Elizabeth and Greg are from New Jersey, and chose Santa Fe as a destination wedding site.  The intimate ceremony took place in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation courtyard with the reception inside.  The day was beautiful and the couple was great to work with.

I had a great portrait session with Madilyn recently.  She was a little shy at first, but we got beyond that and were having fun and getting great pictures in no time.  She really enjoyed the flower and Mom being silly behind me.

I believe that to really succeed in children’s portraiture you have to become a kid again.  Meeting them on their own level makes them forget about the camera.  When you stop to take time to listen to what they need (like a break) it helps to bring down any walls, and you’ll get more time and better expressions because the children are having fun.  And after all the pictures are about them, not me.

It seems lately that I’ve been shooting quite a few infant portraits.  These are of Aiden who is now almost three months old.  The image above and below this text were taken a month apart, and the development at this age is readily apparent in the images.  He is now very active and has many more facial expressions than he did before.  And that proves to be one of the challenges of infant portraiture, catching them when they are awake, in a good mood and at their best.  Those moments don’t always last too long so when you know you’ve got a keeper it’s extra special.

I met Brittany and Daniel through a mutual friend during the Perfect Wedding Guide’s Great Diamond Dash Bridal Show in February.  We waited for warmer weather and then met in Old Town Albuquerque for a beautiful portrait session.

Brittany and Daniel chose the location because it was the scene of their first date.  We started off in the gazebo in the old city square before moving to small courtyards nearby.  Our first surprise came when Daniel brought out his guitar.  We listened while he played and I photographed them enjoying being with each other.  We wandered around the side streets and back courtyards before retuning to the gazebo for the final surprise of the evening, a light sabre duel between Brittany and Daniel.

During the Tanoan Bridal Show last November, Rachael won a free engagement session.  After waiting for the weather to cooperate, Rachael, Stefan and I met at Supper Rock Park, in Albuquerque, for their portraits.

Rachael and Stefan were great to work with.  They laughed and teased each other throughout the shoot and were both great in front of the camera. In addition they chose a great location that means a lot to them.  Picking a location that is meaningful to the couple adds so much to the images, as you can tell from these pictures.

Besides working with the massive rock hill, arbor, and playground space we used the motorcycle Stefan brought as a backdrop for some really outstanding images.

These photographs, taken three days apart, show how dramatically the weather changed in Albuquerque.  From record lows in the negative single digits, to normal temperatures up into the thirties.

Dramatic shift indeed.

I was recently inspired to rework the look of the Kingsley Images website.  While it will look a bit different, the new design will improve functionality, while maintaining the simple feel and look current site.  The navigation will be similar, but we will offer more information on the subsequent pages (i.e. more detail on the plans and pricing)  This will make the site more useful and give you the information you need at your fingertips. The picture is a mock-up I’m working on for the direction I want the site to take.  It’s not finished yet, so if you’d like to pass along your thoughts on the concept feel free to let me know by commenting on the post.  Thanks!

It’s a little funny the things that we take for granted.  I’ve lived in Albuquerque now for a bit over three months and I’ve already started to ‘not see’ the mountain across the valley.  I noticed that this week as rain clouds obscured it’s top and it took on a different character.  It reminded me of the movie “Smoke” where Harvey Keitel takes a picture of the same corner outside his corner cigar shop every morning.  There’s a scene where he pages through a scrapbook of all the pictures from the past decades, and while day to day there aren’t any real changes, over time there’s a massive change.  It’s easy to overlook the little things in anticipation of the big stuff.  But if you look for the big stuff you’ll never find it.

So here’s another sunset photo of the mountain that I took the other evening.  It’s different from the last one, but it’s also the same.  It makes you wonder at some level, if I’m taking I’m taking a picture of my view, or the mountain is taking a picture of it’s view.  Perception of change is all dependent on the scale with which you’re measuring.

For ten or so years I had the often odd experience of being a part of much of what happened in Grand Island, and sometimes outside of it.  Aside from covering football games, school class assignments and the occassional spot news, one thing I covered often was the Harvest of Harmony parade through downtown.  I didn’t cover it every year, but took enough pictures of it to fill several edition of The Independent.  This year was different though.  Jess and I went back to see family and friends.  In addition I went to the HOH as a spectator for the first time.

I still had my camera to catch family pictures, but I couldn’t help feeling the need to wander around and take some pictures of the bands.  It was a different experience though because I could no longer wander through the crowds and walk along the parade route with abandon because I was a member of the press.  I was just another guy with a camera looking to take pictures of the bands.  No special access.  It was odd.  It’ll get easier as I go along, but it was the first time the I was really smacked in the face with the fact that I don’t work at a paper anymore.  I guess that part of me really is in the past now.  At least for now.  Who knows in the future.