I finally feel like I can get back into a normal blog routine!  After moving, the holidays, traveling, I’m finally sinking into 2012.  How about you?  So here’s to the first installment of Monday Musings for 2012!

I’ve been wildly introspective over the past few months and determined that I would carve out time in my day to do things that enriched my personal life.  Some of those things have been continuing with a personal shooting project.  It helps me to see things differently.  I’ve also made the decision to step out of my comfort zone and rise a bit earlier in the morning to focus on just me personally.  If you know me at all, you’ll realize that this is something just short of a miracle.  I’ve always been a night owl and NOT a morning person.  I can barely function getting up at 7:30 and if it’s ever been before that, well, let’s just say, it’s best to just steer clear of me.  But I’ve decided to wake at 6:45 now.  This gives me time before the children get up, to do some yoga or pilates and to write.  I mentioned taking a class from Joe Photo in London a few weeks ago, and he encouraged us to write everyday.  I can write about nothing, or everything, but I must say, it’s been totally nice to be alone with my own thoughts in the mornings.  I’m giving this 6 months, and I’m most positive that at the end of 6 months, I won’t even miss getting up at 7:30 (except maybe on Saturdays- I may still keep that as my sleep in day).  I’m also running more and have plan of doing my first race later this spring.

What are you doing to keep a healthy balance in your life for personal things?  With so many exciting and fun things happening this year in my professional and personal life, I really want to still take time to do things that I enjoy and that fulfill me…..Have a great Monday!

It’s true!  I’m alive and well, still here in Boise, ID!  After a nice personal break over the holidays, and traveling to London for SWPP, I’m getting back into the work routine for 2012. The cold dreary months of winter, are a time for me to renew, plan, and educate myself for the upcoming year.  Today I’m announcing some very fun and exciting news about the DREAM Creative Retreats!  DREAM Pro will be coming to a city near you in 2012!  The #1 question I get in my email inbox regarding the DREAM Pro Retreat is- “Will you ever be in my area, or do a workshop closer to me?”  Well, the answer has come!  YES!  We’ll be in the following cities in 2012 (click on the city you’re interested in to register):

Louisville, Kentucky  Saturday April, 14, 2012 (Meet & Greet Mixer Friday evening)

Portland, Oregon  Saturday April 28, 2012 (Meet & Greet Mixer Friday evening)

San Diego, CA  Saturday May 12, 2012 (Meet & Greet Mixer Friday evening)

Boise, ID  Saturday October 13, 2012 (Meet & Greet Mixer Friday evening)

 

We have some fabulous locations lined up and each location will get it’s own blog feature coming up soon!  Space is limited, so if you’d like to snag your spot please visit the Workshop page for more information or click your city above and register right from this page.  Here’s a little more information on the Dream Pro Creative Retreats:

Dream. pro: $495

The DREAM pro retreat is what so many people are truly looking for in a professional photography workshop!  We’ll skip over the “how’s” of setting up your business because that’s a really personal decision (in my honest opinion).  We’re going to dive into the core of your business.  How to get clients, how to get known in your area and stay busy, how to interact with your clients, what you can do for marketing, PRICING, social media and networking, workflow, and of course some actual live shooting to help build a portfolio.  You will leave with images for you to personally use to market your business that YOU have created.  We’ll have models there from different genres and you’ll walk away with a plan for your business, your pricing well thought out, resource guides, help guides from the workshop so you don’t forget all the information overload you’ll get, some special gifts from our sponsors, and inspiration to move forward with your business plans.  Another important thing you’ll walk away with is some relationships with other fellow photgraphers!

This is a full day, 10 hour workhop.  Light refreshments are served in the morning upon arrival, as well as lunch and snacks.  This workshop is for photographers that are actively working on photography as a profession or are aspiring to work in the photography field as a business owner.  You need to have knowledge of your camera and how to get good exposures when shooting.  You should also have some experience shooting other people.

We will not be covering basic camera functions in this workshop, nor will we be covering in depth photoshop editing, that’s what DREAM stories is for .  This is all about the business side of photography and how YOU can determine what success looks like to you.

*Accomodations are not provided during the retreat.

Wednesday January 11th “Managing Client Expectations Through The Experience

Friday January 13th- “Pricing and Marketing: Core Components of your Business”

Saturday January 14th- “Shooting, Editing, and Presenting Your Images To Tell A Story”

I’ve decided this year to make the most of my time at the convention and take advantage of the other amazing speakers, and will be attending classes everyday to renew and invigorate me and my business for 2012.  I think it’s the perfect way to start off the year.  I’m also super excited to be able to meet up with other photo friends I’ve made over the years in that area of the world.  If you’re in London and are going to be attending SWPP, I’d love to meet you so keep up on Twitter!  I’ll try and blog a few times while I’m there……

When I return I plan on making some other exciting announcements and continuing with my main passion in shooting- WEDDINGS!  I have some really great weddings lined up this year and can’t wait for each of them!

I’ve also joined in on another photo project for this year through Instagram.  I don’t have any themes or specific topics, it’s just to shoot one interesting photo for myself each day.  If you have the app and would like to join in, you can tag your photos as #instagram366 ……I’m 5 days in and loving it.  It’s amazing what we can do with these devices and my iPhone has completely replaced my point and shoot camera for personal and travel stuff……see you around!

Last week I went to go visit my grandma in the assisted memory care center she stays in.  She’s my fathers’ mom and is originally from Texas.  What started out as a fun visit to my parents house, turned into looking at old photos of my grandparents, and an overwhelming feeling to go visit my grandma.  Sadly, I hadn’t been in a few months  The last time I saw her, my parents were down in Houston and I told my mom I would go pick up grandma and take her to her weekly hair appointment.  She has severe dementia, so when I picked her up, she didn’t know who I was and wondered why I was taking her out.  As we got in the car, she asked me who my parents were.  When I told her, that Jeff, her son, was my dad, she had a moment of clarity and said, “oh that means your my grand daughter and that means that little guy is my great grandson”……She was weak and feable, I had to help her walk, but she remembered for a moment who I was.  Fast forward to last week, and as I was looking at old photos and videos from when my grandparents were young- they must have been from the 40-60′s and it made me reflect on how our lives change over the years.  I saw one photo of my grandma at age 21, in a swimsuit, and used for a beauty contest, penned “to my man, all my love- Georgia”.  So we went to visit her with the kids.  You see, hospice has been called in and that means, she probably doesn’t have much longer to live.

She was weak and skinny laying in her bed, surrounded by photos of her past life, and I began to cry quietly (the baby that I am).  Not because I was sad really, but because I saw her life coming to a close.  She has lived a great life, and at the end, once beauty fades and our bodies are spent and wrinkled; what matters most is the loved ones that remember you…..even if you don’t remember them, and I’m so glad that they documented their life so fully with photos, journals, and videos.  This experience, along with the reflecting I’ve been doing these past few weeks, have renewed something in me.

I love what I do, but I also want my life to be full!  I’m excited about the future and changes that are coming…..I was able to get out this fall and take photos of my children.  Something I haven’t done in quite a while.  I think this sums up how I want my year to start…..spending time, creating memories and photos of my life and sharing that with other people too.  I hope you have a renewed sense for this coming year and remember to enjoy your life!  Here’s to a fantastic 2012!

this series totally captures Kasen’s personality…..impish for sure!

they’re growing up so fast, but definitely into giving me some camera love without much direction, of course they’re boys and had to get IN the tree…as you can see Riley loved it with his big smile!

This is how most moments go- interactive, with Kasen losing interest fast and pointing at a bird flying by, I love this series anyway

in case you missed our Christmas card this year, I DID get at least one great photo for the card, our home and my Facebook cover photo!

I started off the year being invited to speak at SWPP in London, England.  It’s been one of the highlights of my career and continues to be, as I prepare to return in exactly 1 week.  The first part of the trip I got to shoot a wedding with a dear friend of mine and see how English weddings compared to ours here in the United States.  My mom was able to join me on the last half of the trip and it was so fun! You can review pics from my trip HERE, HERE and HERE.  It really was amazing, and one I look forward to again in 2012!

2011 is also when I found Instagram (I’m amandakphoto on there), Pinterest (also amandakphoto), and I launched my new blogsite (which still needs some tweaking now that PP4 came out).  We also made a HUGE life change as a family in 2011, and in July moved from the Seattle, WA area, to Boise, ID; mainly due to personal reasons with extended family members.  As many of you witnessed on my blog in late 2010, my dad was diagnosed with a rare kind of bone cancer.  We wanted our family to be closer to them, especially the kids and even though there were many things sacrificed for the move, it has been the best decision!

With all the changes and starting over in a new city and market, my photography business slowed down just a bit.  This was intentional, as I’m a notorious planner- just ask my husband!  As we’re making plans to do some things to our house here, I sketch out everything, place the furniture in my little drawings, have to-do lists for each day, and even plan out how to pack the car for family vacations!  Other than some weddings and a few portrait sessions, the last half of 2011 has been me reflecting, preparing and planning for 2012.  Needless to say, I’m itching to get back in the swing of things and I also have a renewed sense of exactly what I want to do in 2012.  Sometimes it’s refreshing to take a little break.

I shot  8 weddings and 9 portrait sessions in 2011.  That’s all.  But each one was great, and I moved parts of my business forward in ways that I hadn’t in 2010.  Here’s a few of my favorite images from each of my own weddings I shot in 2011:

And here’s some of my favorite shots from my Lifestyle sessions in 2011:

In other year end news, Nathan was accepted into his Officer Program for the Navy!  He’ll be attending school at his favorite place on earth- Boise State for the next few years and then it looks like our next 10 years will be split between here in Idaho, Washington and possibly San Diego (although we’ll always return here to Idaho in the end, we love it here!).  If we’re really lucky maybe we can get an overseas duty station, in say Italy?  We’ll see what the future holds.  I’m excited for 2012 and I’ll be writing on my short term plans for the new year tomorrow ……..HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!!!!

Cassie and the girls started out getting their hair done at Tony & Guy Salon in Boise.  They all looked like they were having the best time.

While they finished up, my assistant and I headed over to the church to get some shots of Mark.  It was a beautiful day and the leaves on the trees were just glowing!

Cassie arrived with her make up artist and finalized her look…..

I always love portraits of the dress and bride.  The window light in the room was beautiful and I took advantage of it with Cassie.

Cassie and Mark opted for a first look which I always adore doing.  When a bride and groom see each other for the first time, it’s a special moment!

Although it was beautiful outside, it was cold!  So we went inside the worship center to take a few photos too.  Cassie really wanted a photo of their hands together and some photos of her beautifully colorful bouquet.

The sanctuary where Cassie and Mark were married and also attend worship services.  The pastor said some really touching and emotional things and this ceremony was just perfect.

At the reception, the cupcakes were divine!!!

and I’ll leave with you a portrait of their rings……

A few weeks ago I was able to put together a styled shoot for some businesses in the  Boise area.  This week I’ll be featuring each of those businesses and the beautiful work they do.  First up is Sugar Inspired!  I met Erin at a coffee shop in Eagle, ID.  It’s the cutest yet funkiest place you ever saw……and I do have to say I’m completely addicted to their quiche!  I’ve had numerous business meetings and meet ups there over the past 6 months, and I absolutely adore the place.  Months ago, I met Erin there, and learned more about her business.

She’s a cake designer but also venturing into all things having to do with sugar!  Her “specialty” is cakes- and they are perfection if I do say so myself!  The unique thing about Erin and Sugar Inspired is that she bakes all her products fresh and takes great pride in her work.  We collaborated on a theme of a “Rustic Fall Wedding” and here’s the results……

We had 3 cakes made, each to  work together as a presentation.  All were different sizes, but complemented each other with the simple rustic details.  Sticks, fresh flowers, twine, they all worked together.  The “wood” cake was simple amazing!  It really looked like a block of wood with the detail and everything.  I was swooning and thought it was a perfectly masculine!  I could picture it as a grooms cake at a wedding.

I have to admit this cake was my favorite!  There is a trend in wedding cakes of this “messy” type frosting and the texture worked beautifully with the other simple cakes on the table!  Again, fresh flowers and natural details, really  fit into this theme!

The setting was beautiful!  Wait until you see the feature on this Boise Wedding Venue!  It’s completely beautiful!  Since our theme was “Rustic Fall”, our cake table was an old rustic antique table with an old window frame as the back drop (stay tuned for the post on the designer that helped bring this project the must have details like these).  That paired with the natural surroundings made me want to have a party right then and there and eat cake!

And here is the woman behind Sugar Inspired!  Erin is not only a talented cake, pastry, and dessert designer, but she is also a stunningly beautiful person!  Wouldn’t you agree?

Adding in some of my signature “Lifestyle” portraits, these are my absolute favorites of Erin!  I’m all about showcasing the person in photos and I do that by communicating personally with my clients.  Just ask Erin, there may be a few silly tricks up my sleeve to capture those relaxed expressions, but she does know how to work the camera!

Another beautiful portrait of Erin around the grounds of this fabulous venue…….

And lastly, a few more detail shots of the cakes.  If you’re looking for a fabulous cake designer for your wedding or event here in the Treasure Valley, then I highly recommend Erin and Sugar Inspired!  Happy Monday and stay tuned the rest of the week for the other vendors!

Although you can only see some of the image above in the sneak peek, I wanted to post the entire photo of the kids playing in the leaves.  You should have seen their faces.  When I announced that we needed to make a big leaf pile and play in them, they looked at me like “REALLY?…..We get to play?”  These kids are at the age where that’s ALL they want to do, so of course we’re going to play at your photo session.  We also had some fun as each of them squealed in delight as their dad threw them high up in the air.

These are the moments we want to remember in photos.  That day when all the kids were getting along and playing in the leaves.  Thank you so much “A” family for sharing your perfect fall day with me!  The light was beautiful and backlit and the weather wasn’t to cold.  You have a beautiful family that’s pretty  much perfect and I can’t wait to watch your kids grow through photos!  xoxo ~Katie

Today I’m pleased to feature some actions from JHP Actions!   John Horn who lives in Japan and contacted me about a year ago and wanted to know if I’d try out his product.  (In full disclosure, he provided me with a copy of the actions and I tried them out)  I’ve always believed that I am a photographer first and I use actions to help me achieve what my eye saw at the photo shoot.  Since I shoot in the RAW format, all photos need a little something in post processing as the image is just data when shot in RAW.  The camera doesn’t apply any kind of processing to the image as it might when shooting in JPEG.  Actions help speed up my workflow AND produce great images for my clients.  Sure I could sit and dodge and burn manually, or create lots of masks, but if an action will speed that process up for me, I’m all for it.

Here’s a few examples of the actions I loved from this set…

First off I have a lovely black and white conversion.  I’m always looking for the best black and white look for my photos as I love black and white images.  I think they are classic and stand the test of time, as well as go with any decor.  Put up a bunch of black and white photos in black frames on your wall and it’s instantly chic!  This shows the beautiful conversion from color to black and white.  I used “Easy B&W” from JHP and really loved the outcome.  Here’s some examples from Katie’s bridal session at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens near Seattle.

Next I wanted to try out a vintage effect.  From time to time I get clients that ask for this, and I like to find an effect that isn’t too drastic.  I was quite happy with “Crossfade-1″ here.

Here’s some more information from John himself, all the way from Japan!

Tell us a little bit about you John :

I am a portrait photographer who current lives in Japan with his wife and 3 kids. I love photography and enjoy spending my free time behind the shutter of my camera or in the digital darkroom creating memories!

 

How did you decide to start the business? 

Before I became a photographer, I was a photo retoucher who used Photoshop since version 5. As soon as I found out about the automatic awesomeness of actions to speed up my daily workflow I never looked back. It wasn’t until about 3 years ago as I was getting into photography and attending workshops that other photographers started to take notice of my work and how I went about the process. From the encouragement of a good photographer friend that used my actions, I decided to make them available to anyone, thus JHP Actions was born. 

How can your actions benefit photographers?

The JHP Actions give you the flexibility and ease of enhancing, color-correcting, sharpening, retouching, texturizing and adding that extra boost to all your images with One Click! JHP Actions are Non-Destructive meaning they keep your original image intact and allow you to mask, control opacity, stack actions and adjust blend modes to create a limitless number of awesome effects!

• Easy to Use
• 100+ Photoshop Actions & Presets to Choose From
• Unlimited Photography Possibilities
• Complete Detailed Instructions Provided
• Get More for your Money

You are only limited by your creativity in what you can achieve with JHP Actions and Presets.

Tell us a little more detailed information about the product (price, etc)…

You will find everything you need when it comes to processing images with JHP Actions. From retouching, to black and whites, vintage, softening, sharpening, creative effects and much, much more. I even have a complete workflow set that is simple and easy for any user needing a quick process for taking their photos to the next level! 

Photography is an expensive business. Cameras, lenses, tripods, lights and software. It all adds up quick. I wanted to offer something more to the photography community that didn’t require a loan to get.
JHP Actions are probably the cheapest premium actions you will find with most sets costing less then your average sitting fee. I even offer a lifetime plan for a one-time payment that entitles you to everything JHP forever! All new sets, actions, upgrades textures and anything else I come up with.  You can go to www.jhpactions.com for detailed information on the product you’re looking for.