Haley + Dane | k.H.a. lifestyle photography | Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

September 25, 2017 By // by kate

I met Haley last year, in the fall, while I was bouncing back and forth between Columbus and Portland and as we chatted, the fact that I’m a photographer came up. Then the fact that she and her fiance, Dane, were in the planning stages of thier wedding, and that they were still looking for a photographer.

We swapped info, and planned to connect later in the fall.

Once life started to settle down, we made that connection and Haley I started talking more about what they were looking for wedding photography wise and we were off.

The love between Haley and Dane is so calm, and so peaceful, and I was so lucky to get to photograph the day that they became husband and wife.

Thier wedding was held at a private residence in Canal Winchester, in gorgeous garden, one in which the beds looked as though they’d always been there. The koi in the pond danced below the surface of the pond, playing with Haley and Danes children, who watched with HUGE smiles as the I-do’s were said.

Haley’s couture gown was designed around her vision for the day, and the heart shaped back of the gown, SO FREAKING COOL!

Damien Tobi, a designer here in Columbus, tapped into his genius, and built the perfect gown. Haley glowed, in a way spread to every person that was there to celebrate with them. She and Dane, thier love is calm, and peaceful, and seeing them say I do, it was magical.

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.

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Re Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms // Farm Store

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Red Twig Farms

Red Twig Farms // VIP Event

Meet Valerie // k.H.a. lifestyle photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

July 10, 2017 By // by kate

One of my favorite things about moving to Ohio has been all of the bad ass amazing women that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, working with, and collaborating with. Enter Model Valerie G.

I met Valerie, who professionally goes by Model Valerie G, a year ago today, at the second Trash the Dress shoot that Sam Antics of Hey Pretty Beauty put on. Trash the dress, by the way, is every bit as fun as it sounds, in this case, it was models, wedding dresses, and LOTS of colored paint in squirt guns, a whole lot of laughter, and a bunch of photographers there to capture it all.

After moving to Ohio last summer, the events feature on Facebook was my social life, and I used those events as a way to not only explore the city, but also to meet people, network for k.H.a. lifestyle photography, and generally get myself out of the apartment that we were living in at the time.

I saw the event page for Sam’s Trash the Dress Shoot Out, signed up before I could talk myself out of it, and sent in the money for my ticket. No way I was going to let myself back out it, no matter how intimidating it was to walk into an event at which almost everyone knew each other. I am SO GLAD that I went.

Meet Model Valerie G

It was at that event that I met Model Valerie G, and I knew immediately that I wanted to work with her again. She is so full of sass, and has such an infectious smile as far as I was concerned it was a foregone conclusion. Thankfully, she felt the same way.

Meet Model Valerie G #columbusohio #khalifestylephotography #ohiophotographer Share on X

Annnnnnnnd, when I asked her if she was down to shoot a milk bath, she was all for it. I was ecstatic.

She and I have plans to shoot together again soon, and I have about a billion more ideas of what we can create together.

Meet Valerie

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.

Second Shooting with Folk + Wayfarer | k.H.a. lifestyle photography | Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

June 8, 2017 By // by kate

I met Tessa Woolworth, the dynamo owner of Folk + Wayfarer Photography one year ago (almost exactly) when I attended a bridal photography workshop that she hosted in Columbus, and immediately knew that I wanted to work with her in a real setting. By real, I mean not a workshop, rather an actual wedding.

She and I stayed in touch after the work shop while our lives went on, and I mentioned in passing that if she ever had need for a second shooter that I’d love to be considered, and went back to the general crazy of life. Tessa reached out to me early this spring to ask if I would second shoot for her, for a wedding up in Canton. YES. Absolutely.

Then I did the happy dance around my office.

Second shooting, for those not familiar with the photography world, is when a photographer has been hired to photograph a wedding, or an event, or a (fill in the blank), and the client has either requested, or the primary photographer has chosen to bring in a second camera to assist in documenting the day. While large studios and larger companies have a roster of shooters that they can assign, us smaller shops that don’t have that same roster at our disposal, (which is often 100% by choice), so we hire other photographers who’s work we love, who’s business practices we respect, and who we just generally enjoy to come and work with us for the day.

For me, seconding shooting is an absolute ball. I love it. Don’t get me wrong, I love being the primary as well, the two rolls are very different, and awesome for very different reasons.

When you shoot wth someone else the opportunity to learn and grow is HUGE.

While seconding for someone else, there is this amazing opportunity to watch what they do, how they do it, and why they do it the way that they do.

I FREAKING LOVE IT.

Tessa picked me up that morning, quick stop and Starbucks, then we were on the road.

I have never met a couple more organized when it came to timeline and organization, and oh man, it made shooting a dream. They scheduled in plenty of time for photography and had scouted out gorgeous locations for photos. Plus, they were so crazy in love with each other that it made shooting a dream.

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.

Meet Maddie // k.H.a. lifestyle photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

March 16, 2017 By // by kate

So, it’s easy when you work for yourself in a creative industry to get crazy swamped with to-do lists (which believe me, they are NEVER ENDING), networking, updating your social media channels, relying to emails that need replied to, getting rid of the ones that are simply trying to sell you something, trying to remember why the hell this whole working for yourself thing ever sounded like a good idea in the first place, Oh crap, I’ve got to stop at the grocery store, then it’s digging through your bag to find the grocery list that you left on the counter, so don’t forget any of that, answering the phone call inquires that you are constantly praying come in, oh my gosh, did I leave the curling iron on this morning when I walked out of the bathroom kind of crazy. (see how fast that happened?)

Meet Maddie. #khalifestylephotography #columbusohio Share on X

And us crazies that choose to do this, ultimately, we wouldn’t have it any other way. I saw a meme that totally nailed it once… Entrepreneurs, crazy people who would rather work 100 hour weeks for themselves so they don’t have to work 40 hours a week for someone else.

YESSSSSSSSSS. There is SO much truth in that.

The Rising Tide Society, founded by the really wonderful Natalie Franke, is an organization dedicated to bringing creative entrepreneurs together in the name of community over competition, and helps us all remember, when we forget, that while we all do work for ourselves, we are not in this alone, though it does sometimes feel that way.

Enter Maddie.

She and I did not actually meet through the Rising Tide Society rather through a photographer who is a mutual friend late last year.

We met on the set of a fashion shoot that Staley Munroe (who by the way, is one of the best women I’ve ever met, and is PHENOMENAL behind the camera, in front of it, her talent constantly blows me away.) was running.

Maddie is the most intuitive hair and makeup artist I’ve ever worked with, and I cannot recommend her highly enough. Seriously, she’s one of my preferred vendors.

She can do any look you could ever want, knows everything that there is to know about skincare, makeup, how peoples skin chemistry effect thier makeup, and SO. MUCH. MORE.

It was one of those moments where you meet someone, and you know that you’ve known each other before. That oh, well there are you are, moment.

Since then, Maddie and I have collaborated on a few projects, with many more in the works, and she is soooo patient with me when I call her with a crazy idea and is always willing to get in front of the camera for me.

More important than all of that though, is the fact that even though we come from completely different angles of the creative entrepreneur, we just get it. We can sit and work, and bounce ideas off of each other, and just enjoy the company of another person who’s jumping through so many of the same hoops, even if it’s in different ways.

These are a few of my favorites, but let me tell you, there will be SO many more to come.

Jeff + Kim // Surprise Engagement // k.H.a. lifestyle photography // Columbus Lifestyle Photographer

March 3, 2017 By // by kate

Jeff reached out to me early this year to orchestrate the perfect proposal for his now bride-to-be. I was so incredibly honored to be the one to plan and to capture the memory for them.

As the day arrived, the Ohio weather completely cooperated (like for REAL cooperated. It was 65*. In the middle of February. In Ohio) and my team and I descended on Creekside, and we got to work.