Monthly Archives: March 2011

social butterfly | me

03-30-2011

  I’ve had the greatest week networking with vendors, venues, photographers, and friends!! It’s something I used to be a little nervous about, talking with vendors, but I’m finding out that it is FUN to talk about weddings with other people who work in the industry. To be able to help each other and grow both of our businesses is so amazing.

Yesterday I drove down to Detroit Lakes (about 45 minute drive) to visit with a fellow showiteer, photographer and one of my best friends: Abby of Studio A Photo!  I absolutely LOVE this lady. She and I are at such similar places in our business that we just sit down with a cup of tea and let the sparks fly. We inspire each other so much! I just love that there is NO competition between us. : ) Love you girl!

 

 

Then today I headed over to the NDSU Alumni Center to talk with Jakelle and Sarah about how we could help each other. Wow, talk about a great connection right away. These ladies totally “got me” – they understood what I was doing as a more artistic photographer and they just love weddings. Brides if you are looking to work with some passionate ladies who will LOVE helping you plan your wedding please check them out!!! I’m so excited about some of the ideas we talked about today.

Then after my meeting I ran home, grabbed some lunch – and my camera, and met up with a new Fargo photography friend from Foto in Time. We both wanted to spend some time shooting since neither of us have had a lot of time behind the lens the last few weeks.

 (Nasty winter, please release your grip on the Red River Valley!) 

 I’ll probably do a longer post with some of these images later but I’ll leave you with one of my favorites: I’m lovin’ my 24-70 2.8 lens. The wide angle is so nice!  I could take this pic without stepping into a pile of snow or the street.  That alone is just about worth the price of the lens. ; ) 

Tomorrow I meet with another photography friend from South Dakota … Laura Braun of Studio lb We’ve been facebook friends for about 2 years, so it’s going to be really fun to meet her in person! Can’t wait!

Whew.

What a fun week.

I don’t know if I can handle anymore! I am so blessed.

 

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photographer

 

 

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Bridal tip #1

03-24-2011

 

Every bride wants to look amazing in her wedding dress.

 It’s usually the first item that a bride gets for her wedding. It’s also the subject of much anticipation, excitement, and sometimes a little fear. There are several reality tv shows surrounding the mystic of the wedding dress: (Say Yes to the Dress) or the desire to fit it perfectly: (Bridal Bootcamp) Ladies, we tend to want to have perfect bodies to go with our perfect dress. I’ve known brides who go on extreme diets and exercise regimes. Now there’s nothing wrong with eating healthy and getting in shape. The problem comes up when you loose so much weight and don’t get your dress fitted. Yes, I have seen those perfect dresses hanging on bodies pounded into shape that look  ridiculous. One of my fist brides ever was a larger woman, who lost all her weigh … let’s say in the chest area. She had her dress fitted 6 weeks before the wedding, but lost a considerable amount after the fitting. You can imagine the horrible situation as she tried on her dress that wedding morning and it stuck out three inches in front. It was one of the hardest photography days of my career. No matter where I stood I had to be careful not to literally look down the dress! Talk about awkward moments.

So my dear brides. By all means get in shape, but please, please, please either have a dress fitting closer to the wedding date, or else maintain the same size after the fitting!

You are going to look lovely because you are!

 

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photographer 

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Lightning and snow showers | or how to DIY

03-22-2011

Wow. It’s snowing, sleeting, thundering, and lightning outside. It’s “Snailing” (snow, rain, and hail) outside. The prairies of North Dakota are wild country! It feels really weird. I’m actually going to turn my computers off after posting this blog since I’m afraid the ice build up on the cables may cause an electricity short in the next hour or two. Not worth loosing a computer over! Time to get out the emergency candles. It’s at times like this when I am glad we have a wood burning stove, just in case. It would at least keep us warm, and who doesn’t love a cup of hot chili cooked on a wood stove!

Today has been a pretty good one (besides the crazy weather). I got my mobile website up and running!  So if you have a mobile device, phone, ipad, or ipod, you can now check out my website on it! www.kandelphotography.com It should automatically read that you are on a mobile device, and rout you to the mini website that is all proper HTML, not flash. Whew. I was really intimidated by this project! But as always I find if I just go step by step I surprise myself with what I can actually do! Isn’t that the way life goes. Things look hard or scary. The rock wall looks so high to climb. But take it one step at a time and all of a sudden we are on top of the obstacle, and stronger for trying (yes, college math, I am thinking of you)! I’m always amazed at the fact that so many people just don’t try to do anything themselves. I grew up in a family that improvised, that hung our own wallpaper, that re-purposed thrifted items into beautiful useful objects.  Maybe that’s why I am a business owner|wedding photographer. I may be afraid of things, but I try them anyway. And you know what, it’s kind of fun too. : )

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March | Memories

03-20-2011

 I sit here looking out my studio window. The gray sky marked with dark gray tree twigs spiking the horizon. Underneath a layer of gray slush. It is as if Winter itself is dying. Leaving the white skies and snow to melt into a muddy mess. That is March in Fargo, ND. But it’s not the way I normally think of March. 

 As a child growing up in the mountains of Indonesia, March was a beautiful month. Green. Vibrant. I remember birthday parties in our back yard, running barefoot through the grove of bannana trees looking for clues to the treasure hunt. My dutch neighbors Mathijs, Marloos, and Niki joined the fun. Sometimes my dad would hide candy in the yard, and we’d spend 1/2 an hour searching through the coffee tree, strawberry patch, and usually found something in the lemon grass bush. Then we’d run to the patio where my mom strung a string full of Krupuk, a sort of crunchy chip. We’d tie our hands behind our backs and try to eat it off the string dangling an inch above our heads. First one to finish got a prize! If we were really lucky mom and dad had found a box of cherios. Treasure!

My 8th birthday was spent visiting friends in Malaysia. I remember mom dunking me 8 times in the pool. I sputtered a lot.

No wonder my folks worried about culture shock when we moved to ND to be closer to my mom’s family. My 9th birthday was cold. Snowy. I had a dress up party, we needed the extra layers of clothing! We played indoor games, like trying to hold a piece of paper on the end of a straw by suction and running down the hall. First one to hit the other wall still holding the paper won an Indonesian candy. My world literally spun half way around and inversed itself.

I often think about Indonesia in March. Those brithday memories full of color and sunshine. I look out my window at the gray world, and remind myself that in only a few weeks this world will have color too. The grass will grow, and I can once again run barefoot in the sunshine.

 My favorite season is on it’s way!! I’ve learned to enjoy the anticipation that March brings. Life is good!

 

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photography

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biking | blessings | booklets

03-17-2011

 Today I went out on my first bike ride of the year. I always bring my dog to run alongside. She just loves it, and comes home so content! As we peddled through puddles, splashing away I was once again reminded of what a blessed life I lead. To have a job where I can take 15 minute bike ride to refresh my creativity almost anytime I need to. Well. That is fabulous! Especially after all that is going on in Japan this week. It is time to be very thankful and grateful.

As we headed home I saw a FedEx truck parked across from my house. I laughed as the FedEx man took a giant leap to cross the lake at the end of the driveway. He smiled at Elssa, and took off. What could the package be? Well….

A new sample guestbook of course! I try to keep all my samples updated every year, as my abilities grow, and technology changes. It’s only fair to show my recent work. So if you are planning a wedding in the Fargo area, and are looking for a local Fargo wedding photographer. And if you contact me. Well, you just might get to hold this pretty little book, and look at all the cute couples from last fall’s engagement sessions. : )

 

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photographer

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Spring cleaning

03-15-2011

Today I tackled a job that’s been staring at me for months … a deep clean of the studio. Props, backdrops, old equipment, packaging materials, and lots of outdated stuff I don’t know what to do with! I took it all out of the closet and started to dust it off, clean it up, organize and throwing  away.

I haven’t finished yet but here’s the before photo:

 It’s a MESS!!

 

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Jitter-bug

03-12-2011

wowzers. I should have ordered decaf coffee this afternoon. I always forget that caffeine and I don’t mix very well. I get really jittery, feel like my heart is racing, get slightly nauseous, and in general don’t feel so good. At home I always make decaf, and I usually remember to tell the barista at the coffee shop, but today I was distracted. I was meeting a fellow Showiteer (someone who uses the showit website program), and just not paying attention. Meeting with another photographer is way too exciting.

I think photographers are just about my favorite people in the world. They are so fun to talk to! We always end up talking for hours without even noticing the time. There’s just so much to talk about. Camera gear, workshops we’re drooling over, crazy clients, fun clients, dreams, goals, business tips, packaging price lists, networking, marketing, art styles, fashion, weddings … yeah the list is long. It’s just so fun to talk to someone else who knows exactly what you mean when you say “my ISO at 1600 + my 50mm 1.8 is the bomb” ; )

Well I guess there really isn’t a reason for this blog, except for my jittery body wanting something to do. Typing is a form of relief. Even if I have to keep using my backspace key due to fingers typing too fast and hitting random letters. Seriously. It’s that bad. Please remind me to never drink caffeine again. Otherwise you may be forced to read regular jitter-bug posts. It’s just about as bad as people texting under the influence. Almost.

Do you drink regular or decaf?

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photography

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Updates | Personal Websites

03-09-2011

The last few days I’ve been working on updating my sample personalized websites. Each wedding photography package includes a complimentary website for the couple. It’s a fun way to share engagement photos, tell your story, include details like the location of your wedding (with a google map link) or registry links. I had an old design up, but since I redesigned my own website I wanted to upgrade the look and feel of these sample sites too! Now that I’m finished with school I find I have about 4-6 extra hours every day. It’s such an amazing feeling to be free to work on projects that I’ve had to put aside for the last 6 months. I’m Loving every minute of it.

I’ve raved about it before but SHOWIT is the coolest web building program out there! I’ve been looking at this screen for a long time and still think it’s fantastic.

 

So if you want to see the newest samples click right HERE.

Next on the list of updates, my brochure needs to be tweaked to fit my website style. It’s totally different right now (colors, textures etc). So my next blog will feature a screen shot from Photoshop CS5. ; )

 

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding photographer

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Birthday Blunders

03-07-2011

 This week is my birthday. Unfortunately I have to work that evening so I won’t be doing anything too fantastic. It is an editorial job that came up, which I agreed to do before I realized I wasn’t getting paid. Yeah. Smart move that. Let it be a lesson: don’t assume you will be paid, get the facts before committing yourself to a job!! Not that I mind volunteering, it’s just not exactly what I had in mind for my birthday party. ; )

Thankfully my mom is amazing and is making me Tiramisu for a late night dessert party. ; ) Have you ever had Tiramisu. It’s dreamy. Creamy, rich, not too sweet. MMMM. I’m convinced that the best food in the world originates from Italy, or maybe Indonesia. I’m kind of obsessed with good food. Like real, homemade, garden grown, fresh food. I think I’ll have to do a slide on the topic for the about me page on my website later this summer!!

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One LONG post | A Fargo Wedding Story in Photos

03-04-2011

Prepare yourself for a very LONG blog post. I simply couldn’t cut this wedding down to 10 photos. Too many great pics!!

Anne and Gregory decided to meet up at the Candlewood Suites hotel in North Fargo for the first look and a couple shots: 

Then we headed to Edgewook Park   where Anne and Gregory often go skiing. There’s a really cute little chalet there with a  warm fireplace, and cozy atmosphere! Perfect for some romantic shots. ; )

We did venture out into the COLD for a few shots too! But my goodness, it was nippy. We had hoped for a little fresh snow (the ONLY time in my life I’ve ever wanted snow!), unfortunately the week before we had a warm spell and all the snow was pretty grungy looking. So that was a challenge. Thankfully Anne and Gregory were not the type to stress out over little things. We had a good time!

Then we headed back to the NDSU Alumni Center where the family and flowers were waiting for us. Such gorgeous flowers too. They were incredibly fragrant! I could smell them across the room. The scent of spring, even if it was cold outside.

 All the floral work was done by Gloria at Hornbachers in Osgood.

I found aspot with incredible natural light, so I had some people move a bench a few feet into the sweet spot for a whole bunch of portraits. So beautiful!! I love the soft feel to these images.

 Upstairs the light was much more dramatic! Don’t you just LOVE her hair piece. So perfect for the vintage style of their wedding!  

The wedding ceremony came up quickly, as it always does.  I especially liked the pictures of the parents giving the Bride away, so tender, so emotional and special.

 After the ceremony we headed over to the reception site: The Fargo Air Museum ! Such a cool place! I probably went overboard on the photos just because it was too much fun.

The dance had extra special meaning for Anne and Gregory because they met swing dancing at the Avalon Downtown Fargo! I just have to say that I personally LOVE music from the 1940′s swing erra. Big band music is so happy! So listening to this music throughout the reception and dance was wonderful. You really can’t listen to it without smiling or wanting to dance. It was really fun!

 Thank you Anne and Gregory for inviting me to be a part of your truly special day! What fun it was. Forever captured!

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photography

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