Print Yo’ Photos

July 29, 2020 By // by kate

Collaborating with my clients to create heirloom artwork that they and their families will be able to pass down through generations is LIFE. Seriously. Life.

IB Art kicked off not only my study of the interplay of emotion and art through documentary photography, but the actual creation and expression of my own body of work. From there, a degree in psychology.

Print Yo’ Photos

I’ve documented my life, and by proxy, the lives of those around me since I was 16 years old, and studied emotions since I was 18.

(For those of you keeping score, that means I’ve had a camera in hand for more than half of my life.)

Enter Lifestyle Documentary

Sessions are built around celebrating and documenting who you are.

Want to do it up Black Tie? GREAT. Want to kick it and cuddle on the couch in sweats with steaming hot mugs and piles of books? FANTASTIC. Digital Nomad? YUP.

We can do that, too.

The saying that “You’ll never know the true value of a photograph until it’s gone.”, you can’t know how true that is, until you do.

Show up in photos. Take up that space. Then print them, hang them on your walls, set them on the shelves in your office.

Document your moments, because this life is not a dress rehearsal.

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

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

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.

French Quarter Dining.

Asheville North Carolina

Travelers Rest, South Carolina

Asheville North Carolina

New Orleans, Louisiana

The Oxford Hotel

Asheville North Carolina

Oak Alley Plantation, Mississippi

Asheville North Carolina

Grey Eagle, Asheville North Carolina

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Rt. 61, Oak Alley Plantation.

Grey Eagle, Asheville North Carolina

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

The Greyhound Bus station, Clarksdale MS.

Grey Eagle, Asheville North Carolina

Outside of Travellers Rest South Carolina

Driving outside of Savannah Georgia

Asheville North Carolina

5Church, Charleston South Carolina

Outside of Travellers Rest South Carolina

5Church, Charleston South Carolina

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Asheville North Carolina

Grey Eagle Music Hall, Asheville North Carolina

Natchez Mississippi

Zia Taqueria, Asheville North Carolina

Asheville North Carolina

El Dorado Dry Lake Bed Styled Shoot // WPPI 2017 // k.H.a. Lifestyle Photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

March 4, 2017 By // by kate

WPPI‘s annual conference is (like many) in Las Vegas each year, and is one of the biggest of the industry.

This year, I flew down with Capri, the amazing photographer and creative behind Capri Aristry Photography, and we dove in head first.

Although the conference started on Monday, we got in on Saturday afternoon, because, well, Vegas.

Capri’s brother in law picked us and our outrageous amount of luggage up at McCarran, we hit up Whole Foods and the liquor store for room snacks and cocktails, dumped our stuff in our room at the MGM and off we went.

The next day, after getting breakfast at the Wynn’s buffet, we headed out to the dry lake bed of El Dorado.

Capri set up a loosely styled shoot out for anyone who was in town and wanted to get together to shoot before the crazy of the conference started, talking her brother in law and his wife (and her friends) into modeling for us, during the Super Bowl, no less.

For those of y’all not in the photography world, a shoot out is where a bunch of photographers all photograph the same models. It’s a fun atmosphere, you can bounce ideas off of industry colleagues, network, and above all, get to get creative.

Ophelia, Capri’s sister in law, talked a few of her friends into coming out as well, and tapped on some of her connections for florals.

Enter Mylo.

I got to ride out to El Droado with Mylo and lemme tell ya, this woman is AMAZING.

She’s a killer florist, wonderful woman, and all around kicks ass. If you’re in Vegas and need florals, you HAVE to get in touch with her. She owns Mylofleur Floral Designs, and everything she does is gorgeous. (she also plays piano for Cirque du Soleil.)

One of Mylo’s friends is a fashion designer, and she had the foresight to bring a couple of the Herbio Brown couture gowns with her.

The light in the desert is unlike anything else. I can’t wait to get back and get my camera out again.

I most definitely cannot wait to get Mylo in front of my camera again either.

To my fellow photographers, (and, anyone else who may be heading to Vegas) I’d definitely suggest making a trip next year to the WPPI conference. The photography industry is always changing, it was nice to learn new things and connect with amazing photographers. The site Vegas.com has awesome hotel and flight package deals if your heading that way for any other conferences that might be happening this year.

Event Photography

.what to expect.

Event coverage is FUN. I love being able to capture the details of your event, from the fine details of the tables and decor, the Emcee, the presenters, and the signage. I love all of it.

.planning.

I’m a firm believer that in order to capture the truest emotions and the most genuine interactions, the relationship between yourselves and your photographer is hugely important. As such, I like to sit down with my clients, both long time and prospective, over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine at the end of the workday as an initial consultation for all events.

Once we’ve both decided that we’re a good fit, we’ll walk through k.H.a. lifestyle photography’s event photography contract, both signing, a retainer of 50% of your total package will be paid, and then the planning starts.

Email me your ideas, link me into your Pinterest board, or tag us @k.h.a.lifestylephotography on Instagram. Send me links to articles that has shots you like, my only goal for your day is to make sure that you love the final images. I can best serve you when I have a crystal clear idea of what you’re wanting.

.product delivery.

Once your event has been captured, it will take me no longer than two weeks to develop & finalize your gallery. Once it’s complete, we’ll have a reveal session at which you will select the images for the products you wish to order. After all selections have been made, it will be approximately two weeks until delivery.

This is where event photography can vary a bit from a normal portrait session. Depending on the coverage options and package that is built, a digital gallery may be made available as well.

Questions? Let’s sit down for a cup of coffee!

Travel

Print Yo’ Photos

Arizona | Desert Photography | Recharging My Soul

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

Sunset Hiking | Piestewa Peak

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

Shoot & Share 2018 | Contest Results

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

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

I’ll learn to fly on the way down.

After all, our home is made for hosting.

Cook.Eat.Explore

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.

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

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.

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

Event Photography

.what to expect.

.planning.

.product delivery.

want to work together? hello@khalifestylephotography.com