Michelle and Steve were recently married at the Admiral Kidd Club and I must say that it was one of the most emotional and heartfelt ceremonies I have ever witnessed. Only to be outdone by the poem that Michelle’s dad wrote for them and included in his toast. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place! Michelle and Steve are a darling couple. Here are some of the images:

Venue: Admiral Kidd Club
Florist: Martha Hollis and Susan Butler
DJ: Advanced Entertainment www.sdweddingdj.com

-shawna K

My niece Kelsey is studying states and their capitols at school this year, and her class is trying to collect postcards from all 50 nifty United States! (Am I the only one that had to sing that song in elementary school???!!!???). Okay . . . nevermind me! It just dawned on me that a LOT of people from outside California are checking in with this blog and I thought you *might* send me a postcard that I could send along to Kelsey.

If that’s the case, and you feel like dropping Kelsey a note, please send the cards to:

Kelsey
c/o shawna K studio
8513 La Mesa Boulevard
La Mesa, CA 91941

. . . we’d love to hear from you! Wherever you are!!!!

Thanks!

-shawna K

Yes, on occasion, I get MY picture taken, too. Here I am hard at work at Mariko and Brian’s wedding at The Grande Colonial in La Jolla. Photo by Heidi Robbins.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of second shooting for professional photographer Matt Kim www.mattkim.com, at a wedding for another professional photographer, Leigh Miller www.leighmillerphotography.com. Leigh was an absolute dream bride . . . not only is she absolutely beautiful, but she was so relaxed and happy on her wedding day. And Ryan is so handsome! They make such a gorgeous couple!

I must say, too, that the wedding venue was one of the best places I have seen for weddings. It was the Cree Estate in Palm Springs, and Leigh, Ryan, and their families were able to stay there for the entire weekend. Here are two of my favorite images, followed by a link to their slideshow to see more.

www.shawnakstudio.net/album/LeighAlbum/index.html

-shawna K

I had the pleasure of photographing the Madsen family recently. The Madsens are one of my most favorite families to photograph. You just don’t find too many families as close and as nice and generous as these people! Of course, I’m very partial to this family because . . . as some of you may notice . . . one of my assistants is a Madsen! Heidi (on the left) is regularly a second photographer for me at weddings. Some of you will definitely recognize her! She’s been working her tail-end off at weddings this season!!! Heidi is truly a pleasure to work with and quite a talented photographer.

Also, I had the joy and pleasure of photographing the wedding of Heidi’s sister, Cheryl, not too long ago. Cheryl is pictured on the right. Cheryl and Jon had one of their wedding pictures featured in San Diego Style Weddings for the past year. Their pic is in the newlyweds section. Yeah!

-shawna K

Sometimes it pays off to be an insomniac! I watched the lightning in the mountains for a while this evening and decided to break out my camera when it became apparent that we were having a full-blown electrical storm, and not just a few random bolts of lightning. I should say, too, that I have NEVER photographed lightning before. My hat is off to those patient photographers who capture the perfect bolts of lightning in photographs. These are not easy subjects!!!

We don’t get very many electrical storms in San Diego, so this was kind of a rarity. At about 1:00 in the morning, I went up on Mt. Helix to start shooting. I was a little bit nervous about the weather . . . and also wasn’t too sure I wanted to be on a mountaintop all alone! I should have known that Mt. Helix would be full of people vying for the best spot to see the lightning. Even the police were up there watching the storm. Usually they are kicking people off of the mountain, but tonight they let us stay.

Anyways . . . here are my first attempts at lightning pictures. The first one is the first shot I took, and it is a bit overexposed. However, it is also a pretty good example of how San Diego looked tonight, because we had tons and tons of lightning bolts all at the same time - not just one or two here and there. It was so surreal!

Enjoy!

-shawna K

After conducting several interviews and not finding the right match, I am still looking for an office assistant to help with the overwhelming amount of contracts, filing, and paperwork at the studio. If you know of anyone who is looking for an entry level position, but is reliable and has a great personality, please let them know about this opportunity. The position is part-time, with flexible hours, and requires reliable transportation for running errands (mileage reimbursed at standard rates).

Please have them email me their contact information and/or resume at skrystek@cox.net. Thanks!

-shawna K

I am happy to announce that Ken Phares has recently joined the studio as Associate Photographer. Some of you may have already seen Ken as a second photographer at your wedding and some of you may have already retained Ken to photograph your wedding. Ken has been photographing weddings for over 15 years - and as you can tell from his picture, he certainly doesn’t look old enough to have been photographing weddings for that long. Indeed, he’s not! But he photographed his first wedding at the ripe old age of 15!!!!! Isn’t that incredible? Anyways, I am pleased to have him on board. He is amazingly talented and a true asset to the studio. I’ll be posting some of his work soon.

-shawna K

I promised more pictures of Ashlie and John, so here they are! The last one is actually my favorite. The San Diego Marriott had these gorgeous drop lights that made the perfect background for some shots.

I’ll be adding a link to their mini-slideshow momentarily, which you can access at the list of links to the right.

Location: San Diego Marriott; marriott.com/property/propertypage/SANDT
Florist: Nancy Stevens Wedding Flowers; www.nancystevens.com
Cake: Shirley Resnick “The Cake Lady”
Video: EG Videoproductions
DJ: Mick at www.elitebritishdj.com
Coordinator: Julie at www.elitebritishdj.com

I had the pleasure of receiving a visit from Ray and Gloria Prevost last week. Ray is a wedding photographer from Modesto, California, www.prevostphoto.com/. He is also an amazing Photoshop Guru . . . He has helped me immensely with PS tips and tricks and is also the mastermind behind the ad I currently have running in San Diego Style Weddings (he’s the eyelash man!). I loved that image, but Ray came up with the crop and made it so much better.

He and Gloria were in town visiting their daughter and stopped by to see me! Getting together with fellow photographers is always fun . . . here’s a little “engagement session” right in my studio!

And here’s the ad:

-shawna K