From Photo Hobby to Career

        In the beginning, there was the Canon Rebel XT.  Well, technically there was the 35mm Canon Rebel I got for my high school graduation that got some occasional use in college.  Digital photography came on the scene a few years later and I got a Canon Powershot digital camera (pretty sure it had maybe 4 megapixels).  I took lots of photos of flowers.  Then I got married, and a few years later we decided to grow our family.  My family growing up was VERY into photography, with a Cinematographer brother in California, a camera production guru in Atlanta, and my father who fell in love with film in the dark room at age 8.  I was the rebel not going into photography.  But when I was pregnant with my first born in 2007, my parents gifted me my first DSLR camera.  It was a Canon Rebel XT.  I'm thinking most new parents get a DSLR camera to take photos of their growing family, hoping that auto controls would "blur the background" like those photos you see online.  I didn't know anything about those controls.  I took lots of photos on automatic settings and ended up really loving the ones I took by windows because of the lighting.  Above to the right is one of my first "photo shoots" of my son, Ethan, when he had broken his femur and was in a body cast (YIKES).  I knew I liked plain backgrounds, so I put him on a dark blanket for our shoot and set up next to his window.  I fell in love with the shot because it honestly captured him in the cast without a lot of distractions.  Now I am so so glad I took these photos because it was such a significant season in our lives.

So I started shooting everything and everyone.  I asked to shoot portrait sessions of my friends, and to the left are a few gems from those sessions.  The top black and white photo was actually one of my favorites, and I can still see why.  It turns out my love for simplicity and black and white photography was there even in the beginning. I remember taking the bottom photo (my friend and her husband and son) while holding a sheet of paper that had notes taken from when my dad explained exposure to me.  I would look down at the paper, change the manual settings of my camera, and take the shot (then editing the heck out of it in Photoshop Elements!)  I remember being SO overwhelmed by photo editing.  I got a bunch of Photoshop Actions and spent a lot of time editing.   A year later Lightroom changed my editing world and I gave up Photoshop for awhile. Now I use Photoshop for more serious editing but stick to Lightroom for basic work flow.

I watermarked everything with my constantly changing logo.  I got to shoot my first wedding in the fall of 2010 and was so thankful Jae and Jerry trusted me to do it.  I soon upgraded to the Canon 50D camera body and 50mm 1.4 lens.  I stalked photography blogs (Pioneer Woman was my hero!) and read everything I could about the subject, my favorite being Scott Kelby's book series on photography basics.  I wanted to learn more about studio lighting and bought a light and set up a make-shift studio in our basement.  Below is a photo I took with my newly found love for strobes. Note: yet another logo on the bottom of the photo.

Before I knew it I had shot my 50th wedding and had upgraded to the Canon 5d mk ii camera body with prime lenses (20mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 135mm).  My husband was confident I had found something that would actually be profitable and not just an expensive hobby.  I quit teaching high school history and continued photography like a mad woman, shooting 33 weddings in 2011 while pregnant with my second baby.  It was a crazy season of business but taught me so so much.  I ended up scaling back over the next few years to around 15 weddings per year so I could be more present at home and to prevent burn out.  I should mention that camera gear is SUPER expensive (at least to me:) and buying used gear turned out to be such a great way to go.  Check out KEH.com for used camera equipment, and don't be afraid of Ebay as an option, too.

Fast forward six years later from my first shoot to my 150th wedding and so much has changed, and yet stayed the same.  As I look back on my portfolio of work, I see my love for simplicity and black and white from the very beginning.  I'm drawn to emotionally charged imagery, and that is more and more true.  One more random observation is that I've always loved to shoot horizontally instead of vertically.

My camera gear has changed for sure, and I suspect it will go through some dramatic changes over the next few years with new technology. One company I've recently become interested in is Light, a company in Silicon Valley that developed technology that bridges the gap between the image quality of our big DSLR cameras and our palm-size phone cameras that we use everyday. The camera they've built (called Light L16) has multiple small cameras inside of it that shoot at different focal lengths and then combine that information for one super high quality image. I am waiting until they release more in 2017 to get my hands on one!!

Who knows how long I will shoot weddings or where photography will take me, but I can honestly say I am even more curious and passionate about photography then when I first started.  I found something that helps me take in the world around me, and something I lose track of time doing. I had no idea when I was in school that this is where I would be, and I can thank most of that to the people around me who supported my curious adventures whether they were profitable or not.  Here's to many more curious adventures and the worlds that open up because of them. 

Saying Goodbye

This is such a vulnerable post to type.  But I'm a big fan of vulnerability and authenticity, even though it's uncomfortable.  I really believe people need to hear other people's stories as a source of encouragement.  So I hope this is somewhat encouraging to hear whats going on in my journey.

I took a big leap in 2013 by opening up a photography studio.  It all came together so well, from finding the perfect house close by son's elementary school to immediately having friends who wanted to share it with me.  I was never as nervous as I was standing before the county board to present the business and have it approved for opening.  My husband and I prayed about it and felt good about moving forward.  We walked in together to that meeting to stand before a board of people, and we walked out excited as it was approved and we were ready for the next step of my business journey.

Fast forward one year and two creative workshops later to October 2014.  My two friends (Latetia of Junebird Photography and Mattie of Green Tie Studio) were no longer sharing the studio space with me (for different reasons, including moving!!) and I started to wonder what shape the space would take as it was just me in this house called Canvas Studio.  I emailed friends about sharing the space, came up with some ideas on hosting workshops to create community and revenue, and thought through other ways to keep it alive.  I was pretty resistant to the idea of shutting it down and not ready to give up on it yet.  But one night I stayed up late to re-work our budget, and something became incredibly clear: the studio needed to go.  It was really an amazingly clear moment.  I don't normally feel like God is speaking to me or giving me super clear direction (hence faith is needed!) but there was a strange moment on the couch with my laptop in front of me that I'll never forget.  I felt like God was saying in a short sentence, "you don't need to keep the studio."  I was looking at essentially two mortgage payments (our home and the studio) and yet painfully aware of my inability to keep up my own home, laundry, etc.  

My whole guiding principal with work has been that it must be done in a way that is a blessing to my family and doesn't compete with love and attention I am called to give my husband and kiddos.  It became UBER clear that a second mortgage was not a blessing to my family, and even if I could come up with all sorts of ways to keep it via workshops or shared space it was still complicating life and adding more work and stress to an already stressed schedule.  It became clear that I don't need to rent this house anymore and I need to let it go.  Because Frozen is such a part of family life, "Let it Go" is often sung in our house, and quickly becomes a go-to saying for everything.  Thank you, Elsa.  Let it (the studio) go.

So there it is.  I am officially moving out and taking down the Canvas Studio sign with a bit of sadness but a lot of clarity.  I love that it was perfect for a season.  It was a space where I got to become very close to some of my dearest friends.  It was a space where community was built and ideas were exchanged.  God showed me so much about myself through it.  I realized I am entrepreneurial to the core, which means trying things out and letting them go just as quickly when needed.  I got to photograph more studio work and practice with lighting, and realize that a really good photography studio needs to have LOTS of room (go for a warehouse if you ever dream of setting up shop).  And I became a different person than I was a year ago, and this space was the vehicle God used to bring that about. And now its clear that God is done with that vehicle and is moving on with other tools to change me.

Just in case your wondering, we are still really, really excited to continue our Gather workshops.  After talking with Amanda and Mattie it became clear that Gather is less about the space and more about the people.  Stay tuned to hear what direction our Winter Gather will take!!

To celebrate this new season of life and the work and love that has been put into the studio, I want to have a sort-of closing doors party.  We have a Flower + Garland Workshop on Dec. 3 for the studio (and it's still on!!) and I thought to combine that with some yummy food, drinks, and holiday cheer as a way of saying goodbye to the space.  It's going to be a laid back atmosphere making some pretty garlands and learning about flower arranging, but for me it will also be a time to be thankful for a space that has meant a lot to me.  Come and help me say goodbye, get some yummy food and make something beautiful for your house.  

Thanks for reading and sharing life in this strange but powerful online way.  I am very hopeful that me and my family are on the road towards greater simplicity, but also having more freedom to pursue other creative paths that are on the horizon.  Grateful for it all (somedays and parts more than others) but most grateful that I have a personal and loving God who leads each step of the way.  He is so faithful.

xoxo,

Kaitie

ps- I am going to be selling a bunch of stuff from the studio and posting it on Instagram- check out my IG feed if you're interested in some fun home and office things!

Modern Studio Sessions

I still remember my school pictures with the laser beam backdrop from the 80s, with huge bangs and a killer corduroy jumper.  And honestly that is what most people think of when you talk about studio photography.  Everyone knows the studio experience where you lean forward, tilt your head ever so slightly and smile.  I think what happened because of these experiences was a shift toward all natural light photos, sessions in fields and rustic barns and anything outdoors to get away from that static and too formal portrait sessions at your neighborhood studio.  But the modern studio is coming back, even if just among certain types of photography, but this time the laser beams were left in storage:) 

This incredibly awesome couple pictured above had photos taken during the Goodness and Light sessions I held in December at Canvas Studio (my little space for photography in Watkinsville, Georgia).  I loved how clean and simple the shots were, and how they drew attention to subjects without a lot of gimmicks or props.  In short I just feel like they are really honest and beautiful photos.  I love the idea of couples thinking outside the box when it comes to engagement sessions and going for a different look via studio photography.  I've used both studio lighting and natural light for these types of sessions and have loved both.  Here are a few natural light shots from a recent engagement session (pictured below).  So if you're thinking through where to have engagement photos taken, take note from the beautiful ads you see in magazines and stores and consider the studio option.  We could even come up with a laser beam background if you play your cards right:)