I say HEY! What's going on?

Cafe: My counter | In my cup: Yunnan Gold Needle

Well hello again! I still exist, I'm still alive, and Studio Kal hasn't gone the way of the dodo. Still, a lot has changed and this last year especially has been a whirlwind. There was plenty of doubts, considerations, choices, ups and downs, losses and gains...

My main idea with these blogs is to go to a coffee shop of sorts and write, however there were a list of chores glaring at me... Such is the life of a homeowner. Yes, you read that right. Homeowner! After what felt like countless showings, hours of searching, and getting outbid left and right, we (Brandon and I) finally managed to secure a place to call our own. Even though we would have liked an actual stand-alone house, we're grateful for the opportunity to get out of the money suck that was our apartment. The parts I'm most excited about are the spacious kitchen, patio that opens to the large community space, and a loft that I have turned into an office. Owning a home is one continuous project to make it your own, and we had our work cut out for us since the house was painted 9-10 different colors, 7 you could see as you spun around near the entry. Oof!

One of the reasons why we moved to where we did was due to my day job's office thinking of moving slightly west and south, maybe 5-10 miles or so, which would be closer to a majority of the workers. Soon after our moving, it was announced at my day job they were moving the office not southwest, but northeast by 15 miles. And it was required to come in at LEAST 3 days a week. It's not ideal, but I didn't have much of a choice. It didn't take long for the hour of rush hour traffic to work, working 8-5 in customer service while handling 3 new trainees, creating documentation, and the hour of worse rush hour traffic took a horrid toll on my mental health (having depression and anxiety doesn't help, but that's another post!). The time I wasn't doing something work-related, I was recovering from work. Zero work/life balance. Not the way anyone should live. I barely had any time to escape and work on Studio Kal. I put my foot down. If they wanted me to continue working there, I would need to work remotely most of the week. I had proven myself worthy as I had done it for a year and had received praise from customers. Luckily it worked, and after some time my mental health bounced back to my usual levels. I'm glad to find my voice in all this, but this is a move I was only able to make since my being there was critical. Was it time for a vacation? Yeah. I was overdue. (so was the world, thanks COVID).

January work had calmed down enough for me to make my escape to LAS VEGAS BABYYY!!!! But not for the reasons many go to Vegas. It was to go see my sister (finally)! Life and work finally gave me an opening and I took it. It was years in the making, and Minnesota was super cold and snowy. I had never been to a place without at least some snow during the winter before, so it was a new sensation going outside barefoot in lounge wear at 8am and not being cold, but perfectly warm. Plenty of times my sister would see me hanging out outside and say “What are you doing, ya crazy?!” Going from 10 below to 55 above was NICE. We didn't say in Vegas for long, we took a road trip to California, about a half hour up the coast from San Diego. It was refreshing, I had so much fish, and I managed to even get a little sunburn (in true Minnesotan fashion, ha!). The sand was just as warm and soft as I remembered when I visited L.A. as kid with my dad. I honestly could go on and on, so I'll add it to the blog idea list. Bottom line, it was a good time reminiscing with my sister, experiencing some hidden gems of Vegas, and embracing something of a UV index.

Things did start warming up in Minnesota and while feeling creative, I wanted to get back into the pattern of editing. Work in Adobe Bridge for a bit, then pull it into Photoshop, wait forever and a day for it to load up on my basic laptop, aaand time to edit! But wait, zooming and panning aren't too smooth... everything is running slower than usual, or not at all. Even restarting, deleting files, moving files to an external hard drive, formatting, nothing worked. My laptop was had reached its limit. This is where having a partner with a love of computers comes handy. My sweet Brandon, who built his computer that doubles for work and playing games, helped me build my own! It was a great couples project. It has a few fancy things since they're hand-me-downs from his machine, plus his previous monitor, but it's got the power and graphics for me to edit photos however I like or need. Again I could go on and on, but that is something worth it's own post.


If you have made it this far, CONGRATS!! But more importantly, thank you for sticking it out throughout my novella of a first blog post! I'll try to post at least bi-monthly.

Let me know what you think! And if you have any tea/coffee shop or cafe reccs, pass them along! I love checking out new places.

A Tale of Two Teams

If you've read a few of my blogs, you'll know that I did an internship with Gretchen/Wink Photography in the Spring of 2018 (I've been a college graduate for almost a year, how crazy is that?!). This maternity shoot was the results of a model call we did. It was my first actual maternity shoot, yes as opposed to fake maternity where I had friends stuff their shirts with cloth.

These two are football fans, but not just any football fans... The momma is a Green Bay Packers fan while the dad is a Minnesota Vikings fan. Proof that opposites attract? Possibly! Curious who the daughter will root when the day comes. The little onesie dress they brought along was perfect! I couldn't NOT incorporate it! There were also some baby shoes in the mix, which sparked some inspiration for sure! And of course I did the cliché shoes-on-the-belly and the even more cliché shoes-on-the-belly-in-B&W-except-for-the-shoes. It's my one exception!

Overall, it was a wonderful session in Gretchen's studio (again, always thankful!!). The sun was shining through the windows perfectly. The end result? Bright, smiling faces of these two proud parents and their sweet baby to be.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy year of the Pig! My friend Jennifer reached out to me for a photo shoot in January for the Chinese New Year and I happily obliged. We decided to meet at The Japanese Garden at Normandale College. We had a lot of fun shooting, but oh was it cold! (Not Polar Vortex cold, thankfully!) Luckily, I brought plenty of oolong tea to keep us warm. Not to mention the gorgeous golden-hour light we were able to use in the fleeting winter daylight hours us Minnesotans know so well. It was a wonderful time. Hopefully next photo shoot we do, it is in the SUMMER. Haha!

Enjoy these inspired photos!


Lashkowitz Family Photos

One thing I really loved about my internship with Wink Photography is the learning curve. This session last spring with the Lashkowitz family had me faced with 5 subjects, with 2 of the 3 children being an antsy boy and an 8-month-old. I'll admit, it was a lot of handle, but with some help with from Wink Photography's Gretchen, it all went well. I'm not sure why it's so amusing to compliment a child's blue shoes as being orange, or their blue shirt as green, but it is! I got some wonderful smiles from all and the studio was full of laughter. Their mix of bold and pastel colors helped me forget the cold snow outside. Sure, it was starting to melt, but in Minnesota, does winter ever truly go away?

Enjoy some favorites from this session!

First Newborn Shoot!

Well, I helped. And by “helped” I mean shadowed. Since the beginning of February, I have been interning at local newborn and family photographer Gretchen of Wink Photography! Not long after I started, there was a lifestyle newborn session on the calendar. I was, and still am, thankful for the opportunity to come along and meet little Olivia! She was so precious and was a joy to photograph. There were so many cute baby noises, stretches, and smiles. Really inspired me to do it again.
I learned a lot during the shoot and after. It was a wonderful and adorable experience!
Here is a preview and link of said photoshoot. 

Painting, Tattoos, and Sunsets

Like most portrait photographers, I like to show my subject’s personality. I like to go a little extra by showing something about them in the background.

Today’s feature is my good and talented friend Stephi, who has been creating wonderful art since forever. We met back in middle school and I have always loved watching her create figures and characters inspired by real life and Japanese anime through various mediums year after year. I was lucky in doing this shoot while she was working on a figure painting, shown in the background. I also tried to show off her ink, done by her friend Dani.

I looked at a lot of outdoor winter shoots these last few months, so I was wanting to try something myself. It was a bit cold out, but Stephi was a trooper! The only other trouble with shooting in the winter in Minnesota is the golden hour (the time of day with the BEAUTIFUL golden light) is fleeting! We figured some stuff out, got some good shots, got to experiment as well. It was a good learning experience for sure, and of course, it was a lot of fun!

Below is one of my favorite images and a link to the rest of the gallery.

Huzzah for The First Blog Post!

Hello there and thank you for visiting my blog! I’ve been wanting to say something, post something, but never really knew what or how to start! Plus staying on top of things during my last semester definitely keeps me busy! I’ve had a good handful of photo shoots this semester alone, and I have a lot coming up, so there will be plenty of content!

I’m still learning techniques behind the camera and in post, still trying to find my exact style. I know I like unique angles. It’s something that sometimes works out wonderfully and sometimes it’s a bit of a disaster. But hey, I tried!

I’m also going back and forth on where my focus (haha, photography pun) with portraits should be… Newborns, families, seniors, fashion, headshots, weddings, random creative stuff… I love it all! So you’ll see a bit of everything.

Stay tuned! :D