{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.

{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!

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

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

{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. 

{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!

{the world around me}

Ahhh....finally getting time to make a post.  We're are still getting settled here in Arizona in our temporary house until our new house is built (hopefully October/November - just before the holidays!).  Boxes surround me still since I'm hesitant to open too much knowing that we'll just have to pack everything back up and move again.   I think I'll be wondering where things are for months to come - lol.   This area is beautiful!  So much nature!  Each morning I wake up before the sun comes up and head out on my run/walk (it's a bit of both since I'm not much of a true runner) and discover new things.  Honestly I never knew the desert had so much wildlife...so far I've seen - bunnies, carpenter bees, bumble bees, quail, dove, lizards, coyotes, bobcats, a snake (yes, a snake!), bunnies, woodpeckers, bunnies, grasshoppers (Briella has caught dozens already), and did I mention bunnies?  It's incredible how much I see each morning.

And since I've received many e-mails asking to post images of the desert and the surroundings here - I decided one morning to grab my camera after my run and capture what I see each day.

Also, the Botanical Garden is featuring an amazing display of Chihuly glass.  I had to make that one of the first things on my list to see - I studied Chihuly in college and I'm a big fan of his work.  So below you'll see some images of his work in the desert.

More to come!  Thanks :)

Near our house is this post...hmmm... 'decisions'

Close-up of a Prickly Pear Cactus. 

Surroundings next to our house at sunrise.

Chihuly beauty!

{Designer Spotlight: Kait Emerson & Nuximade}

Oh...my... what a crazy month this has been.  I've been loving photographing Spring lines for so many designers.  Briella even asks me to photograph her - whaaa?  Yes, shocking me how much she enjoys these sessions.  Anyway, below is a taste of Kait Emerson's new spring line. And the coordinating hats are from the talented Nuximade.  You've seen both of them featured many times on my blog and I'm digging their latest designs and colors.  Love them!!   Brielle wore the green and yellow ensemble on her last day at school before we moved.  Yes, we moved yesterday!  So her last day at Byrnes was on Wednesday which happened to be ‘Spring Pictures' at school.  She loves accessories so the hat and the bows on the shoulders of the dress drew her in and she instantly fell in love ;-)  Check out more of their fun styles by clicking on their names above!

To update you all... we flew out to Phoenix yesterday from Charlotte, NC.  The night before we cleaned out our old house and then made the 2 hr drive to Charlotte (getting in at just past midnight).  Our flight was at 6 am the next morning so the kids flew on 4 hrs of sleep - oh my!  They did amazing (to my surprise) and we arrived mid-day to AZ.   I'm without my main computer (it's on the moving truck which should arrive early next week) but I made sure to upload the images below to my laptop since I knew I couldn't wait for the truck to arrive to make a blog post ;-) 

I'll be blogging more about our final days in SC and some session sneak peeks.  Saying good-bye is so painful but I'm incredibly thankful for the experiences we had in SC and I'm excited for the adventures and opportunities that await us here in Arizona!  Now I need to get to bed...my body is paying me back by giving me an atrocious cold - uggg... ;-)

{Designer Spotlight: Eliza Kate Designs}

A couple of months ago Krystin, from Eliza Kate Designs, contacted me to photograph some of her fresh, fun, new Spring line.   Even though my life is crazy right now I couldn't resist.  There are 5 pieces to this collection - ruffly capris, halter top, an apron skirt, an apron dress and a sun dress.  I love them all!  I really couldn't pick a favorite.  Anyway, here's a sample of her Spring collection.  She's still working on her website but you can also visit her blog.   Oh and this adorable hat is one of Nuximade's recent designs.  I love it!  

On a side note:  Briella has really enjoyed our 'photo sessions' and asks to do them almost daily now.  Although, it's ironic that she doesn't want to listen to me at all during our sessions.  It's almost comical how much she ignores me and my requests.  I'll delve more into that in my next post otherwise this could be long and I have a lot of packing to do.  But thankfully, somehow we make these sessions work and have been able to get through one like this in 30 minutes.  Yah!!  :) 

{Designer Spotlight: Oh So Sassy!}

Yes, I'm still alive!!  Gosh things have been incredibly busy!!  As you know, we are moving from South Carolina to Phoenix,  Arizona.  My husband started his job two weeks ago in AZ so the week before that we were in Disney World kind of as a good-bye to the south and some fun kid-focused good times.  Gosh, our kids were in heaven!!  Tyler and Brielle agreed that their favorite ride was 'Thunder Mountain' - yeah a big'ole roller coaster.  I was shocked first that Brielle was tall enough to go on the ride and that she fell in love with it!  We have video of each of them on the ride screaming with excitement.  Guess how many times we rode Thunder Mountain.....10 TIMES during our visit.  Anyway, I could go on and on about the kids excitement over everything they saw but I won't bore you with that ;-)  Two days after we got home we  left for Arizona  to check out area while Jeff started his new job.  What a busy busy busy  week and a half!  I must've seen over 100 homes!  I got a feel  for the area since each day was packed with research and exploring, the weather was perfect for it!!  It got me excited for the desert sunsets and the cool photos that I'll be able to capture once I'm there.   We were so busy I didn't touch my camera once (I was going through withdraws, I'm not used to going more than a couple of days without photographing).

 Anyway, while we were away we got news that an offer came in on our house!!  We were shocked since it's only been on the market 3 weeks!  So now it's under contract!  I know the deal can still fall through so I'm not celebrating until the deal is done ;-)  We're excited but that means we'll be moving sooner than we anticipated.  We have a close date of April 15th - yikes!  I'm not mentally ready and that means Tyler won't be here for his 5K graduation (I think I'm more upset by that than he is) :(  But I'm not complaining - I'm just thrilled we won't have the stress of two house payments!!   With a close date so soon, I've had to cancel many Spring sessions which I feel bad about but I do plan on coming back to Florence once a year for sessions and of course to see my friends here in the South :)  More details to come in later posts.

Okay onto my original post...Michelle, designer and owner of Oh So Sassy,   just came out with her Spring collection.  And I love it!! It's fresh and colorful!  I love the sleeves and the sash/belt  that she incorporated in her designs coupled with her fun fabrics.  Briella liked them too and didn't want to take her 'pretty dress' off before our spaghetti dinner after our photo shoot, but I feared orange sauce staining the front so I convinced her to let me take it off until she was done with dinner.   Thankfully she was content with that plan and ate her dinner in just her leg warmers and underwear ;-)  After dinner the first thing she did was grab the dress and put it on and went running to get her 'princess shoes'.  I'll miss these days ...I know my baby is growing up so fast so I'm savoring these moments.  Anyway  check out newest collection at Oh So Sassy and upon purchase, if you enter the code 'karamay' in the comments to the seller, she will give you 15% off one item by giving a refund!!    Thanks Michelle!! 

Olivia dress below - love the punch of yellow with the black and white.

Madison dress:  fun, funky patterns. The box pleat on the skirt portion is a great touch.

Eva dress:  fresh spring colors and again I love that box pleat at the skirt line.

{Designer Spotlight - Ribbies!}

Oh I'm behind on posting to my blog again :(  I really don't like going more than a week without posting but things have been nuts as you can imagine.  I've been doing  some fun commercial projects,  a few client shoots and getting ready to head out tomorrow for Disney World!!!  Since we're on the east coast and in the south we figured we can't leave this area without a trip to Disney World for the kids.  They are at such a fun age for it now, so I can't wait to see the excitement on their faces while we explore the park.  Without a doubt, Jeff and I will turn into big kids ourselves which will make it even more fun.  Of course my kids started to get sick last week, so I promptly took them to the doctors so we could cure any ailments before our adventure.  I want them to have fun and avoid the misery of being sick on such a fun vacation for them.  I'm glad I took them because they both had ear infections and bad colds - now they're loaded up on antibiotics and starting to feel like themselves again  - whew.... ;-)  After we get back from Disney - we're home for 2 days and then we head off to Arizona for a week+  to look for places to live and Jeff starts his new job when we get there!  Did I mention things were busy?   tee hee ;-)    Then the kids and I head back to SC so they can complete school, we can hopefully sell our house (praying)  and I can work with my amazing clients before saying goodbye to friends and our life here in the south.  Gosh that sounds so sad :(  But again, I do plan on coming back once a year for sessions and to see the great friends we have made while we were here.   

Okay, on with my original post!  I'm sooo excited about this commercial client of mine.  Kim from Ribbie's , contacted me recently to photograph some of her new products.  I was excited since I had just seen Ribbie's clippies the week prior at my local Target on one of the end-caps and was thinking about getting some of these hip little clippies for my daughter.  They come in so many fun colors and they actually stay in little one's hair with their unique foam grip.  Anyway, I learned a little about how Ribbie's got started too.   Kim and her sister, Kristen, went into business in 2006 after searching for cute hair accessories for their young daughters and noticed that the selection hadn't really changed much from when they were young.  They  saw the same big bows and plastic barrettes that slid out of fine hair.  They  wanted to design something more simple and proportionate to a baby/child's face.  About the same time, they came across the huge selection of cool scrapbooking ribbon that was relatively new to the market and thought it was a perfect fit. They added clips and their unique foam grip and tried it out.  The clips were a success staying in their daughter's hair all day.  In 2006 they started making them at their kitchen table.  Now they have manufacturer, a fulfillment center and distributors in 4 countries!! Their product popularity expanded at an amazing rate.    You can find Ribbie's at www.ribbiesclippies.com.  { Shipping is only $2.90 for up to 10 pair. Also receive 10% off by typing coupon code:  Kara May on the last page of check out.}  And the Ribbie's 4 packs can be found at target stores and at Target.com  -   http://www.target.com/gp/search/177-9662574-5715568?field keywords=ribbies&url=index%3Dtarget&ref=sr_bx_1_1&x=0&y=0  I found them on the end cap in the baby shampoo section.    This Spring they will be expanding their  line with several new products including pacifier clips and headbands made from Ribbies own ribbon designs.  Stay tuned for more products at their website and on my blog as I feature more of their new products.   

{sunshine & giggles}

Recently I had a session with these two cutie's below.  My 'time off' has come to and end and my sessions have begun.   And what a perfect day to start my sessions again!  It was beautiful, sunny, not  too cold (in fact not cold at all), and the wind was minimal.  Caleb and Fawley Grace were very entertaining during our session.  Caleb and I were in giggles and half the pictures from our session he's laughing - I loved it!   Fawley Grace - I could've taken her home with me.  Her little voice and her way of communicating was so full of emotion - simply adorable!    

Side Note:  I'm getting a lot of e-mails  about booking a session before I  leave, which I'm thrilled about.  I have a waiting list and if you're flexible it will be easier to squeeze you in.  Unfortunately, my time is limited since Jeff is going to be out of town and I will have a bunch to do to get ready for the move.  But I'm doing what I can to figure out my schedule.  I wish I had time to do everything since I would love to photograph all of you who have inquired.  I'll keep you posted!  Thanks again for your inquiries!