kandelphotographyblog.com

I’ve finally joined the ‘twitter world’ – I know! Seriously, it’s about time. What can I say …  I’m late. The main reason is I don’t own a fancy phone or even a text plan. (I realize some of you just had a spaz attack, but hey, not everyone has thumbs of steel). I love the Internet, computers, cameras and programs, but I don’t really get the phone thing. Anyway, that’s the main reason I haven’t gotten a twitter account until now.  I’m actually kind of enjoying following some of my favorite photographers! It’s cool to see the links to articles or tutorials that they post.  There is so much out there to learn!

So anyway if you want to follow me on twitter you can hover over the sidebar on the Left that says ‘tweets’ and click on the bottom where it says “follow.” Or scroll to the bottom of the blog and click on the tweety bird. Or just go to twitter and follow  Kandel Photo (they didn’t let me use Kandel Photography because it was too long!).

It’s kind of weird having people follow me! I feel like I’m at the head of the parade leading 76 trombones! Well, hopefully it will be more than that someday, but right now it’s just 16. I like 16.

Do you twitter? Follow me and I’ll follow you… we can go in circles together!

January is almost over. February flies by. And March lasts only four weeks.

Then it will be SPRING!!!

And we can say goodbye to this:

Sorry Winter, but you just don’t impress me.

 *except for the occasional pretty photograph*

 As I opened my eyes this morning I noticed that my curtains were waving slightly. Strange. Then I noticed a low howl as the wind outside whipped around the corner. We were in the middle of a blizzard; the curtains were moving because of the draft.

The wind is nasty, but the visibility here isn’t too bad. However I’ve heard that the rest of Fargo and out in the country it’s REALLY bad.

So stay home. Snuggle up. Enjoy the snow day.

Me? I work from home, so I don’t get a snow day. But maybe I’ll take a little time off anyway…

*photo from 2007 snow day*

Our church is doing a 6 week study on our Shape, or how God made us with special talent and ability. I know I’m an artist, but I often wonder how I can turn that into something more. How I can help people, or radiate God’s grace through my being. My talents aren’t the typical church talents of music or watching children, or working on the streets. But after thinking about it, maybe it’s good that I don’t have those gifts. Other people do!

I ran into this quote today on another photographer’s blog and it struck me:

“You’re an artist. You’re at times a poet and a storyteller. You’re at times a journalist. You’re a technician and an inventor. For wedding photographers, you’re a therapist, a psychologist – even a mediator. And my favorite of all, you’re a magician – you capture memories and turn the intangible into reality!” ~Skip Cohen

It hit me because one of my goals is not just to give Brides and Grooms great photographs, but to make their day special. To bring a bit of calm, and joy into the crazy drama. To help things run smoothly. I’m not just giving images, I’m making their memories of the wedding day special too! And that is a worthy goal. Marriage is sacred. It’s blessed by God, and I believe when I honor the wedding day, I’m honoring God as well as blessing people. What a beautiful thing. This is my gift.

      I love the visual arts – more than just photography. I used to draw a lot in my journals, and took several art classes, but this last year I’ve slowly forgotten about it. Most of my attention has been focused on learning photoshop and other things!

A few months ago I found these two books at the local thrift store. Vintage, Art Deco posters from the 1920-1950′s! My favorite time periods and art style! I didn’t know what I’d do with them, but for 25 cents I grabbed them. I got home, cleaned the covers, and put them on my shelf. Forgotten.  

Last weekend I had some extra time, so I pulled out my journal, some pens and ink, and tried to decide what to draw. I passed by these books on my shelf, and looking through the pages I noticed a bunch of neat details to doodle …Can you spot the woman I drew?

I just love the little girl below!

 I’d forgotten how relaxing sketching can be!

Do you enjoy drawing?

I don’t want this blog to just be wedding photographs, or senior portraits. I want it to be interesting, funny and a place where you can get to know me a little bit!

So today I will reveil a secret talent of mine. One that my family always tells me, “You have an ability like no other.” Drum roll please… I burn my toast ALL THE TIME! Every morning. Every single morning. We had to move the smoke detector because it was driving the family crazy! Serious. You’d think I’d remember. You’d think I would watch the bread. But no. I like my bread dark and crunch, so I always push the button down one more time, and then I get distracted and soon smoke is billowing and someone yells “You did it AGAIN!”

So that’ s my hidden tallent. What’s yours?  

*BTW, I’m eating my burnt toast right now. I don’t really like burnt toast.*

The title of this blog is what I’ve put on my website’s home page title. I’m hoping that google with crawl all over both my blog and my website, pick out those all important key words : Fargo,  Wedding,  Photography.  And then somehow pull my website up out of obscurity when someone types those three beautiful words in the search box. How cool would that be to land on the first page of a google search!!

I’m still learning  about Search Engine Optimizing (SEO for the geeks out there), it’s  beyond me how it all works, but I’m going to do my best to get the word out about my new site! 

If you want to help me on this quest, then post a link on your facebook page to my new site “Hey check out this cool photographer in town!” Or post it on your blog. Or tell a friend. Or leave a comment with some other ideas! I’d love to hear!

I’ve just spent the last five hours working on a wedding album layout. I wish I could share the page layouts with you all, but it wouldn’t be very fair to show the world before the Bride and Groom get a chance to see it! It’s a beautiful album.

I let couples choose their favorite images and I use that as a guide for what ends up in the album. I think it’s only fair that the Bride and Groom have a say in what images go in their album, after all they are the ones who will be looking at it for 70 years! Often I’m surprised at what people choose,  the photos I love are very different than what the couple picks out. I guess it’s because we have different perspectives on the day. They see grandpa making a face and know the person behind, or look at a group shot and love every person in it. I usually pick out images that have creative angles, dramatic lighting or otherwise please my eye.

Having said all of that, this latest album I designed is unusual in that the Bride & Groom chose photos that are MY favorites as well! I love it when that happens! It means we were a perfect match: photographer’s vision and couple’s desires.

What a pleasure!