Category Archives: style

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stormy weather

April 10, 2009 – 7:20 pm

I love extreme weather of all sorts. I sometimes, in my crazier moments, wonder what it would be like to sell everything and take up life as a storm chasing photographer. Then I remember that I don’t really like camping, cheap hotels, or bad diner food.

Every now and then, though, extreme weather comes to me. This evening as I was cooking dinner, the tornado sirens at the high school went off. Being the sane and sensible person that I am, I ran outside with my camera to photograph the clouds. The other sane and sensible people on my street were great in pointing out the various cloud formations and potential tornadoes. Nice to know my neighbors are as crazy as I am!

By Kara | Also posted in personal | Comments (0)

Why I’m a Photographer

February 13, 2009 – 11:42 pm

A lot of times I get asked how I got into photography or why I’m a photographer.  One of the things that really influences me is history … especially family history.  Some of my most cherished possessions are the family photos that were willed to me when my parents died.  I have photos dating back to the late 1800s, both of my father’s and my mother’s family.  But some of my most cherished are those of my grandmother (my mother’s mother) who was a true 1920’s flapper.  She danced on the stage in San Francisco in 1929, and was a model for the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1930s.


I hope that someday some woman will look back on photos I’ve taken the way I look back on these of my grandmother and feel the same connection. It’s what motivates me as a photographer.

By Kara | Also posted in personal | Comments (0)

Playing!

February 10, 2009 – 2:40 pm

I’m not really one for a lot of Photoshop work or fancy special effects.  When we edit images, I prefer that they be clean, crisp, and bright, but not overly processed.  I’m all about subtle effects for retouching and skin smoothing (no one wants plastic skin!).

By the same token, our album designs are clean and classic.  We don’t tend to have a lot of overlapping images, fades, colors, lines, and so forth.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to play around now and then.  Every once in a while I find an effect or an action that I think might be kind of fun in an album design or for a special offering.  This is one of them.  The action itself is from PanosFX and is one of the 30 or so free actions that they offer.

It’s fun, huh?  I don’t know that I’d use it all the time, but I can see it as an opening page in one of our couple’s albums.  Just to play!

By Kara | Also posted in for fun | Comments (0)

Let’s Talk Travel!

January 31, 2009 – 1:46 pm

“If you fly in only one vendor, make it the photographer. ”
-the Knot Guide to Destination Weddings (p. 70)

Have I mentioned that I love to travel? Have I mentioned that I’m willing to travel anywhere in the US, Mexico, Canada, the World, the Known Universe … to photograph a wedding? I’m sure I have!

The Knot guide quoted above mentions some great reasons to bring your photographer with you when you have a destination wedding.  But there are also some equally great reasons to hire an out of town photographer to photograph your local wedding, or to fly to your destination wedding from somewhere other than your home town.

I think there are two primary reasons to bring in a photographer from out of town, no matter where you’re getting married. Those reasons are STYLE and PERSONALITY.   Photography is an artistic pursuit.  When you choose your photographer, you should choose someone whose images speak to you; whose style and personality come through on their website; someone who you can see spending the entire day with you and your family. If that person should happen to live in another state, it’s not really that big a deal.

A photographer who is willing and used to traveling for weddings will be able to easily accommodate things like print orders (online galleries and ordering), delivery schedules (USPS Priority Mail with signature confirmation, easily upgradeable to FedEx when necessary), album design (online and email), and any and all communication (phone, email, text, IM, Facebook – whatever works).  None of those things should prevent you from hiring a photographer whose work you really love and bringing her (or him) to you.

Something else to keep in mind is that it’s often not that much more expensive to hire an out of town photographer than it is to hire one locally.  Many photographers offer flat rate travel to certain major cities or within a region.  Some photographers are willing to negotiate on price to photograph at a location or venue that will benefit their portfolio (although keep in mind that negotiating on price does not mean taking a loss – and time away from the business must be accounted for).

So where do I stand on these matters?  As I think I mentioned above, I love to travel. I’ve photographed weddings in 24 different states (Portland, Washington, Alaska, California, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Connecticut, and DC) and 3 countries (US, Mexico, and Canada).  In my personal life, I’ve traveled to and lived in over 14 countries – in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

I offer flat rates for travel, based on region.  And yes, I’m willing to negotiate if there is a venue or location I’m particularly interested in working with or adding to my portfolio.

(Oh, and the locations above? New Orleans, Charleston, Puerto Vallarta, Captiva Island, Coconut Grove, Mismaloya)

By Kara | Also posted in advice, weddings | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)