HELLO I'M
Growing up I coveted our family photo albums. I looked through them slowly, taking each photo in and studying the body language. I was fascinated by the stories they told. My favorites were unposed moments, candids. In a non-digital age it was about preserving fleeting moments. Some were a reminder of a love that once was. Others told the story of our families journey. These photos are more than people on a piece of paper, they tell stories of the past that brought us to today. A visual reminder of where we’ve been and how far we’ve come.
As I got older, I was the kid who went through a disposable camera weekly. I loved capturing people interacting, laughing, or having a quiet moment. I was so excited to develop the film! Once I got the pictures I made collages and albums, I treasured them. When my family moved to San Diego we sadly lost many of our albums. This made me appreciate the photos I have even more.
At 14 I made eye contact with a boy in the hallway. Something inside of me told me, “that’s going to be your husband”. I remember thinking, “that was weird” and brushed it off. Fast forward to my 16th birthday party where my sister said I was an idiot for not dating that boy from the hallway. The boys name was Alonzo and I still have that photo of he and I at that party. Baby faced and completely oblivious of what our life together would become. On our 1 year Anniversary we went to Disneyland and bought each other a hat and jacket. We wore them again on our 2nd anniversary trip and again the one that followed. This quickly became our annual photo tradition.
After a few years of dating we were getting older and settling into adulthood. Alonzo bought me my first Canon DSLR. I was photographing with an old film camera that was falling apart. I had an actual screw in the camera to rewind my film. It was dangerous to say the least. I started photographing families right away and making scrapbooks with the photos.
In 2009, Alonzo proposed and we started planning our wedding. Having never seen wedding photos of my family, I wanted our future children to have some nice photos to look back on. We hired a very inexpensive photographer, with no contract or portfolio. I did not get my wedding photos for 3 years. Seriously. After that I made it my goal to become a wedding photographer and make sure my couples would never go through anything like that.
Nine years later and I'm doing the damn thing! This journey comes from a lifelong desire to document human life. Photos are precious and not having them made me realize just how precious they really are.
P.S. We still take our annual Disney Photo.
"SHE MAKES YOU COMFORTABLE"
We absolutely LOVE Kim! She is the most laid back (but professional) person I have ever met. It feels like we’ve known her for years and we’re just good friends. She knows how to make you feel comfortable to get those amazing shots. She’s really good at reading people and can tell if you’re uncomfortable and will quickly change it up. I told her I want the real stuff, the tears (especially from my husband....and she got them!! WE LOVE KIM!! You’d be doing yourself a huge favor if you hire her!!