And because this entry wouldn’t be complete without a picture, here is one of Hayden’s first visit with Santa. Don’t let the serious face fool you, there were tears and plenty of them once he realized who was holding him.

Click HERE to watch it.  Oh and they also made it on Ellen, which is a super adorable interview if you want to check it out HERE.

Can’t get enough.  Hope this made you smile!

As part of the workshop we were fortunate to be able to work with the most beautiful couple Joe and Jihan Cerda.  These two are SMOKIN hot !!  Besides being ridiculously good looking they are sweet as pie to boot.  Jihan’s gorgeous make up was done by the one and only Vivian of All Made Up and the incredible black cala lilly bouquet was created by Carissa of JL Designs.

It was such a pleasure to meet so many other photographers.  I was happy to see some familiar faces at the workshop.  I had the pleasure of meeting Jonda Spurbeck at the Red Leaf Studios Workshop, and I had met Mikaela Ruth at Image Quest back in March.  You can check out there awesome work HERE and HERE.

If you are curious to know a bit more about Jasmine and the workshop you can check out my previous post HERE, or click to learn more about her workshops HERE.

Now on to the hotness!

PS – thank you to Rosie for sending me this lovely free action for rounded corners from the Coffee Shop.  What do you think of the change ??

Jihan you are simply stunning.

Jas you are so GORG

]]> http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/jasmine-star-workshop/feed/ 23 http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/verbena-floral-design-bloom-to-bucket-to-bouquet-part-ii/ http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/verbena-floral-design-bloom-to-bucket-to-bouquet-part-ii/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:47:11 +0000 admin http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/?p=1873 I have been editing away trying to narrow down the images for this post, and it was HARD.  I have a passion and love for flowers, so you can imagine that I wanted to post them all !!

If you missed part one of this fun session you can find it HERE.  I had so much fun working with Vanessa and Jenny of Verbena Floral Design on day two of their session.  As we had covered the bloom and bucket part of this series in session one, part two was all about the beautiful bouquet and some fun shots of these awesome ladies along the way.

We started the day at their gorgeous studio which is located right on the water just off of Beach Drive.  With views like that I have no idea how they get any work done, honestly!

A tip for their brides – they are easily bribed with Diet Coke, deluxe cheesy popcorn, and cupcakes  Ladies after my own heart !

As always, I love hearing your comments so feel free to leave some comment love down below.

For those of you that already know these two I don’t need to tell you how their wicked sense of humour can have tears rolling down your cheeks in a moments time.  Or how they may possibly be the only two other people on earth who love cupcakes as much as I do.  When we were first planning this session Vanessa asked if I wanted to start the day by having a cupcake lunch at Crumsby’s Cupcake Cafe.  Ummmm, are you freaking kidding me?!  Is this some sort of mean trick? But soon I realized that she was … SERIOUS!  I wondered if perhaps we were long lost siblings who were separated at birth.  She was definitely speaking my language and I knew this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  She had me at cupcake.

Sidenote – but if you are a cupcake lover like myself and have yet to try Crumsbys, you need to!  It is possibly the cutest cafe ever and its decor is perfect for kids. Win, win, win!

I had the pleasure of working with these lovely ladies in a two part session that they so cleverly named, “Bloom to Bucket to Bouquet.”  Our goal for these sessions was to create a shoot that would tell a little bit of their story.  A sort of behind the scenes glimpse into their world of floral design if you will.  One that often starts with a ‘vision board’ complete with paint swatches, sketches, magazine clippings and ideas related to creating the perfect wedding floral design for their clients.  I LOVED this idea!   Being a visual person myself, I could really see how a client would truly appreciate seeing their vision come to life on this board.   Being a photographer most of the work I do takes place leading up to and after the session or wedding has actually occurred.  So I thought it was really neat that Jenny and Vanessa wanted to showcase a bit of this part of their job for their clients.

For session one we decided that it would be neat to pay a visit the flower wholesaler that they use, Mt. Newton Greenhouses.  The Stubbs’ family who have owned and operated this wonderful company since 1980, warmly welcomed us and allowed me to shoot all sorts of their gorgeous blooms.  And as this session took place right before Mother’s Day, there were flowers from floor to ceiling, literally.  I was in heaven!  I have always loved flowers and seeing an operation like this, I was in my glory.  The peonies and succulents were my favourites by far and they had them galore.

Vanessa and Jenny were looking for specific flowers on this trip as they were recreating Carrie’s stunning bouquet from the first Sex and the City movie for one of their lucky brides …. remember this one?   As I wandered around shooting vibrant roses, perfect irises, colourful ranunculus, and romantic peonies, Jenny and Vanessa scouted the perfect flowers for their special bouquet.  They were a wee bit camera shy for this shoot, but promised me that for part two I would be able to get them and their amazing creations in front of my camera.

I hope you enjoy part one of this fun session!

Here are a few photos of Sandy who is just adorable!  Don’t forget to click on the link above to check out her site and learn more about her business

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook or a member of my group on Facebook or have my on your Twitter you will know that my blog has been down for almost a week and I have been STRESSED out about getting it back.  The Cliff Notes version is that when I transferred my website over to my new site through Clickbooq (which I love!), the blog didn’t manage to make the trip over with it.  Bryan at Clickbooq really helped get the ball rolling to fix my blog and it was his hard work that got this rescue mission started.

So as my little blog was lost in Cyberspace, Matt through ProPhoto Blogs worked his A@# off trying to rescue my lovely new blog and bring it back to life.  I was really upset thinking that I had potentially lost over a years worth of blog entries.   So I am soooo grateful for having Matt come to its resue.  I can’t thank him and the staff at ProPhoto Blogs enough!  Matt provided AMAZING customer service!  I have raved about this company before (I even have a little blurb on them at the top of my blog) as I have been SO impressed with their easy-to-use awesome blog templates, but this experience just made me love their company that much more.  Matt, you are a blog saver and I can’t thank you enough!

So back to the story of how this whole new blog / rebranding experience started.

I LOVED my previous logo, designed by my good friend and uber talented graphic designer, Jo!   Her website is under construction, but I will link to her fabulous business as soon as it is up.   Sidenote – Darren and I were just in England for the week visiting her and her boyfriend Dan (who is also an uber talented designer himself) HI GUYS!  I loved my pink K logo.  It was my first logo.  Having a logo was a milestone in my business.  I finally felt like I was a legit business owner and I was finally proud to give someone a business card   That was a BIG step.  The experience in creating it was really my first experience in digging into what my business was all about and what I wanted to convey to my clients and I have a special place in my heart for that first logo as it also represented a lot of my personality in the design itself.

As my business and photography has grown over the past year I felt that my logo needed to change as well to represent the imagery I hope to create.   As I have mentioned on the blog over the past month, I had the pleasure of working with Richard and Amy of Red Leaf Studios on the brand redesign for my business.  This was an incredible experience.  One that transcended my branding and has truly helped me examine all aspects of my business.  They have just begun to offer this service to photographers and if you are contemplating re-vamping your branding I would HIGHLY recommend getting in touch with these two!  In fact, they just did a blog post on their site about this service which you can read here.

So without further aideu here is the link to my new and improved website.  I hope you like LOVE it.

And no post is complete without a photo.  Here is a teaser photo for the ever so patient Sarah and Stephen, who have waited extra long for their blog teaser.  I promise there is more images to come very soon!

I’d love to hear what you think about my new blog and website.  Leave a comment or drop me a line

Amy and Richard and their business has been a huge inspiration to me since the first moment I saw their work.  It was in fact seeing their website for the first time that catapulted me into deciding this is what I wanted to do for a living.  I was that inspired.  Their work is something that I connect with in so many ways and meeting them was a dream to say the least.  They are two of the sweetest most giving people and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet with them, and that they brought me together to connect with so many talented photographers.

Since the workshop I have been working on a project with Richard and Amy and I can’t wait to share it with you !! Seriously, the suspense is just killing me!  I can tell you that it is big, and I am so proud and I can’t wait to share

Richard and Amy thank you for this amazing experience.  It has changed me.  It has changed my business and I can’t thank you enough.

Here are the first images I shot in Manual !  I have to say thank you to Stacie for being such an absolute dream to photograph.  Not only is she flippin stunning, but she is just so sweet and her laugh is the most adorable thing ever.  Thanks Stacie, you were a blast to work with and I hope I get to work with you again someday

Avril is an amazing massage therapist – I know first hand (pardon the pun!)  She helped me overcome my fear of massage after a traumatic Thai massage experience in Northern Thailand.  I am glad I made it out alive, with all limbs intact.  Darren did not fair as well, due to some flexibility induced exercises during the massage.  He probably has permanent muscle damage – no lie.  Ok, maybe I am exaggerating just a little.  But that Thai massage was one of the most painful and hilarious experiences of my life.  Avril has completely restored my faith in the lovely pleasure and healing power of massage.

I was my pleasure to assist with a headshot for her work’s website.  Av, I hope you like it.  I think you look beauuuuuuuuuutiful.  This was my first session using my new toy – the 50mm 1.4 for all you photographers out there.  And I am in love.  Yummy yummy lens !

Here is a little bio about Avril and a link below to her place of work in case you are interested in having a fabulous massage.

Being a native Victorian, Avril Crockatt thrives on the west coast lifestyle. Though she has traveled extensively, Avril finds Vancouver Island to be as unique as the other beautiful places she has visited. She graduated from the West Coast College of Massage Therapy in 2008 and is excited to be building her practice at the Cook Street Village Health Centre.

Avril’s passion for interacting with the public has developed over her 10 years as a lifeguard and swimming instructor, engendering a sense of accomplishment and a love for helping people.

Her active participation in sports, hiking and other physical activity inspired her to obtain a certificate in personal training.

Avril is intent on building a diverse practice; she believes that everyone’s body is unique and responds differently to the stresses in life. She would be delighted to work with you to maintain your body at its optimum level. Through massage she is confident that she can assist you to eliminate the pain and tension associated with the everyday stresses of life.

http://www.cookstreetvillagehealthcentre.com/

Check it out here!  Their site is full on fantastic tips, tricks and creative ideas for all aspects while planning your wedding.

{Enjoy}

PS – no post is complete without a pic, so here you go

After applying an action I tweak all of the different layers in the action to get a custom creation.  I often apply multiple actions to one image and sometimes I will also add a texture or two.   This process can take anywhere from 1-2 minutes to 30 minutes per image (and sometimes longer!)

I have three companies that I purchase these actions and textures from: Kubota Image Tools, Totally Rad! and last but definitely not least Red Leaf Studios (awesome Canadian company!) These three companies all deliver consistently amazing products that keep me coming back.  You can imagine how stoked I was to find out that an image of mine was featured on the Totally Rad website! They have a new section of their website dedicated  to action “recipes” and one of my favourite images from last year was chosen.  It’s highlighted in hot pink below !!

These storyboards will be 10×20 in size.  I think they will look incredible on canvas !!

For photographers out there who have yet to discover the brilliant work of Canadian photographers, Richard and Amy, you should definitely check out their boutique where they sell a ton of incredible actions, textures, and of course these fabulous storyboards.  I have almost purchased them all and they have really helped to define my photographic style.

I am attending their workshop this summer and I can’t wait !

{Kim}

I had the honour of attending the wedding of Amanda and David on Saturday evening.  My first wedding of 2009, and what a way to start off the weddings for the year!  The elegant ceremony and reception took place at the historic Union Club in downtown Victoria.  Barb Hastings from Sweet Beginnings did a fantastic job!  The room looked just breathtaking.  The ivory and green flowers and candlelight complimented the rich decor of the room perfectly.  It was my first time working with Barb and it was such a pleasure!

I have known Amanda for a few years now and I was so grateful that she asked me to photograph their wedding.  David had proposed on New Years eve and Amanda’s desire to escape our winter and go somewhere HOT for a fabulous honeymoon, kicked the wedding plans into high gear.  Now for those of us who know Amanda, we all know she could have planned this wedding in under an hour with one hand tied behind her back.   So when I was given her time line for the day, I knew without a doubt that this would be one wedding where everything would occur right on time and with Barb’s help sure enough, it did.

Amanda was an absolutely gorgeous bride.  The dress she wore was the perfect dress for her.  It was the dress she was meant to wear.  The champagne colour with the detailed beading at the top looked just amazing.  A  few more sentences and you can see for yourself !

Amanda and David, I wish you all the best in your new life together.  The love you share for one another is obvious and so touching.  Thank you for including me in part of your day.

{Kim}

I love this one!

Think this one would look amazing on canvas!

You can find a link to her site in my ‘Links’ section. Here is her number too 250-516-7444

I’ve got to be honest with ya … having a wedding at the end of October made me a bit nervous about the weather and what kind of elements it was going to throw our way. WOW – I really need to have a bit more faith in mother nature because she REALLY REALLY came through for me big time for Cara and Andre’s wedding on October 25th. Their ceremony was at St. Patricks, so I knew we’d be safe inside there in case it was monsoon like outside. However, it turns out that the wedding on October 25th had some of the best weather I saw all Summer ! It was incredible. It helped that we weren’t to start taking photos until around 3:30 and the light was a delish golden hue by that point. It was cold, but damn it was such a beautiful sunny and perfect day. I couldn’t get over how perfect the lighting was. I wanted to take advantage of this fabulous lighting and snap photos like they were going out of style ! Everything looked amazing in this light and I was working so fast to get in as many excellent shots as I could. I have pasted some of their images below. Before I move on, I just have to say how honoured I was to work with Cara and Andre. Cara and I have developed a really great friendship since she first contacted me about doing her wedding. We really hit it off and I am truly happy to have had our paths cross. She is not only incredibly stunning (just wait till you see the pics!) but she is also incredibly thoughtful, down-to-earth and so happy and positive that you can’t help but love being in her presence. I could go on and on about her because I think she is truly fabulous …. but instead I will leave you with these pics of her and her amazing husband Andre.

On a completely different but totally related note – I have to get the word out …. Bella Fiore does awesome creative floral design for all your wedding flower needs !!! Sarina, who is the owner of the company is a wonderfully sweet woman and is incredibly talented and gifted. She also happened to do Andre and Cara’s flowers which you can see below Their flowers were fabulously unique! They even had done centre pieces which had the bouquets arranged in pumpkins which I just loved – too cute ! Cara’s bouquet was just stunning and the bridesmaids bouquets were equally impressive. I just wanted to get the word out and support a fellow entrepreneur with her amazing business. Please check out her website: http://www.bellafiorefloraldesign.com and her number is 250-516-7444 if you would like to discuss what kind of services she could provide for you.