Christmas is Over? Oops...

I am starting to get the hang of actually blogging things now...so hopefully I will keep this a tradition!! hahaha! Oh some great news on the photography front, I am going to be meeting with Kate Moore of Kate Moore Creative on Tuesday and we will start the process of working on my logo for Kayla F Photography! I couldn't be more excited! Once I get the logo, then that is when things are going to start snowballing! Next will be a FB page, a professional blog and eventually a website! Not to mention a whole bunch of fun stuff like stationary!! Hooray!! I am beyond excited! So now that I have gotten that out of the way, lets talk about something that is a little (or a lot) past due!

So the Christmas decorations have been down for a couple of weeks, the lights down too (we are not those type of people! LOL) but guess what I haven't done until last night...edit Christmas pictures!! Its amazing how time just seems to slip by and when you look at what you've accomplished it just doesn't seem to fit the bill!!! So I sat my booty down in my very uncomfortable chair and edited away! It was so much fun. I only took pictures this year at my Dad's house on Christmas Eve. Christmas day I didn't want to fool with it; I just wanted to relax and enjoy time with my family and not have my eyes peeled open waiting for fun stuff to happen (I know, I have committed the Photographer Travesty by stating that)!

Anyhoo, my niece, Sarah, is so amazing! She is wise beyond her years and when my sister told me what she said about Santa I was just astonished. She said, "She doesn't believe in Santa, but she knows he exists."

So these pictures mostly encompass Sarah because she is just so fun to take pictures of...its amazing to think that she used to cringe in front of the camera!!!!

Sarah and her Uncle Ty Ty...my favorite picture of them!!

Showing Uncle Ty Ty how her animals are magnetic...he is flabbergasted! :)

Now it was time to open presents. We all had a wonderful Christmas; spending time with family (no matter how cliche it is) really is my favorite part. But Sarah of course is just ecstatic over her presents...this next series shows her love for her Barbie Pool! Cracks me up!

Love this picture of Sarah! And here is my bro and Dad playing with Tyler's new Garmin!! FANCY!! :)

I know it is super late, but I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Years and was able to spend it with the people you love most...I know I did!

Introducing Two New Beginnings

I have some of the most exciting news (at least for me it is) that I have had in a long time!! I have decided to start my own photography business! Most of you probably don’t know, but I have battled the job blues lately. First, falling into a job that I literally would come home and cry to Robby about on a regular basis because it was so stressful and then not being able to find a full time permanent job since! So things have been super bluesy (not a word but lets roll with it) for me. So I decided, since I love photography more than anything (ok, minus the obvious exceptions) I decided I wanted to make it a bigger part of my life. What better way to do that than to have a business?! So here it is; Kayla F Photography. You can ask anyone in my family; I mulled over the name of this venture for a few days, but I was starting to drive myself crazy!! I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Eventually I decided I wanted something easy to remember and something I would never have to change (since my name will one day be Fletcher I thought it was perfect). I will have a website coming soon, but don’t want to unveil anything until it is up and running. I have a couple of ideas that I am just so insanely excited about. One of them being recruiting my brother for a little video (even though he doesn’t know anything about it yet)!

So, on with the post! This is my first official event for Kayla F Photography! Lei was my boss out at The Rush and I just instantly fell in love with her little guy Sebastian when she first brought him by the office! You will shortly see why! His little receding hair line makes you just want to put a pair of corduroys and suspenders on the fella and tote him around! Plus, he absolutely loves to have his picture taken (lucky parents)! He was all smiles all day and everyone couldn’t get enough of him!! When I first got to the house Sebby was still sleeping, but after I took this first picture he brightened right up!

Lei and Raimund had the sweetest outfit picked out for Sebby. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see those little UT booties! Go VOLS!

This is why I love photography! I love capturing those moments that you probably don’t remember; those moments that just slide right by but once you see the photos you get an immense amount of joy that it was those little things that weren’t forgotten. I love that! I love that I got Sebby smiling like a mad man at his Daddy and I love that I got his Mommy just oozing with love looking at him!! These literally are the moments that keep a smile plastered on my face while I’m taking pictures!

My favorite!!!

Lei and Raimund are Catholic so having friends and family at Sebastian’s Baptism was incredibly important to them! With that comes a load of Godparents! Sebastian is going to be incredibly spoiled and will have so much support! Its amazing to see how many people love this little guy!

Ok, so this little girl absolutely cracked me up all day. She was so sweet, but very skeptical of everyone and everything she came into contact with. Introducing Miss Amelia. You will see later what I meant by she was cracking me up (you can see her giving Lei the stink eye right above this in the middle picture).

Like I said earlier, this fella had a whole crew that came to see his big day! This really shows a testament to how incredible Lei and Raimund are, not only as parents, but also as friends. They had so many people to share this day with and it really shows how loved they both are. I love the bottom left picture...all the ladies are cracking up and the fellas look less than amused!

See what I mean about cracking me up! She had a stare that could kill! Like I said...she was skeptical of everyone!

Onto the Baptism. I have to admit, this is my first Baptism that I have been to where I was old enough to understand (and actually care about) what was being said. It really opened my eyes to such an interesting way of looking at babies and the responsibility their parents and Godparents have, especially spiritually.

Now, normally any child would absolutely start squealing when they were submerged, but Sebastian was so flipping cute. Lei said he loved to take baths so she was hoping everything would go well. I don’t think you ask for a better result; no tears and no pee! :)

There is that silly hair again!

I want to sincerely thank both Lei and Raimund for entrusting me to capture this oh so important milestone in Sebastian’s life! I couldn’t have asked for a better first session to kick start one of the most important decisions of my life!

Family Time at World's Fair Park

So...since I am in such a bloggy mood I have decided to go through the archives at some shoots I have done over the past little bit. And when I say little bit I mean a long while! This family session is back from July!!! CRAZY!!! But a good friend of mine from the days of Emerson asked me to shoot her family! Lets just say that this little guy B was the cutest thing ever! Talk about WiLd!! We had so much fun running around the World's Fair park, on the playground, playing in the pond, then getting yelled at by a bicycle cop for being in the water ("But I got the shot!"), to playing on the stage and then finally ending up over in the fountains! I had a blast! I might come to re-edit some of these now that I have a little more knowledge under my belt, but that is if I have time! Here are some of Kim's family starring Little Man B!





This series cracks me up!! Love his laugh and smile! :D


A little selective focus!!! So much FUN!!




Tears were wiped away and stern words were spoken.


Finally, the time came that comes with all little kiddos...picture time was OVER!! I was able to squeeze one more "Cheese" out of him though!



Time for some playing with his momma! What kiddo doesn't love water?!?


One of the things I remember the most from being little is when my Momma would wrap me up in a towel! One of my favorite memories!!


I think he's tuckered out!




So that was my day in the park...literally! We had such a fun time! I'm now taking bookings for families so drop me an email at kaylafotography@gmail.com and we can book a date!

Now a little shot for myself on the way home!

I'm Baaack!! :)

Wow...oh wow!! Wait...what is the date? Its been 9 months since I last posted. Sad day! As most of you know, I am Jennie Andrews' photography assistant. Basically this means every single (or almost) Saturday from May-November consists of me running around like a chicken with my head cut off on various different wedding venues around Knoxville (and Asheville and Sevierville, and any other area within driving distance)! But I absolutely love it so much! I have found an incredible friend in Jennie, not to mention my future wedding photographer! :) I have learned an INSANE amount about photography and editing from her. She is in every way a mentor and I owe her so much! Ok, so enough with the semi-gushy stuff! I have compiled a little selection of some of my favorite shots from some of the weddings I have done with her. These are by no means all the weddings and certainly not all the pictures. I just didn't want to bore anyone with pictures of guests smiling! hehe!
So here we go with a couple that got married at my dream wedding spot...the L&N Station Downtown. However, due to recent events...that will no longer be possible. My heart was broken. But, the venue shouldn't be a big deal cause my fella isn't going anywhere! :)


My favorite...and I mean favorite thing to take pictures of at weddings are the details! I just love them...they don't move, blink, talk! That sounds horrible but I have always been that way. I would rather take pictures of things...not necessarily people. But here is a couple that I just fell in love with…one of my favorite couples by far! But then again...I tend to say that about all the brides and grooms!



This next couple was super super sweet!!! I absolutely LOVE the shots I got of there ceremony! One super traditional…the other…not so much! I love how it is “Bride and Groom Blurriness” in the background!


My “First Greek Wedding”! Let me just say…the stereotypes are pretty accurate!  There was a lot of laughing, drinking, and definitely lots of dancing! So much fun!



And ironically, the last wedding I will post was my first wedding of this season! However, I am not too fond of this wedding, solely because this is the one that I wore shoes that were too small and ran ALL over the Old City and basically killed both of my big toenails. Seriously…they died…went completely black and purple…and gross and are still not fully back to normal! And this all happened in March! Was it a precursor to how the wedding season was going to turn out…maybe! But I seriously have had the best time shooting with Jennie!

It's about Time!

Ok, so I not only have finally looked at some of my pictures I have taken the last couple of months but I have also started to get super comfortable in Photoshop!!! Flickr...you are amazing! I have pretty much learned absolutely everything there (and doing some Google searches) plus Jennie showed me some stuff which is what got me very very interested in learning more! I still have more to come so hopefully it won't be 3 months until I update! :) Here are some of my latest!

One of my favorite books, my favorite quilt and my favorite ring!


After I was able to dig my car out from underneath the 2 inches of ice, I went out and took some pics with the snow...I didn't like many of the pictures but a couple turned out neat.


Most of you know this house but might not recognize it. It is the house out on Kingston Pike that is completely run down with all the junk cars in the driveway (right across the street from Home Depot). I have always loved this house!

One Day: 864 Pictures

So a couple of weeks ago I dragged my cousin downtown to practice taking some portraits. I have never been much of a people picture taker. I like things that don't move and aren't self-conscious in front of the camera. However, I still wanted to try. Below are a couple of pictures I took that day.

This is by far my favorite picture. I totally had her laying on the gravel (probably super uncomfortable) ground and there were pipes sticking out of the walls but I thought the brick and this little stump were the coolest backdrop. She was a total trouper and I love love love this picture!


Loved the contrast between the brick and purple wall plus the wrought iron fence.


This is an AWESOME door down in the old city. The picture is probably not technically the best, but I love how wrong the lighting is and the stark contrast between the door and the wall.


Now even though this was supposed to be practice for me shooting portraits, I couldn't abandon my true love of stationary objects. Here are just a few snaps in between the insane amounts of pictures I took of Kels.

An amazing headstone. This is one of the most amazing cemeteries I have every been in and it is in downtown Knoxville. Love the light...that is probably what drew me too it.


Beautiful old building.