This is a bit of a departure from what I normally post….not a portrait session (of people anyway), and much too long for a Wordless Wednesday post……but I really want to share these images with you because, quite simply:

Owls Are Cool.

Especially snowy owls. And especially since they’ve been hanging out with us here in Montana.

Snowy owls don’t usually spend all that much time in our area, so it’s pretty rare to see them. They’ll hop on down here every 5 or 6 years or so, and when they do…oh my gosh…go and see them!

Admittedly, I may be slightly biased because I kind of LOVE birds (ok, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY love birds), but these creatures are simply stunning. Their bright white feathers, their sleepy little yawning faces in the light of day, the slow turns of their heads, the way their feathers softly ruffle in the breeze, and their absolutely incredible beauty as they fly.

So, please. Indulge in these photos. And if you get a chance, go scouting for the snowy owls on your own – it’s so worth the time, and they won’t be sticking around Montana a whole lot longer. Also, bring a good pair of binoculars if you go. :)

On the docket: engagement sessions!

Cheers,

-Kristine

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I love my family dearly. Which is a huge understatement. They mean so much to me, especially since we are kind of scattered all across the U.S. So when I get to spend time with them, I adore it.

I drove to Spokane to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with my grandparents and uncle, and it was absolutely delightful. I spoiled them with pumpkin pies I made, received wonderful warm hugs and got to cook with grandma (which involved a hilarious turn at trying to figure out how to flatten a duck – long story – it involved a couple YouTube videos and resulted in one funny-looking duck!). Cooking with Grandma is especially dear to me since the last time I’ve really cooked with her must have been when I was eight or nine. And of course, sitting around the table, we got to regale one another with some pretty amusing stories.

These are just a few portraits from my visit – they mean so much to me…and I really didn’t take nearly as many photos as I should have. Quite honestly, I don’t take nearly as many personal photos as I should and that’s something I’d like to fix in 2012. I hope you do too.    (P.S. My apologies for the less-than-flattering self portrait. My arms are only so long.) ;)

On the docket: engagement sessions! Let’s hope snow comes our way soon!

Cheers,

-Kristine

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This past spring I had the wonderful opportunity to help produce a documentary about the Paxson Art Project taking place in Paxson Elementary School in Missoula, a program that was developed by the Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC). Visiting artists came into the school and taught kids from kindergarten through fifth grade new art concepts. Currently these kids only receive 6 hours of art per year. Yes, you heard that right – per YEAR.

I stopped by these visiting artists’ classes and put together an informative video about the project which will be shown to folks around the area to hopefully help educate them about the need for art for kids.

Please take a moment to view this video, and if you find this as important as I do, please feel free to share with others. Thank you!

The video is about 10 minutes long (but so worth the watch), so you may want to get the video started by pressing the play button. Once it begins loading, I’d suggest pressing pause until the video is fully loaded, then begin watching. Don’t forget to have your volume turned on! Also, if you’d like to watch the video in HD (high definition, please click the link below the video to be taken to the Vimeo site to watch in HD.)

On the docket: portraits and weddings!

Cheers!

-Kristine

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Getting back to my photojournalism roots a bit, last week I was hired by Cork Tree Creative to photograph a press conference with Governor Brian Schweitzer and Ray Stillwell at the old Smurfit-Stone mill site to announce Green Investment Group, Inc.’s (GIGI) acquisition of the site. This is the seventh Smurfit-Stone paper mill acquired since 2006 by GIGI, an Alton, Illinois-based company that acquires and redevelops Brownfield sites throughout North America. (A Brownfield site is an abandoned or underutilized industrial or commercial site that is well-positioned for redevelopment.)

Plans for the future use of the Missoula site are currently being formulated and will continue during the course of the coming months.  As plans are finalized, work will focus on clean-up and reconfiguration of the site to analyze the potential use of the existing facilities and land.

Ray Stillwell, principal of Green Investment Group, Inc., stated, “The Missoula property offers many opportunities for continued progress in the region. As with all of our projects, our main goal is to work with the community and local officials to develop a site that complements the other industries in the area and meets the economic needs and interests of its people by creating jobs in sustainable growth industries.”

Gov. Brian Schweitzer commented, “Green Investment Group has a proven track record of investing the necessary funds to save the industrial infrastructure and create good-paying jobs.  We welcome them to Montana.”

Thanks again to Cork Tree Creative and Ray Stillwell for contracting me for the shoot. It was nice to hang with the press folks again and make some images for you of this event. I look forward to working with you again in the future!

On the docket: engagement and portrait sessions!

Cheers,

-Kristine

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As some of you know, I zipped across the country for a few days to my parents’ home for Christmas. We were lucky enough to all be together again for the holiday and had ourselves a lovely Christmas together.

My brother and I stayed up late Christmas day, talking about anything and everything into the wee hours, munching on cookies in my parents’ kitchen. We were startled when we heard pounding on our front door. Who could that be at midnight on Christmas Day? So odd… my brother answered and it was a policeman come to tell us that our neighbor’s house was on fire.

My brother and I asked the police man if everyone was ok, if they’d gotten out safely, and ran outside to see the house engulfed in unbelievably tall flames. My brother ran inside to wake my parents, and we ran outside again to stare disbelieving as the house smoked, windows shattered and as the roof spewed flames while firefighters worked tirelessly to put out the blaze.

Luckily, as I mentioned, everyone in the house escaped safely, except for their little puppy who perished in the fire.

The thing that rocked all of us was that this fire, this ruthless, oxygen-hungry, sky-scraping fire, could have happened to anybody. And does. Frequently. I’m not sure if the fire chief has determined the cause of the fire. I’ve heard everything from it being labeled as a chimney fire, to a Christmas tree fire (of the plastic sort) to faulty electrical wiring.

I’m sharing these photos today because it’s the one month anniversary of this night. The house has since been torn down. The family is doing ok…it’s incredibly tough on them of course, but they plan to rebuild on the old foundation. I didn’t want to post these photos immediately, because I wanted to give the family some privacy in the face of their tragedy. Their town is a small one, and word (and photos) travel quickly.

I’m also sharing these photos because seeing something like this…and feeling the fear that our own house would catch fire….really makes a person reevaluate what’s important in their lives. I’m so grateful to have family and friends who love me, a roof over my head, and food in my belly. Please, if these photos move you, tell your loved ones that you LOVE them. Today. Do it right now. And also please do you and your family a favor and check to make sure your smoke detector batteries are fresh and functioning.

Life is fragile. Don’t forget to soak it in and appreciate every day you’ve got.

-Kristine

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To reminisce a bit, one of my favorite photo assignments has to be the one where I was asked to photograph Vester Marshall for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (before its extremely unfortunate demise).  This was a fairly routine assignment for a routine feature (photograph a Seattle person once involved in sports, a feature the P-I called “Where Are They now?”). Here’s the photo – read on for the “behind the scenes” story:

So, I was sent out to Belltown (a section of downtown Seattle known for its artsy ways) to photograph Mr. Marshall.  Here’s an excerpt about my experience from a blog I kept while I was at the P-I:

“Turns out, Vester was a former Sonics player in ’74 and is now an ordained priest, yoga instructor, artist and herbalist…

And he’s AWESOME! He takes me up to his little L-shaped studio in Belltown and it’s amazing. I walk into a cloud of incense smoke and find the place totally packed to the gills with weird stuff on the walls…like saxophones for instance. His counters are jewelry display cases, though he displays a multitude of other things besides jewelry in them.  His bed is covered in a rich red comforter, and he’s got tasseled pillows all over it.  He’s such a chill dude and very happy to be photographed. So I’m immediately at ease, as is he.

I take some shots in his place, and then he asks if we can get a shot of him with the space needle in the background. Ohhh, sure, why not. I’ve got time – this is my last assignment and it’s only 1:30.

So we walk around Belltown looking for a good vantage point. On the way, we’re walking and talking (and people are staring…this guy is TALL – he must be close to 7 feet tall!…plus, he’s eccentric…wears a long velvet coat with shiny buttons, a 4-string pearl choker, a wide brimmed black hat, dark sunglasses and has a carved cane…yeah. It also helped that I was walking around with 2 huge cameras. We didn’t draw any attention or anything…nahhh..)

Anyway. So, we’re walking and talking when I see a bright yellow wall. Bing!!!! Yellow wall! He’s wearing all black! There’s a cool window thing! What great contrast!

So I have him stop and chill in front of the wall while I stand in the middle of the street to get the shot. (I ask him to kindly let me know if I’m going to be hit by a car.)

And it’s great! I LOVE IT!

We do the space needle shot, but it’s not nearly as interesting.

We head back to his place where I grab my bag and thank him for being such a great subject. He’s thrilled and asks for a hug, so he gives me a big hug and kisses me on the top of my head (because he’s so TALL) and says, “Ok, sweetie! Thank you so much! You’re a fantastic photographer! It was wonderful to meet you! Good luck!”

That was SUCH a great day.  He was so sweet and my editors at the P-I went crazy over my photos.  Turns out, they love yellow walls, too.  :)  Anyway, it’s fun to share the stories behind my favorite photos.  Be on the lookout for more to come!  Or, let me know if you’ve got a favorite photo and want to hear the story behind it.  Trust me – there always is one!

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to my portrait session with Valerie in a few weeks – should be great!

Cheers,

-Kristine

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of receiving notice that my photography work has been featured on All The Photographers blog. Very cool! They wanted to specifically feature my photojournalism. Here’s what they wrote about my work:

“I’ve particularly enjoyed looking through Kristine’s work. She’s a wonderful photographer and has a large portfolio with some unique work. I’ve chosen to highlight her Photojournalism work to mix things up here on the blog, but she does wedding work as well. Enjoy!”

I encourage you to click this link and check it out. There are also many additional blog postings that have featured a great variety of other talented photographers. It’s definitely a cool site.

And, here’s a little screenshot to tantalize….

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One of my former colleagues from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently posted a link to an article (also written by a former Seattle PI-er, Andrea James), and I thought I’d include it in my blog as well, since, hey – I’m a photojournalist!  And I’ve gotta say, I think Andrea’s right on!

Also, before I get to that, I just wanted to write about my fun engagement session with Emilee and Ryan last weekend.  They were such great sports (it was freeeeezing outside – maybe 25 degrees?!) and always kept smiles on their faces.  Their photos are looking absolutely beautiful (you’d never know their teeth were chattering), and I can’t wait to post a few soon.

Ok – here’s the text from the blog post as well as the link to the original site.  Enjoy!

-Kristine

Five reasons you should hire a photojournalist

The original post can be found at:  http://andreajames.net/five-reasons-you-should-hire-a-photo-journalist/

You are:  In charge of marketing for a corporation. Organizing an event. Planning a wedding. Starting a blog.
You want: Beautiful, memorable photos.  Images that will grab the viewer’s attention, and hold it. A new head shot. A creative Christmas card.
You need: A photojournalist with daily newspaper experience.

Here’s why:

1. Photojournalists don’t make excuses — Things do go wrong, but a photojournalist who has worked for a daily newspaper is trained to do superior work, and quickly. She cannot come back to the office with no photo. The paper is coming out tomorrow, a photo is needed. She is used to operating under pressure.
2. Versatility — What I love about newspaper photographers is that they can do anything. My P-I colleagues often found themselves shooting a natural disaster one day (they all own rubber boots), a concert for the arts section the next day, and then a cake  for the food section the next.
3. Consider your moment captured — How much would you pay to make sure that THE moment of your event is captured forever? This is what photojournalists are trained to do every day. At my own wedding, I knew that I didn’t have to worry about making sure our photographer (and friend) was capturing crucial moments. He was everywhere. When I saw the photos, I was delighted and saw new aspects of my own wedding that I had missed.
4. Photo journalists are problem solvers – Tell me, how do you make a photo of a technology company interesting? As a business reporter for nearly five years, I got to profile some really cool companies — but a lot of times, these companies performed a service that just wasn’t visually interesting. But I rarely worried about this — I knew we’d have a publishable photo for the newspaper because the photographer would think of something I never could have.
5. They’re the best of the best — Newspaper journalism is cutthroat. Thousands of people want to shoot photos for newspapers, particularly in a big city like Seattle. However, just a dozen actually get to do it.  In short, they’ve been vetted.

Following are links to three Seattle-based photojournalists and companies whose work I can vouch for, and that I respect:

1. Stuart Isett — New York Times photographer, freelancer. He also shot my wedding. (Link to his Web page.)
2. Red Box Pictures — Seattle photography studio business started by former Seattle P-I photographers. (Link to company Web page.)  [Kristine's comment: these guys are GREAT people and GREAT shooters!]
3. Marcus Donner — Newspaper photographer formerly with the King County Journal. He also teaches an excellent class for amateurs — to really help you get the most out of your point-and-shoot, or higher end camera. (Link to his Web site.)

Why did I write this post?
Newspaper photojournalists are best-kept secrets in terms of professionals-for-hire. They often let their photos speak for themselves, but I wanted to give some other concrete reasons beyond pointing out that they take good photos.
I did not get any money or anything from listing the above photographers. Stuart shot my wedding in 2008 and we paid full price, as any professional deserves.
Also, I’d recently read this story about a U.K. couple whose wedding photos were abysmal, and they sued the photographer. It occurred to me while reading it that I never had any such worries. Because I hired a photojournalist.
And finally, all three photos at the top of my home page index were shot by photojournalists. Their names are at the bottom of the page.

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