Blog - KDI Photography

Happy Spring!!!!

Thursday, March 28, 2019

We’ve changed the portrait on our studio sign in the hopes that we get the divine spring tree blossoms that Mother Nature blessed us with last April!

Featured now are the awesome Holmes family, who are full of love and hilarious humor. Kimberly and Kip grew up together here, both attended U of A but never really met. Finally, after living far away for years, they each returned to Flag to care for parents, met in a shared taxi, fell in love and the rest is beautiful history. They’ve been thriving ever since, with Kip’s successful Holmes Construction and Kimberly leaving her high powered work life to pause and care for their remarkably charming cherubs.

Precocious Ella writes a monthly ‘Ella’s Corner’ column for Country Club Magazine. It’s easy to see that she’s wise beyond her years. As the family was dividing into the vehicles to leave after the session, trying to decide which one. I teased: “Isabella’s truck is the best one.” Ella replied: “What? I’m only 5, you know!!” Okean rocked out on his ukulele (he also plays guitar) until a big distraction occurred. You couldn’t miss his visceral, contagious enthusiasm when a front loader drove by. Just as entertaining as his delight at making music.

Kimberly wanted some black and white studio portraits too, so we left the breathtaking flowering trees for my studio and finished up inside.

Here’s hoping the trees put on a fantastic show for us again this year!

Flagstaff Family Portrait Photographer • Flagstaff Maternity Pregnancy Photographer • Flagstaff Newborn Photographer • Flagstaff Child Photographer • Flagstaff Senior Portrait Photographer • Flagstaff Couples Photography

Kristen Dacey Iwai of KDI Photography is a full-time professional portrait photographer based in Flagstaff, Arizona with decades of experience. Making portraits of families, pregnancy, newborns, babies, children, and high school seniors in her downtown studio and on location, she serves clients from Flagstaff, Sedona, Tuba City, Winslow, Payson, Page, Williams, Prescott, Mesa, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Arizona

Especially for February: The Harts – Location Portraits Flagstaff

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

For the past year, I’ve been shooing for Country Club Living Magazine. Every month, Publisher @Brooke Hirschy introduces me to my subjects and then, to my delight, allows me creative freedom. For the February cover, my subjects couldn’t have been more perfectly fitting. Between their family name and their history, they were destined to be on the cover of a magazine during the month that celebrates love. When we sat down to plan our session, they told me their story and I adored them immediately. It’s pretty impossible not to! Bob and Kim Hart had their first date on Valentine’s Day, 1975 and ultimately tied the knot on February 15th, 1978. They’ve lived in Flagstaff for more than 30 years, giving birth to the very first set of triplets born at Flagstaff Medical Center in 1991. When they mentioned that they’d recently purchased and restored a 1967 Airstream, I could visualize the cover image I wanted to make. On the day of the session, they arrived in the blasting wind with sunny dispositions and dog Dakota in tow. It’s a wonder I was able to make portraits with so many tears of laughter streaming down my face in the gale.

Kim has decades of culinary expertise – teaching, owning her own cookie company – and she is the Resident Recipe Writer for the magazine. She brought along some cookies that couldn’t have been more delicious if they’d been conjured from a dream. She plated them with expert precision, and afterwards sent me home with a pile, along with the amazing recipe. I’ve tried to make them twice. Neither attempt compared but I will keep trying! Down the road, I hope to meet their daughters and continue to have fun with these love-ly folks.

You can find Country Club Living Magazine on Instagram @flagstaffcountryclubliving.

One Month That’s a Little More Popular With The Ladies

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Every year, my brother-in-law who owns a printing company, prints a calendar of KDI portraits with a particular theme. For this year’s edition, we focused on twins. (If you want a copy of the calendar, let me know, we have more!) I’ve noticed that one portrait in particular has kind of made a splash. I keep hearing from happy female viewers of all ages that they’re enjoying the portrait of “Mr February”. Some, in their late 80’s and early 90’s, referred to this dad as a “stud muffin.”

Here’s to the beauty of fatherhood and all the loving dads out there.

A new home for the practice – Flagstaff Bone and Joint

Monday, February 25, 2019

They were likely fairly miserable but warm thoughts of the future home of their practice and surgery center kept everyone’s mood at a lovely temperature. We’d beckoned the physicians at Flagstaff Bone and Joint to join us after a full day of patients and surgeries, “Come on outside in 23° with the wind blowing 17 miles an hour for a photoshoot!” They arrived in good cheer and we celebrated the groundbreaking of construction on their new ambulatory surgical center and medical office building, scheduled to open in 2020. I’ve had the pleasure of photographing all these good humored folks for their practice and several with their own families. It’s always great fun to conspire with Marketing Director Vicky Rowell to bring them together.

12 MONTHS – Celebrating a Family Milestone – Summer Portraits In Flagstaff

Thursday, January 31, 2019

When she was a newborn, she had way more spunk than average. She had a greater number of expressions than most brand new humans have mastered and even her body language was considerably expressive. See if you agree with me here. I’ll also add one of my favorite newborn portraits at the end of this album to make my point.

Laughing 12 month old girl in the yellow flowers of summer in Flagstaff,portrait by KDI Photography

Over the last year, she’s had the added benefit of absorbing the influence of her hilarious and loving older brother. So it stands to reason that a visit to this little girls’ world at 12 months would show how that worked out. (Yes, I’m aware that I’m sounding like a psych major!) Well, the results are in, the diagnosis is official: She is full of joy, crazy charm, strong will and has the family’s phenomenal sense of humor. We played in the flowers at sunset, her older brother always nearby to guide her when “needed”. I think the world of this family, so I savored the time during this exuberant bookend session with them.

Flagstaff Family Portrait, summer in Flagstaff's yellow flowers, by KDI Photography

Newborn baby makes quirky expression in Flagstaff, AZ, by KDI Photography — *Back when she was a newborn….already entertaining us*

Kristen Dacey Iwai of KDI Photography is a full-time professional portrait photographer based in Flagstaff, Arizona with more than 2 decades of experience. Making portraits of families, pregnancy, newborns, babies, children, high school seniors and for businesses in her downtown studio and on location, she serves clients from Flagstaff, Sedona, Tuba City, Winslow, Payson, Page, Williams, Prescott, Mesa, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Arizona

THE NEWLY EXPANDED NUGEN FAMILY – Family Portraits in Flagstaff, AZ

Monday, October 8, 2018

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. We were staring into the mirror, two faces side-by-side. Initially, 3 month old Atzly looked gently surprised but then broke in to his toothless smile. I smiled back at his sweet face in the reflection and when he saw me, he giggled out loud! I’d seen the trademark beaming smile during our session, but hearing his laugh was like music to my ears.

It was exactly the medicine I needed. Literally.

I had started the day with a migraine but I didn’t want to reschedule our meeting. Corinne arrived a minute or two early with adorable baby Atzly, immediately offering to let me hold him. Normally, I’m careful about holding new babies until their immune systems develop a little. It’s painful because I LOVE babies and I would always prefer to greedily grab them! But, Corinne was perfectly confident. I washed my hands and she handed him over.

It was a delight to visit with this awesome family again. We’d gotten to know each other when they came for pregnancy and newborn portraits with their first son, Zeb. Seeing them again, meeting Atzly, and witnessing how Zeb has grown was a total treat.

KDI Photography, Established 1996 – Very Humble Beginnings

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

There was a recent commercial that proclaimed, “You never know what kind of greatness can come out of an American garage.” Amazon, Apple, Disney, Google, Microsoft, Dell and Hewlett-Packard (and many others), all started out as garage based businesses. Now, we may not be world-famous or have the phenomenal net worth, but we like to think that starting KDI Photography in our garage was still a GREAT idea! Back then, to make well-lit studio portraits, we needed to convert a tiny space in our minuscule home into a micro studio or borrow a studio space from another photographer.

When we started converting the garage into a studio, it was liberating. The larger space and exquisite light were serious upgrades. I called the magical way it rendered faces on black and white film “garage light”. I remember a fellow photographer admiring the light in one of my portraits and asking where one could buy “a Garage Light”. I had to explain that it was just the flattering light created from ambient daylight pouring into an actual garage!We shot Polaroids to test the light and made portraits with medium format film cameras, crossing our fingers that the light wouldn’t fluctuate and the weather would stay warm and dry enough. We thankfully outgrew the rustic setting of the garage fairly fast, (although I miss that light to this day!) building a studio off the back of our house. As a mom and pop home-based business, we were able to work while raising two young children, all in the same building. An absolute gift.Within seven years of building our home based studio, we outgrew that space as well, moving into our larger, but still cozy current studio on North Humphreys Street in downtown Flagstaff. After 22 wonderful years in Flagstaff, we’re deeply grateful to have clients who have been with us ever since those humble beginnings in the garage. We treasure those remarkable relationships.

-Keiji Iwai and Kristen Dacey Iwai

All portraits were made in the garage – our early studio space.

The Cosners 2018 – family portraits in our Flagstaff, AZ Studio

Monday, September 24, 2018

The countdown had started. Ketivani was leaving town, headed back to Georgia (the country, not the US state) in a matter of weeks. With that deadline was looming, we scheduled a session fast, to make sure to include her. “Keti” is the Cosner’s most recent exchange student and had become a wonderful part of the family during her time here in Flagstaff. In addition to that, both of their daughters have grown up a lot since our last session and it was time to update their portraits to reflect that. Even Shannon had changed her hair and both she and Tom needed new head shots for work. To know Shannon is to benefit from her awesome, contagious laugh. Whenever we’re all together, that’s what we do – A LOT. It makes my time with the Cosners fly by every time.Ever since I last saw them, I’ve had a treasured little piece of hand drawn art decorating my desk. It was given to me by the youngest of the family and keeps keeps me company every day, making me smile.

SIX MONTHS TIMES TWO – Portrait Photographer Flagstaff

Monday, September 17, 2018

When they arrive at my door, there are only four of them but somehow, it feels like many more. I suspect it’s because these guys bring the love from their extended family wrapped around them, every time. I always invite my subjects to bring meaningful objects from their lives to our sessions together and Alaina and Drew bring the most amazing things. Items that were made with love, from family members who adore these little girls and their parents, richly infusing family history into every photograph we make. This time, among other things, we had several beautiful hand crafted blankets, Drew’s own baby blanket from his childhood, and a stool that Alaina’s grandfather had made for her when she was a little girl. As we documented the twins at this 6 month milestone, they were ever cheerful. They’re growing in leaps and bounds, acquiring new skills daily. Their sunny depositions and alert curiosity must be fueled by all that love.

What you need to know about high school yearbook deadlines in Flagstaff AZ – Senior Portraits

Monday, September 10, 2018

NOTE: This article has been updated with the new 2019 deadlines.

It’s an important, often emotional, moment for any family. It’s both an end of a chapter and the start of a new one. The first time you have a child that reaches his or her senior year of high school, there’s a lot to contend with. Your family configuration is about to change in a huge way. And while you’re contemplating that, deadlines come at you fast, especially if there are college plans. One of the deadlines that I find first time parents of seniors get a bit blindsided by is the senior yearbook portrait deadline. While you can sometimes elect to just use a school picture in the yearbook, many families prefer to have professional senior portraits made to document this important, watershed moment in their kids’ lives – The moment when they’re transitioning from adolescence and family life to independence and a lot more adulting! I absolutely adore getting to know and spend time with these soon-to-be-grown-ups. We get to celebrate who they are right at the moment and hopefully, help them (and us parents – sniff) remember this time. From those studio or location senior portraits sessions, we make wall art, coffee table books, gift prints for family and friends, graduation announcements, social media posts, and of course, submit one to the yearbook.

Seniors seem to get excited about having beautiful (and photoshopped!) portraits of themselves to share with friends, seeing themselves in a new positive way. Parents often tell me that these portraits are especially meaningful to have at home when their son or daughter moves away.

What you need to know – high school senior portrait yearbook deadlines for Flagstaff schools, fall 2019:

(for seniors graduating in 2020)

12/3/19 BASIS Flagstaff

11/15/19 Coconino High School

11/22/19 Flagstaff High School

11/1/19 Northland Preparatory Academy (NPA)

12/21?? Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy (FALA) They are working on setting this deadline now, but it was 12/21 for 2018.

Those deadlines come up quickly! We schedule portraits for seniors as early in the season as possible, to have time to get everything ready after the session. Feel free to contact us at studio@kdiphotography.com with any questions or to get on our calendar.

You can check out some examples of KDI Photography senior portraits here.

Love Made Tangible

Happy Spring!!!!

Especially for February: The Harts – Location Portraits Flagstaff

One Month That’s a Little More Popular With The Ladies

A new home for the practice – Flagstaff Bone and Joint

12 MONTHS – Celebrating a Family Milestone – Summer Portraits In Flagstaff

THE NEWLY EXPANDED NUGEN FAMILY – Family Portraits in Flagstaff, AZ

KDI Photography, Established 1996 – Very Humble Beginnings

-Keiji Iwai and Kristen Dacey Iwai

The Cosners 2018 – family portraits in our Flagstaff, AZ Studio

SIX MONTHS TIMES TWO – Portrait Photographer Flagstaff

What you need to know about high school yearbook deadlines in Flagstaff AZ – Senior Portraits

What you need to know – high school senior portrait yearbook deadlines for Flagstaff schools, fall 2019:

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Keiji Iwai & Kristen Dacey Iwai

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KDI PHOTOGRAPHY

724 N. Humphreys St

Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Phone

(928) 779-4151

Hours:

M - F 9 - 5 by appointment