the moment nicole promised me i could photograph her in her wedding dress, i was in bliss. there was no better woman to photograph than my wife in her wedding dress. the occasion was the day after my brother's wedding in grand bahama island (yesterday). after 2.5 years of marriage and lots of wedding cake (we're wedding photographers, you know), her dress fit her like i remember on our wedding day: july 2, 2005. we pulled off something special together and i'm super proud to show off all her sexyliciousness:

merry christmas from kern-photo! we hope the joy of the holiday season has been with you and your family!

the last several days have been spent with family in oklahoma and colorado.

i promised this entry for my parents in oklahoma before we left for the bahamas for my brother's wedding.

duke and holly, dash's yorkshire terriers cousins, were a big response to my parents' empty nest syndrome. cute as a button, these pedigree pooches have won over my parents. in addition, they were a big party of my brother's bachelor party last weekend. 18 months old and weighing in a 3.5 lbs, here's holly:


and big brother duke:


this shot was one of the hardest shot to get of two independent minded canines up on the ping-pong table :)

it has been over 18 months since my mom, dad, brother and i have been together and over 4 years since we've been together at my parent's house. we miss our spouses, as they are an important part of the family. we will all be together in a whirlwind destination wedding in the bahamas later next week. here's how the kern family started:



my mom cooked up a killer italian meal at the same kitchen table where we had many meals growing up. thanks, mom:)

care to peer into the mystique of british monarchy? see queen elizabeth photographed by celebrity photographer annie leibovitz below:


annie's stuff rocks. celebrity's are honored to have HER chosen as the photographer. her lighting is impeccable. see for yourself here.

show notes:
- annie wears sneakers to meet the queen. a photographer has to be comfy, right?
- annie states, "sit here like this. we'll do the rest." what a line.
- annie tells the queen mum to remove her crown. gulp.
- no less than 11 assistants.
- annie brings her daughter. (how sweet)
- annie's answer to the question, "did she like them?": "she approved them"

ah, a dog's life. after sleeping in, we enjoyed our time on the mountains at winter park followed by a playful late-afternoon in the woods.

susen, dave, & tommy tagged-team with our previous entry clients (isabell, bill, & lilly) to meet at red rocks for a little pre-holiday p-session. susen and isabell are both sisters, so you might notice a resemblance :). tommy joined the fun to be featured along with his brother, dave. here's the trio with a subtle colorado sunset:


we went for a rock-star portrait of dave with some kern-photo tricks :)


susen featuring her snow white smile:


and a genuine moment of tommy:


here are the love bugs:


susen & dave were very cool trying out some new ideas inside this little red rock cove.


the lighting was perfect for this relaxed portrait with a post-sunset glow:

3-year-old lilly gave us a run for our money yesterday at red rocks during her family portrait session. despite the cold, we kept things moving and had tons of fun. textured backgrounds, great light, and fun subjects make our job easy:



peek-a-boo.


in colorado style:



gq bill.


we've been going after some edgier shots.... and this won our hearts :)


lilly showing off her brand new dress. i think all girls must feel this way:

last sunday i surprised nicole at her favorite study spot (rei starbucks in denver) cramming for her pharmacology final. two weeks, 5 finals, and three take home exams later, nicole is finally finished and is well-deserving of some time off. nicole completed her third semester of a 3-year physician assistant master's program at the university of colorado health science center. the glass is half full and she is now over the hump, if that makes any sense :) we're off to ski/board at winter park for the next 3 days to celebrate, check out, and veg out with dash.

taken handheld with a 2.0 megapixel apple iphone. not to shabby in available light!

en route to cannon beach, oregon after a long week of teaching, i sleuthed out some quirky color with a dash of technical trinkets and organic flair. here's what was seen through the lens (commentary to follow-up in a day):

haystack rock in the distance with the pacific ocean.

so it just dawned on me where a potential source of inspiration for our logo colors came from: our ikea candlesticks and kitchen table mats. after sifting through some test shots with our new nikon 85 mm f/1.4 lens photographing of our kitchen table, i found this image:


ikea has always been a super cool place for us. moments after stepping off the plane in portland, i noticed the big blue and yellow ikea sign right from the airport. i was giddy. we've had several spontaneous purchases their over the years, which has resulted in stellar macgyver tactics in bringing our bounty home. last night was no different. weeks ago i agreed to let my wife transform our psuedo-bachelor pad into something that makes her smile. during her final exam week, it all went down :) it started with purchase #1. i was thinking this would be something fairly easy to check with my luggage on the flight back to denver (note the spiffy packaging tape handle).

(ps- all shots taken with our my 2 megapixel iphone camera)

one thing led to another, and...

thank goodness i got a free upgrade to a convertible, otherwise there'd be no way i get this back to the hotel! it was a chilly ride home, needless to say!

packing the goods with a feat, especially as the hours approached midnight at the local fedex/kinkos:


it will be worth it to have a completely redecorated kitchen and living room for under $600, not to mention a happy wife ("happy wife" = "happy life"). PS- shipping costs were $72 for 5 packages exceeding 140 lbs thanks to fedex express with hundredweight pricing! justification: that was just a tad over typical sales tax in colorado.... thanks to no sales tax in oregon! the end.

yes, dash, that is snow....


when it snows a little engergizer bunny gets dash going and going and going. 100% pure vizsla bliss at green mountain.

the new chuck-a-snowball game has HUGE entertainment value.

i've had the pleasure of getting to know tom pehrson and his booming wedding videography buisness, peak impact productions. we recently gave him an early christmas present and photographed him, his wonderful wife tina, and their family of beautiful pooches. this evening tom wrote the following note to us:

"I just wanted to say thanks for agreeing to work with us last weekend.  It was great to see your style in action.  I got Tina to finally take a look at your blog and [she] loves your work.  Once she started looking at the photos, she went through every entry.  That's a good sign and hopefully everyone who visits your blog has the same experience.  By the time they get done, they're ready to hire you.  She says she really loves how people's eyes seem to stand out in your photos.  So, thanks again!"

then comes the hard part:

"On a sad note, we had to put Sophie down this evening.  She was a good dog, but she took a turn for the worst in the last few days and it would have been cruel for us to keep her alive with no hope of recovery.  We're really glad that we got you to capture her and thanks for working with us on such short notice."

this blog entry is dedicated to sophie.

here she is in her glory:


feel free to write your condolences in the comments section below. your comments will be great appreciated :)

here are her siblings:


dogs and fire hydrants go hand and hand.


here are the pooches with full attention on a floating knit hat:



if we had a professional videographer at our wedding, without reservations we would higher him. here's he is with his videography tool:


here's tina and tom:


and the whole gang:

the big date is may 31, 2008 in beaver creek and we are giddy to document their special day :) we shared in a cutting-edge kern-photo e-sesson. despite 20 degrees and snow, spirits were warm and cheery. here are a few of the favorites from our outing in longmont, colorado:
:

after meeting of coffee, we explored the holiday decor in the streets.


we found a painted brink building which added a great backdrop for the following sequence:


one of their favorite romantic spots was mcintosh lake, near longmont, colorado.

this carrot has been dangling in front of us for sometime:


the latest nikon 85mm f/1.4: built like a tank. sharp as a tack, even when used wide open. with it, we are able to shoot sans tripod in practically low to no light. a classic photojournalist lens. hands down, nikon's best portrait lens features buttery smooth, creamy bokeh in the background (note the subtle blue blur in the background). bokeh = the quality rendering of the out of focus background, paramount in obtaining that elite elusive quality of an image and superior isolation of the subject, yada, yada, yada. our clients will surely appreciate the flattering quality of a shallow depth of field in their portraits. here is one of the first shots taken with this lens (nikon d-200, 1600 iso, 85 mm, 1/90 at f/1.4, handheld, no flash):


ps- nikon mounted this lens on the brand spankin' new $5,000 full-frame digital camera, the nikon d3, discussed here. yes, this lens is all that AND a bag of chips.
pss- special thanks to my wife, nicole, for enabling kern-photo to drop major coin on a fixed focal lens :)

i recent hung out with gino siller and we totally geeked out at the denver zoo. we had a RADTASTIC time with a rented $7,500 nikon 400mm f/2.8 lens, thanks to camren. having rubbed shoulders with fellow national geographic photographers, it is nice to pretend for a day that i'm on assignment, even though it is an urban zoo self-assignment.

i dedicate this entry to my mom, who has instilled in me a super appreciation of wildlife via our backyard, foreign travels, national geographic, the discovery channel, and animal planet. the writings of ken rockwell served as supporting inspiration :)

here's gino, an animal pimpin' in style with his brand spankin' new nikon d3, which is a nikonian's dream camera. btw, nikon just kicked canon straight in the balls with this new $5,000 digital camera.


after we talked shop trippin' on caffeine, we headed to photograph some of the world's coolest creatures. first up, i spotted dash's new girlfriend. nicole and i agree she's so pretty, she could be waaaaay out of his league:



and here's the rest of the crazy creatures photographed in kern-photo style:


raindeer love.


bambi's competition.


about as homely as they get.... on par with loveable shrek.


the fastest animal on land, the cheetah.


these things will eat you and ALL your loved ones (so i had a bad big bird experience as a little one):


these guys got pissy when they didn't want to share.


and my favorite shot of a siberian tiger.

june 13, 2008 will be a special day for high school sweethearts megan & jeff. we braved the winter cold in fort collins last weekend and headed to the colorado state university campus for some engagment extra-currricular activities. being a university of colorado-boulder alum (my master's), i had to keep my mouth shut about talking rival football smack, especially after cu-boulder's 31- 28 overtime win this year. regardless, megan & jeff were super spirited and eager to share some kern-photo 'fresh. modern. fun.' ladies first:


a genuine moment.


something matching and 'cute.'


and something 'different.'


strong backlite images are a favorite technique. it was about 40 degrees when these photos were taken... both megan & jeff were super troupers :)


we then headed into one of the academic buildings for some rated pg-13 posings.


this one was my favorite from the whole shoot.

katie's fiance, shawn, serves in the army and has been stationed in iraq since january. having grown up in a military family myself (r. j.), being a 'military brat' was a fact of life. my grandfather was a marine in vietnam, my father is a retired O-6 in the navy, my brother graduated from the air force academy, and my brother's fiance from west point. when we meet with a client and find out their loved one is stationed overseas, our hearts go out to them. care packages come in many forms, including home-made cookies, handwritten love notes, and pictures of loved ones. we decided to offer katie a *free* portrait session so she could send her man some love in pictures. and here she is:

ps- we are proud to offer a 10% discount on any wedding or portrait packages to active duty military personnel.

longtime buddy ryan otto (also a groomsman at our wedding) had his first major fashion gig at the volunteers of america max fashion show, held on saturday at at the exdo event center in denver. you may remember him from our posting back in february here and here. he did such a terrific job for being a first time up on the catwalk. way to go, man!

faun, bill, and little gage hired us last year for a family portrait and loved it so much they hired us again this year. family portrait sessions (p-sessions) with a 2.5 year-old ain't easy. after we snapped their 'money shot' for their buisness/family christmas card....


... we did a little fresh. modern. fun. with gage. he's not a model yet, but we'll give him a year or so and those agents WILL be calling!





we get gage's undivided attention for about .25 seconds, until this usually happens:


as our session winded down, we had a bit more creative license to experiment with strong backlighting sans flash.


then comes the funny part. moments before wrapping things up, gage spotted a cute girl in the window of a jewelry store. she is three. gage was aloof at first.


... then gradually warmed up to the idea that flirting is OK.

civic lesson 101 commences sharply at 8 am tomorrow for me. for the record, your honor, i've never served jury duty, nor been summoned. i am secretly excited serve an important roll in our democratic justice system. i'm keeping my fingers crossed it isn't another drawn out oj case.

ps - i am one step closer on fulfilling #10 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days. i have successfully blogged for over a month in a row (33 days to be exact), which has been tough but worthwhile. i've also been hard at work at meeting several other goals on the list. stay tuned for details...

we love fan mail. two recent clients sent some kind words our way about their recent kern-photos. here's what the kelly sparks had to say about her family portrait:

"Kern-photo absolutely exceeded all our expectations from start to finish - all the way from helping us prepare for the session to helping us choose and order photos afterward."

"RJ really was able to capture all the emotion in little moments when we weren’t just posing for the photo but were simply enjoying being there. He got some shots of my son in the moment of discovery – his first dandelion! It was completely spontaneous and magical. RJ absolutely captured my son’s amazement and concentration on this little bit of nature… and even got my husband and I looking on in the background. It’s my favorite shot."

"I’d recommend kern-photo to absolutely anyone. We will be specifically sending a recommendation to my sister who has a wedding coming up and to ALL my “mom friends” to get amazing photos of their babies and families!"


tara & justin wrote this about their wedding photos: "Justin and I just looked at all the pictures... WE LOVE THEM!!! You captured so much of what we wanted.... thank you! They are absolutely amazing. As we looked at them, Justin said, "We are so recommending R. J. to anyone we know."  :) Thanks for AMAZING pictures!!!!"