kinsey.t photography

First new post up on the new blog!

2010-02-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

I just did a quick mini-session with my sister and her little boy - check it out on the new blog!

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Changes...

2010-02-08T21:53:00.000-08:00

Since I got married almost 9 months ago, I've thought about changing my name for my photography. And, it involved a few things like my watermark and my domain name, so I hummed and hawed (??) about it. But, I've finally made the change! You can now read my blog at:

http://www.kinseyholtphotography.com/

All of the old posts are there, and it looks pretty much the same as this one - the one change is the name!

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One good thing about the cold...

2010-02-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

The last few days we've had a lot of fog, and the mornings have been amazing! I love going to work when I get to see this everywhere:

I had a hard time actually going to work, because I wanted to stay outside and take pictures! Of course, by noon it didn't look like this anymore.

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Seniors

2010-02-04T17:46:00.000-08:00

I love doing one-on-one portrait sessions with seniors!

This is one session with one senior, just to show the variety of locations, poses and shots I like to get. What's the point in going to all of the work and getting all dressed up and getting only a few shots you like? I love it when my clients are up for trying new locations, like the fun alley we found during this session.

Senior sessions are $100, and include a disc of 20-30 high-res edited images. Print prices available upon request, or you can print them yourself.

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Keely | Playing with texture

2010-02-03T01:18:00.000-08:00

Isn't she gorgeous?!

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Workin' on #3

2010-01-31T19:57:00.000-08:00

#3 on my 101 list is to run a half marathon. And thanks to Clark's aunt, I actually started training for one. She's always recruiting people to run in races and to run in general. A local marathon club was starting up, and at first I wanted to do it but then reality hit. I didn't want to actually run 13 miles! I hadn't been running as much as I should and I thought it might just kill me, but she didn't let me talk myself out of it. I came up with all kinds of excuses of why I shouldn't train for one, but she didn't let me get away with any of them. :) So, I am officially training for a half marathon. I haven't picked one for sure, but I'm looking at the Cardston half - it's local which is great because the end of May is going to be super busy for me with my job and starting on our house building project. Clark's lucky aunt is running one in San Diego and getting a nice long girl's weekend out of it. Some day! :)

The marathon club takes the thinking out of it for you, which is great because it's easier to do it when you don't have to plan it out yourself - you just show up on Wednesdays and Saturday and they tell you where to run. It's a little hard to get out of bed early on a Saturday morning and make myself run in the cold, but once I'm out there it's great. Yesterday we did 4.5 miles and it was actually really good! I had to ice my knees after (dang IT bands) but I feel great today.

Thanks Dixie!

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#5 - New words!

2010-01-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

I can cross $5 off my list! I wanted to learn a new word a day for three weeks. I signed up for Dictionary.com's Word of the Day emails a few months ago and I've been getting a new word a day since. Here are the words from the first three weeks:

roborant
gallimaufry
bonhomie
fatuous
nonplus
intrepid
myrmidon
solicitous
ratiocination
cogitate
recalcitrant
palliate
largess
numinous
appellation
doff
paroxysm
diaphanous
capricious
iota
dolorous

I realized that a crazy new word every day makes it hard to remember all of the news words as time goes on...but I learned them all once!

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Ashley & Charles Re-visited | Just Because

2010-01-08T23:34:00.000-08:00

I've been looking back through my 2009 sessions and I came across one of my favorites - Ashley & Charles! I blogged a few earlier in the year but I just had to put up a few more.

Ashley was my roommate in university and we talked about doing a session for a long time before our schedules and the weather finally let it happen! They are one of the sweetest couples you'll ever meet. Charles would cook Ashley dinner and the rest of us in the apartment would be jealous cuz he was an awesome cook! :) He always took our garbage out for us - what a guy! I remember one time it was cold so he put it on top of his car and drove it to the other side of the parking lot to the dumpster. Hey, whatever works right?! Ashley is so quick to laugh and you almost never see her without a smile. She is so friendly and so nice and I miss the days when we lived together!

Even though she's usually smiling, she can really rock a serious look!

He is so in love with her!

They're always laughing together.

I love how she's looking at him so adoringly.

And one without the glasses for fun!

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90 years old!

2010-01-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

On Christmas day this year, my great grandma turned 90! What an amazing lady.

My favorite memories (along with probably every grandkid) include all of the sewing projects she undertook for us, and her famous Chicken Noodle Soup! It's my number #1 comfort food ever. Mmmmmm. We haven't always lived very close to my grandma, so we used to take trips to see her in Idaho and she would spoil us with food and her famous sewing projects. We got cute spotted dogs and personalized bags and big huge TV-watching pillows. And AMAZING cinnamon rolls. Happy (belated) birthday Grandma!

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Camera Cake

2009-12-28T23:05:00.000-08:00

My birthday is just 6 days before Christmas, so my mom has always tried really hard to make it seem special and very separate from Christmas. This year my family came out for a family birthday party and they brought this cake:

My sister had been texting me earlier in the day asking me about cameras and where to find information on them, etc., and I thought she was really going to go out and buy an SLR, but it turns out she was just doing research for the cake! They formed the whole camera out of cake - I have no idea how the heck they actually iced a huge pile of crumbly cake but they did! And, it tasted great!

Thanks girls!!

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Giving is awesome

2009-12-21T12:22:00.000-08:00

The deadline for "Giving is Awesome" nominations has past. Thank you for your entries! The winner has been decided!!

I came across "Giving is Awesome" a while ago and thought it was a really cool idea. Photographers all over Canada and the United States sign up and donate photography to deserving families for Christmas.

So, I signed up and am donating $150 worth of photography, which includes a session and a print credit, as well as images on a CD. The person referring the family who is chosen will also receive a free family session.

You can check out all of the details behind Giving Is Awesome here, but here are my details:

_______________

You probably know someone who has experienced some really rough times, who might be struggling to stay afloat, maybe raising kids while working more than one job, or is volunteering and helping others selflessly while in their own life they're facing some awful things. You probably know someone who can't afford to go get family pictures, but who would really love to have those family pictures.

I want to know who they are, and give them a chance to have those memories! So, I'm giving away $150 worth of photography. This includes a family session, their images on a CD, and a print credit. The person who nominates the winner will receive a free family session!

So just a couple of things:

* You can't nominate yourself, and the person nominated must sincerely be unable to afford photography.

* The nominee must reside in the Raymond/Taber/Lethbridge area.

* Tell me who you know, what they're experiencing, and why they deserve my photography services. Please include a way to contact both your nominee and yourself.

* You must e-mail me the full story: kinsey@kinseyt.com.

The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve -- please think of someone you know who could use some family pictures this season and get nominating! I can't wait to read all of your entries!

~Kinsey

________________

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Christmas Cards

2009-12-19T08:37:00.000-08:00

This is Clark and I's Christmas card this year so far. I kept wanting to take a new picture, but Clark wanted to use a wedding one, so here it is! :)

This was another version:

And here are some other cards I played with:

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Christmas Baking & Aperture

2009-12-16T21:35:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the food! My mom and I teamed up this year to make a bunch of things...

First, the pretzels. I love rows of things, because they make depth of field really fun. If you've never quite understood what the heck aperture was all about, maybe the following pictures will help you out a little bit.

This one was shot at f/1.4, which means the hole inside your camera letting the light in gets really big. This results in a shallower depth of field - you can see that hardly any of the pretzels are in focus, just a tiny, skinny plain in the middle:

The next three were shot at f/2:

This was shot at f/2.8 - you might not see a big difference between 2 and 2.8:

And this one was shot at f/5 - can you see the difference? A lot more pretzels are in focus, or at least not totally blurred out, like the first picture.

And here are some more goodies!

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Charlie Brown Trees

2009-12-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

I was over at my mom's the other day and we started talking about how our tree looked growing up - the 'Charlie Brown' type, that we as kids so lovingly decorated with our collection of random ornaments that grew each year.

On Christmas Eve, we always received two gifts to open - a pair of pj's (matching of course!) and an ornament. Over the years we got all kinds of ornaments. My mom and I started looking through my ornament boxes and relived a few memories, and my mom mentioned one ornament in particular that was so fragile that she wasn't sure anybody had it left. And we got an idea! My new photography project is to capture all of these ornaments in photos, so even when they get broken, or lost, and don't make it on a tree anymore, we'll still have the memories of our family Christmas tradition. So, here's the first one!

This is from Christmas 2007. My siblings and I all got 'Precious Moments' themed ornaments. They were all different, if I remember right, but here is mine:

More to come! I promise, some of these are pretty good....;)

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The First Look

2009-12-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

I wrote about having a first look here, but since I didn't actually have one myself, I'm excited to share the experiences of a few couples who have! Read about them here! These are all interviews with the grooms - it's cool to get the guys' perspective on the whole thing - an interesting read even if you're already married, or know you're not going to do a first look.

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Our first nativity!

2009-12-05T18:33:00.000-08:00

Clark and I received a Willow Tree nativity set for our wedding, and as Christmas got closer we wanted to have more pieces! We happened to get a gift card to the pharmacy in town for our wedding as well, so when Willow Tree stuff went on sale for 20% off, we bought 3 more sets to add to the collection (one set was the shepherds, one set was the wise men, and the third set was all animals) - now all we need is the creche! That's the stable-like thing.

Once we set it up of course I wanted to take pictures! It gave me a chance to play with my flash and aperture, and I wanted to experiment with my ISO to see how grainy pictures could get - these were all shot at 1600 - so you'll see some grain. I used my diffuser and tried some different angles. I pretty much never like direct flash, so these were all shot with my flash to the side or bounced off the ceiling, and even angled backward a bit so it wasn't too strong. I'm not in love with some of the shadows I got, but I didn't use a reflector or anything - next practice shoot! :)

I love the little sheep!

My favorite new piece might be the camel:

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I love this wedding!

2009-12-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

I stalk Jasmine Star pretty religiously, and today she posted a wedding that I loved! It was actually fake - staged just to show off different vendors and give them stuff for their portfolios, but I loved the style and the colors. I'm already planning my sister's weddings. And right now I'm trying to convince Clark to decorate our master bedroom (when we have one in a year) in white, black, and purple (maybe with some gray), the colors of this wedding. :)

Check it out here

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#76 - In Progress

2009-12-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

Tonight I'm helping at the senior's lodge across from our apartment. Our ward is having a Christmas party, and I'm helping pick all the seniors up with the Handi-Bus to take them over to the dinner. I think it will bring back memories! At my previous job working at a senior's lodge, we had field trips every few weeks and we'd load everybody up with their walkers and wheelchairs and get them all buckled in, and then we'd sing songs like "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." I may be the only 23-year-old on the planet who knows that song. But trust, me it's a gooder! :)

Anyway, I loved that job and I'm excited to be a little more involved with the seniors. I also spoke with the coordinator over there and I'm all set to play the piano for a Christmas sing-a-long in a couple of weeks. I called asking to just go and play while they were hanging out after dinner, to brush up on my rusty skills, but I somehow agreed to play for a sing-a-long. Okay, I quit piano in like grade ten, and hardly touched it during the last 5 years of university. So, my mother-in-law might just see me a lot over the next couple of weeks! She kindly agreed to let me play her piano whenever I want to. I warned the coordinator, but she said they didn't care and they'd love it even if I played out of a beginning piano book. I'm excited to start playing again, and this helps me out with #76 on my list - Volunteer at a Seniors Home.

Wish me luck!

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#48 - Make a list of books to read

2009-11-27T18:40:00.000-08:00

Number 48 on the list is to make a list of books I want to read. When I sat down to make this list, I went blank. So, I figured that maybe the 3 of you out there who read my blog could help me out! :)

Okay, here's what I have so far:

- The Hiding Place - Corrie Ten Boom
- The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
- A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (started it once, didn't finish)
- An Ideal Husband - Oscar Wilde
- Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
- The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
- The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Sallinger
- The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

#87 Make someone a birthday cake

2009-11-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

I was looking back over my 101 in 1001 list, and I found another one I can cross off! Don't ask me why it took me two years, but I finally made someone a birthday cake! Not the most amazing cake I've ever decorated, but it's a cake, and it was for a birthday. :)

I really, really want to go get a cake decorating kit - there's only so much you can do with ziplocs!! :) I know of a class in March, so I'm planning on getting it then.

#42 - Get a real job

2009-11-26T18:04:00.000-08:00

I crossed another one off the list! #42 of my 101 in 1001 list. I officially have a full-time job, and I'm so excited about it! The title is Leisure Services Supervisor, and I basically get to run the pool, do community events, play with some new software, and develop fun community programming! I also work work on capital projects Council has given us. I get to find out tomorrow exactly what projects I'll be working on, but my boss told me I'll be really busy next year. Should be fun!

There isn't currently any programming offered by the Town, so I have a totally blank slate in that area. There's also not really a budget, so that's my challenge! Luckily, being in the area of parks and recreation has advantages in the grants department. I came across two applications today that I'll be working on, and there's another one I have in the works. There are so many things we could do around here, and I love that I have a million possibilities and I get to kind of run with it. So, I pretty much have the best job ever. And of course, the best major at BYU! :)

So, if you're from around here, and you've always wanted to see a certain event or program offered, or you're from somewhere else and they do really cool things, let me know! I want to hear about it. :)

Vintage Christmas Card

2009-11-24T19:05:00.000-08:00

I was trying to stretch myself a bit, so I tried to make something vintage-y. :) My sister-in-law is more of a vintage-y kind of girl than I am, so I played with one of her family pictures.

What do you think?

I finished!

2009-11-23T23:14:00.000-08:00

I ran a 5K this past weekend, and it was cold and windy and hard but great! I woke up to the sound of the wind howling outside my window (we always sleep with our window open - it comes with having a 30 degree + apartment all the time :). If Clark's aunt and cousin hadn't been running, I'm not sure I would have dragged myself out of bed! They ran the 10K, so I was on my own until the finish. I just kept reminding myself how awesome it was to be in the great outdoors getting exercise. :) Lucky for us, the course runs North and South so the wind wasn't actually too bad.

Here are a few pics!

Me, a guy I just met that day (son of the lady on the right), Clark's cousin Tina, Clark's aunt Dixie, and Kim, Dixie's friend.

Family! Tina had her camera too, which is what Dixie is looking at! Sheesh I wish I could hold on to a tan... :)

My number - I have a stack of these that I haven't made myself get rid of...

And instead of t-shirts, you get sweet ornaments!

Now, one more in two weeks and that's it for the season! In January, there's a marathon club that starts and Dixie, Tina and I are going to train for a half. Ahh - wish me luck!!

Paper Samples and Wedding Pics...and #91

2009-11-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about these paper samples that I had to take pictures!

And here are a few wedding photos that I finally put up in my apartment! This let me cross #91 off the list!

Running

2009-11-14T16:17:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a run, and I had all of these thoughts going through my head, so I thought I would put them into words...

1. Running is the best thing in the world.

Why? Running makes me happy. Running helps me get all of my frustrations and whatever, out. Running is hard. Running teaches you things. Like, you can run x miles over and over, and you'll eventually get faster at it, but when you make yourself stretch to run x+1 miles, x miles is so much easier! My point - stretching yourself makes you stronger and better. See - life lessons! I'm always happier when I'm consistently running

2. Running helps me eat better.

I ate a bottle of canned pears, and then waited for a bit so they could digest before I tried to run ( I get cramps, instantly.). Well by the time I didn't feel so full from pears, I was starving again. So, I ate a few bites of a sandwich, waited 5 minutes, then headed out. And it was sweet. But the point is, if I know I'm going to go running, I won't eat crap or eat a ton, because I know it will kill my run. Sometimes when I'm not that motivated and I don't care I probably eat food on purpose, but that's another story. Bottom line - running makes me healthier.

I went in the hour before sunset, and it was freezing, so I had my gloves and ear warmer and hoodie and hood and sweet running pants on, like in this picture:

Please don't judge. :)

The hour before sunset is hands down my favorite time of the day. The light is all glowy and it's kind of serene when you're out in the country and the grass/crops are lit up by the almost-setting sun. I LOVE this time of day. And I love getting out in the country with no people or houses around.

I LOVE RUNNING.

Next time, I might hate it. But overall, I love it.