Love Made Tangible
Are you thinking of waiting until the fall to get portraits of your family? Here are my top five reasons to have your family portraits made during the summer:
1. Coordinating schedules is usually easier for families in the summer. You wont have to work around school events, sports, lessons and other after-school activities.
2. People often feel more “portrait-ready” in the summer. They’re outdoors, getting tan and are usually more active than during the holidays.
3. Your stress level will be dramatically reduced when your holiday gift giving & holiday cards are completed before the rush sets in.
4. Photographers (like me) have far more availability in the summer than during the fall, so getting the time slot you want is a lot easier.
5. If you prefer outdoor portraits, summer in Flagstaff is an amazing time. It’s truly beautiful outside.
How long has it been since your last real family portrait? Families change fast, and it’s a great feeling to know you’ve captured these precious days together. So put something on the calendar. You are going to feel so smart!
Here’s my holiday wish. When you are gathering with the people you love over the holidays, please, please take pictures, especially of those older family members. When the menorah is put away, the tree is on the curb, the food eaten, presents opened, what you’ll be left with is (hopefully) warm memories. Years from now, those memories will be a lot less fuzzy if you have some pictures to remind you of them.
My Random Tips for Holiday Pictures:
1. Let’s be candid.
No need to annoy everyone by making them stop to look at the camera and yell “Cheese!” You’ll be transported back to the moment better later if the subjects were “in the moment” when you took the picture.
2. Yes, you too.
Make sure you are actually in some of the pictures. I recently noticed that of all the images of our family decorating the tree over the years, I wasn’t in one of them! It’s like I wasn’t there. It was time to hand over the camera for a change. I don’t want my kids and grandkids to be sitting together looking at these pictures later and wondering “Where was grandma?”
3. Perfect is the enemy of the good.
You don’t need perfect hair or even a clean house. Come as you are. If you wait for the perfect moment, you’ll likely miss the opportunity altogether.
This is the last portrait I made of my great aunt Louise. We were at a family gathering and I had just given her a print of herself as a young woman. I remember thinking “I wish I had asked her to move into a nicer chair.” Now that she’s gone, I have a clear memory of her happily sitting in that little lawn chair lakeside. It doesn’t matter that it’s not perfect. I’m just so grateful to have this.
4. Get ready!
What do you have to do right now to be ready? New batteries? Empty that full card in your camera? Learn how to use that new cel phone camera app? If you do that now, it’ll be easy to grab the camera when the time comes.
I hope this is a helpful reminder. I wish you a peaceful and fun holiday season!
A sneak peek from a session earlier today. This little girl looked so happy and safe in her daddy’s arms, sweetly snuggling “Duckie”.
I’ve known Mia since before she was born. I took pregnancy portraits of her mom and then made the first pictures of her in the hospital! She is as beautiful on the inside as she is outside. She has started a business that uses recycled materials to make wonderful accessories and donates a portion of each sale to non-profits. Check it out Second Time’s a Charm
A client recently came to see me, lugging a huge package of frames. She wanted to show me how she’d framed some of the prints she had ordered from me. She had placed the borderless, full frame 8×10 prints in the same sized frames… makes sense, right? Buy an 8×10 print, then put it in an 8×10 frame. Isn’t that what they make them for?
Later, we talked about matting and she got matted prints, placing them in some beautiful frames. The difference was dramatic and she wanted to share it with me. “Tell your clients about this!” she said. “The matted ones look so much better. I wish I had started there.”
Matted prints distinguish the images from your vacation photos and casual snapshots by placing an emphasis on the images as art. They say, “This is important to us. This matters.” The goal is to create unique, personal art for your home. The care you take in displaying the images goes a long way to reaching that goal.
So, look at the picture below … which ones look better to you?
You can find these particular frames at DardHunter.
I headed to photograph my first Stroller Strides Flagstaff class not knowing what to expect. I guess I pictured a handful of moms running behind jogger strollers with easy-going babies snuggled patiently inside. It sounded like something I wouldn’t have been able to manage when my kids were at their very squirmiest. I could imagine them wriggling out of the stroller out of boredom before I was able to get my heaving lungs to push it halfway around the track. I arrived at Buffalo Park and happily had that expectation turned on its head.
Beth Sabol is a wonderfully talented trainer and teacher. She is both peer and cheerleader for her classes of strong and committed women. She brings her own young children with her so she walks the walk (jogs the jog?) as she spurs on the other moms. I was impressed with the variety of exercises she came up with, a majority of them designed to not only strengthen mom but to simultaneously entertain child – something I had never seen done so effectively before. The kids were fascinated watching the group of mothers stretch and lunge in front of them. Just as they got wiggly, they were off to run to the next stop. Never a dull moment. Well, almost. At one point, when the kids did, one by one, all start to make their impatience known, those determined mamas finished the reps they were working on, laughing at the growing momentary cacophony. The kids didn’t have to wait long for the fun to get going again. After the class, there was time to chat, share information and play.
I loved witnessing the camaraderie and mutual support, happy moms getting stronger and healthier, and the minor miracle of enthralled kids, along for the ride. 
To see additional images from this shoot or to learn more about Stroller Strides, visit the Stroller Strides Flagstaff website.
I’m having fun working with clients to design unique cards for the holiday season. So far this year, no one seems to want the traditional red and green! I really enjoy getting to be creative with these. Check out some recent designs. (These are all flat cards because the folded ones are harder to show online.)
When Chad asked me to create a portfolio of actor portraits for him to take to Hollywood I knew it was going to be a fun shoot. He and I brainstormed to create different characters so he could show his versatility as an actor. He was such a great collaborator and kept me laughing throughout our meetings, phone calls and location shoot. He’s also really talented at improv… At one point, after I directed, “Pretend you see someone you know over there” he was so utterly convincing that I had to turn my head to look to see if someone had actually walked up. I have no doubt that he’ll make his dreams a reality.
If you’ve taken classes at the wonderful Northern Arizona Yoga Center, you’ve likely met Chad’s mom, Maggie. Being a great subject runs in the family!
Keiji Iwai & Kristen Dacey Iwai
KDI PHOTOGRAPHY
724 N. Humphreys St
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Phone
(928) 779-4151
Hours:
M - F 9 - 5 by appointment
