Peabody apartment fire

We got caught up in a bit of traffic on 128N yesterday on the way to a birthday party in Peabody. It was around 4:00pm so I chalked it up to the beginning of rush hour traffic. It wasn't until we got a little closer to Peabody that I noticed the black cloud of smoke in the sky.
Come to find out, The Highlands at Dearborn apartment complex in Peabody had caught fire (yet again). Thankfully no one was hurt, however, it's been reported that a few pets did not make it out. 20+ units suffered damage though and I can't imagine what the people who lived there are going through. My heart goes to these families.

Here's a few photos and a quick video I took with my little pocket camera while driving. Excuse the shaky video, I was trying to be somewhat of a good driver & keeping my eyes on the road while sticking my hand and camera out the window.

Looking for past Bridesmaids!

There's a new project in the works that I'm totally excited about! I can't share the details with you yet, but the title of this post should give you a small hint of the direction it may be going in.

If you're a past bridesmaid who still fits into her bridesmaids dress, we wanna talk to you!

Whether you loved your dress or hated it, doesn't matter!

So, if you're in the MA/NH area & you're interested in jumping back into it for a little free photo fun and be part of a really cool new concept, contact us.

I meant to do that!

Often times when proofing a session, I'll come across a handful of images that I LOVE and mentally mark as favorites. And when my client places their order, it's fun to see which they've chosen as their favorites and compare.

I'm lucky in that most of my clients are typically looking for something a little more untraditional then what you'd find at the chain photo studio and I think the images on my website portray that. Being on location gives me that freedom.

Typically, a few of my faves are in what they've ordered, but there are definitely times when I'm completely surprised to see the shots they've chosen. It makes me wonder if maybe they don't completely understand the look I was going for or simply just don't care for the particular expression in a certain photo.


That being said, just recently I came across this little blurb on a photographers blog I frequent and I think it really helps explain my style and why I do what I do...



“Tight Crops” –

This means super close close-ups where often the face fills most of the frame of the image. These images are about the eyes, and often the top of the head is not included in the image. I meant to do that!

“Not-So-Smiley”-

So many of us have been brought up to believe that a smile is a requirement to make a great photo. So not true! I love a pensive look as much as a big grin. I meant to do that!

“Let’s Be Negative”

Negative space is when the subject is placed off to the side of an image and the rest of the image is empty—this is done for artistic impact. I meant to do that!

“Left of Center”
The most boring position for a subject in a photograph is smack dab in the middle! I know, I know, not what you always thought, right? Trust me! There is a little something in design called the Rule of Thirds that we photographers often employ to enhance visual interest.

The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines (like a tic-tac-toe board). The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. Aligning a photograph with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would.

Huh? Trust me, your child does not need to be right in the center of an image for it to be a good portrait! I meant to do that!

“The Light in the Eyes”

The hallmark of good portrait photography is good lighting, and the hallmark of good lighting is something called a “catchlight,” – a reflection of light in the eyes. I love big catchlights! I purposely position my lights for the best and largest catchlights, especially for close-ups. Flip through any parenting or glamour magazine and look at the eyes—what do you see? Big bright catchlights! A lack of catchlights leaves the eyes looking flat, dull and lifeless.

I meant to do that!

Email is back!

Finally, my email is restored.

If you sent me an email within the past week and have not received a response, please resend it. I apologize for the inconvenience. While I have received a few that appeared to be stuck out in email-land, I want to make sure there were not any that didn't make their way to me.

I still have a few sessions that need proofing, so neverfear everyone, I haven't forgotten about you!

Still working on email issues

It's taking a bit longer than expected. If your issue is urgent, please give me a call @ 603.296.7047
Otherwise, I will be in touch once email is restored.
Thanks for your patience & understanding.

Email is down

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I'm having email issues. I've had a few people tell me that emails they've sent have been bounced back undeliverable.

I have someone working on it, so in the meantime, I apologize for the inconvenience. I'll post again once the issue has been resolved.

We're moving!

Yup! You heard right. We're moving. But before I give all of our family & friends heart attacks, let me clarify. The Kimberly Zay Photography blog is moving! Not the Zay Family. But it won't be for another week or 2 at least.

In the meantime, those of you who have our site bookmarked as www.zayphotography.blogspot.com, please update it to www.kimberlyzayphotographyblog.com. The new site address will actually be www.kimberlyzayphotography.com/blog but since it's not ready yet and the www.kimberlyzayphotographyblog.com address will stay the same to ensure everyone can find us, we're just telling everyone to use that. Phew! Got all that?

I anxious for it to be done and can't wait to debut the new blog AND the new site design. You're gonna love it!

Boston Apple Store Open's Today!

6:00pm. The biggest of all the apple stores in the country. THREE floors! Supposedly at 3:20pm there were already 126 people in line and growing quickly. As much as I'd like to check it out on opening weekend, I think I'm going to have to wait until the hype dies down before I head in. Can you imagine the chaos?


Look how purdy it is!

There's those beautiful blue eyes!

I’m not done proofing this Saturday’s session yet, but when I opened this one up today and saw these big beautiful eyes starting back at me, I knew I had to share it with Alyssa immediately.

We weren't sure if I was able to capture any good ones of little A in the short time that we shot her singles. And if you look at the few family photos I shared, you'll notice she's not looking in any of them. It's tough trying to shoot fast while making sure all 3 kiddos are looking my way (and not making funny faces or closing their eyes!)

Seriously. How adorable is she?!

Sharing desktop backgrounds

I started creating desktop backgrounds a few years back when I 1st started digital scrapbooking. It started out as a fun little thing for me to do when I had new photos of Little A that I loved. From there, I started sharing them out with friends and family. I'd have them send me photos of their little ones or even their pets, and send them back the finished version to set as their desktop background.

Anyway, while I was creating this month's desktop for myself, I got to thinking and wondered if maybe some of my blog readers would be interested in them too.

So, as a token of my appreciation to all my totally awesome blog readers, I've decided to start sharing out the desktop backgrounds I've created for you to use with your own photos. The only stipulation is that you must have a version of Photoshop in order to insert your own pics. I'm creating these in CS3 but I'm pretty sure they are compatible with Elements or an older version of PS as well.

Now, I realize not everyone has PS so I'm willing to help some of you out. All of my past or current clients who do not have PS but still want to use the backgrounds, email me the photo(s) you want to use and I will create the desktop for you.
I'd love to be able to do this for everyone, but according to my blogstats, I just couldn't do it. There's way too many of you (and I love that. THANK YOU!).

And for all of you who do have PS, download your free desktop HERE.

If I see that a lot of people have downloaded this, I'm going to try and share one every Monday. Just a little something to start your week off right!

And of course, if anyone has any issues with downloading the file or trying to figure out exactly how to insert the photo, leave me a comment and I'll do my best to try and help you out.

Be sure to leave me some blog love and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Party of 5

I had a great session this morning with an adorable family of 5. When Alyssa contacted me a few months ago, we both started brainstorming locations for the session. And unfortunately, since I’m not familiar with the part of NH that she’s in, I wasn’t much help.
But when I talked to her a few days before the session, she suggested Prescott Park in Portsmouth. And when I googled it and saw how gorgeous it was, I was pretty darn near excited. Granted, it’s not quite the season for all the beautiful flowers and water fountains the park has, it still has a great view of the water, lots of luscious green grass, some cool buildings and a great little fenced in area with beautiful foliage. They apparently also have lots of events in the summer. If you’re looking for something to do on the weekend, I highly recommend stopping by.

While exploring the grounds we found this quaint little restaurant called The Dunaway Restaurant at Strawberry Banke that was actually a cute little purple converted house. There was no way I could pass up a few shots by it.

Doesn’t it look like they live there!































This is the fenced in area I mentioned. I can’t wait to go back when the fountains are up and running!






















And here’s that purple I was talking about.






















I actually shot this from across the street and out of the 50+ cars that passed us by, 2 actually stopped so I could snap. Which is totally not what I was aiming for but we thought it was pretty funny!

Alyssa & Tim, thanks for inviting me to photograph your beautiful family today. I had a great time playing with you guys!

P.S. If any one's in the Portsmouth area and interested in an outdoor portrait session here, shoot me a line!

Yup, It's down...it's ok, I know.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the site is down. I received a few concerned emails wondering what was going on, but don't fret, we're in the middle of the re-design and decided to take it offline until it's finished. Should hopefully be back up in a few days.

Re-Design

Here's a little glimpse into the site redesign that I've been working on.






















My goal is to be finished with it this week. Hope you likey!

Shoot swap

Yesterday little A and I had a shoot swap with a local photographer friend of mine, aka "the other Kim". For those of you who don't know what that is, basically I shoot her kiddo, she shoots mine. The benefit of doing this is b/c you'd be surprised how hard it is for me to get any glimpse of eye contact from little A. Most of my photos are of her running out of the frame or giving me dirty looks. Also known as PCS=Photographers Child Syndrome (a joke amongst my group of photog friends). Plus, it gives you photos of your little one in a style that is different from your own. Always fun!

I've only done this once before and it was when she was a lot younger, stationary and easier to photograph.
Kim and I had big plans to head into Boston with multiple clothing changes for the kids, shoot at the Public Gardens, ride the swan boats, head over to Copley and stop by the Trinity church and then to Faneuil Hall to shoot some more. To say that things didn't quite go as planned is an understatement. We started at the Gardens and there were these crazy squirrels that were so used to being hand fed that they would literally run right up to you and CLIMB ON YOU! So as we were shooting, we were constantly having to watch our backs and keep the kids (and us) from getting attacked. Since we brought so many clothes and had them draped over our carriages, we looked like those homeless people with shopping carts full of random crap. This meant that we couldn't stray too far away from the carriages in fear of someone swiping our stuff. There was no way I could concentrate on shooting & keeping an eye on our carriages all while chasing the kids and making sure they didn't dive into the pond with the ducks that they were so interested in.
On top of the chaos, it started to get cold and putting little A in one of the 3 dresses I brought was out of the question.
But despite all of this craziness we had a great day walking around town, people watching in Copley and grabbing lunch on Newbury Street. And I was happily surprised this morning when I downloaded the pictures and found a couple of cute ones of "the other Kim's" Little A. Here's a few favorites. Hope you like 'em other Kim!








And click here for a short black & white slideshow with the rest of her images from the day.