Ch-ch-ch-changes & a little sledding action

For this being our slower season, we certainly have been crazy busy. Firstly, the Wedding Festival at the Hyatt was a "great success" and we got to talk to so many brides and couples both at the show and since then with lots of new client meetings. We are almost completely booked up for 2010 and only have three spots left so if any brides are interested in having us work our magic for your wedding, you might want to get on the phone and let us know. We will also be at the February 6th Wedding Festival at the Carolina First Center and fully expect to fill our remaining spots shortly after that.

What has really been keeping us busy though is implementing all the juicy nuggets we learned at a national wedding and portrait photography convention we recently attended in Nashville, TN. We left for it right after loading out of the Hyatt and spent a week absorbing business and shooting tips from some of the world's leading photographers. Needless to say our brains were exploding from all the great info. We were quite proud of ourselves though as we found out we were already doing a lot of the things the speakers were doing. Now the fun part is taking the rest of what we learned and making it work for us and our clients. With that said, Kismet Photography will be undergoing some changes both right now and in the near future. Some of the more immediate changes are related to strengthening our brand and our customer experience. We feel we have always done a great job with customer service and creating an enjoyable experience but we are now preparing to blow each and every client away! Heck we are even planning to blow their family and friends away too! We will be sharing some of the changes to come soon so stay tuned to find out more.

With all the brain-frying that has been going on here at Kismet Photography Headquarters, Emily and I have been in desperate need of some R&R. Even our week "vacation" in Nashville was spent almost entirely doing business. And what better way to blow off some steam than frolicking in the snow! Okay, we didn't actually "frolick" but we did brave the ice and snow today to just get out and shoot for fun. Here are some of our favs from that:

















And here is my lovely wife Emily sporting the latest in winter shooting fashion complete with "Griswold" hat and Nikon D3 to block the wind on her face.


After we walked around and shot for a while, we decided it was time to christen our sloped back yard that was covered in an ice/snow mix. The only thing was we didn't have a sled :( But instead of letting that ruin the fun, we decided to use a little "redneck enginuitey" (purposely misspelled for comic value) and take a scrap piece of vinyl siding for a joy ride. And it worked beautifully! Check it out:




**DISCAIMER: Kismet Photography is not responsible for anyone attempting to recreate the scene you are about to witness. Any and all stunts resembling this should be done by professionals or at least in the presence of a supervising adult. And by "adult" we mean someone obviously smarter and with more sense than Curtis Snyder. To paraphrase: "Kids DO NOT try this at home!" **


Hey, at least I "stuck" the landing!

All joking aside this actually looks worse than it was. The yard levels out at the bottom and so I was slowing down to about 2mph before I was "gingerly" stopped by the fence. And yes we have matching "Griswold" hats. They were a joke one year for Christmas but we wear them proudly because we love National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and hey they keep your ears pretty toasty!

Well that's enough frivolity for one day. Back to work!


Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Baird & Zach's Wedding at The Loom in Simpsonville

Well the holidays are over and a new year has begun. We've been so busy the past month though, we haven't been able to post all the fun stuff we did last year! Like Baird and Zach's wedding for instance. The incredibly cold temperatures on their December 11th wedding didn't stop us from having a great time photographing outside though we had to step inside periodically to let the happy couple warm up and to regain feeling in our shutter fingers. Baird's mom, Paige, is a caterer/florist/decorator-extraordinaire and she did an amazing job with all the flowers and decorating both the church and the reception. The ceremony was held at the practically new Palmetto Hills Presbyterian Church in Simsponville and the reception at the, also somewhat new, Loom at Cotton Mill Place. The Loom is an old mill renovated into a big open space with original hardwoods and huge floor to ceiling windows. It's a great venue if you want an already nice-looking blank canvas that you can really personalize to your wedding colors and style.

Check out some of our favorites from Baird's Bridal Portrait session and the wedding day. At the end you can view the wedding album we custom designed for them.

















The couple's First Look:
The one on the right is right before Baird sneaked a peek at Zach. She said she was so anxious she couldn't wait for him to get to her. :)


And the ensuing smiles. It was so funny; Zach was hesitant to touch her like he was afraid he would ruin her dress or something. You can tell by his hands on the left that he was itchin' to hold his beautiful bride.














We think the blue sky mixed with the warm tones from the sun make it look as if it were mid-summer. Of course Baird remembers vividly that it was more like an arctic winter but she was such a trooper and stuck it out for what we think are some beautiful shots.


Like this one...
This was one of their favorites as well and will be the cover of their album.


We couldn't let Baird have all the fun out in the cold, so we brought out her girls and had them squeeze in close for warmth and give us some goofy faces. Little did they know, all we really wanted was to capture the laughter that almost certainly follows. Of course the goofy faces can be fun too.


Love Baird peeking around the corner. Her uncle did a great job of keeping her laughing and not thinking about how nervous she was.


Love how Baird's grandmother looks so proud and happy for her.





This was definitely a neat looking cake ala Kathy & Co. but what really makes this cake shot sing is the beautiful background that Paige created.

Attention brides and reception venues: There is nothing worse than taking a beautiful wedding cake and sticking it right up against a plain, boring wall. Not only does it make it difficult to get a good angle for the cake cutting, but also to get any interesting shots of the cake itself! Please do all photographers a favor and move it away from the wall. This has been a public service announcement from the Coalition for the Ethical Treatment of Wedding Cakes.


See, better placement = neater angles!


And now for something completely different...





To give you a better idea of what an awesome job Baird's mom, Paige, did on decorations, here are a couple detail spreads from the couple's wedding album showcasing her beautiful handiwork.

The Church:


The Reception:




To see it all come together, check out the custom album we designed for them:

Oh Yeah! And Happy New Year everybody!


Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography