I just have to say… I am so blessed to be able to take photographs of people, to have the opportunity to enter their worlds for a couple of hours and have a good time.  I had the best photoshoot today!  Here are some teasers!  More to come soon!

I have lots more to come!  In fact, some of my favorites are from when the couple got in the river!  It turned out to be LOTS of fun and made for some really great photographs!  I hope you two had as much fun as I did and not as much poison oak!  haha

You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.

I was born in Los Angeles and lived there for about 5 years.  I still love LA and California is in my blood.  When I go there, I feel at home.  However, I wasn’t raised there.  I was raised in the country.  From 4th grade through senior year of high school, I lived in a county of 3,000 people and a small town of 300 in Virginia.  I don’t talk about it much, I haven’t been back since my 18th birthday, I don’t really listen to country music, and I don’t miss the smell of animal pastures.  But the other night, I went to Sussex County, VA to visit a friend of mine.

My friend lives in an old (and I mean really old) farm house out in the middle of nowhere.  It’s amazing.  We sat outside and watched the sunset and I could see the outline of the moon – something I haven’t noticed since living in the city.  There were stars, lightning bugs, and wheat fields to the horizon.  No cars, no street lamps, no sirens, no neighbors.  It was beautiful and I really loved it.  In fact, it almost made me miss my little town from long ago…

The next morning, we got up really early and while my friend was getting ready for work, I played fetch with our dogs while I watched the sunrise.  Again, just gorgeous.  After he left, I walked around the property and shot a few, including this one, before it started to rain.  I can’t wait to go back.

It amazes me how the most magnificent, most beautiful things in life are truly the simplest things as well.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I really don’t think I could say it better… so here is what was recently shared with me by another photographer, Carlos Benjamin.  It truly sums up the gravity of what we do and why… why it is so essential, so meaningful, and why I am passionate about what I do.  You can visit his blog here.

The following is something I shared with a group of friends, fellow wedding photographers, on a wedding photography forum yesterday. It was so well received that I decided to post it here as well.

I was shooting an e-session this past weekend at the Mesa Arts Center with my pastor’s daughter, Christine and her fiance, Christian. The place has this fabulous blue wall that I love to use as a background element and all kinds of nifty water features.

We were taking these shots at one of the water features when I glimpse some movement coming into frame right (albeit out of focus).

The movement was this little guy. He dropped in with lunch and just wanted a drink, so I snap a shot with him as the center of attention.

…and then the bird flies away.

It’s at this point that I think, “That’s why I do this…… To catch fleeting moments that will never be just so again. These two people; this place and time of day; this little bird……”

How often you hear stories about loved ones who’ve died and what comfort the photos bring to the family, or sadder still when they pass on and the thought is, “We were going to get some photos done…..” I’d been talking with someone about getting a shot of the various members of their family for some time and one day one of them was, like this bird, no longer there. Gone……

Have you ever seen a movie where someone suffers the loss of a loved one and they interact with a photo on the nightstand, drawing it close and examining the features, tracing them with a finger and then embracing it? Sure you have. Maybe some of you have actually interacted with photos in that way.

It’s not just the passing of loved ones that may trigger this emotional connection to our art. Moms might sit on the side of the bed holding a photo of a son or daughter who’s left home for college or a job in a distant place. Parents look back at photos of their children when they were younger and you see a trace of a smile at the corners of their mouth and a faint twinkle in the eye.

There’s a reason why we hear about people dragging the family photos out of a burning or flooding home – sometimes even risking their lives. I can’t picture someone racing back into a burning house to rescue the frozen wedding cake or tearfully tracing the edges of the caterer’s menu.

This may sound maudlin or sappy or even self-serving, but as important as they may be to the whole experience, I just don’t see the other things folks spend money on to make their wedding day “special” being able to have the same impact over time as our images and albums.

That’s why I think that what we do as photographers is important.

Last night, I was able to attend the Captivated by the Light seminar with Ed Pierce. He’s a great portrait photographer of over 30 years with lots of wisdom when it comes to the fundamentals of photography, such as lighting. We discussed how to obtain the proper quantity and quality of light and the best angles for flattering your subject. While a lot of the things covered were a solid review of the things we photographers use constantly, there were also some new techniques covered that I am very excited to implement in my next photo shoot. I am very excited to experiment with studio lighting as 99% of my work is currently on-location. I am going to be building a portable studio soon that will likely be helpful for child, baby, and maternity shoots. I also look forward to utilizing reflectors more outdoors.

Some of the things that Ed covered, such as Custom White Balancing, were good techniques that I already use, and although Ed sells a great WB target, I think I’ll stick to using my own (that only cost me about $5.)

Overall, Ed’s candor was inviting and humorous and I enjoyed the four hours I was there for the workshop. I hope to bring some of the techniques to my personal and professional work, but also to my photography group in Richmond. I think at our next meeting, I will teach the photographers to create their own WB targets, and then maybe after that we’ll go over some Photoshop processing techniques. If you are a local photographer who is interested in joining our group, please visit www.flickr.com/groups/rvameetup/ and join us!

If you are interested in attending Ed’s seminar, you can find more information here.

Lastly, don’t forget to visit me online at http://www.havesomefunphotography.com and also http://www.myspace.com/kristelpoole.

Thanks for stopping by!

Man, I am so cool now. HSF Photography has a MySpace page! Check us out!

www.myspace.com/kristelpoole

Now you can Have Some Fun online!   My weddings section has finally taken the forefront and I’m very happy to present http://www.havesomefunphotography.com

Please take a look, stop by, and let me know what you think!

Bridal shoot photos to come soon!

I always thought that people who took a million photographs of their pets were a little weird, but then I got two beautiful dogs. Particularly a little one who loves to ham it up. So, as a tribute to all the pet photography lovers, here’s my baby going after a stick out in the cold. Makes you just want to snuggle him, doesn’t it?

I had a photo shoot the other day with the very talented painter and graphic artist Glenn Crane.  We started outside of my favorite restaurant, Kuba Kuba, and moved to his studio.  Here is a favorite from each location.  As soon as I process more, I’ll show them to you!  Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!  I’m off to the slopes!

What’s on your Christmas list?

Camera gear and a new website are on mine!
I’ll let you know of any new acquisitions.