Hello hello!

Thank you for coming to check out my photography. There is currently another Spotlight Competition going on, please take part and vote for my photo. The image I have featured is the one that I tagged to this blog. It comes from the face/feature series that I had posted on the website not long ago.

Hope you all enjoy it. Special thanks to Malaurie Turner. Hers is the profile you see in the picture.



Every blessing,

Crystal Jones

Hello Hello!

There are updates all over the place! So, have a seat... grab some tea and look around. I would like to thank all of you who showed up to the "Ablaze the Art" show last month at Boardners. Thank you for making my night! And for all of those who could not make it and sent messages and what not... thank you as well! I will be back at Boardners on Friday, June 1st displaying more work. If you're in or around West Hollywood it would be awesome to have you come and hang out.

Other things - You can now purchase artwork directly from my website. I've also made it possible for you to e-mail me from the website! There is a little form on the contact page, where you can plug in your e-mail address and type a message... the message is then forwarded to my inbox.

Leave your mark... let me know you've been here. I hope you're all doing amazing. Life has definitely been about lesson learning lately. There is great beauty, friends. I pray that you would always be able to see hope and beauty. Hopefully we will cross paths soon. Continue to visit me here!

In Love,

-Crystal Jones

Boardners
in Hollywood, Ca

9:30pm-2:00am

Hello to everyone who comes purposefully or just happens upon this website, I am happy that you are here. Write me a note and say hello.

It's one of those right of passage things that we have as a human being.

It has been a wild two weeks, I am enjoying my Saturday evening at home, as I sit here with a freshly brewed pot of green tea and Amos Lee playing in the background... I think I have been to six different cities within the last week and a half. All of the driving made me hunger for new music. But something else I've been enjoying a lot are sermons and books on cd.

I've been working on a new project entitled "Features" which will be up on the website soon. A series of photographs that focus specifically on the face. It's been a neat project thus far. I'd like to extend a great big "Thank You!" to everyone that has been involved. Sincerely. Some day I will take you all out to dinner. But today I do not have enough buy one get one free coupons.

---

As you read in the title, there is an exhibit coming up! This show will feature some of my photography, which will be on display for sale. It is a late night show, but I hope some of you can make it out. I would be very blessed to have you there. The show is 18 and over and there will be a cover charge of $5. Be sure to tell the folks at the door that you are there for the art show. There will also be live music, for those of you who are into that sort of thing ;).

Until next time, I am praying for you.

Slow down.

God is good.

-Crystal

I have been mad busy lately, but it's awesome. As you can see, I did a massive update a couple days ago, so there's tons of new stuff on the website. Hope you like it. Leave comments on the pictures, ask me questions. Talk about lighting and technique and all that other stuff. Or none of that stuff for that matter.

Thank you to all who have taken the time to send me an e-mail or comment on the photos. I enjoy reading/responding to them. Also, I've seen that some of you have passed along the link to my website! Wow. Thank you!

I recently did a shoot with Aaron Aguilar, one of the neatest, most talented kids I've ever met in my life. I have known "Srat" (Aaron) for a few years, so it was a lot of fun to get out with him and the camera. Some of the pictures are up in the "people/portraits" section if you'd like to see them.

This weekend I will be covering a golf tournament being put on by the NAIFA foundation. I also have a couple weddings coming up at the end of this month. So come back frequently, as I will be adding new stuff.

May God bless and keep you!
You are all in my prayers,

- Crystal Jones

Since I decided to go with this photograph for the "premier" of my website, I wanted to share with you the story behind the photo.

The young woman you see pictured in the photograph is Marinella Pavletich. I met Mari my sophomore year of college. She sat in front of me in our US History class. To me, she was loud, crazy, asked a lot of questions and had funky hair. But she was so much more than that. Her passion, her accent and her scars told me that she had a story. Later I would find out. Mari was from Eastern Europe - Bucharest, Romania. She'd grown up without a family... a mother who didn't want her and couldn't afford her. So she spent most of her childhood being transferred from one orphanage to another. Until she was adopted (while the Romanian adoption agencies were still open,) by a missionary couple and moved to the states. She told me stories of how God saved her and how she would have ended up, had she never made it out of Romania.

In the summer of 2005... through divine providence, I had the pleasure of going to Romania with Mari, as she returned there for the first time ever since being adopted away from the orphanages (about ten years ago). I remember laying awake with her one night as we shared tears, "it's all coming back" she said, "it's all coming back." Being in Romania was a very emotional experience for her. As we went from orphanage to orphanage she would recount the memories that she had there. We prayed over the children in the orphanages and that God would rescue them, as He had done Marinella.

I ran into Mari recently on my way to lunch and was able to talk with her for awhile. I told her that I was working on a portfolio that was going to feature her story and the picture that I took of her. And she said to me, in a way that only she can, "Praise the Lord sister!"

Many of you have expressed to me how much you love this picture and how refreshing it is to you. She (Mari) loves it as well. She says that it's a great picture of what it felt like to return to Romania, with hope, free and not as a burden to the government.

Hello everyone.

So, I've finally got something up! Please... look around, shoot me an e-mail, comment on the photos, hire me to be your photographer.

Etcetera.... etcetera.

Love to you all.

-Crystal Jones