New York City

The first time I went to NYC, we went in the summer, in June to be specific. We had daylight until almost nine at night, and we were walking around in shorts and t-shirts. We saw a huge amount of the city in one day, rushing through to fit it all in.

A month ago, my sister and I went to NYC again with three of our close cousins. This time we were bundled up in coats, scarves and gloves and the sun was down by 5pm.We knew we wanted to eat lunch at the Stardust Diner (the well known diner, where the waiters sing Broadway songs to you), and we had tickets to go up to the top of the Rockefeller Center (in time for the sunset), but those were pretty much the two major must-do's on our list.

Cecilia's many faces of delight during the various performances of the waiters at the Stardust Diner.

We had an amazing day and I'm so glad we went together!
-mk

Before & Afters // Behind the Scenes

One of the things I always love seeing on other photographer's blogs, is before and afters that they share. I believe it is super important to get the image as perfect as possible in the camera, but the camera (even if you have the best of the best) can not deliver exactly what our eyes saw.

To me, editing is the finale to your images, it's what makes them shine. I definitely prefer a warmer tone to my images than the camera produces and for most of pictures, all that is needed are some minor adjustments.

And so here are some before and afters from sessions/weddings I've had over the last few months.

I tend not to use the cloning tool too much, but I found the elements in the sky in the right rather distracting from the image, so they disappeared ;)

And for anyone who was wondering, I do shoot all of my images in RAW and I edit all of them in Lightroom 5.

-mk

Top 13 of 2013

Last year I did a "Top 12 of 2012" post, and I decided to do the same this year. 2013 was a big year for my photography business as it's the year my business really took off. I had amazing clients all year long from the very beginning of last January all the way through my most recent wedding a few days after Christmas.

And so, in no particular order, here are my 13 favorite client images from this past year.

I'm so excited for what 2014 will bring!

-mk

Delight 365 // one-seven

#Delight365

W E E K     O N E

------------------------------------

 1/365 - N E W

2/365 - G O A L

3/365 - F R E S H

4/365 - R E L A X

5/365 - P R A I S E

6/365 - C O L D

7/365 - F A S H I O N

-mk

lately // a peak in my sketchbook

'The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.'

- Walt Whitman

lately, 

i've discovered a love for quick pen sketches,

and the awesomeness of watercolor pencils.

but most of all, 

i've discovered a love for mixing mediums. 

a dusting of watercolor pencils, filled in by richer watercolors, made complete with a dash of acrylic, and a sprinkling of ink. 

that has been my favorite art recipe as of late. 

-mk

Live and Be Present // my word of the year

Last year my word was assurance, and when it came time for me to start thinking of a new word for this new year, one sprang to mind right away. Live.

This past year I learned how to have assurance, I shot not only my first full wedding, but my second and third as well and booked more for this coming year. A year ago I would have said family sessions were among my least favorite as I was still uncomfortable and awkward at posing them. But now, after having nineteen amazing, different families entrust me to take their pictures, I go into the session, confident and comfortable.

This past summer I was pushed and tested and thrown into situations where I knew absolutely know one and somehow ended up walking away having made incredible friends. (Something this shy, and quiet girl would never have been able to do before).

I got to experience some of the perks of "growing up" by going places and doing new things as the adult instead of the kid. A week on Assateague Island with just the girls of my high school class, a trip out to Philly to visit a dear friend at college for a weekend, eating at Olive Garden with my class (where the waiters tried to offer us wine which we politely refused), and exploring NYC for a day with my sister and a few cousins, are a few highlights.

But, since graduating high school and taking this gap year, with my closest friends away at college, I've been devoting the majority of my spare time to the internet. Reading blogs, being on facebook, chatting with friends, participating in group chats and conversations online, dreaming and planning on pinterest, looking at pictures, posting pictures, reading through tweets and facebook comments, and on and on the list goes.

And so this year, my word is LIVE. I debated between the word live and the word present because, my main goal with the word live is to make a conscience effort each day to remember to actually live. Live by doing crazy things that I wouldn't normally do, live by pushing past my comfort zone and trying new things, live by traveling and exploring and seeing not only new places, but old places as well through a different lens.

I want to live by playing with my siblings, by being creative, by running outside, by actually taking pictures of random bits of daily life again. Somewhere in the last year, as my photography business as picked up, my photography as a hobby, as a documentary of my family and life as started to fade. I want to fix that, change that. Go back to enjoying carrying my camera with my everywhere and capturing anything and everything.

I want to read again, like actually just a read book for fun.

I want in essence, to live.

And so as we ring in this new year, I have hopes and dreams and goals and plans on how to change the habits I've fallen into and remember how to breathe and live.

And to end this I'll share a couple collages of my favorite images from my amazing clients from the past 12 months and a few of my favorite personal images.

-mk