wouldn't even have thought to ask him to take. he made sure i was comfortable the whole time and he spoke at length with us about what we wanted in wedding photos. i knew it was expensive, but every penny was worth it. i've recommended jelani to everyone. all of my guests and friends commented on how wonderful the pictures were, and several wish he lived in california so they could hire him! i think the true test of how much we loved working with jelani was when my husband and i agreed that if we had the money we would hire jelani to travel with us on all our vacations to take pictures.
Our first meeting with Jelani went really smooth, and we fell in love with his work. We were really excited to use him as our photographer. After our decision to go with Jelani, we were in constant email about what we wanted up until days before the wedding. The day of the wedding he arrived promptly. He went with the flow and captured all the shots that we had wanted for our special day! One really neat thing was he had his laptop nicely displayed showing some of the pictures he had already taken during the day. A couple months after our wedding we recieved our wedding book he had designed for us. Everyone was in awe of his work and the beautiful composition of the album! Jelani did a wonderful job capturing everything we wanted and he was so great to work with! I would highly recommend using him for your photography needs!
"We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the photos!! They are wonderful! All our friends
and family are so impressed with your work and are saying they are the
best wedding photos they have ever seen. We are so thankful!"
"Wow!!! They are amazing and there's so many of them!! Thank you thank you!! I will definately spread the word and thank you so much Jelani for making the trip to Idaho for us!!!
Ok, I'm going to go back to looking at them... :) Yay!!!"
"I just want to thank you again for enduring such a rainy and last minute preparation wedding. You didn't seem rattled by the rain at all and that made me feel much more calm!... our album came today and it is perfect! thank you so much!"
"Words cannot describe how beautiful your pictures are!!!! Mitch and I could not be more pleased!! Thank you so much for all of your hard work."
Jelani and his wife Lavenda are skilled photographers with the couple's true interest in mind. They will truly capture your wedding at it's most beautiful and touching!
About Jelani Memory Photography
Recommended by
my style is modern with a mix of documentary and commercial influence. my goal is to make the picture taking for the day be as enjoyable and meaningful as possible.
Blog: Jelani Memory Photography
Think Different?
I came across this old apple campaign and it got me thinking (no pun intended). what are they trying to say? It didn't take long for me to realize that the point Apple is trying to make is quite clear. These individuals were pioneers in their field and they all did great things. It's saying that they thought different, and were great for it....thus you should think different....and presumably buy Apple.
Context
Are you paying attention?
This is a story the Washington Post did a while back.
"On a cold January morning in a Washington, DC Metro Station, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time about two thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
[...]In the end, only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money, but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32. When he finished playing, no one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell had sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100."
While it sounds astounding that so many people could walk by such a talented musician playing right in front of them, and believe me it is astounding, it shows the power of context. The context of Joshua Bell playing in a metro station was incongruent. Peoples expectations of what they were going to find on their early morning commute was not a world class musician playing one of the most beautiful pieces ever written on a multi million dollar instrument.
This leaves me with two realizations with photography.
1. some of the strangest people, places, and things can produce the most beautiful images if only I am able to see them for what they are, instead of their present context.
2. images thrive on context. where you show your images and how you show them can create a perception of how good they actually are.
These are healthy reflections for anyone working on their portfolio, as I am right now, and working on their presentation of themselves and their work.
shooting, editing, shooting
just a screen shot of a recent shoot i'm working on
Keith & Katie (dance party) Wedding
as a little addition...they had the coolest 12x12 300 page album. heres the cover.
Find More Vendors In Portland Photography Like This
