kate • james • photography

Football is back....

OK so I am a few weeks late.  But not only is the NFL back, which was a lil iffy for awhile, we have NCAA football too.  I love watching College ball.  Unfortunately my team is not on TV on the west coast very often.  I am a huge Michigan fan.  GO BLUE!!  University of Michigan.  In fact last week was the big Notre Dame v. Michigan game in our house.  My husband is a huge ND fan, so there is always a big wager on the line.  This year for me was a shopping spree up to $500, no questions asked on what I wanted to buy...LOL

I WON!!  It was a great game too.  Michigan won at the very end.  If you can find the highlights from the game watch, cuz it was awesome.  Now that I have won I have no idea what I want to shop for...

Today Notre Dame is playing MSU (booboo);  so I am rooting for ND today with my husband.  Who by the way has managed to turn my 5 year old son into a Irish fan.  After all my hard work for 5 years as having him a Wolverine...how quickly they turn on you....  I think it has something to so with the promise of "Notre Dame Saturdays" with Papa.  No fair.  I tried my best efforts to keep him on the Maize and Blue side.  But no...not even a reference to super heroes and X-men could sway him.  Oh well...I have one more son I can corrupt.

I am watcing football while my youngest son naps.  Just me and NCAA football, no one else is home...such a nice relaxing day.  Much needed!

I have been on a semi-hiatus this year from photography.  I have been so busy with life and my day job, it had to take some what of a back seat.  I am itching to get creative again though, so if you still want some family portraits, just had a baby and need some newborn shots, or just want some cute pics of your kids done for this holiday season please feel free to contact me and we can squeeze you in.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend...I know I am so far.

 

Take care, 

KJP

Food of eternal life...

The Catholic Church belives in a series of Holy Sacraments.  Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, etc.  A First Communion gives a Christian the "food for enternal life."  It is the nourishment of our soul.

 It is an event that is celebrated by families.  Girls get to wear pretty white dresses and boys get all dressed up looking sharp.  We have parties and generally celebrate this big step.  I had the pleasure of being my nieces Godmother for her First Communion this year.  I am honored to be her Nina-Nina (that is twice - one for Baptism and one for 1st Communion) {wink}.

I was also given the opportunity to photograph one of my nieces very best friends in her First Communion dress.  It was so much fun and Sofia looked beautiful.

 

 

 

 

As I sat and edited the photos I realized that she is looking more and more mature.  She isnt  a baby any more, she is a young lady.  Stop growing up, please!!

During her the session I also found out that she wants to be a photographer.  So I instantly started letting her know what things were called and what I was doing.  At the end of our session she snapped a few photos herself.  Then she told her mom she wants a camera just like mine for her birthday...hahaha.  Get on that Mom.

Here are Fia's shots:

 

 

 

Great job Fia, you can be my assistant any day.

Have a fabulous holiday weekend everyone.

 

~kjp

Naked...

I am lonely with out my camera.  I sent my precious cargo off to Nikon to get evaluated and hopefully fixed.  Not sure when it will be back, but I have rented a replacement for in between projects,  just wont have the rental for a few days.

This is the first time I have been without a camera since I was probably 8 years old.

It is a strange feeling not to be able to take any pictures (with the exception of my phone). I feel hand cuffed or in time-out.  Am I being punished?  It is time for a back up that is for sure.  I have my eye on the D700...she is sooo purty.  Need to do a few more shoots to make that happen (wink).

I will keep you posted on my babies status.

Have a  good Thursday, it is my favorite day of the week.

 

kjp

CHEERIOS...

Well I am not sure how it happened so fast and I barely remember the year, but my littlest man turned 1 in January.  yes, okay it is now April and he is almost 15 months old, but I had to share all the effort that went into his fun party.

I decided to go with a Cheerios theme.  What baby doesn't love Cheerios?  And the fact that the word "One" starts with and "O," the shape of a Cheerio, made everything that much more fun.

I immediately called upon my go to Stationary/Decor expert Christina of Christina Waters Stationary. 

We designed an invitation and came up with ideas for decor.

I had  a kids crafts table where they could make necklaces (cheerio or beads) or decorate party hats.

Since 1 year olds really only eat with their hands we stuck to serving fingers foods.  But we had plenty of Cheerios (all kinds) and milk on hand if you wanted a bowl of cereal too. 

 
A place for presents...

Some good drinks (juice boxes of course)

 
The favors were mini boxes of Cheerios with plastic spoons. All the guests were challenged to wear their favorite cereal shirt. 

 
 
The center pieces at the tables were Cheerios boxes and bowls of cheerios.

 
My very talented niece who is a pastry chef made his cake. (Vanessa you need to get a blog or website so the world can see your awesome creations).

 
Speaking of cake...in my last post baby Aislinn went to town on her cake.  My son  not so sure about the glory that is cake.

This is the extent to the damage he did:

 
He was not nearly as messy as he could have been.

 
 
 
 
He did not like Ice Cream! (at least not at first)  A cruel trick on some one who drinks warm milk exclusively is give him ice cream... :)  Mean mommy.

I also created a Photobooth for guests to have their pictures taken to celebrate his 1st birthday.

 

Overall it was a lot of work by all, but a huge success.  The kids had a ton of fun and I am pretty sure the adults enjoyed themselves too.  Needless to say we were all Cheerio'd out for a while.

Happy Birthday baby boy, you are growing up way to fast. 

Love

mama

 

Happy Birthday!

 
When a baby turns 1 it is a blessing and a curse.  The blessings far out weigh any curse, but as a mother of an almost 15 month old I am reminded often what "turning 1" means.  Walking (often times running), more teeth (this time molars), tantrums (knowing what you want but not having the skills quite yet to communicate it can be frustrating), first hugs, first kisses, first words (still waiting for that "mama"), first dances...the list goes on and on.

As a parent I cherish every day of all the firsts, good and bad. Which is why when I get asked to photograph a 1 year old or their first birthday party I jump at the chance.  To be there when they get their first cake is such a fun experience and every baby reacts differently to cake.  Nevertheless, it is always a blast.

 
Last week I had the pleasure of photographing Aislinn's 1st Birthday party.  Besides that my camera stopped working half-way through and gave me a heart attack, it was a blast.  She is so much fun to photograph and is certainly not shy around the camera.

 

You can't really tell but on her head is a little decoration that says "Aislinn is one!".  She put it there and then attacked me.  To set up this shot: I am sitting on the floor (legs extended) and she is crawling up my legs with her big smile on her way to get me.  Sooo much fun!

She is such a cutie pie and so easy to photograph.

 
When it came time for cake she was ready to go and could not get enough.

 

 
 

She had (all to herself) a white cake with whipped cream frosting with white chocolate shavings on top....who would not be into that?  I probably would have looked just as messy if I was the one in the high chair...

But some of my favorite shots came after the cake.  After she was all cleaned up (still some cake residue I am sure, babies have lots of crevasses).  I will only share one, but can you tell why I love my job?

Have a great weekend!

P.S.  Luckily I was able to get my camera to work intermittently for the rest of the party, so we would not miss shots like the ones above.  I will be sending my camera off today to get fixed :(  Hopefully it will be back very soon and ready to go.

kjp

P.P.S.  I tried a new export for blog function on these images...hopefully it works and they don't look pixely. Time to test it.

Welcome baby Nico...

I had the privilege of photographing another baptism this past weekend.  I think I secretly like photographing baptisms becasue they are such a happy time, but yet also so peaceful.

This was a last minute booking and I am so glad it all worked out because they are a lovely family and their new baby boy is just so cute.  Almost made me miss having a newborn...I said almost.

Despite San Diego having some of the best weather in the country, this day it of course had to rain but not before we got Nico dunked and photographed at the church.

 

 
Not even a peep....

After the ceremony we had a mini photoshoot before the sprinkles started to come down.  Ridding yourself from original sin can be tiring.

 

So as he took a cat nap, we took some lovely photos of his mommy and new godmother.  Aren't they gorgeous?

 
Godmother is holding little Nico, so mommy needed to give him a little kiss to let him know she was close by...

 

Thank you so much to Nico's family for letting me be a part of this special day.  God bless all of you.

 

kjp

 

Baby Charlie

Newborn babies are one of my favorite subjects to photograph.  They are so precious and all of them are cute.  I had the pleasure of meeting baby Charlie (Charlotte).  Usually newborn babies, even though all cute, all kind of look the same.  You are not entirely sure if it is a boy or a girl unless it has some pink or blue on.

This is not the case with Charlie.  She looks like a girl even at 1 month old.  Her eye lashes are perfect and women pay big bucks to have lashes like hers.  You can tell by looking at her sweet little face she is a girly girl.

 



We had a fun afternoon, and Charlie was a lovely model.

We were even able to get Big Brother to take 2 photos...hahaha, yep that is it.  Just two.

 

 
 

Life does adjust with two kids, I promise...it wont be the same but you find your groove.

 

 

more to come..

take care

KJP

Here we go again...

Ok time to get back into the grove and start up the marketing wheel.

It is almost the busy season for family portraits, christmas cards, and everything fun.

I booked my family portrait session, have you?  Weekends fill up fast, heck October is almost full.  So e-mail me your dates. kjpinfo@gmail.com

I think I have finally found my groove now that I have two boys so let's get the photo ball rolling again and get some portraits done.  I recently had the pleasure of photographing a baptism at one of my favorite places in San Diego.  University of San Diego.  GO TORREROS!  baby Joe was all dressed up and ready for his dunking.

 

Before the ceremony he just wasn't a happy camper but during the ceremony he was a pefect angel.  I think he was just mad he was wearing a dress, even though he was looking very handsome.

Daddy to the rescue!

Ahhh, all better.

USD's campus holds a special place in my heart.  I am an Alumni, I was married at Founders Chapel, both my sons were baptised at Founders Chapel, and we often attend mass at the Immaculata.  I feel at home every time I go back there.  Not to mention it is just gorgeous up there.

 

 

So if you haven't been up there take a few hours and stroll the campus, it is awesome.

 

 

 

Have a great day!

kjp

 

 

Living my fake life...

So when I had my first son I was pretty naive in the ways of maternity leave. My office didn't have an HR department so I was navigating the options almost on my own.  I didn't know about the PFL so my maternity leave was mostly made up of disability and vacation time.  It ended up being about 3 months;  too short nonetheless.

Back then I was actually, dare I say it, a little excited about going back to work.  For some adult interaction, as they say.  It was still sad when I went to work that first day, I cried the whole drive to work. 

This time...there was a whole new me.

You see my oldest son was in his first year of preschool and I created this sort of make believe life while I was off for 4.5 months.  The life of a stay at home mom.  I was able to pick him up from school, volunteer is his classroom, pick him up when he was ill without having to rush back to work and many other little things.  I actually felt as though I got to be a mom.  I wasn't a working mom who spent the few hours she had when she got home from work rushing around getting dinner ready cleaning up, giving baths etc.  I actually had time to do things (like laundry...yuk!  i do not miss that).

I took my new son with me every where, despite his hate for riding in the car and screaming bloody murder on every car ride.  I went on walks with my new double stroller (love that by the way, it is the BOB Duallie, highly recommended).  I did some shopping...ok I did a lot of shopping (which is not really a good idea when you are on a tighter income), but nevertheless there was shopping.

I got to hang out with my other stay at home mom friends.  It was truly a busy busy daily life that I absolutely loved this time around.

I was extremely sad when it had to come to an end.  My husband was sad to see homemade new dinner recipes every night disappear too. 

But such is life.  Unless we win the lottery I will be that working mom.  There is nothing wrong with it, I would just prefer to be home with my babies, which is truly something I never thought I would say.  Both lives are tough work, but as the old saying goes, "find something you love and then get someone to pay you for it."  When i was younger and had no kids, I loved my current job.  It was exciting and fun and now...well it is a job and well now I love being a mom - full-time, now why can't we get paid for that?

That is where photography comes in.  I love taking pictures.  I have been slacking off on indulging my creative side lately, but hopefully when I find my new routine it will all come flowing back and maybe just maybe one day I can retire and be a stay at home mom-photographer.  Oh to dream!

Stay Thirsty my friends!

Next time I will get you some pics of baby nate as he grows...maybe even a video if I can figure it out.  :)

kjp

Baby G2

So apparently my gift in life is my babies come early.  My first son was 2 weeks early and my second son was 3 weeks early.  Neither time was I ready as far as baby clothes, crib etc.  Physically i was more than ready for both.

When they say all pregnancies are different, they are not kidding.  My first pregnancy was easy peasy.   I was hiking in Maui, walking all over, and never sick.  Sure I was big and uncomfortable towards the end but by all accounts it was a great pregnancy.

My second pregnancy...whoo...different story.  Mind you i was pregnant with boys both times.  So if someone tells you maybe it's a boy/girl cuz your pregnancy is different, don't buy it.  It doesn't matter.

This last pregnancy I was sick for 3 months, not throwing up sick but nauseous 24/7.  Which in my book is even worse.  I swelled up like a balloon.  My doctor estimated 30lbs of water weight.  I think she was right since in the first  3 weeks after Nate was born I lost 35 pounds.  My feet were absolutely horrific.  I had just figured I would now have fat feet forever.  Flip flops were my friend.

And I really did not know how swollen I was until i recently saw pictures of myself in the hospital after he was born.  Whoohoo!! dang girl.

Anyhoo, Nathan decided to arrive on his own time and it was a whole new experience.  Both pregnancies my water broke.  But this time we had to find a place for James on our way to the hospital no more 20 miles in 10 minutes to get to Mary Birch.  It all worked out.

My little NattyMatt was born and just perfect. 6lbs 8oz. 19" long

I think the worst part was because of the Swine Flu epidemic (or hysteria) my son was not allowed to visit us in the hospital and had to wait to meet his little brother.

Do you have any idea how hard that is for a 4 year old to understand?  It was very sad.

So we only stayed the required amount and then went home.  Best part about going home: when I knocked on the door and my son opened the door, my husband had nathan in the seat behind me.  James didn't see him and when he only saw me he said, "well where is he?"  Not "hi mama I missed you," or "yay your home," but "well where is he?"  LOL

And so they met.  James loves his little brother so much.  We have had zero issues, well except that he loves him so much sometimes he squishes him.  But it is cute and Nathan doesn't seem to mind.

 

So it is quite an adjustment from 1 child to 2, but it is so worth it.  James is so excited to be a big brother and Nathan loves him too.  I cannot wait to see them grow up together.

 

More to come...

 

Happy Father's day to my awesome husband and best Mapa in the world...  :)