Arizona | Desert Photography & Recharging My Soul

May 13, 2018 By // by kate

Arizona | Desert Photography | Recharging My Soul

When I was a couple years into university, I knew I needed a big change, and as such, opted to move to Northern Utah. Yup. You read that right. I moved to Northern Utah. Everyone I know thought that I had 100% lost my mind me, living in Utah. I knew though, that that was where I was supposed to be at the time, and I am hugely glad that I listened to myself, packed it all up, and moved from Oregon to the high desert of Northern Utah, not knowing a soul.

It was the best decision I could have ever made for myself.

The high desert, the air, the light, the way it smells, it recharges my soul in the best ways. Now that we’re living in Ohio, I make it a point to head Southwest at least once a year to recharge my batteries, clear my mind, and soak in as much desert as I can. This year, the week following WPPI, I headed to Phoenix to stay with friends, and that extra week in the desert, it was exactly what I needed. We hiked. We drove out and spent a couple nights at Apache Lake Resort and Marina, we stayed up late sitting around the fire, drinking and catching up, cooking together and generally recharging our batteries.

Hiking in the desert is it’s own special thing, unlike hiking any where else.

Sunset Hiking | Piestewa Peak

One of the last evenings before it was time for me to heads back to Ohio again, we went hiking for the sunset at Piestewa Peak. Getting out into the mountains and hiking was exactly what I needed. We settled in at the top of a wash (which also turned out to be right at the bottom of a mountain bike jump, watching the bikers jump, whoa.) and settled in to watch the sun drop below the horizon. I got to play with the light, we all recharged our batteries, and slept like rocks when we got home that night.

Sunset Hiking | Piestewa Peak

Want to work with me? Email me. hello@khalifestylephotography.com

Top 100 In The World | Shoot & Share 2018

May 6, 2018 By // by kate

Shoot & Share 2018 | Contest Results

Ya’ll remember last year’s Shoot & Share contest, the one that I entered at the 11th hour, and did so with a wing and prayer, and, how stoked I was for this year’s contest. Like last year, once voting opened, it becomes almost all consuming. And in the best way possible. Friends vote, husbands vote, wives vote, family votes, and you’d better believe that screenshots are sent back and forth when we recognize our friends work.

As we’re all voting, and working, and running errands, and meeting with clients, and cooking, we’re also watching our heart counts rise. Keep in mind that heart counts do not equate to votes, not by a long shot, but they do let you know that you’re still in the running. Which, right around when the round advances is something that is watched like a hawk.

This year, as the rounds rolled one into the next, my heart count kept going up. And I kept getting screen shots from friends, letting me know what they’d seen while voting. And then it kept going.

While absolutely a large focus of our professional lives (ahem. let’s be real here for a second, it becomes a big presence in all parts of our lives) we do also have other things that occupy significant space on the professional lists of things we all have going while the contest itself is running, and as such, the fact that I still had photos in the running into the best of the best round.

Holy. F*ck.

Having photos in the Best of the Best round, that means that I had photos that were finalists. And thanks to the fantastic friends that send me screen shots of what they’d seen while voting, I had more than one that made it. I had three.

THREE.

Three of the 50 photos that I entered into the Shoot and Share contest this year, made it to the top 100 of their category. This year, 11,351 photographers entered 413,065 photos, from across the world. That’s almost a half of a million photos, and I had three place as finalists.

It’s taken me a while to process that fact, to really get it, and it didn’t fully sink in until recently when I was asked in a soundly snarky tone, “Well, top 100 by who’s count?”. The world, dude. The world. And generally, photographers across the world. To say that I’m proud, that barely begins to touch it.

I can’t wait to see what next February brings.

Want to work with me? Send me an email! hello@khalifestylephotography.com

Cook.Eat.Explore :: Food, Love, Laughter, & Photography

March 9, 2018 By // by kate

Cook.Eat.Explore :: Food, Love, Laughter, Photography, & Wine.

My love of food and travel (and photography and wine) is well known amongst friends, and as of November 2016, I took a massive leap and started Cook.Eat.Explore. k.H.a. had been up and running for a bit by then, and we’d gotten almost everything unpacked into our house in Ohio and Jeff looked at me and asked something along the lines of “what the hell are you waiting for, you’ve been talking about starting a food blog since before we met. Just do it.”

So I did.

I knew what I wanted to write about, but actually narrowing that in and being able to name it, that was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be. With the help of friends, *cough-crowdsourcing-cough* Cook.Eat.Explore was named and born.

So what is it, what does that mean to all y’all, right?

The short answer? (ha) 30 plus years of travel, using WHATEVER is handy to take a snapshot or photograph (be forewarned, if we’re out together, your phones camera will be considered fair game when mine’s battery dies), growing up cooking, learning from family, friends, and anyone else willing to answer my thousands of questions, with a couple of absolutely epic, now and forever a part of family lore failures along the way… (ask me sometime about the five alarm chili, or the very first time I decided I could bake without a recipe…it was bad. Quinten Tarantino bloodshed bad)

I’ve long talked friends into throwing lavish dinner parties with me for our parents and friends, drafting them as my sous chef’s, starting when I was in high school, feeding friends and throwing together big pasta dinners with a more the merrier approach to life.

One of my earliest memories is a friend of my Dad’s telling him that when I grew up, if we were throwing a dinner party and someone asked to bring a last minute guest, my response would almost certainly be “Who the hell are they? F&*% it, it doesn’t matter, of course they can come!” Remarkably accurate prediction of the future. Also quite possibly where my love of profane words started.

Fast forward into college, I spent a lot of years working in hospitality in one form or another, I’ve bartended, waited tables, been a hostess, had a brief stint as a cocktail waitress in a rather seedy establishment that shall forever remain nameless, ran the kitchen of a wine bar & bistro, worked the line in a now defunct small Italian restaurant (in which I also bartended), worked the line in another rather famous Portland restaurant who had the bad habit of bouncing paychecks, created the menu for, and did all the legwork for weekend breakfasts, at a (again) now defunct, tiny bistro in a tony Portland suburb.

Throughout all of this I’ve collected cookbooks, and have spent COUNTLESS hours pouring over them, trying to learn everything I can about why they’re laid out they way they are, which recipes are easy to read and follow, which have appealing photography (again, and the why behind it), and cultivated an innate love of entertaining (thanks Mom & Dad).

Growing up, my Mom made certain that we traveled extensively as a family, and as such, my brother and I were very blessed to have passports full of stamps from a very young age, and have had many an adventure exploring. While last in Germany we ended up raising a glass (or four) at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, the night that Mexico played (and beat) Germany, in Germany. Both my mom and I speak Spanish, and ended up celebrating with the Mexico fans, singing Celito Lindo at the top of our lungs, quite possibly also from the top of the table, though that part is hazy…

Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport” -unknown

I’ve had a wide and varied career path that has brought me to this point, toss in a few more years of professional sales (fashion retail, then diamonds & banking, respectively) and a really great track record of making mistakes, some far more entertaining than others, and here we are.

Throughout it all, a small handful of things have remained constant. My love(s) of cooking, entertaining, traveling, and photography.

Which brings us back to now. I’ve rolled them all up into one, and jumped.

I’ll learn to fly on the way down.

My husband, God love him, asks me often if there are any strangers to me, and the answer is invariably “nope”. Aside from being my partner in life, he’s decided to join me on this foodie journey, and while he’s not planning on being a super active or vocal participant in Cook.Eat.Explore, you can definitely expect to see his contributions on our blog from time to time.

Join us, on this crazy wonderful journey through new cities, small towns, big name cookbooks, tiny hole in the wall restaurants, with a big handful of my own recipes tossed into the mix as well, after all, the happiest I am is surrounded by friends in my kitchen, cooking, laughing, and sharing a bottle (or twelve) of wine. Wear cozy clothes, and be prepared to crash in one our guest rooms.

After all, our home is made for hosting.

Want to learn more? Click me to Check out Cook.Eat.Explore

Slow Food Columbus’ Annual Shake the Hand that Feeds You Dinner

October 12, 2017 By // by kate

The Slow Food movement, started by Carlo Petrini, is an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. The way that I was introduced to Slow Food is that it encompasses something far more encompassing than that. It’s about taking the time to slow down and enjoy a meal with friends, away from the busy and hectic of our daily lives.

Tuesday I sat down with two friends at a place I’d not been to yet, (make sure to follow along with the food side of my life over at Cook.Eat.Explore) to hear more about all that, but the point was made, by Chef Thom Stevenson, that it’s not possible to sit down and share a meal, with someone you don’t respect and like. Sure, you can sit down and shovel something that resembles food in your face, but that’s not slow food.

Slow food is sitting down and connecting with people you enjoy while sharing a meal. It’s about connecting with each other. At least that’s how we were raised with it.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it ::

Slow Food began in Italy with the founding of its forerunner organisation, Arcigola, in 1986 to resist the opening of a McDonald’s near the Spanish Steps in Rome.^[3] In 1989, the founding manifesto of the international Slow Food movement was signed in Paris, France by delegates from 15 countries.^[4]

At its heart is the aim to promote local foods and traditional gastronomy and food production. Conversely this means an opposition to fast food, industrial food production and globalisation.^[5]

The Slow Food organisation has expanded to include over 100,000 members with branches in over 150 countries.^[6] Over 1,300 local convivia chapters exist. 360 convivia in Italy—to which the name condotta (singular) / condotte (plural) applies—are composed of 35,000 members, along with 450 other regional chapters around the world. The organisational structure is decentralised: each convivium has a leader who is responsible for promoting local artisans, local farmers, and local flavors through regional events such as Taste Workshops, wine tastings, and farmers’ markets.

Offices have been opened in Switzerland (1995), Germany (1998), New York City (2000), France (2003), Japan (2005), the United Kingdom, and Chile. Global headquarters are located in Bra, near Turin, Italy. Numerous publications are put out by the organisation, in several languages around the world. Recent efforts at publicity include the world’s largest food and wine fair, the Salone del Gusto in Turin, a biennial cheese fair in Bra called Cheese, the Genoan fish festival called SlowFish, and Turin‘s Terra Madre (“Mother Earth”) world meeting of food communities.

This is how we grew up, this is what was instilled in us (thanks Mom) from forever, so when I found out that Slow Food Columbus wanted me to photograph the 10th annual Shake the Hand That Feeds You Dinner, I was THROUGH THE ROOF. Hell yes. I was so in.

Being at that dinner, and around all amazing and inspiring chefs that were there to combine thier talents to feed everyone, the farmers whose farms produced what those chefs were using, and a great group of people who were there because this is what they support… phenomenal. Not only did I get to be there, I got to photograph it. I got to check something off of my photography bucket list.

Food Photography from the Mind of a Chef

We should be dealing in culinary orgasms.

– Bradley Cooper as Adam Jones

Cook.Eat.Explore

I’m a trained Chef and Professional Photographer, or according to LinkedIn, A Content Creator Drawing on Years of Photography, Corporate Sales, and Throwing of Dinner Parties.

November 2016 saw the collision of my two professional worlds, I took a massive leap and started Cook.Eat.Explore, which is the food and travel side of my photographic life.

What this means to you, is this: my wide and varied career path that has brought me to this point, corporate sales (fashion retail, then diamonds & banking, respectively), a really great track record of making mistakes, some far more entertaining than others, and here we are.

Drawing from 30 plus years of travel, professional kitchens, and lavish dinner parties, using WHATEVER is handy to take a snapshot or photograph (be forewarned, if we’re out together, your phone’s camera will be considered fair game when mine’s battery dies), growing up cooking, learning from family, friends, and anyone else willing to answer my thousands of questions, with a couple of absolutely epic, now and forever a part of family lore failures along the way… (ask me sometime about the five-alarm chili, or the very first time I decided I could bake without a recipe…it was bad. Quinten Tarantino bloodshed bad)

I’ve long talked friends into throwing lavish dinner parties with me for our parents and friends, drafting them as my sous chef’s, starting when I was in high school, feeding friends and throwing together big pasta dinners with a more the merrier approach to life.

One of my earliest memories is a friend of my Dad’s telling him that when I grew up if we were throwing a dinner party and someone asked to bring a last minute guest, my response would almost certainly be “Who the hell are they? F&*% it, it doesn’t matter, of course, they can come!”

Remarkably accurate prediction of the future and perhaps where my love of profane words started.

Fast forward into college, I spent a lot of years working in hospitality in one form or another, I’ve bartended, waited tables, been a hostess, had a brief stint as a cocktail waitress in a rather seedy establishment that shall forever remain nameless, ran the kitchen of a wine bar & bistro, worked the line in a now-defunct small Italian restaurant (in which I also bartended), worked the line in another rather famous Portland restaurant who had the bad habit of bouncing paychecks, created the menu for, and did all the legwork for weekend breakfasts, at a (again) now defunct, tiny bistro in a tony Portland suburb.

Throughout all of this I’ve collected cookbooks, and have spent COUNTLESS hours pouring over them, trying to learn everything I can about why they’re laid out the way they are, which recipes are easy to read and follow, which have appealing photography (again, and the why behind it), and cultivated an innate love of entertaining (thanks Mom & Dad).

Growing up, my Mom made certain that we traveled extensively as a family, and as such, my brother and I were very blessed to have passports full of stamps from a very young age, and have had many an adventure exploring. While last in Germany we ended up raising a glass (or four) at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, the night that Mexico played (and beat) Germany, in Germany. Both my mom and I speak Spanish, and ended up celebrating with the Mexico fans, singing Cielito Lindo at the top of our lungs, quite possibly also from the top of the table, though that part is hazy…

Throughout it all, a small handful of things have remained constant. My love(s) of cooking, people, traveling, and photography.

Which brings us back to now. I’ve rolled them all up into one and jumped.

I’ll learn to fly on the way down.

My husband, God love him, asks me often if there are any strangers to me, and the answer is the invariable “nope, just friend’s I haven’t met yet”. Aside from being my partner in life, he’s decided to join me on this foodie journey, and while he’s not planning on being a super active or vocal participant in Cook.Eat.Explore, you can definitely expect to see his contributions on our blog from time to time.

Want to learn more about Cook.Eat.Explore?

#khalifestylephotography #cookeatexplore #theladyh

Hoyo’s Kitchen + Eater.com // k.H.a. lifestyle photography

October 11, 2017 By // by kate

It’s been a crazy whirlwind of a couple of weeks for my studio, and part of that was Eater.com hiring k.H.a. lifestyle photography to photograph Hoyo’s Kitchen, a restaurant here in Columbus, for Bill Addison’s feature article on the Midwest’s 38 Essential Restaurants. I was through the roof excited.

Hoyo’s Kitchen | Fast Casual Somali

Not only did I get to go try a new restaurant that I’d had on my list of places to check out, my work has now been featured on Eater.com. (Insert happy dance here, and to make sure that we’re on the same page, it’s happy dance Meredith Grey & Christina Yang style)

Being published on Eater.com? HUUUUUUUGE deal. HUGE.

Make sure that you check out the article, and scroll down to the Hoyo’s Kitchen feature. Please note that you will not see the featured photograph in the gallery below, as that is a part of the deal. I won’t be sharing said photo, as they have exclusive rights to it for the next few months.

Eater.com’s Travel Home Page

It’s been a big week when it comes to having my work published, so stay tuned to find out what other big news we here at k.H.a. have.

Hoyo’s Kitchen | Fast casual Somali

Dinner Combinations Hoyo’s Kitchen | Fast casual Somali

Hoyo’s Kitchen | Fast casual Somali

Somali Chai. MIND BLOWING. Hoyo’s Kitchen | Fast casual Somali

Some of Ohio’s best food is tucked into strip malls throughout the city. Hoyo’s Kitchen | Fast casual Somali

Tres Leches Cake Hoyo’s Kitchen | Fast casual Somali

Road Trip Photography | k.H.a. lifestyle photography | Columbus Lifestyle Photography

September 5, 2017 By // by kate

This summer has been a crazy whirlwind of amazing travel, meeting all kinds of new people, and exploring AMMMMMAZING cities. I’m in the process of working on a combination coffee table book, cookbook, and road trip guide book that outlines the trip that I did this summer, starting here in Columbus heading south to Asheville, out to the South Carolina Coast, southwest to Florida, onto New Orleans, then back up through the Mississippi Delta to Memphis, through Louisville, then home again.

In 13 days.

Because I’m apparently crazy like that.

It was amazing.

My friend Alicia flew out from Oregon and went with me, and we absolutely had a ball. The only night of the trip that we had existing accommodation reservations for was the first night, in Asheville NC. Other than that, I was relying on hotels.com to get us through, using my phone to find us a room in whichever city we were staying in that night.

[Pro tip:: if you wait until after 3 pm to book your room, you’ll save yourself some money.]

The whole story of that trip will be up on Cook.Eat.Explore, so make sure to follow along over there too, as this side is going to be largely just the photos.

With that being said, here’s a sneak peek of the photography from the road trip.

Asheville North Carolina

Zia Taqueria, Asheville North Carolina

Rt. 61, Oak Alley Plantation.

Asheville North Carolina

5Church, Charleston South Carolina

Asheville North Carolina

Outside of Travellers Rest South Carolina

Travelers Rest, South Carolina

5Church, Charleston South Carolina

Asheville North Carolina

Grey Eagle Music Hall, Asheville North Carolina

The Greyhound Bus station, Clarksdale MS.

Asheville North Carolina

The Oxford Hotel

Outside of Travellers Rest South Carolina

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Grey Eagle, Asheville North Carolina

Natchez Mississippi

Grey Eagle, Asheville North Carolina

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Asheville North Carolina

Driving outside of Savannah Georgia

New Orleans, Louisiana

French Quarter Dining.

Where to go, courtesy of our server at the Early Girl Eatery

Grey Eagle, Asheville North Carolina

Asheville North Carolina

Oak Alley Plantation, Mississippi

Red Twig Farms | Ohio’s Best Boutique Peonies

August 5, 2017 By // by kate

I met the McCollough crew last year, two days after we arrived in Ohio, why my sister-in-law told me we were going to a peony farm, to pick up fresh cut flowers for the house. Sure, why not, right? At that point, I was down for pretty much anything, especially as it was still very surreal that we were finally there, we had made it. The cleaning, packing, driving, and all of the crazy chaos of moving was done. We were here. It was weird.

I took my camera along, cause hello, I don’t go anywhere without it, and I am so crazy grateful that I did.

We drove just out of the city, out past New Albany to Red Twig Farms, and pulled into the gravel lot. The big ass door (seriously, it’s almost the size of the entire wall) was rolled up, every flat surface was filled with jugs and buckets of peony’s, and the light that pours into that building, so beautiful.

I made sure to ask before shooting, as I find it incredibly rude and presumptuous when photographers assume they’re allowed to shoot inside buisness’ without express permission, and as a part of that, handed my business card to Lindsay. From there? The rest is history.

This year I photographed the VIP event that they had early one misty late spring morning as well as the farm store opening, which if you haven’t been to, you’ve got to make it out next year.

There’s not such thing as too many peonies. Ever.

The peony’s themselves, huge, gorgeous, and those suckers last. Just make sure that you don’t crowd them in thier jars. I learned about that one this year. Having the big fluffy blooms in vases scattered throughout my house all spring was the pop of color and pretty that I needed. Not to mention they made the house smell fantastic.