urban b photography » Personal

Welcome 2012!!! {Rochester, MN Photographer}

Kristi — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:51:34 +0000

I hope you all had a safe and fun time ringing in the new year! Wishing you all the best, and looking forward to meeting the new people photography will bring into my life this year….every year I am thankful for each one of you!

Tis the Season!! {Rochester, MN Photographer}

Kristi — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:18:54 +0000

Hi there! I know it has been way way way too long…..fact of the matter is I have completely let my blog and website go this past year. It is always on my list of things to do but honestly not very high up on the list so it just seemed that I never got here.

Many people ask me if I am still doing photography and the answer is yes!! I’ve just been horrible at posting the work I have been doing. This past year I cut back A LOT however, I’ve gone from my busiest months of 8-9 sessions a month to not accepting more than 3 per month. It was a change I had to make to put my family first. Having a new baby and now being a mom of two, I don’t want to be remembered as a mom who is always working on the computer. I’m not a good wife or mother when I get too stressed out, and even with three sessions a month that kept me plenty busy! Most of you know that I also work at Mayo as a CT Technologist, and some changes have been made to our policies for time off which will really restrict time the time I have to put towards photography. So until I am able to drop down in my fte at Mayo I will continue to only accept 2-3 sessions per month and can’t guarantee I will get any better at this blogging thing but I will try my best….I really do love sharing my images with all of you! I’ve decided for 2012 I am not going to take any newborn clients and hope to focus primarily on children and high school seniors.

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season, and get to spend it with friends and loved ones! I thought I’d share the holiday card photo session I did of my beautiful nieces. This was the only day we had where the weather was decent and although the temperature was bearable it was so incredibly windy!! But these girls were troopers!

Here is the front of their Christmas Card…..

and the back…..

Safe travels to everyone on the road and in the air to be with family and friends for the Holidays!!!

Thanks for looking!

He’s Here!!

Kristi — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 01:24:41 +0000

I would like to introduce to you all my baby boy!! He’s been with us now for almost 4 weeks and I can hardly believe it, everyday just flies by and I had forgotten what a whirlwind life is at first with a newborn! For those of you waiting on emails etc. from me I will be getting back to you soon…. it just seems I hardly have time to even get on the computer these days. Aubrey is being a such wonderful big sister, we are so proud of her and feel so incredibly blessed. I am in complete and utter awe of them both.

Here he is with his very proud daddy……..

Wall Gallery Inspiration {Rochester MN Photographer}

Kristi — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:04:31 +0000

Here is the canvas wall collage I mentioned in my last post. As I walk up the stairs in my home this is what I see and I couldn’t love it more. I find that I have a hard time comitting to which pictures I want to hang on my walls, you would think as a photographer my walls would be covered, but I’m very indecisive and as soon as I think I have decided on something I take more pictures that I think I may like better…..so sometimes I put off ordering large displays like this. These pictures were taken by my friend Amy in the cities who does amazing work and shooting with her is always a blast. I adore these images and I love how they capture so perfectly how our life was at that time, they were taken this past summer, before I became pregnant during a time when Aubrey is completely the center of our world. All of that is about to change and although it is changing in a wonderful way, I think it is important to remember all of the stages along the way. I know there will come a time when we say….”I can’t remember what it was like without him here in our lives”. Here we are as a family of three….and I have much more wall space to fill with our family once we become a family of four! These are fine art canvas gallery wraps, sizes 12×12 and 25×12, with an inch space between.

Happy New Year! {MN Child Photographer}

Kristi — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:38:55 +0000

Hi Everyone! Sorry I have been MIA again…..I had the best intentions to do something fun here around the holidays…either a favorite photo type contest or put together a slideshow of my favorite images from 2010…..but I just have not had the time. Now that it is already almost halfway into January I guess I will just try reach one of those goals next year! 2010 was really an incredible year and I feel so blessed to have met the wonderful people I have through photography, both my clients and fellow photographer friends. Photography itself is something I am so passionate about, and have times at shoots or editing where I could just jump out of my skin I love it so much. With that being said however, I feel like I have devoted so much time to it these past two years that it has caused me to sacrifice too much precious time with my daughter and family. This realization came to me mostly when we were having the ultrasound of my baby shortly before Christmas. We found out that we are expecting a baby BOY!! We couldn’t be more excited, especially because this is the first boy ever in a very long string of girls on my side of the family…..I’m so happy that my dad will finally have a grandson, and my husband the boy that he was truly hoping for. I knew I was going to be emotional either way when we found out the sex, but I pretty much cried throughout the entire rest of the ultrasound and doctor appointment that followed. I blame it partially on all the pregnancy hormones, but also I think a big part of it was a feeling of having lost too much time with my one and only daughter. So my goal for 2011 and all of the years to come is to find balance in my life, between my work at Mayo, my photography, and most importantly my family. I don’t want my kids to remember me as the mom working on the computer…..this I know for sure.

I also had a huge wake up call meeting with my accountant last month and realized that self-employment taxes are not my friend…..ouch!! So I need to do a bit of re-structuring how I run my business…..and haven’t had the time to put it all together, but my goal is to have it all set by February. My pricing will be changing as well as my schedule, I am only doing a limited amount of shoots per month, and although I have said that in the past I am really going to stick to it this time! This change will give me the opportunity to still get a taste of doing what I LOVE, and will allow me to be a better photographer, I will have time to continue to learn and push myself to do new projects and shoot more creatively…..no client deserves a photographer that is stressed and stretching themselves too thin….so this way the clients I have I will be able to give my all to….and that’s the way I want it.

I also need to figure out my maternity leave plan for photo shoots etc. and will be posting that soon as well. I will honor all pricing as it is at the time the session is booked, so if you know you are planning to have a session with me this year…you can book now at the current rates.

Now on to some images that give me that jump out of my skin feeling!! When we got to our location the lighting was PERFECT and I was so excited….then we quickly realized there were way too many misquitoes to continue to shoot so we had to quickly run and get some spray and race back in hopes of not missing too much time in this light…..this golden hour or so before sunset is so beautiful yet so fleeting.

The hippie/free spirit in me just adores this image……I fast forward 15 years and picture her dancing at an outdoor music festival….hopefully as freely as she is here! Oh, and the awesome knot dress made by my talented mother!

I still have many sessions from this summer to post….I will try catch up so I am not posting summer pics in winter and winter pics in the summer! To see what I am currently working on head on over and “like” urban b photography on facebook, if my client is on the page I will often post a few images for a sneek peek for them there!

Have a wonderful weekend, thanks for still checking in!!

Where I’ve been….{Rochester, MN Photographer}

Kristi — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:00:37 +0000

Hello my wonderful blog readers….I finally mustered up the energy to come to the computer and write a blog post expaining what’s going on….I’ve got good and bad news. The good news is that our family is expecting our 2nd baby!! Which is very exciting, but at the moment it is so hard to be excited because for the past couple of weeks I have become very sick with what is commonly referred to as morning sickness…..I have no idea who came up with that term though… as in my case it is all day all night every waking moment sickness. It was the same way with my daughter Aubrey, vomiting every half hour until Zofran (anti-nausea med) comes to my rescue….it stops the vomiting for the most part but the nausea this time around has been pretty dibilitating and I have barely left my bed….let alone looked at my computer screen. It’s been torture watching this gorgeous weather slip by….especially during the busiest season of the year.

So I wanted to write this to explain to everyone why their orders are taking longer than usual, why those of you waiting for your galleries have had to be super patient with me and I REALLY appreciate that!! Trust that I am doing everything I can to improve this situation and when I feel up to it will be getting to all the editing in the order that it was shot. As far as my upcoming shoots in October, I plan to still try and keep those as scheduled and will contact you each individually if anything needs to change.

All of the messages of support and advice and congratulations really mean a lot to me and I appreciate them all so much.

I have a long list of sessions that I want to blog….but thought with the baby news and all I would share a very special baby girl Anika. She was born prematurely at only 29 weeks. I was so honored to come and photograph her in the NICU. This was a new experience for me and one that I will never forget. To see such a tiny little miracle be so strong was so inspiring. I have to be mindful of what I complain about and remember that all that matters is a healthy baby at the end of this long challenging road. Anika is thriving and doing well and will get to go home to Mankato soon!! Watching her grow on their personal blog has been nothing short of a miracle….it is so great to see her now having grown from 2lbs. when I met her to now over 5lbs.! I’m so happy for her family that she will be in her own home soon.

I also want to give a big thank you to Catherine from Bliss Photography here in Rochester who borrowed me her macro lens for this session, that was so incredibly kind of her, thank you again Catherine!!

Thanks for looking and sticking by me through this, your understanding means the world to me….again thank you!!

Our Sticky Sunday {Rochester, MN Photographer}

Kristi — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:39:33 +0000

I don’t post personal stuff here very often, I don’t even post my professional stuff as often as I should…I have a long list of fun shoots I want to share. I just need more hours in the day! It is easy for things that are not urgent or pressing slip to the wayside, like blogging for example. But I will work on it…and here is my first attempt!

Every year growing up my mom would make strawberry and peach jam….both are so delicious. I don’t think I ever even had store bought jam or jelly until I moved away from Moorhead….so I missed having that here. Last year we went home when the “peaches were in” so we could help with the operation and bring home a bunch for ourselves. This year we weren’t able to make it home so we attempted it on our own and it was a success! I snapped a few pictures along the way…..thought it would be fun for my mom to see these.

It involved lots and lots of peeling…..

Lots of grinding…….

Lots of stirring…….

And in the end we have lots and lots of delicious jam! yumm…

Hope everyone is having a good week and staying cool!

Thanks for looking, check back soon….awesome family session coming up of my dear friend Shamra!

My Beautiful Mother {Rochester Photographer}

Kristi — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:18:39 +0000

One of my absolute favorite clothing websites is free people. I love their boho/vintage style of clothing and drool over their clothes weekly wishing a. I could afford them, and b. that I could be 21 again and wear their sundresses….they are a little on the short side for this over thirty (just barely!) mama. Anyway, they recently had a contest where people could enter in photos of their mom’s in their awesome boho style clothes from the 70′s. I was back home in Moorhead last weekend and dug through some boxes and found a couple of good ones that I thought would be fun to share here. She barely had any though, it would have been fun to see many more….I’ll have to try find my grandma’s boxes of photos next time I visit her. I love looking through old photographs, it reminds me of the importance of printing your photographs. With how digital everything has become it is so easy to put all of your pictures on a CD and on your computers, rather than print them out and put in albums. I am guilty of this as well, since my daughter was born have become very far behind on keeping up with her photo albums. But I thought, what if my mom had saved these photos rather than print them…now that I think of it that wasn’t really even an option, but if it were, the device she would have saved them on we wouldn’t even be using anymore…and when your kids go looking for photos of you when they are adults themselves, I’d be willing to bet they won’t be using CD’s anymore either. So here she is, my wonderful mother with my dad in 1972.

Thanks for looking! Enjoy the beautiful weather out there today!!

Live In Love ~ Inspire Peace {Rochester, MN Photographer}

Kristi — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:46:34 +0000

I just love this hoodie, and what it says. This is my daughter who went out with me one beautiful evening to search around for some great photo locations. We had so. much. fun!!

If this face doesn’t inspire peace I don’t know what does….

Happy New Year!! {Rochester, MN Photographer}

Kristi — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:04:03 +0000

I know I am a little late, but I hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays! Happy New Year to you all!! Every new year comes full of hope and possibility of what the future may hold. I hope that your 2010 is full of good health, happiness and fullfilment of your dreams. Here is one of my favorite photos of my little girl going to see santa this year. She was so adorably bashful, I think it was the first time I saw her blush! She told him she wanted a zebra and a pink robot! Thankfully, when Christmas morning came she had forgotten those requests, as I was not able to find a pink robot on short notice, and had forgotten the zebra at home!