Joni Kabana Photography

I placed a couple of your images in cover layout and they are stunningly powerful. I wish I could give you sneak peak, but also want it to be a surprise. I showed our editor Kevin and he was blown away! You nailed this project and I can’t thank you enough Joni.

Joni doesn’t take portraits, she captures lives and relationships, imbuing her innate compassion and empathy even before the camera is on. With an intrinsic kinship to human emotion and human beings, she alights onto a moment becoming part of it. Her lens is simply there to share it with us. The time spent is a joy.

You’ll be pleased to hear the students absolutely loved the class. High marks all around. I want to thank you very much for all your hard work, effort and preparation to make the workshop a success. I know teaching takes a lot of planning, but you seem to do it quite effortlessly, and for that I’m very grateful. A natural-born teacher as they say.

Thanks again, Joni, for all you did to make this solo exhibit happen. You were right there, every step of the way, ready to help.  You are delightful to work with.  And you have amazing outreach 🙂

You know when you’ve seen a great photograph, something destined to become an icon, and you think, ‘I wish I’d taken that.’ That’s what it’s like to work with Joni Kabana.

Joni can tease the personality out of an oyster. She can light the hell out of the dullest gray box and make you want to drive it home.

She can shoot a plain, white blanket and make you want to curl up in the photo. And she can make you see things in people that make you want to spend the afternoon with them.

I’ve worked with some of the great advertising photographers in my career. And I have to say, Joni Kabana is right up there in their company. Not only that, but she’s just a nut to shoot with.

Many, many thanks for your generous response to my request for help yesterday. I hope you know that it is a measure of my knowledge of your commitment to Mercy Corps that emboldened my call as soon as Cassandra came to us for assistance. We use the other photographs on a regular basis, both as permanent decoration but also, more recently, we hung your new images in the reception area for the visit by the North Korea delegation this week. Thanks for being such a good friend to Mercy Corps.

Thank you for these wonderful photographs.  Most of all, thank you for your wonderful workshop Friday.  What a generous gift you gave to all of us.

As an executive at the Regence Group, responsible for all marketing communications, it is critical that I engage creative staff that will deliver high quality, innovative work, on time and within budget. Joni Kabana is such an individual. Joni has a highly creative eye and a unique vision that ensures delivery of “one of a kind” imagery that is distinguishable and memorable. She has the ability to expand upon ideas and is effective in brainstorming photographic solutions. She brings excellent coordination expertise and has superior interpersonal skills that allow her to work with all levels in the company. She is cost efficient with expenses. Clients will not get cookie cutter images or styles. She has represented Regence in a highly positive way within the community. I highly recommend Joni as a photographer for any project or subject. Her versatility, ranging from executive portraits to product and journalistic images, positions her as a creative resource that any organization would value.

Perhaps one of Oregon’s biggest talents is hidden behind the images of many of the intriguing people you see in this feature. If the energy of photographer Joni Kabana has any boundary, I have not yet seen it. In shooting this feature on fascinating people, Kabana traveled on a moment’s notice, coordinated more moving parts than an air traffic controller (including finding two of our subjects vacationing just off the path of her own trip to British Columbia this summer) and brought us images that add an elegant dimension to the storied lives of these people. She has been an absolute dream to work with and will greatly improve the status of 1859 with her lens.

We have seen some of the images on the Private Wealth website and they are fantastic – easily the best shots of our CEO/President I have ever seen. By the way, your show was amazing. Congratulations.

Joni’s respect for the subject being photographed was an inspiration to all of us. She helped the other travelers learn how to fully use their equipment and we never had to worry about her judgement or ability to navigate difficult circumstances. I would not hesitate to engage Joni for any photographic assignment. She is skilled, kind, resilient, indefatigable and sturdy. And a lot of fun to travel with.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your time yesterday! We all had a great time. It was unbelievable to have pictures waiting for us when we arrived home. Riley was so excited she didn’t want to go to sleep! Thank you again for everything. It is so good to see Riley smile again after the past year and a half! Riley had just come from the doctors office, where we talked about her next surgery, but she was still so excited to have just been photographed!

Joni brings a creative perspective to the subject at hand. Her images portray beauty and posh not to mention her personal style that completes the package. Joni takes ideas and direction with ease and has become a pleasure to work with. She is terribly efficient and deadline oriented. I wouldn’t hesitate to hire Joni again.

Joni Kabana’s photography has brought a strong visual element to our communication material that didn’t exist previously. Our goal was to create a new and distinctive visual aesthetic for the organization. Joni helped us define that new look and carry it throughout the organization, from our Web site, to print material, to advertising…even our new office space. We are better positioned to execute our mission with our identify more clearly defined.

I thought the UW story and photos were great. A number of the people who have read it said that they felt it really captured us well, so thanks for your help with that. Given that our life is fairly non-standard, I don’t take it for granted that someone can visit for such a short amount of time and be able to give a sense of us.

I’m just getting to my desk after morning meetings. I’m looking through the images and they are gorgeous. Thank you thank you thank you for being such a wonderful partner. I heard nothing but great feedback about how easy you are to work with and Christopher loves the images.

Thank you for coming into our classroom and sharing your book with us. My favorite part was when you told us about their houses and how big they were and how many people lived in one.

The kids and I had a good time yesterday which could be witnessed by their abundant energy and their eagerness to get involved. The photos are great, and I’m anxious to see the rest. Thank you for making time for our family and other cancer families. These outings become adventures for our family – something to plan, to anticipate, a time to forget about what we have endured or celebrate how far we’ve come. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you again joni for a lovely shoot yesterday. We are so happy with how everything came out.

It was wonderful to meet Joni and see those pictures of the Mercy Corps trip. The portraits at the end were fabulous. Joni did a great job of presenting. It was very – how shall I say it – uplifting and made one feel like one should get up and do something.

Thank you for being so flexible and so ready to jump in and work with us on this project! It was a big relief for me to have such quick and clear communications with you, even while you were out of the country! Thank you sincerely.

Thank you so much for your presentation last night! It was great. One of the parts that really rang true with me was your point about embracing people’s incredible strengths in finding solutions. It’s something we should strive for in each of our projects, but sometimes don’t emphasize enough.

Who thought that posing for a head-shot photo for your company website could be fun? Joni made everyone feel at ease and produced portraits we are all proud to display. Beautiful studio!

I learned more in two hours and saw better results than I have obtained in previous group classes and camera club meetings. Joni is an authentic, organized, warm instructor who made us all feel comfortable with our varying skill levels. Highly recommend you treat yourself to this inspiring human being doing what she loves. Her spirit and skills are infectious!

For me, Joni’s workshop was a profound, intense, and challenging experience on a personal, professional, and digital level. I thought our feedback show to the MISSA community was wonderful and professionally executed. I also really enjoyed the sessions in which we had the time to look at how the same model is seen by different photographers.

Joni Kabana’s one-day workshop on family portraiture was many good things: inspirational, enlightening, practical, and fun! I came away from the workshop with many useful strategies for taking better portraits and increased confidence in engaging my subjects. Now that I’ve had time to try the strategies outside of the workshop, I find that I engage my family and friends more as I make photographs. We’re having more fun together and we all love the results! Thanks so much, Joni.

What a great surprise the photo session pictures are! I’ve never met anyone quite like you and I can’t keep up with your gigantis imagination involving heart, mind and spirit. I think someday you’ll float away when you get too big for your own self; then you’ll join the other enlightened ones watching amused at the rest of us struggling to know what the &%$#*# we’re doing here.

The annual reports are here and they look great. Everyone is raving about the executive photos. Also, Joni and her team approached the marketing portraits in their typical fashion: collaborative, enthusiastic and extremely professional. We couldn’t ask for a better experience and look forward to working with her again soon.

I was fortunate enough to watch Joni capture captivating images of Ethiopian women on our most recent medical trip to rural Ethiopia. When Joni approaches these women, she learns their name, then listens to their stories and in this humane encounter, she notices moments of brilliance, vulnerability, joy, fear, despair and somehow she captures their humanity. As a physician who is often too blinded by the complexities of medicine to appreciate the power of my everyday encounters, I value Joni’s ability to bring to our consciousness the simplicity and honesty of the human spirit. For those of you who would like to see more of Joni’s images in the setting of a humanitarian outreach, I encourage you to see her recent collaborative work from her trip in Ethiopia, entitled “Footsteps to Healing” which can be found at http://stores.lulu.com/ethiopianwomen.

Joni Kabana was the still photographer on set for my film “Umbrella” and she did a stellar job, taking one gorgeous photo after the next. She was professional & a delight to have around. On top of that, the stills that she took have created quite a buzz about the project so I will definitely call on her again for future projects. I can recommend her highly.

As for the exhibit on the 15th floor, it continues to draw interest and very strong positive response. I enjoy taking guests on a quick tour and talking about the project–and Joni. People are uniformly impressed by the philosophy behind it and the execution of it.

I took your travel workshop a couple of months ago, and wanted to thank you. In fact, I have taken your example to heart. As they say about teaching: it is better to light the torch, than to fill the bucket. So you did that.

I have had the pleasure of working with Joni Kabana since the spring of 2006. I have found Joni to be expressive, articulate and extremely dependable. The feedback from the families that have been photographed by Joni is powerful. They say that she is observant, gentle, imaginative and sincere. Beyond her interpersonal skills, Joni’s business and operational skills are superior. Joni has balanced giving families the space they need while being persistent enough to make sure families don’t miss out on this opportunity. Joni is efficient and effective in her communication with CCA. Her creative photos continue to take my breath away.

She never ceases to amaze me by her passion and commitment to help the most needy with her art. If I were not overly committed to my responsibilities for the Center, I’d offer my humble services to help her in her efforts.

Working with Joni was a real pleasure. Watching her work with the subjects was great. She was able to make everyone feel at ease right away and capture the shots I was looking for. I look forward to working with her again!

I don’t think I ever let you know what a wonderful job you did for the kids at Raleigh Park. They absolutely loved you. Thank you so much for taking your valuable time to tell such a wonderful and important story.

Joni’s author visit was amazing. Her presentation and slides truly gave our students a window into a world quite different from their own. And yet, they left the visit with a renewed understanding of how we are all the same.

Joni is a versatile presenter who effortlessly modified her program to capture the imaginations of our various age groups. Her ability to address the students’ questions with honesty and humor speaks to the same sensitivity evident in her exquisite photographs. What a privilege for our students and our faculty!

Wow, I am still crying after reading this heart-felt sharing of your experiences in The Oregonian article. The images from your exhibit are burned in my mind. The colors so vibrant and expressions so authentic and pure. So many lessons for us all… so well-written and documented.

The presentation she gave was superb. Students were glued to her and her website. She is a natural teacher.

Andrew and I met her on the rooftop of Venice Suites in March….she took a lovely photo of us from the back, overlooking the balcony. It is a treasure. I’ve just spent some time on her website and am in awe of her artistry, talent and the way she sees the world. The energy of her subjects is palpable and I am moved to tears by many of them. I am honored that she saw something on the roof and that she has given us a precious momento of that glorious time in Venice.

Thanks so much for the class today, it was just fabulous. I really enjoyed everything about it and think my photos will benefit tremendously as a result. Amazing what an impact an afternoon can have! How lucky I was that Christopher saw your book at the conference and brought us together!

I just wanted to thank you for a great workshop on Sunday. I enjoyed it immensely. You have a wonderful teaching style that was engaging and lacked ego, unlike many “artists” I’ve taken workshops from. I will keep my eye out for any opportunity to take another workshop from you.

That first image is worth it ALL! Even I want to work with me! Thanks for making me look so fabulous, and for sending samples to satisfy my quick fix curiosity. Wow. I’m so excited! Now I’m going to want to do fancy brochures or something. Heck, a billboard!

Wow, wow, wow! I just saw the photos and I am wonderfied!!! You are so good! I can see those kids communicating with the other kid behind the camera. And that kid behind the camera is also a really good photographer! You are making my job so easy–and so hard! I told Wade I would pick 20 to choose from for the website and I ended up with 50. And I’m “not so pretty sure” that I’ve picked the best because they are all the best!

I think last week’s shoot was a success from all perspectives. I’m so happy to have access to your talent.

The photos you took of us are just beautiful. I love how you’ve captured the closeness, warmth and love between all of us and between Molly and Jimmy. And the ones of the kids jumping are so much fun! Thank you for doing such an incredible job capturing who we are.

I’d always hated having my picture taken. But I thought the website advertising my massage business really should have pictures: people want to be able to see who’s going to be touching them. So I bit the bullet and started looking through websites of Portland photographers. When I came to Joni Kabana’s I knew I’d found what I was looking for: someone who really sees people. Joni’s photographs of different people looked genuinely different. As I looked through the photos I found myself actually wanting to have my picture taken, something I’ve never wanted before. Not because I thought she’d make me look good. Because I thought she’d make me look like me. She’s a complete professional. She took the time to understand exactly what I wanted the pictures for and what I wanted them to convey, and never lost sight of that. The photo shoot was efficient but relaxed. (And someone who can make me relax in front of a camera can make anyone relax in front of a camera.) When she got the photos to me the next day I was delighted. They were exactly what I wanted. And for the first time in my life I had a set of photos of myself that I recognized. That really was me, in the pictures.

I just want to send a HUGE Thank You to Angie and her Troop for planning such a Wonderful Thinking Day! The guest speaker Joni Kabana was wonderful! She was very informative, spoke well to the children, and shared a lot of great information.

Thank you so much for taking my senior pictures, they are EXACTLY what I was looking for. None of that “glow”.

I don’t like them, I LOVE THEM! It is just a real challenge to make a final decision! Honestly, you did an incredible job. This is going to be a great album cover! And, I will be able to use these over and over for website and press etc. A million thanks!

I very enjoyed meeting you today and I know there will be many great photos from the shoot. It was fun from start to finish. Your artistry for capturing the essence of a person is obvious and I think your images of our brothers and sisters around the world expresses that connection.

We’ve just finished our big annual fundraiser and used a lot of your photos for it. If you have a chance, you can watch it on our website at www.childinst.org. The slideshow helped us earn a record number of donations, so thank you for your excellent work!

All I can say, Joni, is that you are a certifiable ROCK STAR.  These photos are so awesome!