It's been forever!

I've been a horrible blogger - I admit it! But I'm back and not ashamed to admit it :) I've been blessed to have some wonderful shoots lately, and I'm way behind on posting images to share from those sessions.

One of my favorite sessions lately was for a family with a 3-year-old boy and a 2-month-old girl. The little girl was an old soul and just melted my heart and I couldn't believe what a good girl she was! You can tell in these shots that she must already be doing complex equations in her head.

This is my first full shoot using my seamless paper and I must say I'm in love! I now need to go buy more, haha!

In other news, I'm currently seeking high school and college seniors to be senior reps for me - email me at katie@katiethackerphotography.com if you're interested! It's a free photo session and the opportunity for a bunch of free prints!

A fun shoot!

This weekend we had some beautiful weather for a fall shoot - the colors were rich, the air was crisp, and I had an adorable 8-year-old redhead to work with! I know P outside of photography, and I admit that she has a tendency to be shy, but this little one has a supermodel hidden within - she was all over the place showing off and coming up with pose ideas! A few to share - I bet it won't be hard to figure out which shots were her idea!

Woah Website!

So I've finally sat down and started on my website, which is pathetically empty at the moment (although I do have a slideshow!) but at least it exists! I need to pump up my portfolio so I have more to put in my galleries, so if any of you would like to get a deal on some photography and live in the area, let me know :) We'll work something out to get you famous on my site!

I've got a shoot coming up with a little girl from the gym I work at this weekend and I am so very excited. She's ones of the biggest hams at the gym and I think doing photos with her is going to be one of my most entertaining shoots yet! I promise to post a sneak peak within a few days!

I survived the wedding!

I survived shooting my first wedding, and I must say, I had an amazing time. I wasn't quite prepared for how worn out my wrists would be after holding up a heavy camera, heavy lens, and heavy speedlight all day, but it was well worth it! I took over 1200 shots, and after going through them to pick the best of the best, I think I'll have about 450-500 to show the bride and groom.

The wedding itself was sweet, fun, and memorable - I'm not sure there was a single guest who could honestly say it wasn't a great time! I learned a lot about photographing to personality - i tried getting the bride into several serious romantic poses and she got us all laughing instead - i can't wait to share some of those images once they're ready - they show more personality than a romantic pose ever could!

A few to share here, I had a terrible time picking which ones to share first! I wish it didn't take weeks to get 450 pictures ready to show!

This is the week!

So it's finally here - the week of my first wedding shoot! I'm very excited and very nervous, and am trying to resist the urge to buy a whole bunch more stuff to make me feel more secure :) I did order some magnifier rings to get those close up shots of the wedding bands, and I am thinking I'm going to get another memory card, but I've told my husband not to let me buy ANY more! He obviously agreed :)

I just finished putting together a slideshow for the couple last night and they are just so adorable - I don't even know them that well and it made me tear up! I also designed a wedding program for them, so I'll be getting those printed and assembled this week.

I hope to get a few sneak preview shots up here by Sunday evening, but I don't want to make any promises. I'm very excited to do this wedding, but my bigger hope is to get referrals to do some family and children shoots - those are always so much fun!

Me?? A blogger?

So I've finally decided to start a blog - something I never thought I would do. I'm more of the "write it in a diary and lock it up" type - although I'm so private with anything written down I never actually write it down in the first place - too much risk, I suppose!

But, here I am, and very excited to do this. The process of learning to be a great (or even just decent!) photographer is a long and crazy road - one that seems to go in 1,000 directions at once. It's a misunderstood road - one that I didn't comprehend when the bug bit me.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I decided that it would be great to take a picture of her every day for her entire first year. My husband and I bought a decent point and shoot camera and off I went. Snapping, snapping, snapping, and only happy with about 1 out of every 20 shots, if that. I decided to try and learn more, and quickly got myself addicted.

Now...I've had my trusty Digital SLR for six months, I'm drooling over lenses faster than my wallet wants me to, and I'm shooting my first wedding in a week! A major woo-hoo and a oh-no at the same time :)

More to come...