New beginnings and old shoes

This will be the last post on what used to be my very first blog. Kind of like saying good-bye to an old old friend when moving away. While I'm totally excited to finally have a blog that matches me and the Kingdom Wedding Photography by Kat brand, it feels sad to be leaving this little wedding photography blog behind. Silly, I know.

But I also had a hard time saying "Tschüss" (bye) to my favorite pair of sneakers (also the one and only comfortable pair of shoes I own) after God knows how many years.

I went to visit my parents in Germany last fall and after giving my shoes one long look, my mother decided that it was finally time to dump them. She then proceeded to drag me to a shoe store. In all honesty, it didn't require too much dragging ... I love shoes, new shoes, buying shoes, shopping for shoes but part of this deal was that I would give up on the OLD SHOES. Ditch them. Yikes!



This wasn't just a pair of any old boots. See, me and those trusty shoes trudged through Napa Valley, explored San Francisco on foot, walked through the Valley of Fire (we were the only ones hiking there), climbed down the Grand Canyon, got me lost in New Orleans and biked me through Los Angeles for a year. They were my bi-continental, multi-state shoes.

Then I made her promise to re-purpose my old shoes. They are now a lawn ornament next to my dad's 40+ year old bike that he retired last year as well. I guess at least I know where I got this from.

My point? Not sure, maybe there isn't one - other than saying that I feel rather sentimental about letting go. Like letting go of this blog and moving on to the new, custom designed, website hosted blog.

So goodbye old blog and HELLO new VT wedding photography blog:

http://kingdomweddingphotography.com/blog

Check it out!

Kat
Kingdom Wedding Photography

Meet your wedding photographer ... sort of

So I had this grand big idea for a "get to know your wedding photographer" post. This lead me to a wild goose chase to hunt down a presentable picture of myself ... which made me realize two things:

1) My personal filing system leaves to be desired. My clients' files are labeled by name of the couple, date and event with nifty sub-folders such as "getting ready", "ceremony", "reception" etc. Makes everything super easy to find. Our own files and photos, however, are labeled "misc. 2004 photos" or bear the ever helpful "random stuff" label. ;-(

2) I don't have a single decent picture of myself. What I see is a stranger either puckering, frowning or giving very animated instructions on how to frame and expose the photo properly.



Damian (who will probably not cook for me for at least a week after reading this post) prefers to take pictures of me when I'm either in the garden in my raggediest clothes or asleep on the couch with the dogs. Or eating.

My mother likes to prop us up on random statues or alternatively turns us into mini-dots in a gigantanormous landscape (I'm the dot on the right).



As you can tell, I'm having much more fun on the other side of the camera but I had a fantastic weekend digging through all my boxes full of photos and CDs going "oh", "ah" and "remember how tiny she was as a puppy?".

Kat
Kingdom Wedding Photography

The photo that changed my life

The year was 2002. The place was Los Angeles. A friend of mine was casting a movie that I was going to do the still photography for. She had actors' headshots scattered across the floor, trying to find the perfect male lead. I spotted one photo in particular and said "That's the man I'm going to marry". She gave me a look that indicated that I had clearly lost my mind. Maybe I had. In any case, from that point on, I was excluded from any and all casting decisions (probably a good move on her part). But the handsome stranger whose photo I had fallen in love with aced the audition and was cast as the male lead.



Fast forward to 2011. We're now married for close to 8 years with two dogs and two cats. I still have the photo - not sure who the photographer was but s/he made me fall in love with my husband Damian just based on one single photo. If you're reading this, I owe you. A lot.

Kat
Kingdom Wedding Photography

Brrrr ...

10 degrees and windy. Words cannot express how much all of us Mooneys are looking forward to spring so I'll let Daisy & Jake's faces speak for the rest of us:





Kat
Kingdom Wedding Photography

Behind the scenes at Kingdom Wedding Photography

A lot of wedding photographers outsource their post processing. I've never been a huge fan of this - after all, we each have our own individual style photographing events and then apply the same style to our post processing/editing process. Processing at Kingdom Wedding Photography is always done in house by myself ... although I do have a little helper:

Grover, the unrelenting master of quality control.



Kat
Kingdom Wedding Photography

A girl and a hammer. A husband and a drywall patch-kit. And some gorgeous print options.

I love wall prints. No shocker there. What I don't love is the fact that apparently, drywall doesn't hold prints in heavy frames all too well. I found this out the hard way when I hit the first couple of nails into our (new!) drywall. It is truly amazing how big a hole a fairly small nail can rip into a wall when not nailed into a stud. My husband quietly handed me a stud finder, got the drywall mud and spatula back out and fixed the gaping holes. Then he sanded and painted the wall (again). Sigh.

As awesome as it is to have a husband who can fix almost everything, I don't fully appreciate having STUDS determine where I can and cannot hang pictures. 24 on center, phewww. It would be so nice to just grab my little lady hammer and quickly hang up a picture without having to arm myself with a stud finder, hooks, wire and anchors. But I found the perfect solution!!! Lightweight and totally awesome gallery wraps, standouts and float wraps that saved our walls as well as our sanity!



Above is a gallery wrap where the actual photographic print is bonded to canvas and wrapped around the wood frame - the actual photo extends to the frame. Lightweight and it looks awesome. Love it. Another plus: no glass to clean so it can just be dusted off. It's also UV coated so the print won't fade.

Standouts (pictured below) are even lighter than gallery wraps because they're made from lightweight foam banded with a Black, White, Light Wood, or Stainless edge and they come ready to display with hanging holes on the backside. Super easy, no stud finder here. A win - win - win. For myself, the drywall (or our property's value) and my suffering husband.



Float wraps (below) are another super cool contemporary option. Float Wraps are similar to Gallery Wraps or Standout mounted prints in that they add dimension by extending out from the wall. Float wraps are unique in that they appear to be floating on the wall with the main focus on the image!
Float Wraps are created by wrapping the photographic print or canvas print around masonite to create a thin wrap - then comes a neat block that creates the "floating" effect. The back of the block also contains drilled holes for hanging. My dreams have been answered!



Ok, I'm off to hang some great prints without collateral damage (not including my own thumbs - still working on that one). Happy home decorating.

Kat
Kingdom Wedding Photography