Kara May Photography Blog bio picture

{The Blog}

Thank you so much for taking a peek and exploring my blog. I’m Kara May, a portrait and commercial fashion photographer living in the Florence, South Carolina. Due to a loyal client-base in the Seattle, Washington area, I also travel limited amounts each year to the west coast for photo sessions.

Throughout this blog I will be posting previews from recent client sessions, featuring the talent of various clothing designers & products in my ‘Designer Spot’, and sharing a little bit about me and my life outside of photo sessions and commercial projects. I have two busy young children and a loving & supportive husband all of whom I mention throughout my blog. My family provides the inspiration and support I need to evolve in my work behind the camera.

Thanks again for checking my blog out!

{Designer Spotlight: EarthGroovs}

 I can’t believe it’s June and it’s not blazing hot here in AZ!  In May it was sweltering (I was dying)  and now that June is half way over it’s weird to think that this was one of Arizona’s ‘hot summer months’.   I know I’m going to eat these words the next two months though lol.   Anyway, it’s been amazing weather.  We’ve enjoyed dinners outside, roasting marshmallows in the fire pit, going for late evening strolls while the kids go searching  for bunnies, quail,  lizards, you name it.  The desert is like a huge museum to them.  They are so curious about every cactus, every flower, every rock formation and every animal they see.  It’s really fun but I  look like a mom who doesn’t know much because I’m in awe too unable to explain the cactus, the rock formations,  and the various desert flowers.  Oh well, we’re having fun exploring.  I feel like a kid again.  This summer has been so fun!!  We’ve been doing all the fun things I remember doing during the summer as a child.  Summers to me are lots of swimming, going for bike rides, making lemonade stands, and being carefree from day to day.  That’s how our summer has been - we are spontaneous and each day is a fun new adventure.  So I’m glad that I have this time with my kids right now.   I’m savoring each and every moment!!

Photo sessions have been fun and spontaneous too, we take pictures, we stop and look at something cool on the ground or a bunny hopping by, then we shoot a few more pictures, then we discover more.  It’s made Briella excited to go on a session -we get to explore!  During this session Briella wore some of EarthGroovs very cute and funky tops.  The talent designer, Kerry, has been featured on here before and there is more to come, she’s been busy!  She offers earth-friendly & retro prints for children.  She tries  to use sustainable, natural materials whenever possible like organics & cottons in order to reduce her carbon footprint.  A very Earth friendly and environmentally conscience  boutique :)  Check out more of her styles on etsy.

webplaying-c

web-2

web-top-1a

web-fun

web-wi

web-smiles

web-3rd-topp

 

{some of this, and some of that…}

As the kids sit quietly munching on pears and watching ‘Maggie and the Ferocious Beast’ - I can quickly blog.   Ideally I prefer minimal time in front of the TV but sometimes I need to rely on my friends at ‘Noggin’ to help me out so I can get a few things done ;-)

So life has been moving fast lately which is good but makes it hard to blog and respond to e-mails.  So I’m going to work to make more time for both.  Since I haven’t been able to respond to inquires regarding my actions, future workshops, mentoring and other photography related questions, I thought I could answer them here since many of the questions were the same.

Mentoring:  I would like to offer mentoring at some point.  It would be one-on-one and involve going out on a shoot where we can work on the technical aspect of photography, I would also incorporate other aspects of the business.  Details will be firmed up as I get closer to offering this.

Actions:  This is still up for debate with me.  There are so many actions out there and the thought of adding more seems a little redundant to me.  Hmmmm….

Workshops:  Right now I don’t have plans for a workshop.  Possibly at some point but no current plans at this time.

Other questions I’m getting…

*’What camera do you photograph with and do you use fixed focal length or zoom lenses? ‘ Well, I’m a Canon girl and have had success with the 5D.   I use a variety of lenses - macro, wide-angle (both prime) but I’m obsessed to my zoom lenses.  Love the flexibility the zoom provides.  

* ‘Do you use a fill-flash or a reflector?’  I currently don’t use either.  With children’s photography it’s not practical to run around with a reflector and I find it intimidates the child and I can’t get a natural look from my subject.   And I’ve never been fond of how a fill-flash looks.  I prefer getting the exposure spot on with appropriate natural light.  

*’Do you travel for sessions?’  I will travel for sessions but plans need to be made about 6 to 8 months out since my calendar fills up quickly and travel requires early planning, weather considerations, etc.  I ask for a deposit and travel expenses to be paid.  This works best when there are 5 to 7 families wanting pictures done, then the travel  and lodging can be split.

I know I’m forgetting to include some questions and others I’ve responded to directly.  If you have any others  or any I’ve left out, please feel free to e-mail me at kara@karamayphotography.com   Thanks !!

On a personal note:  {Some of you on Facebook have already seen these. Sorry for the repeat :) }  My kids finished swim lessons (I’m thinking about having them continue but we’ll take a break for a bit before we delve into more)!!  We spent every morning at Aqua-Tots  with fabulous instructors and the kids looked forward to it each day.  Here’s some pictures of their last day!  They were so excited!

img_0590wips2b

Tyler below perfecting his backstroke.  He’s such a little fish! ;-)

img_0481wip

Briella below swimming to her instructor all by herself!!  Big goal met!!  And huge safety relief for mommy :)

img_0459w

{Designer Spotlight: ZozoBugBaby}

Oh it’s been so fun photographing in my new surroundings.  I’m trying to learn the light here since it’s so different from South Carolina and Seattle, but it’s gorgeous light.   So recently, Julie from ZozoBug Baby contacted me to take some pictures of a few of her new designs, isn’t the outfit below super cute?!  One of my favorite color combinations!  Julie is an amazing designer with such a fun variety of  design and fabric styles - I love them all! 

It was 103 degrees when we took these so we made this mini-session one of the quickest ever (7 minutes to be exact) -wow!  As you can see in the 3rd picture below she was ready to go inside and not too happy with me.  But she’s a trooper and asked to do it again the following day - monsoons prevented that however. ;-)   Anyway, I have many more designer spotlights to come, just trying to time them with the weather and our summer activities, can be tricky but we have a bit of a system now.   Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be posting more soon. 

briella-flared-2

briella-old-truck

dress-b2-a

bottoms-ruffles-copy

back-side-view

{bit of the South}

I’ve been such a bad bad blogger.  I have so much to blog, so little time to do it (not to mention, wordpress went wacko on me and prevented me from posting for a while).  Wow, life has been so crazy busy since moving here.  I’m not taking any clients here (except for commercial clients) until the fall, so I thought I’d have time to ease into life here but it seems that’s not going to happen.  It’s all good fun but I find myself going to bed when the kids do since I’m so tired by the end of a very busy and active day.  I think this summer is going to be even crazier…hate to admit. 

I’ve been editing a few sessions from my last few days in South Carolina. It’s fun editing them, but it makes me want to start photographing children now… then I step outside and remember why I decided to wait until fall to resume my sessions.  It’s been unseasonably hot here, in the low 100’s. The only time I can photograph kids is at ~5  in the morning…since the temp is nice that early (a cool 75 degrees).  My kids are the only ones that I dare bring out that early {giggle, giggle}.    And I will be doing that soon since they get up early enough to give me hugs and tons of kisses before my morning runs.

Anyway, I have a bunch more to blog about but I have to run out and take my kids to their swimming lessons.  I’ll be blogging again soon… stay tuned :)  Thanks!

img_6548c

img_6574c

img_6646playi

img_6558bw2

img_6520worn

my-lil-creations-boutique-style-frame5

untitled-1b

img_6691-vintaged

img_6692faded

frame6

AJAXed with AWP ”NAPCP