Posted on March 2, 2012

Oh. My. Goodness did I have a busy last couple of days?! On Wednesday night, my friend & I headed up to Disneyland around 10 PM. They were open for 24 hours for Leap Day & we wanted to see what it would be like to ride rides at 4 AM! So we spent about 6 hours in the park & stayed until it closed at 6 AM… so much fun! We decided to get a hotel room & go back the next day for a few hours because we heard they’d be shooting Modern Family inside the park & we wanted to check it out.

Let’s get one thing straight here. “Friends” is BY FAR the funniest TV show that has ever been on TV. Period. But if there had to be a runner up, Modern Family is a CLOSE second. My husband & I were hooked on Modern Family from the very first Pilot episode… I don’t think it would be possible to not laugh out loud while watching any episode of this show. So it’s by far my favorite show on TV right now. When we saw the film crews setting up for a new scene, we were SO excited & grabbed a spot off camera but where we knew we’d have a good view of the cast.

After watching them rehearse for about 15 minutes, a crew member came up to our area of the crowd & started to ask for volunteers. Before she even finished her question, my friend & I were very vocal about being willing to volunteer! So she took us behind the rope, had us sign waivers, and sat my friend on a bench with a Disneyland balloon & had me stand in the middle of Main St. and told me to walk to the bench & sit down once they said “action!” WOW! Luckily I had my camera around my neck (perfectly fine prop for a Disneyland tourist) so I was able to sneak some stealth shots of the cast while I was literally 5-10 feet away from them!

I do have to apologize for the photo quality a bit. First off, I never take my “work” camera to Disneyland; I want to be able to go on rides & not freak out that it’s going to get broken or something, so the camera I had wasn’t the best. Secondly, while watching I could snap photos all I want but once I was on set I couldn’t be so obvious. So half of these were taken with my camera around my neck like normal, and me aiming as well as I could without looking through the viewfinder & sneakily pressing the shutter button down. Needless to say they aren’t the best quality photos ever taken… but I still think they’re pretty cool!!

Check them out! And look for me in the background of the Modern Family “Disneyland” episode coming soon!

PS: Does this mean I can call myself a “Celebrity Photographer?!” Hehehe

 

Posted on February 7, 2012

So at the end of 2011 I launched my new website & blog with a lot of updates… I can’t believe a lot of my website galleries were over 3 years old! One thing was missing though… a photo of me!! I searched through different folders on my computer for a good (ie: skinny looking as possible) photo of me & after much trial & error I decided I needed to hire someone to take my headshots! This was a pretty scary concept… I’m behind the lens for a reason… but I knew just the person! I first “met” Analisa online while frantically searching for a wedding photographer to *possibly* replace a friends’ current wedding photographer who was stranded in Florida 2 days before the wedding. I have a pretty strict no friends or family wedding policy because I really want to be a GUEST at my loved ones’ weddings, not paid staff, so I was hoping I could find a replacement so I could relax and enjoy the wedding as a guest (aka, have some champagne & dance)! In the end, the original photographer WAS able to make it (which was awesome because she rocks & we’re good friends!) but I kept Analisa in my mind as I knew I was going to want headshots soon & she was so awesome about wanting to help out a friend!

It was also really neat to be on the other side of the camera and experience everything my clients go through… the process of setting up the shoot, choosing outfits, picking a location, all the way to the excitement of receiving the CD in the mail. It was cool during the shoot to experience everything as well… from insecurities to wanting to show my “good side,” to getting confused about where to put my hands… everything! If you read Analisa’s blog post, she’s far too flattering about my posing experience… it’s one thing to pose OTHER people but it’s a completely different story when you’re posing YOURSELF! I felt like a goober most of the time. Luckily, Analisa made the process fun and painless, something I always try to bring to the table too!

So now my lovely face adorns the “about Kate” section of the website & I wanted to share some of my favorites from the session with you guys. Please go visit Analisa’s blog at Analisa Joy Photography… she does fantastic work & I want to make sure she has full credit for it!!

That last photo is the necklace I was wearing for half of the session… my husband bought it for me for Christmas via Etsy from The Rusted Chain; isn’t it fantastic??! I love their jewelry & this one just says it perfectly!!

Posted on December 28, 2011

My husband & I have some cousins we absolutely adore who moved from San Diego to North Carolina at the beginning of the summer. We babysat their kiddos for many years (one of my flowergirls in my wedding too!) & used to love going out to dinner with the grownups. They’ve had a tradition for many years to visit Couer D’Alene in the winter & we’ve always wanted to tag along. This year we missed them so much we just had to crash the party! We kept it a secret from the kids, and it was SO fun showing up on their elevator to surprise them!! LOVED the look on their faces!! We were only there for 3 nights but our days were packed with really fun stuff! The hotel was gorgeous & all decked out in lights which really got me in the Christmas spirit. We also got to see bald eagles in the wild (the highlight of the trip for my husband for sure!) and took the World’s Longest Gondola ride up Silver Mountain so the kids could go tubing (and the adults could enjoy some hot “adult” beverages). The trip ended far too soon but we made some awesome memories while we were there!! When I travel, I try not to get TOO technical with the camera (lots of wasted moments while fumbling with settings) so these photos might not be the best they could be (especially the ones taken from inside a moving, frosty gondola)… but they work for me!!

 

Posted on November 27, 2011

I freaking LOVE Christmas. I love this time of year weather-wise (except when my sessions get rained out of course!)… I love shopping for presents, I love getting together with friends & family… it’s all just so amazing!

It’s now OFFICIALLY Christmastime so we put up our decorations on Friday!! Listened to some She & Him Christmas music this year as well (SO good) & had some fun!!

Paisley supervised from afar for awhile… she wasn’t quite sure what to think of all this stuff. But it wasn’t long before she found a new favorite spot.

Merry Christmas!!!

Posted on November 21, 2011

My husband & I have only been married for about 8 months (I love being a newlywed!) but we decided to send out Christmas cards for the first time this year! It’s actually quite ironic that since my schedule is so packed with photo sessions for OTHER people, I literally have NO time to schedule a Christmas photo shoot for myself!! Ahhh! So we used an engagement photo (shhhh) that we felt matched a holiday-esque color scheme (plum is a Christmassy color, right?? RIGHT?!). Anyways, I’m not offering Christmas card design for my clients this year (I usually have a lull between summer & holiday sessions where I can work on that stuff but it just didn’t come this year… which I know is a good thing!) so I found super cheap cards on Vistaprint.com (Vistaprint.com/happyholidays11) gets you 20 cards for just $1.99 plus shipping!) Anyways, happy holidays from my little family to yours!!

Oh and PS: Brownie points if you can guess which location we had our engagement photos taken in….

…10 points if you guessed Old Poway Park! I love that place!!!

Posted on November 15, 2011

I spent 3 hours today with my 92 year old great aunt. We don’t see her nearly as much as we should, especially since she’s stopped coming to most of the family gatherings due to her physical health. I’ll tell ya what, she’s definitely shorter than she used to be, and walks with difficulty, but mentally she is sharp as a tack. She looks and speaks just like my grandmother, and talking with her makes me miss her terribly, but it also makes me smile to remember little facial expressions and speech patterns the two sisters share. My mom & I visited her to chat & share my wedding photos with her, as she couldn’t make it up to the wedding this past April. We looked at photos & laughed & talked. She was able to share in our wedding day even though she wasn’t there in person through the gift of photography. Then it was her turn. She told us stories from when she was a child, teenager, and young mom back in the 1930s, and complimented her stories with photographs when she could. She must have left the table 6 or 7 times throughout our conversation to go grab a photo off a dresser to show us exactly what she was talking about. I had seen most of these photos before, but there’s something really special about seeing your relatives (some of which you might have never met) in places & with people that were important to them.

Everyone loves photographs. Show me someone who wouldn’t want to sit down & sift through old photographs of their beloved family members. Photos of ultrasounds & newborns flood Facebook at the start of a baby’s life, while photos of that person will be shown at their funeral at the end of their life. Photos will be taken at every milestone throughout their life, no matter how big or how small. When weddings are over & the cake is eaten & the music has stopped, the photographs are the only things that remain to serve as a perfect memory of that day.

I can remember very clearly the day in October 2007 that my husband’s family was forced to evacuate their home because of the Harris Fire. What was the first thing we grabbed? Photographs. We left just about everything else. Thankfully, their home was saved from the fire, but the frantic memories remain in my head… of grabbing every single photo we could find & shoving them into the trailer before we all left.

When you think about it, doesn’t it make you want to photograph everything?! I’m sitting at my desk in my first ever apartment that I rent with my husband, looking out the window at a big meadow, freshly green from the recent rains. There are two cows that live in this meadow… when we moved here in July 2010, one of the cows was just a baby… now it’s just as big as its mom! This is such an exciting time in my life… I’m a newlywed, no kids yet, living in a place we love, surrounded by absolutely amazing friends and family… I’m just so blessed. And yet I spend all day taking photographs for other people… by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is pick up a camera! I realized today how silly this is. I dedicate my life to helping others preserve their memories, and yet the last time my extended family took a professional family photo was when I was 6 years old.

I vow to add a “Personal” category to this blog… hopefully that will get my camera out of its bag more often. With the holidays coming up, I should have plenty of opportunities to take photos of people and places I love. It truly is the most important thing I can imagine.

So I’ll start with today. I pulled out my camera when my mom & I were heading out the door to snap some quick shots of each of us with my great aunt. They’re just from a point & shoot, but that’s okay. I find that sometimes if I don’t have the right camera, or the correct lens, or the perfect lighting, I don’t even bother taking a photo. In the end, quality photos are nice, but it’s not the quality that matters as much as it is the people & love expressed in the photograph itself.

Posted on October 22, 2011

I just released my first ever newsletter yesterday! I’ll share a bit of the prep process with you so you fully understand the task that was!

First off, I have over 900 contracts from the last 2 years. I won’t even go back farther than that, as 900 were enough for me! All of these contracts have signatures & addresses of the client, right? Well I had to sit at my computer with the stack of these contracts (almost a foot high!) and go through them one by one & enter in names & addresses for all of the clients in Studio Cloud. For signatures I couldn’t read, I had to check the date & look them up on my calendar & figure out who the contract belonged to. I should have done this little by little along the way… yikes! This took about 4 straight days but I did it!

After that, I had to literally search my email for every single client to copy & paste their email address into their client info. Another 3 days later, I finished that too!

Then I had to learn how to make a newsletter! Thankfully, MailChimp makes this SO easy. A short tutorial & a little reading, I was ready to go! I designed my layout, picked colors to match my website & business cards & voila! I had a newsletter. This was the scariest mouse click I’ve ever made though:

And the newsletter went out in two batches to over 800 people. Scary!! Here’s the link to the newsletter if you didn’t get it: Chasing Daylight Photography’s Fall Newsletter

Now that I’ve had this past year full of sessions & I’m getting a bit of a breather now for the first time in over a year and a half, there are some major (and awesome!) changes coming to Chasing Daylight Photography… stay tuned for more!!

 

Posted on October 11, 2011

Welcome to the new blog!!

I know absolutely nothing about web/blog design so this is a new thing for me! The past year has been absolutely crazy… I shot over 900 photo sessions!! Now that things have calmed (just a little!) I figure I have enough time to blog on a regular basis.

This blog will have sneak peeks from special sessions, as well as inspirations for a number of different areas that will help you plan for your photo session & display your photos!

 

Stay tuned for more!!