The Bombshells Behind The Wine & Shine // k.H.a. lifestyle photography

July 14, 2017 By // by kate

Do What You Love and the Money will Come — Nina, from Episdoe 20 : Don’t be Shackled to Someone Else’s Dream

Liz Garster and Nina Boyle, two women who met their freshman year of University through the random roommate program, and were truly the exception to the rule. They actually liked each other, and they still do. Amazing right?

They are the vocal duo behind the Podcast that they run, the Wine & Shine, which you can find by clicking [HERE]

The Wine & Shine Podcast

These two ladies have a passion and warmth that translates through thier podcast in a way that I didn’t expect the first time that I tuned in, and I’m hooked. You have to check them out.

We split their session into two parts, one here in the studio, and the second we shot lifestyle, and teamed up with Maddolyn Worrall, who y’all met [HERE] and is the artistic talent that joined us and kicked ass with her hair and makeup design.

The other project that they and I teamed up for was the design and photography coverage of the Live Podcast Event that they hosted here in Columbus at the WonderJam. (If you haven’t made the time yet to check them out and to meet Allie and Adam Lehman, you need to make that time. They are awesome.)

That day, under rainy Ohio late spring skies, the Live event was held.

Liz and Nina brought together three of thier earlier guests to sit down and talk.

It was an amazing afternoon, one you’ll hear more about soon.

Liz and Nina are both amazing women, who are doing big things, and are just generally bad ass women. Every time I listen to one of their episdoes I’m blown away by the insight and talent that these two have for telling others stories.

When was the last time you had your portraits done?

Let’s talk.

The Wine & Shine Podcast

Emily + Krista // k.H.a. lifestyle photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

July 13, 2017 By // by kate

I met Emily just before Christmas, at Marcellas up on Polaris, and it was this instant click of recognition. She and I started hanging out in the winter sunlight here in Ohio and have been friends since. I knew the first time we met that I was going to get her in front of camera, we just didn’t know when.

Emily + Krista share a big, beautiful, amazing kind of love. #columbusohio #khalifstylephotography Share on X

The love they have for each other fills the room.

This spring, we finally made it happen. (Also, Emily is a dog whipserer like you would not believe. Eddie, the dog who used to be afraid of EVERYONE took right to her, and Otis was right behind him). They don’t even relax on me they way they do with her. It’s fantastic to watch, and it happens eery time she comes over.

ANYHOW.

Watching these two interact is so cool. the love that they have for each other fills the room. Seriously, it rubs off on everyone around them.

Krista started out in front of the camera, and the laughter started flowing. I’m tellin’ ya, thier love fills whatever room they happen to be in.

Arlo, thier furchild, who btw, has (his own Instagram.) even decided that he would let us get a few frames of him as well. You should check it out, it’s fun to watch he and his person Emily on their adventures.

Snuggle sessions, lifestyle sessions, I love this. Being able to put people at ease enough to let down the guard that EVERYONE puts up when they get in front of a camera (professionals aside) down, and let me show them how truly beautiful they are, this is my passion.

Want to schedule a session for you and yours?

Let’s talk.

Emily + Krista

Burn Out is A Bitch

July 12, 2017 By // by kate

So you have friends that work from home, right? I mean, come on, everyone knows at least a few people that either work for themselves from home, or work remotely for whatever company they work for. Thier lives look kinda glamours, even. You scroll through Facebook, seeing that they get to work from home, so that means that they can sleep in, get up whenever, kick back and drink thier coffee, ease into thier work day right? Self care? Nah. Not quite.

They want to take off at four, go sit for happy hour with friends every day? Sure, why not. Some days, yes, that’s true. Which of course is whatyou see in social media, and think, Damn. Must be nice.

Here’s the thing.

It is like that sometimes. Sometimes.

You are seeing parts of our daily lives through our business’, and if you’re anything like some of the people I know, you think that we’re being ridiculous with phone photography, or, if you’re like me, I drag out my DSLR that I use when I shoot weddings. (seriously, that thing is attached to me, or within arms reach at all times, and I LOVE IT.)

We are incredibly good at cultivating and know ins what it is that people want to see. (do people really need to see that I STILL have laundry that’s folded on the couch, and no idea what we’re going to do for dinner tonight, have about 6,000 (yes, you read that right) photos to cull through and edit? NOPE.)

Everyone has that part of thier life, the adult to do list is NEVER ENDING. Let’s celebrate the happy.

That social media, the instagram posts that it feels like we are ALLLLLLWAYS doing, and then sharing it across everything else, or when we post a blog (which is no small amount of time in and of itself) and then try to make sure that we build our shares and traffic the way that we need to, that’s us taking care of the marketing. Which any big company that pays a salary has AN ENTIRE DEPARTMENT FOR.

So yes, we’re constantly on our phones, constantly on social media, and that means that we are working. We are hustling to grow our business. Which is what brings the money in. (Which is what we are all striving for, and believe me, it’s what we NEVER lose sight of, even if it doesn’t look like it in the moment).

We’re going to pause that discussion for a moment, and address this. I promise, it will help (I hope) bring it a little more into focus for those who have not ventured down this crazy road.

Two things for this, first, creating art through my lens is a way of life for me, it’s not something that I can turn off and then flip back on light switch. If it was, I’d have been just fine, happy, and fulfilled working at a 9-5. Not my scene. Not even a little bit. I can’t close it off like that, and I wouldn’t want to if I could.

Secondly, photographs are one of only two ways that you can physically hold a moment of time if your hands, freezing it forever. Who has thier families photo albums from the generation before them? What about before that? What does it feel like to hold them in your hands, to know that someone else cared so much about these moments in time that they preserved them, knowing that they’d be one day in your hands? That’s a big kind of love.

The downside of that, is we feel it ALL.

So here’s what happens with that.

As creative entrepreneurs, we LIVE it. It’s all the time. And it can be exhausting unlike anything else. When we hit the wall, we hit it like a freight train. And when that happens, our energy just drops.

And drops beyond getting to go home, bitch about your day to your significant other, pour a glass of wine, and ass out in front of the tv. We choose this, every single day, and we love it, which is why the lows are so much harder.

Let’s talk about self care.

Self care is something that I struggle with, and I struggle with it daily. The to do list is NEVER ENDING. I think mine has taken on a life of it’s own and kill me.

And when I say struggle with it I mean I stick my heads in behind the curtains in the living room and pretend that if I ignore it long enough that it will simply just go away. Didn’t work when I was three, and it doesn’t work now.

I saw this post on Eponis|Sinope today, and immediately knew that I had to pass it along. It is SO. GOOD. [Want it? Click HERE] I sure as hell needed to see it, and to ask myself ALLLLL of the questions, so I know that there is someone else who does as well.

I walked myself through this list. It helped. And it helped. A LOT.

Do I feel absolutely 100% like myself, ready to better, sure as hell getting closer.

And some days, that has to be enough.

Eponis|Sinope’s Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Ok

Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Okay: questions to ask before giving up

Dig this? Click it go download it from Eponis

Love is Love is Love is Love // k.H.a. lifestyle photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

June 20, 2017 By // by kate

This weekend was Pride, though unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure that that is something y’all are already aware of. And if you’re not, well, we need to have an entirely different conversation.

As I was scrolling through Facebook this morning, another blogger that I have crazy huge respect for made a statement that rang so true for me that I have to share it. “Human rights are not optional”. Megan, the kick ass babe behind EatPlayCbus, nailed with those five words.

Human rights are not optional.

The right to marry whomever you love (granted all parties of the legal age of consent and whatnot) isn’t something that should ever be up for debate.

Being there for the fun times, the really shitty times, the times that make you feel like you’re banging your head against a wall, (if you’be ever been married you know exactly what I’m talking about), the times of contentment, and the times that every couple dreads the most and hopes that they are years away from, being allowed into the ICU to make end of life decisions, to the seasons of life that are so full of joy that you feel like you could explode happiness everywhere, its all a part of being married.

The right to marry whomever you love (granted all parties of the legal age of consent and whatnot) isn’t something that should ever be up for debate.

And if two people want to tie that knot, rock on.

I am such a big believer that love is Love is Love that I forget that other people don’t see it that way. I will never tell someone what to believe, that’s up to each and every individual, but I will say this;

I will NEVER tolerate hateful words, towards anyone. It’s no different that bullying on the playground, in my opinion, and that’s something I didn’t tolerate then, and I most certainly will not tolerate it now. (Consider this fair warning to anyone who feels the need to post hateful speech anywhere on any of my various pages and social media channels, it will not be tolerated.)

Love is love is love. #columbusohio #khalifestylephotography #lgbtq Share on X

The same sex weddings that I’ve been blessed to be a part of and to photograph have been the most joyous and celebratory weddings that I’ve shot.

Earlier this year another photographer invited me to come and shoot with her at a styled shoot she had spent months working on, and I was thrilled to be asked. Once I’d expressed my excitement at joining her for a few hours, she rather tentatively brought up that it was a styled wedding shoot with two brides, and something in her voice and the way she led up to it made me look up from what I was doing, so that by the time she got to the twin brides part I was looking at her.

I will NEVER tolerate hateful words, towards anyone. It’s no different that bullying on the playground, in my opinion, and that’s something I didn’t tolerate then, and I most certainly will not tolerate it now

She was clearly waiting for my reaction with baited breath, unsure of what my response may be, and clearly was guarding herself for the worst. My response?

Fuck yes I’m in.

It breaks my heart that she’s clearly received some not so fantastic responses from others, and she herself is in fact heterosexual.

I second shot a wedding earlier this spring that was two of the coolest women I’ve had the chance to meet. As one of the brides brothers was giving his speech he talked about how brace these women were, and that he viewed them as heros for being willing to stand up and and proclaim their love for each other knowing that they would, and already had, faced such challenges.

It took me a minute to figure out what challenges he was talking about. The first thought that ran through my head was oh no, one of them is sick? It struck me in that moment, that to me, theirs was a wedding. Not a same sex wedding, not a lesbian wedding, just a wedding.

So today, I’m celebrating the kick ass couples that I’ve photographed who simply happen to have the same chromosomes.

Love is Love is Love.

Human rights are not optional

Randall+Sugar | Wedding Day

Steph Parker Styled Shoot

Emily + Krista

Folk + Wayfarer Second Shooting

If Not Now, When? Part Deux. // k.H.a. lifestyle photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

June 14, 2017 By // by kate

If not now, when? (part deux)

***This is a continuation of a previous post, and if you haven’t read part one of this post, you probably should, things will make waaaaaay more sense. If you don’t feel like doing that, jump on in, you’ll catch up. ***

Have you thought about it? What expectations are you labouring under? Who are you trying to please, that ultimately, isn’t yourself? STOP DOING IT. Believe me. The minute that you figure out what is going to make you happy, and then dive in head first, it will change your life.

Is it hard? Hell yes. Are they days that I want to build my blanket fort and hide in it and not come out ever again. Definitely.

Is it worth it? More than I can ever express.

I would rather work 200 hours a week for myself than 40 for someone else. The coolest thing about it though, the bad days now, the frustrating, tear your hair out, banging your head against a brick wall bad days are still far better than the bad days when you work for someone else.

If not now, when? // Part Deux #khalifestylephotography #columbusohio #614 Share on X

I have a friend who is currently working in a corporate world, and listening to her talk about her office life, I am so glad that I took on this crazy creative entrepreneur venture. There are days that I miss having co-workers to talk with, being able to walk over to someone else’s desk and bounce ideas off of them when I’m stuck, but what I’ve found is this: I still do have that, it just looks different now.

Throughout the last year, I’ve built a tribe of bad ass people around me who I can bounce ideas off of when I get stuck, whom I can send a frame I’m editing and stuck on and ask which version they like better. Are they physically here with me? Nope. Do I get the same feedback? Yup.

Dress Code? What Dress Code?

One thing that I did not foresee, in any capacity, was the propensity to end up wearing the same thing for a few days at a time. When you don’t have to actually leave the house for work, time tends to take on a whole new meaning. Especially when you can work in your pj’s.

After working in corporate America, my work wardrobe consisted of heels, slacks, sheath dresses, blazers and cardigans. Now? Yoga pants, hoodies, and tank tops, unless I’m meeting with a client of course, but even then, I get to choose. I’m not bound by anything other than what I want to wear that day, which is pretty fantastic.

This is my office, most of the time now.

As things have really started rolling, I’ve found a routine that works, makes me change out of pj’s to work (even though it’s often just into other comfy cotton clothes when I’m just working from home) and at the end of the day, my night time routine lets my body know that it’s time to wind down the day and turn my brain off. Works most of the time.

No Two Days are the Same, and I Wouldn’t Have it Any Other Way

When you work for someone else, you know what your days are going to look like, more or less. When you work for yourself, truly work for yourself, not at all. There isn’t an 8-5 structure, and 40 hours a week is absolutely a thing of the past. And it is soooooo sweet. If I have something come up that needs immediate attention (like dealing with all of the issues that go along with a flooded basement and the resulting remodel) I know that I have the flexibility to deal with it.

What that also means, is that I know that I’ll be up late working to make it up. Am I sad about that? Nope. Not at all.

Work & Travel are Actually Compatible

A big reasons that we opted to relocate to Ohio last year was to be able to be nearer to our nieces and nephews. While I was working in corporate America, I missed far too many family camping trips, birthday parties, and sadly, a couple of Christmas’.

One of my many philosophies on life is that if an employer, or anyone for that matter, asks me to choose between my job and my family, that I will hand in my keys in that moment.

What I didn’t see, was that that was happening. Every trip that I was forced to miss, every family dinner, I was being told that my job was more important. And I don’t stand for that.

Now, I am able to work from where ever I am. Trip to Arizona last week, no problem. Working from Denver and Vail in January, ok. Taking ten days to go to Portland this August, knowing that I’ll be able to work while I’m there, FANTASTIC.

Being able to take a road trip through the south, to write a book that we’ve been tossing around as an idea for years, knowing that I will be working as I travel. EVEN. BETTER.

So tell me, if you were to stop doing what you “should”, and stop trying to make everyone else happy, what would your life look like? Have it firmly in your mind? Great.

Now go do it.

Welcome Home Eliza // Garrison Family Lifestyle // k.H.a. lifestyle photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

May 30, 2017 By // by kate

I met Missy this winter when Heather, Jesi, and I shot her maternity portraits. Missy was a suuuuuper good sport about our creative ideas as well, being willing to wade out in the water at Hoover on the third day of January. In the rain. In a few different dresses. In weather that was hovering just under 40 degrees. Did I mention what a good sport she was?

Once she and her husband Steve welcomed thier new baby girl Eliza to the family, and Avery had settled into his new role of big brother, they invited me into thier home to hang out and capture lifestyle portraits of their newly expanded family for them.

SO. MUCH. FUN.

And Now They Are Four // Garrison Family Lifestyle #Columbusohio #ohiophotographer #khalifestylephotography Share on X

Avery and I played with race cars, he showed me how high he can bounce on his bed (with mom’s approval, of course) and got to eat PB&J for lunch.

Eliza is SUCH an adorable little gal, with the COOLEST hair do.

If Not Now, When? // k.H.a. lifestyle photographer // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

May 11, 2017 By // by kate

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. In that gut check, what is important to me, we get one shot at this whole doing life thing kind of way. It’s been eye opening, hard, amazing, and most importantly I was in a place that I was able to really get IT!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always known, in that deep down secret place within yourself that we all have, that we try to gloss over, and we try to squash because we’re doing what is expected of us, that I wasn’t meant to work for someone else.

I fought it for years, and tried my level best to make it work in the corporate world.

Think about that for a second. What is expected of you? What is it that you think you have to do to be successful? What do your friends expect of you? What family expectations are you laboring under?

Have them in your mind? Heavy aren’t they? Why the hell do we put that kind of pressure on ourselves?

I can hear what you’re thinking :: Kate, I have to pay bills, I have to feed my family. Well no shit. Those responsibilities and obligations aren’t what I’m talking about. EVERYONE feels that pressure, that’s just a part of being an adult.

Dig a little deeper than that. I’m talking about the yard sticks that we’re measuring ourselves against. The voices that say “well, in order for so and so to like me, and be my friend I have to ______”, “My family expects _________ of me”, “what will so and so think of me if _______”, “to be successful in my industry and business I have to do ______”.

Again, I’m not talking about the basics of being a decent person. I’m not talking about the hard work and the behaviours that you have to put in to get to where you want to be.

I’m talking about the bullshit lies that we tell ourselves. I’m talking about the standards that you *think* you need to hit in order for others to view you in a certain light.

I spent damn near a decade trying to live up to what others thought I should do, thought I should be, thought how I should dress, how I should act, how I should talk to customers, and listening to people who in some cases were horrible human beings, tell me why I wasn’t doing it right.

Throughout all of that, I was hitting every bench mark that on paper showed that I was achieving pretty remarkable successes in my career.

I was miserable. And over the last couple years that I did everything in my power to shoehorn myself into that world, it didn’t just take a toll on me creatively. It affected who I was. It made me physically sick. And I couldn’t even see it.

I had co-workers asking me when enough was going to be enough, and I maintained the same thing. “I’ll know when I know.”

That night came one winter, when I watched this woman who had recruited me to work for her, (so you’d think she wanted me to be there right? after all, she approached me about working for and selling for her) added that one final straw.

She tore into a coworker who’d stood up for me. That was it. That was my breaking point.

Six minutes into the next morning, I resigned.

After I’d worked out my two weeks (undoubtably the longest two weeks of my entire life) and left the office for the final time, I crashed. There was no free-ing feeling, there was no relief that I never had to go back again, what I instead felt was simply an exhaustion.

Three months after that night, as I was just starting to feel like I was starting to show glimmers of who I really am, we packed it all in and moved across the country.

The growth that you experience when you dive head first out of your comfort zone is amazing. AMAZING. So-freakin’-hard-can’t-stop-ugly-crying-flirting-with-the-edges-of-pulling-the-covers-over-your-head-and-not-coming-back-out kind hard.

It is 100% worth it.

Everything Happens for a Reason // k.H.a. lifestyle photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

April 25, 2017 By // by kate

One of my biggest beliefs in life is that everything happens exactly when and how it is supposed to. This past week has been absolutely packed full of reminders (some have more of a slap in the face, but hey) of that, in every avenue of my life, and it has been fantastic.

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON

Rather than a super wordy, long, explanation (believe me, that will all come later) I’m going to instead share images from all of the amazing things and moments that I got to work on and capture.