New toys and skyline adventures...

I bought myself a new toy last weekend. It came in the form of a brand new Canon 5d Mark III camera and I couldn't wait to use it. So I drug Blake downtown to follow me around as I did the tourist thing and took pictures of the skyline. It was an absolutely gorgeous day (if you didn't count what felt like 240% humidity) and I lasted about ten minutes before I was begging to go home and eat ice cream. I did however get some great pictures- which Blake attributes entirely to the new camera but I like to think that my beautiful city had a small part to play.

Keep smiling,
Kaylina

Read More

It's Voldemort's Birthday

It's been a pretty incredible year. Last August I launched my website and in the last twelve months I've had the privilege of shooting nine beautiful weddings, not to mention the great engagements, family pictures, and senior portraits I've been lucky enough to photograph. This summer marks my website turning 1, my business turning 2, and a lot of big milestones in my personal life as well. I graduated college in May, got engaged in July, and started my dream "big girl" job earlier this month. But all of that pales in comparison to this... my kitten, Tom Marvolo Riddle, is celebrating his 1st birthday today. He might not know it, but it's a very special day.

Keep smiling!
Kaylina

Read More

Why I Love PASS

I recently made a pretty big change in my photography business- I kicked DVDs out the door and said "hello" to PASS. PASS is a newfangled photo gallery that I am IN LOVE with and would marry, given the opportunity. Let me say that the change wasn't easy. I was so nervous at first- I knew that my clients love that satisfaction of physically having a DVD of all of their pictures in their hands, but after passing my last two weddings I'm completely sold and I'm never looking back.

Here's what my side of a typical wedding used to look like - I would spend an amazing day with a beautiful bride and post a sneak preview the next day. A week after the wedding I would post a blog post with 10 static images and approximately 50 images in a video slideshow. Two weeks after that I would upload all of the pictures to an online proofing site. I would then wait for the bride's approval of the pictures (normally took another 2 weeks) before I could burn them to disc and send them her way where the DVDs would arrive on her doorstep 3 days later (if the post office didn't lose them). Which brings the total turn-around time to approximately 6 weeks.

This is where PASS deserves a cape and a mask (because it's my hero)... brides get their images in 2 weeks!!

A screen shot from my most recently PASSed wedding

As soon as I upload the pictures to PASS they are hers. A bride can download them instantly, share them on social media, and email them to friends. Or she can make a gallery of her favorites that guests see when they visit the gallery. And that's not even the best part. PASS is compatible with all smart phones and tablets, turning your phone into an instant photo album. Guests of the gallery can save their favorites, order prints, and sign the guestbook. Yes, clients no longer get a disc, but I can think of a million (give or take a few) reasons that that's okay. Discs get lost, broken, and scratched and you can't pull a disc out of your pocket and flip through the pictures for your friends.

If my ranting hasn't sold you yet or you'd like to check out PASS for yourself, check out this super helpful video. I'm super excited about this change in my business and I love being able to share images with my clients in a new, gorgeous, and fast way.

Keep smiling!
Kaylina

Read More