Sister Friend

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all had a Merry Merry Christmas! I know I sure did! I thought I would ring in the holidays with this adorable picture of my little sister! There are a couple of things about this picture that amaze me.

1. She's smiling for the camera! That is nearly an impossible thing to accomplish but the fact that I caught her off guard and it was Christmas had her blinded by my camera's charm!

2. This photo was taken INDOORS. Now, that may not seem like anything special to any of you but I am strictly outdoor photography. Not that i'm opposed to indoor I just feel like the subject looks more... EL NATURALE outside :) You can tell by the yellowish hue of the picture that it was indoors but I chose to keep it that way! I kinda liked the warm glow it gave to the image. 

So i've been thinking about sharing some of my photoshop secrets with the world because frankly, everything I've learned about photography and photoshop has been through you tube videos, and photographers not to stuck up to share some of their secrets (no offense). So I will work on a step by step post about the before and after of an image and how I transformed and enhanced it into something marvelous! What this picture will be... I'm not quite sure yet. But for now, let me show you the before of this photo just to get you geared up! :)

 

-K

Don't Be Seen Without Polish

Only recently have I discovered my love of nail polish. My co-workers were all firm believers in colorful and not so colorful nails and I decided I should join the crew! Here are a couple colors I picked up from various places, I'll tell you the good and bad about each!

1. Kim-Pletely In Love by Nicole by Opi:

This polish is a light pink polish with a very subtle glittery shimmer. This is probably my favorite nude polish right now! The only flaw is that you have to put on like three coats to get it to look right! Other than that I LOVE this polish (even though its inspired by Kim Kardashian). 

2. Wedding Crasher by Sally Hansen:

A great quality glitter polish! Nice and shimmer with a great deep magenta/pink color. I think with any glitter polish you will need a couple coats though, which hopefully will change one day!

3. Bold Gold and Tenacious Teal by Maybelline New York:

I loved how these polish's looked when I saw it. A rich shimmery gold and a beautiful green hue that I could not resist. Unfortunately this polish on your nails is definitely not what I was hoping for. Its thin, and leaves your nails looking really cheap and streaky. I would not recommend this polish but I have still not given up hope of the perfect green and gold shimmery nail polish.

4. Bobbing For Baubles by Essie: 

When I decided I wanted a navy nail polish I knew this one by Essie was just right! So far, I would say Essie is my favorite nail polish brand. Great quality, and I only had to use ONE coat! Hello, can't beat that! It does look somewhat black when you have it on but in the right light it is perfectly navy.

5. Slick Slate By Sally Hansen:

This is a grrrreat polish! Looks exactly how it is in the bottle and dries super fast. And let me tell you my favorite part... The brush on this polish is PERFECTION! Its wide so it makes it easier to paint your nails and actually much faster. I have nothing but good things to say about this polish!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed all of my fall nail polishes.. And I would love to hear about some of your favorites. I think my next search will be for the perfect christmas RED! :)

-K

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

It's definitely been a late night of photoshopping for me.. And I figure two posts in one day wouldn't hurt anything! I've seen photos where photographers overlay a texture giving a picture more depth and uniqueness. Well, I created what I call a "Whispy Texture" and tried it with this photo! The top is before, and the bottom photo is after. I couldn't decide which I liked more.. But I look forward to experimenting more with adding textures to my photos! Which do you like better?


-K

Shelby Dunlap

This post makes me really happy because I have successfully gotten my pictures to look exactly how I want them too. I've got all the right tools and I feel like now I can branch out into the photography world with confidence! Sundays are always my day off and today I decided to force my best friend Shelby to model for me! We had a blast fighting mosquitos and making up cute poses. The picture above was her favorite photo, and the picture below is mine! Be on the lookout for my next post to see more! Great job Shelb! Love you :)

 

 

 “Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”

- Marc Riboud

 

 

 

-K





I'm a slacker...

Please don't hate me for my lack of blogging... I have been so swamped with work it's not even funny! But it's slowed down a bit so hopefully I will have the pleasure of blogging much more often! We've been planning the winter look book at Hope's which is a LOT of work believe it or not! From locations to models to outfits to the actual concept itself is a total headache but for sure worth it in the end. If you haven't already figured it out, we are leaning towards a LOVE STORY themed look book! And hopefully it turns out amazing! But that's all for tonight, have a lovely Thursday tomorrow loves! (Top: Zara find similar here) :)

-K

Tori Senior Sesh

 

 

Absolutely loved working with Tori! Here's another one of her lovely shots. I've been super busy at work today, we got in 18 BOXES! So this post will be kind of short. Enjoy the pictures Tori! (:

 

 

 

-K

 

Lumber Yard

 

When I was in LA with my mom and co-worker Carmen, she mentioned a store called Zara. I had never heard of it and I realized why. When we entered the store and talked to a sales associate they said there were no Zara's in Georgia. For those of you that have never shopped there, this is heartbreaking news! The store was so edgy and had really great items with prices that wouldn't break the bank! I got a top, scarf, and these AMAZING shoes, that I am so obsessed with. I mean they are complete perfection right? You can purchase them here and they also have them in black! My mocha top is from Deja Vu that I got over the summer. Jeans, AE and the jacket is one of the amazing new arrivals we brought back from LA at Hope's that will go up sometime this week hopefully! Until next time...


-K

Bokeh; My Newfound Obsession

For the longest time, I worked with a Nikon 5100. This is your basic, mom in the bleachers camera with easy to use settings and good quality pictures. Absolutely nothing wrong with that camera, but I found myself wanting more of a challenge and to branch out in the photography business one day. And when my birthday grew closer and closer this past month I knew exactly what I wanted; a nicer more professional camera to do just that. 

Meet the Nikon D700.
Another item from my trip to LA!

I was honestly in tears when we were checking out. I got the camera and two wonderful lenses that I could not be any happier with. Being the nerd I am, I read the manual on the plane ride back instead of the book I bought. This photo was the first picture I took. It was in the car while we were pulling out of the camera store parking lot. The 85mm lense is known for its amazing bokeh and this picture is proof of just that! I'm kind of obsessed with bokeh so after all of the research I had done, I knew I HAD TO HAVE this particular lense. These photos aren't the best because I was in a moving car for each of them, but I thought they were pretty neat in their own ways!

Even though this photo is super blurry I loved how the lights blurred and took the shape of hearts! 

How this photo even happened is almost a complete mystery to me. I was playing with the ISO settings on my camera. In more user friendly terms, the shutter release was super slow so I stuck my camera in my lap after taking a picture of this building and once it finally released, this is what we have! I think it's pretty cool. 

"Passion Trumps Talent Every Time" 

-Alex Beadon.

-K

Just The Right Tights

 

I promised to share some of the goodies I scooped up in LA, and the first thing I purchased were these adorable tights from Forever 21! You can find a similar pair here. Of course I couldn't get just one thing but this was probably my favorite purchase from that store! Cheap, and oh so adorable. As for the rest of my outfit of the day, the tunic, boots, and gold bracelet are Hope's. Watch and purse are Michael Kors, and my monogrammed necklace is from Moon and Lola!

 

 

-K 

 

 

She said I'm jealous of Los Angeles...

I must say i'm excited about this first post, because it applies to each and every one of you! I recently (as in tonight) got back from Los Angeles and let me tell you... That flight is no joke. Not including the time it takes to go through security, collect your luggage, and wrestle people for overhead storage bin space. We woke up at three in the morning (west coast time) and finally made it home at 9PM eastern time. That my friends is a long day. But most of you would say it's worth it because the goodies we brought back are surely, REMARKABLE. I work as the photographer/graphic designer for my moms boutique Hope's. We go to LA usually.. Once every two-three months to refill our warehouse. But this trip we honestly got the most ADORABLE clothes ever. And I got some amazing goodies that I can't wait to share with you! So here is your treat, knowledge of the cute clothes to come, and another fabulous boutique to shop at. Let me know what you think! While you're browsing jam out to this oh-so-appropriate song.. A song from my high school days, but still a favorite! I love the Audition.

-K