Sept Wedding

Photographed a beautiful backyard wedding last night, the décor was over the top amazing!!

My last planned wedding for the year, so happy they let me be a part of their evening. I wish these 2 the very best, they are perfect for each other.

Record heat sunset - Kimberly Kester Photography - Redding, CA

 A storm moved in last night, Jon said he could see lightning off in the distance to the North, hope it didn't start any fires. It was 116 degrees today, holy moly it was hot!!!!! Couldn't resist getting a few shots of the sunset from our back yard.

As the sun went down the sky got pinker, probably a reflection from all the sunburns, lol.

 

This last one is my favorite!!

New Lighting on Gorgeous Women!! - Kimberly Kester Photographer - Redding, CA

Just a few gorgeous shots from a recent personal project I completed in my living room, these sessions were so much fun & the reason I've been absent on the blog. I'm loving this new style of indoor lighting, it's just one less thing to worry about, I can concentrate more on directing & slowly fine tune the style I've wanted to see in my images. 

A huge THANK YOU! goes to these women for allowing me the beginning everybody needs, to master a technique. I think these women look absolutely AMAZING!!

Can't wait for my next project! It's already in the works.



Property Blooms & sprouts - Kimberly Kester Photography

It's that time of year again, time to drive you crazy with all the pictures of flowers, trees, bulbs & more, growing & blooming in our yard. Enjoy!

I'll start with a new Hyacinth we bought a couple weeks ago. I love that it's a bulb, that means it might not get eaten by the critters & I can plant it almost anywhere (probably down by the creek though, it has a sweet smell but it's really strong at times). We have another one with a bluish purple tone as well. They will look great by the creek.

Our flowering pear is in it's 2nd year of being planted in it's permanent spot, hopefully it will like the back yard sunset as much as we do ;) It's getting ready to bloom again so I guess that's a good sign, I'll take it!

The image above is our bleeding heart just starting to sprout, it's the 2nd year that we've had it & I'm super happy it made it through it's first winter here, it has hailed several times & I thought it was too delicate to handle it. Good to see I was wrong. 

These are times I wish I had a real macro lens. I was lazy this morning when I took the bleeding heart image & I didn't change my lens, I kept on my 24-70 2.8 & shot this at 2.8. It's in a black pot until I can determine where to plant it. The jack rabbits would love to nibble on this guy I'm sure & it needs shade.

Baby bloom buds on the Redbud bush in our front yard are so close to popping. Can't wait for the blooms, it's going to be anyday now & they don't last long. This morning it looked too good to miss & I thought I'd share how it looks before it goes into full bloom. This was shot at f4.

Daffodils are some of my favorite bulbs right now, mostly because I planted them a couple years ago, it's their 2nd year blooming & it brings some color to our usual red-clay-dirt-lava-boulder-landscape. I can't wait to buy some red tulips this Fall & plant them around the daffodils. I think it will look amazing.

Even Lady can't help but enjoy the front yard today, she's almost ready to fall asleep. It's a little chilly today but mama made sure she had her coat on, lol. According to how old she was when we adopted her (around 6), she should be 9 yrs old this summer & she's still doing great. We are lucky for each day we get with her & so glad she's here to keep me company when dad's at work.

I hope everybody has a great day!



Sweetness! - Redding Childrens Photographer

This little girl holds a special place in my heart (the little stinker, lol), I've been photographing her since she was brand new. What a big 2 year old angel now, even though one of her outfits was a devil costume, haha. She sure wore me out at the park but I already can't wait to see her again :)

Baby piggies! - Kimberly Kester Photography

Got to see some newborn piggies the other day. Love how the toes scrunch up around mommy & daddys rings. She's so sweet, right down to her toes!

Valentines Day firsts - Kimberly Kester Photography - Redding CA

It was a first for me, so when you get a delivery on Valentines Day & this is what's written on the outside of the box, you can't help but smile (big)....then tear it open as fast as you can cause you know it's only going to be good for a limited time! It says so :)

I was looking on the shipping box to see if the gift needed to be refrigerated & seen these instructions, that totally made me laugh out loud. It's got Jon's personality written all over it.

The inside of this card made me cry, I want to keep the contents private though (hope you understand). It's the first Valentines Day as Jon's wife & what he wrote inside just absolutely made my life perfect, the strawberries were just a bonus. I had heard a radio commercial for these strawberries about a week ago & had no idea he already had them as a planned delivery, I love this man!

Yes, I'm showcasing my favorite strawberry (if you couldn't tell), the nut covered one, Mmmmmmmmm!!!!!

Ok, the funny part about these 2 last photos, there was supposed to be a picture in between. I took a bite out of the nut covered strawberry (the best strawberry in my opinion, did I mention that already, hehe). It allowed the strawberry flavor to come through more & I loved that, the other 2 weren't bad but had lots of chocolate & I wasn't up for that much sweetness. Jon took a bite out of the chocolate chip covered one but I didn't hear any moaning, maybe  that's just me.

That was the best bite of chocolate covered strawberry I've every had & so juicy, the chocolate didn't take it over & allowed for that nice blend of strawberry flavor. Well, I have moments of pickiness & seen an ugly little piece of strawberry hanging where I bit it & decided to try & bite that off before taking the photo.

The whole strawberry came out of the chocolate casing, the strawberry was hanging from my mouth & the chocolate fell apart in my hands. I was forced to eat that delicious piece of yumminess & moaned several times in those few seconds it took me to finish it, couldn't help it, it was sooooo good & making a mess in my hand, so consumption time was critical.

 After seeing the mess I was in, Jon decided to eat the rest of his & grabbed it back off the plate. That only left the white chocolate one left for the photo. Jon was forced to eat that one shortly after, so it didn't feel left out. When I tried again with another strawberry a little later, it fell apart in the first bite again, dang my luck :)

Well honey, hopefully I'll have better luck next year getting that in between photo (wink, wink)!



Bowling with the Pinkies....

Introducing my new pink bowling bag, along with my new bowling shoes & bowling ball. Have I mentioned I love pink. I think the guy at the Pro Shop thought I was a little crazy at first when we ordered my stuff, then when Jon went to pick the bags up, he told Jon that it was a pretty nice bag & that he even liked the pink. Haha.

The top compartment has a place for my shoes, then there's the compartment below with the ball. This is a pretty cool bag, they didn't have handles & wheels when my grandpa bowled way back when, so I feel like I've already scored big. That's about as close as I'm going to get to a big score too, lol, I know nothing about this sport but I'm looking forward to learning how to be a better player, it's like owniing my camera & never putting it in manual, that's not how I roll (pun intended haha).



Marissa & Matt are pretty excited about practicing with us, they won't get to play on league nights cause the place is completely packed but what great family time & I love getting them away from technology as much as possible. Jon said he felt soreness in his hiney after practicing & playing the other night, can't wait for that part, haha. He just joined a left handed guys league the night his stuff came in, he's having a blast, I love seeing him happy doing what he loves & happy he's taking me along for the ride, including me in what he loves. I want to start a league called the Pinkies, it's the closest to the "Pink Ladies". I think it's pretty cool but maybe I'm weird like that.

How I took it.... Kimberly Kester - Redding CA Photographer

Sorry for the long blog silence, the Image Upload button went away from my blog screen for a while, so I couldn't upload any photos. Apparently it's fixed now (duh, lol) so I thought I'd share one of my favorite shots from a recent session. There wasn't a lot of light in the house at all & since I absolutely hate flash for portraits, I decided to take more of a Sue Bryce (An amazing New Zealand Glamour Photographer) approach to solve my problem. I didn't have any of her white boards to bounce back onto her face, so I used a silver reflector to get the light in her eyes & face. The photo above was taken in the living room on a love seat, you can see the light on her hair from the small window that was behind her. I think it turned out beautifully & so did this first full attempt of "Chin forward & down" along with "Connection". Not sure if the hand below is considered "The Claw" & the one below that is "The Club", they're borderline to me, lol, so I'm going to do that better as well. I did see the difference with her eyes being slightly larger when her chin went forward & down but I discovered what I didn't do in this shot, so it's not perfect to me, so I will be going back to do it again, to do it right. This time I will have a second set of hands (hopefully a light stand adapter) to hold a white board exactly where I want it, or I'm going  to make the big white boards Sue uses (to me, there's no sense going back unless I have something better to help me with the light, then I can concentrate on the hand pose. All I know is, I love what I'm doing right now & so happy for those friends in my life, like this incredible woman, that let me use my new techniques on them, until I get them perfect. So glad she loves (...they love) it just as much, Thank you! 

 

CAMERA SETTINGS:

3 Photos above, Manual mode, f-stop 1.4 (I needed the most light as possible & was willing to go with a little blur on her face if needed, shutter speed 1/80 (she wasn't moving & I had my arm pretty stable to go one stop slower, to get the shot without my shaky hand affecting it (I don't usually go below 1-125), & ISO 500 (I needed to brighten the entire scene, probably should have gone higher). I moved my focus point to her eyes & tried to have both eyes at the same plane away from the camera, so they would both be the sharpest in the scene.

Photo below was taken in a bedroom with a bigger window & better light source, f-stop 1.6 (I still wanted to blur the background a lot & needed that light), shutter speed 1/100 (my hand wasn't as stable), ISO 400 (the scene was already brighter so I didn't need to go as high as living room shots. I had the reflector in the room leaning again a dresser, it only had the window behind her to get any light & none was hitting the reflector, the side window light was enough. (The room had a small high window on the other side of her feet & a bigger brighter window to my right.) I love all the photos, I have to start somewhere right.

GEAR I USED (I will have to post photos of my gear soon) & GEAR I WANT:  I used a huge round reflector ("Promaster" 5 in 1 from my local camera store, I had it on the silver side, it wasn't as soft as I wanted it but it would do until I make the reflectors I really want or until I get the holder adapter for the light stand. I used my 50mm 1.4 lens so I could get as much light as possible & this was the best lens for this situation, I hope to use my 24-70 2.8 lens as soon as I make my new reflectors, that's one of my favorite lenses for portraits. I can't wait to buy the reflector holder adapter for holding my existing reflector (also to hold my smaller white foam boards), can't wait to make my big reflectors / background boards (including painting them) & get my sheer chiffon to cover & soften the window light, they will make a world of difference in my more intimate indoor portrait photos. I don't have a big budget & I want to learn by having the story about the person, not a prop or expensive gear (I want to make the best of what I have available), I think that's why I love Sue Bryces style of lighting &, her style of photos. My first 4 years of owning a camera have been without her, now my photos won't be the same. I have to Thank CreativeLive.com, for introducing me to her. If you haven't visited their site & watched their free workshops (you can purchase previous workshops as well), you don't what you're missing, it will change your life if you're a self taught perfectionist like me, (I'm still trying to learn what I want to do with my photography, I need to classify myself as a specific style of photographer, just not sure what direction I want to go in, I"m still learning that, I think this will be the year I decide). CreativeLives workshops cover so many different styles of photography as well as editing & camera setting lessons. It has improved & fine tuned my photography this past year, it will do the same for you.

I can't wait for my next session with beautiful Miss C.