{Ingrid B. Design's Spring 2012 Clothing Line}

It's SPRING!  And pretty  much summer her in AZ.  And for Spring & Summer Ingrid B. Design's has made some very fun, color outfits for girls...she never disappoints!   Everytime I see something new of hers I'm amazed at her eye and her sense of detail.  She has a very creative and beautiful eye for fun coordinates for every season.  I love love love the yellow top with the black lace, and the stripped dress (the fabric is so soft}, and the ruffling on her floral skirt...um, perfect!!!  I was lucky to have these beautiful friends of ours help model.  Brielle has a hard time being serious around friends (as you can see in the image above) - most of the time it's faces that I can't post here lol.  She's just a goof which makes it a challenge sometimes lol.  But these three girls work so well together.  Aren't they adorable?!  I love their different looks.  The girls were so eager to searching for ladybugs so I ended the session early so they could be 'kids' and find ladybugs.  Brielle modeled the outfits again the next day so we could get more shots and she fell in love with the flowers that I had set up.  Again, she wanted to find ladybugs so she could put them on the flowers.  Here's a peek at Ingrid B. Design's Spring 2012 Collection.  :)

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{SOLD OUT!}

Just wanted to follow-up on yesterday's status about my Critique Class. It  'SOLD OUT' in less than 24 hours - yay!  There may still be some 'silent seats' available.  Let me know if you're interested or if you have any questions.  For those of you who signed up - I'm so excited to work with you.  I would love to be in touch with you prior to the class starting.  You can bounce things off me and ask any questions about the critiquing process  (although I know Kelli will be in touch with you prior to the class's official kick-off).  E-mail me at kara@karamayphotography.com and let me know if you have an active seat or a silent seat and we can do a little corresponding and maybe you can tell me what you're unsatisfied with in your current photos if there's something particular you're concerned about.  I'm looking forward to our class.  Thank you so much for signing up.

{Registration is OPEN in just under 2 hours!}

Can your images be better, but you're not sure how?  Getting honest, constructive feedback with a video showing you how to modify your image may be one of the most valuable next steps for you and your business.  My Chic Critique class registration is open in less than 2 hours!   And I'm looking forward to working with excited photographers that want to take their work to the next level.  The 4 week critique is $69 and if you want to just watch and not have your photo critiqued it's ONLY $34.   Check out the link to sign up and for more information.  I'm so excited to work with those who sign up!  :)

UPDATE:  After registration being open for only a few hours - there are ONLY 2 spots left!  Seats are going fast!  I can't wait to work with those of you who've signed up.  Thank you!!

{Rocker Baby Nation: The Raven Collection}

Matilda and I have been working hard on preparing for the debut of her latest baby - the stunning 'Raven Collection'.  This new collection  is so well designed.  Not a single detail was left out in her creation - she truly is an amazingly talented woman!  I was in awe over the design, every detail, the black & white combination (it's still so girly), and the amazing construction.   I'm honestly speechless.  Matilda - YOU ARE AMAZING!  Thanks for trusting me to follow your vision.

Click here to go to her site.

{Project 26 - 'Bus Stop'}

It's that time again.  It's Friday's Project 26!    This weeks theme is 'Bus Stop'.  I wasn't feeling it for 'bus stop' so I took a few steps outside of the box and used a 'stopped bus' as the inspiration for this weeks theme.  My kids don't take the bus to school (I like to drive them) so they aren't on buses regularly.  I didn't know how I was going to find a bus, let alone one I could go into.  Then I thought.  I searched.  And I found.  I can't reveal too much more than that since I didn't exactly have explicit permission.  All I can say is - I did it!  Yay.  Here's a little peak into my 'bus' theme for this weeks photo. {and yes, I can't seem to ever just post one picture, I have to have a few.}

 Check out  Valeria Zaiat |The Red Balloon Photography  Our group has been busy with work and other life happenings so participants are posting when they can. So this week has a teeny-tiny number of participants.

{Blanket Fun! - Mesa, Arizona Family Photographer}

I wanted to share this session I did over the Fall.  I know, over the Fall?  What's that all about?  Well I haven't blogged most of my fall sessions.  Things get so busy and I'm on such a time crunch to get galleries up and orders delivered, so blogging the session images gets pushed aside, BAD I know.  But I really wanted to post this session - it's with one of my favorite and most dear friends and her family.  My friend Haleigh is also a talent photographer in my area!  She and her husband are also the owners of 'Fanciful Frames'.  Have you heard of them?  If not, you've got to!  And a little secret:  if you're a fan of Fanciful frames on Facebook, she often posts super discounted prices on their frames.  I just bought an 11x14 frame, 'tart' shaped in the fanicful color since she was doing a 48 hour sale only on Facebook on that color and several others so I snagged it just before the sale ended!  Yay!  I can't wait to get it.  I have 2 other frames of hers a 20x30 huge beautiful black frame and an 8x10 'Apple Tart' colored frame.  Super cute!  Anyway, I could go on but I'll stop  ;-)  Check her page out!

This fall I was lucky to photograph her beautiful family!  Aren't they beautiful.  Kinda unfair hu?  Yeah, that's what I was thinking.  They were so wonderful and easy to work with, not surprising since their momma is a photographer.  Here's a peek at our session.

{Project Twenty Six on Fridays - 'the people who keep me sane'}

What an insane week.  Fitting for this week's topic.  So busy, a little sick around here, and feeling so behind.  But I'm excited about this weeks Project 26!  Who keeps me sane?  Those that also make me insane :)  Honestly, I think my kids and my husband keep my sanity in check.  My kids remind me that I need to slow down and enjoy every moment I can with them since it'll be gone if I don't.  They make me laugh, make me cringe, make me think of them before I think of myself (a good thing), and they make me realize that life needs to be more simple sometimes, that I need to think like a 6 and 9 year old  for me to delve into their world.  And I love it.  Sometimes they'll say to me, 'put your iPhone away and just enjoy.' And they are so right.  So I've been trying to be more 'in the moment' with them. For them as well as for my sanity, happiness and the memories that I'm making with them all the time.  And my husband.....he's the calm one.  He's the one who is calm in the mist of a storm while I'm the one who's freaking out.  He's centered and centers me when I'm not so centered.  I like to think we balance each other.  These are the people who keep me sane.

So this week's challenge was coupled with something completely new to me so please don't judge.  This weeks challenge combines the theme of 'those who keep me sane' and the use of either a cinemagraph {a what?} or video.  So what's a cinemagraph?  I had no idea what it was when I heard it was part of our challenge.  A cinemagraph has elements of a still photo but with moving parts.  {note: the first image at the top is not a cinemagraph as you can see, but the ones below are}.  Sounds easy, sounds simple, right?  Then why are the pictures so grainy, and why do they look so blah?  Basically to do a cinemagraph you have to video your subject and use that as your base for the image.  And when you've compressed a video into an image and want to place it on the web, it's going to have some grain as you can see from the images below.  But I used about 74 frames in my image so they are very grainy and blah.  Next time I'm going to try to cut it down to about 7 frames if I can so it will be less pixelated and blah.   But it was fun to try something new and see if I could make it work.

Below, was my first attempt at a cinemagraph.  I didn't use a tripod so you can see that it's shaky - but I had to add is since my son was such a good sport and thought this end result was pretty funny.  :)

And lastly I decided to make a little video of the people in my life who keep me sane.  All the video was taken from my iPhone which was fun and easy.  Sometimes I love the ease of technology :)

Check out Kara Jo’s  project 26 ‘the people who keep me sane’ post – Kara Jo Memphis Newborn and Child Photographer and continue to click through the  links to see the whole circle.

NOTE:  when viewing the video, scroll to the bottom of the blog and turn off the blog's music since there's some silly music on the video. :)  Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yHU75DGYfM&feature=context&context=C3002b83ADOEgsToPDskJZ9XfBI5_0aheO8CCZMWqs

{rocky riverbed & autumn colors}

I love this family.  I've known them for almost 3 years now and it was fun to have them in front of my camera!  We shot these on pretty winter day - not too cold and not too warm.  This rocky shore with pretty changing leaves on the trees in the background was a beautiful setting.  It's one of the rare times we 'see Autumn' here in the Arizona valley.  Here's a peek at our session :)

{Winter Session!}

So this is winter in Arizona .... sunny and in the high 60's to low 70's.  Crazy hu?  Okay some days are much colder than that and some days (like today) are much warmer 80 degrees.  I'm still wearing my boots and plan to until late February (fingers crossed) :)

I was lucky enough to photograph this beautiful family just days before moving to the Mid-West.  They're moving truck was packing up as I delivered the pictures!   Here's a little look into my session with this family.

{brunette beauties}

Brunette's!   Gorgeous brunette's!    Isn't this family beautiful?  This session was taken when it was still warm so it was perfect for our session.   Things have changed and it's now suddenly REALLY cold!  Eeps!  And I'm still doing sessions - 3 more this year and then I'm done for 2011!  Here's a peek at our session.