katy gray photography | blog

i've moved!

2009-06-18T18:48:00.003-06:00

After toying with the idea for a couple of months, I've moved my blog over to a custom Wordpress blog hosted on my own site. The main reason for this is that I just like the look a lot better! Cleaner, more custom, bigger photos, sweet image slideshow for the masthead...it pretty much rocks. Not that I'm knocking Blogger, it's been good to me, but it was time to move on up. Please update your links/RSS feeds to point at http://www.katygray.com/blog as I'll no longer be updating here.

Thanks!!!

bad blogger

2009-03-22T15:42:00.002-06:00

No donut.

It's been quite a while! Let's see - we've had a new baby, a computer meltdown that lasted for about a month, a ceiling collapse...nothing but a bunch of excuses, I know.

BUT! My new website is uploading as we speak and I am going to try my darnedest to post more often now that I'm on a bit of a schedule with Milo.

And as the first post-baby post (too many posts?) - some images of Milo.

ok, a LOT of images of Milo. What can I say, I'm smitten.

first things first - at the hospital (the photos of me were taken by Nate):

5:43 pm, 12/3

he was a bit jaundiced, so he had to spend a few days in the tanning bed to get his bilirubin levels back to normal:

at home:

first bath:

mid-sneeze:

Christmas:

With mom and dad:

Phew! That takes care of December, at least. I haven't forgotten about the belly shots - we did another shoot in November where we got out the lights and went up to an old abandoned schoolhouse near here and got some really cool stuff. Stay tuned - I promise not to go 5 months without posting again!

dillon, mt

2008-10-28T10:11:00.003-06:00

Nate and I took a fun little road trip up to Dillon, MT a few weeks ago just for the heck of it. Nate got some fabulous belly shots of me along the way which I will post soon, but I thought I'd post some of my shots from the drive and our various stops.

A funny little town off of the interestate - I don't think we saw a single other car the whole time we were wandering around:

the biggest auto junkyard i've ever seen (sadly we couldn't get in to explore) -

this was in Dillon - there is a ton of really sweet graffiti there for some reason!

on the way home -

after some delay, part 2!

2008-10-10T15:02:00.002-06:00

Picking up where we left off...

Brendan's grandmother -

On the way to the Terrace for some bride/groom shots -

Aren't they cute?

My favorite of the two of them -

Toasts!

The kids were sooo excited about the dessert display.

first dance -

All the girls were terrified of the bouquet - it was one of the funniest tosses I'd ever seen -

brendan & angela, part 1

2008-09-09T09:16:00.002-06:00

I am not quite done processing these yet but I'm so excited for Brendan & Angela to see them that I just had to blog part one (aka - pre-ceremony). These were mostly taken at the University Club in Madison, WI, which is where the ceremony & reception took place.

Angela's gorgeous ring - nice work, B!

The University Club -

Isn't she beautiful?

The boys -

Pretty much the only time I saw Angela sit down all day -

Bouquet confusion!

The last few minutes before the ceremony -

Keep an eye out for part 2!

brendan & angela

2008-08-29T09:35:00.000-06:00

I had the fabulous good fortune to be able to shoot the wedding of one of my oldest friends last weekend in Madison, WI. I am still in the post-processing stage but couldn't resist posting a quick tease...

Congratulations and best wishes to both of you!!

miluse

2008-08-27T09:31:00.003-06:00

A few months ago I did a maternity shoot with my friend Jessica in Colorado...she delivered Miluse (pronounced Mee-lushe, it's Czech) about two weeks later and just a few weeks ago I was able to do a shoot with wee Miluse at our house. She is such a happy baby and soooo wiggly!

product shoot

2008-07-31T09:38:00.003-06:00

On Tuesday I got an email from my friend Brooke, the owner of Velvet Strawberries, which is a wonderful line of body scrubs. She had an opportunity to have an article about her products in Fit Yoga magazine but had no pictures of anything - what's a girl to do? She overnighted a box of all her products to me and I spent last night playing with product photography. It was soooo fun! And as a super special bonus I get to keep all the freaking awesome producuts. Check out her website - www.velvetstrawberries.com - the scrubs are amazing and a portion of the proceeds of each one gets donated to charity.

ingrid's maternity shoot

2008-06-24T09:06:00.002-06:00

This weekend I did a super fun maternity shoot with my friend Ingrid. The first real workout of my new studio area! We had a blast and got some great shots; she's due any day now so we just squeaked it in in time. For her first son I think we did the shoot about two weeks before she delivered, I think we cut it even closer this time. Here are a few of my favorites:

I snapped this one after she realized that she was trying to suck in her stomach to absolutely no effect -

I love love love these last two -

Best wishes for Ingrid and M2!

belly shots

2008-06-10T21:14:00.002-06:00

Today I was made aware of the fact that I hadn't taken a single picture of my belly yet. Shameful! I took the opportunity to play with my new studio lights in our basement and had great fun setting everything up. Nate put up a nice black backdrop for me and I puttered away for about an hour, posing my belly.

Nate's favorite -

a totally different feel - this one was processed with the Totally Rad Old Skool action, I like the effect quite a bit -

I'm very excited to do this weekly and watch my belly grow over the next six months. It'll be fun to come up with a project that'll incorporate the whole series.

big news!

2008-05-21T09:58:00.002-06:00

I'm pregnant! Pretty much the biggest news out there, eh? Whooooooooooooo.

Nate and I are both just tickled pink about the whole thing. I've started a baby blog, which is probably why I've been neglecting my responsibilities to this blog a bit. Shame on me. Please head on over there for more details on how things are progressing if you are so inclined!

Anyway, I will do my best to get back in the habit of blogging here at least weekly if not more often. We are going to Chicago on Saturday for five days so I'll definitely have some fun stuff from there.

Also, I got some studio lights! I have a corporate photobooth (almost, sort of) type gig in July and went out and got myself some AlienBees and a battery so I now have totally mobile portable lights. I'll probably set up a little portrait area in our basement to practice and do progress belly shots of myself.

Here's the announcement we sent out after our first doctor's appointment:

and an ultrasound shot of the little blob at 8 weeks -

nursery, etc.

2008-04-25T10:42:00.002-06:00

One last set from our visit to Loveland...the guys were off at Dustin's office, looking at house plans, so Jessica and I decided to get the crib set up and start unpacking the nursery. I know what it looks like, but I DID help put the stuff together; Nate was convinced I just watched and took pictures while she did all the work.

some nursery details -

the biggest lapdog EVER -

jessica's baby shower

2008-04-22T14:23:00.009-06:00

While in Loveland I got to attend Jessica's baby shower and had so much fun! The food was amazing (catered by Thadd at J.Salt Old World Food, sooo yummy) and everyone had a great time. Laura and Lauren had a ton of hilarious games...my favorite was definitely the 'draw the baby on top of your head on a paper plate' game.

It was a kid-friendly shower; there were 4 or 5 zooming around -

The hair on this little guy just kills me; he could totally pull off Ed Grimley with just a little bit of gel -

Jessica's sister won the 'guess what is in this diaper' game...her prize was the unmelted half of the candy bars -

The aforementioned 'paper plate on your head' game -

Jessica's mom with her rendering -

I have no idea what he was up to, but she did NOT like it -

after Jessica specified 'no pink!!' on the invites, an attendee with a literary bent wrote her an ode to pink -

jessica

2008-04-17T08:45:00.002-06:00

Nate and I went down to Loveland CO this weekend to visit our friends Dustin & Jessica and do a belly shoot for Jessica while we were there. She just looks great and it was so wonderful to see them again. We're planning on heading down after baby K is born to help out however we can and to do some mom/baby portraits as well. Here are my faves from the belly shoot -

On the railroad bridge -

We went to a decrepit old building by the tracks and pretty much stayed there all afternoon -

Congratulations you two, Nate and I are both so excited to meet her!

On a blog-related note, I am trying a new watermark/logo bit. What do you all think? Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

sunday drive

2008-04-03T15:04:00.002-06:00

The other Sunday Nate, Norm and I took a drive up to Rexburg and back to see what there was to see. Quite a bit, as it turns out - there are some wonderful old buildings up that way.

Norm is totally ready to go -

A cool grain building somewhere between Driggs & Newdale -

We stopped to play some frisbee with Norm in the fields here; I just love the repetition of these power lines -

Norm was a bit more entranced with the frisbee than the compositional elements of the road -

I saw the birds take off out of the corner of my eye and totally shot blind to get this one - I'm usually not that great at shooting from the hip but I'm super happy with this one.

An old propane tank -

I really like the blue window frames and the tree through the door in this one -

sleepy weekend

2008-03-20T20:48:00.004-06:00

One of my favorite pastimes is torturing Nate and Norm by taking pictures of them constantly. Norm in particular doesn't like the camera; I think the big lenses trouble him. He didn't seem to mind the 50 mm though - it's pretty little and squatty. It's also my new favorite lens - I love the depth of field and it is pretty dang sharp for such an affordable piece of glass.

Some of my favorites from the latest ambush -

horse ranch

2008-03-09T12:27:00.009-06:00

This summer Nate and I got the chance to go to a horse ranch here in the valley - my grandfather and a couple uncles and cousins and my dad were out on a fishing trip and were lucky enough to be able to stay at this gorgeous spot up in the hills.

It was just beautiful up there - about an hour or so outside of Jackson and amazingly tranquil and quiet. We went on a horseback ride, had an amazing lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool with my cousins.

My grandpa is 88 years old here (he'll be 90 this August). He had horses the whole time I was growing up; I used to love going out to the barn with him on the weekends. It was always so amazing to watch him saddle a horse one handed - no easy feat.

Nate snapped this one from the horse behind me -

Nate -

my uncle John and the Judge (aka Grandpa) -

the Judge -

the wranglers let us hop the fence and mingle with the horses - there were about 10-12 colts in the field, all skittish and staying close to their mothers.

this little guy was our favorite -

and what ranch would be complete without a cat to keep track of everything?

visitors

2008-03-06T08:54:00.005-07:00

Sorry I've been MIA lately - we've had visitors in town for the past few days, which has been great. My friend Brendan was here from Wisconsin to snowboard and our friends Dustin & Jessica were here from Colorado for a wedding. It was wonderful to see everyone again - I hadn't seen Brendan in 6 years, which is just far too long. I brought our little PowerShot with me everywhere; here are some of my faves from the weekend -

We went for breakfast in Driggs and all of the guys had to order 'The Healer' - chicken fried steak, eggs, toast, hashbrowns and...wait for it...a PBR. And what is the best chaser for a PBR? A bloody mary.

Dustin eating the pepper that came in his bloody mary -

Norm, Reggie and their favorite toy -

I are serious dog -

on the way up the gondola -

Brendan -

at Grand Targhee -

victor

2008-02-26T19:15:00.003-07:00

The sun finally came out the other day - woo hoo! I saw my chance to finally go play with my fisheye outside and took a little walk around Victor.

not very fishy, but I like it nevertheless -

we've gotten so much snow this winter that this porta-potty is almost totally buried!

the mailboxes -

dick's ditch

2008-02-24T17:08:00.004-07:00

This weekend was the 10th annual Dick's Ditch Banked Slalom race at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. I've done this race six or seven times since I've lived in Jackson and always have had a pretty good time. This year though....wow. We have had a ton of snow (427" as of Friday)(and now it's snowing AGAIN!) and the groomers and park & pipe guys just went nuts. My friend Ratty and I got to the bottom and just stared at each other...this course was insane!

We slipped it a couple more times and felt reasonably confident...and then Saturday dawned cloudy and cold. Not a good sign. This course *needed* to be soft or it was going to be messy. We were momentarily hopeful when the sun peeked out but it was long gone by the time we were to take our runs.

Ratty was amazing - she actually had to do TWO runs to qualify (rather than the standard one run) because she caught up to the girl ahead of her on her first shot. She was pretty happy about it though, she had had to hike to a couple of gates the first run and got a way better time on the second run.

And how did I do? Let's see...I sprained a few fingers, tweaked my knee and did something unfathomable to my shoulder and ribs and *still* managed to disqualify myself after the first gate. Oh well, c'est la vie, right? The fun is definitely in the trying - I had a great time and am really glad I did it again this year. Ratty ended up winning our division (30+ amateur women - or as we have been calling it, the granny division) - woo hoo! She'll get some cool stuff from the sponsors and gets to stand atop the podium - good job Ratty!

Some photos from our point and shoot Canon PowerShot courtesy of Nate -

the start, all hopeful and sunny -

Ratty in the gate -

me in the gate -

one last practice run -

wherever did the sun go?

Ratty hopping for the 2nd gate -

it's a bit blurry, but I have to post the pic of my spectacular wipeout -

my turn to hop -

idaho falls

2008-02-19T19:03:00.002-07:00

Here are a few more from our trip this weekend to Idaho Falls. The absolute highlight for me was finding an ancient hospital gurney out behind an antique shop. When combined with the bars over the windows it was just ever so creepy and weird.

pinecrest inn

2008-02-17T19:51:00.004-07:00

This weekend Nate and I took a bit of a spur-of-the-moment overnight trip to Idaho Falls, ID. During the course of our visit we decided that from now on we will do our best to only stay at mom 'n' pop local hotels - no nation-wide chains. I shot a bunch this weekend but to start off here's a series from our hotel, the Pinecrest Inn.

kim & scott

2008-02-13T21:21:00.006-07:00

Kim and Scott and I all worked together in Bozeman while I was in photo school and they got married this June. Kim is a photographer as well and Scott is in school to be a nurse - I think he's just about done. It was a super fun wedding and I was attending as a guest rather than the photographer, but I couldn't resist shooting a bit while I was there.

Scott's father performed the ceremony -

I did manage to steal them for a few minutes after the ceremony -

I really like the movement in this shot -

emily & andy

2008-02-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

I was looking back over some previous posts and realized that I didn't really get a groove for this whole blog thing until after I had already shot, processed & delivered my weddings from this summer. What fun is a wedding photo blog without wedding photos? Seems a bit silly. So without further ado, some shots of Emily & Andy's wedding here in Jackson -

Em said she felt all 'Sex and the CIty' talking on her cell phone while getting a pedicure -

waiting to head out to the ceremony site -

they couldn't have picked a prettier site - Schwabacker's Landing in Moose, WY -

yum!

textures

2008-02-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

So this fall I went out to shoot some shots around town and ended up shooting a ton of textures and general decrepitness. I don't know if the textures will be at all useful in Photoshop layering or anything but I think they're pretty cool on their own.

First off though - I love this old house. It's right off of the highway and just gets more and more saggy every year -

and the textures -

fisheye

2008-01-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

I just got my new lens - a Canon f2.8 15 mm fisheye! I've been lusting for a fisheye for years so I am pretty giggly about finally having one. Of course, it won't look like a true fisheye on my current camera due to the crop factor of the sensor; yet another reason to get a 5d!

Here's a few examples - it actually almost looks like a rectilinear wide angle (less distortion) rather than a fisheye until you see the bending of the license plates. I can't wait to see what it looks like on a full frame sensor! Once the weather clears up I'll play with outside but here are a few I snapped off quickly in the office -

some of my funky random figurines, including a few Little Homies, Smoking Baby, and a cake topper with a headless groom that I saved from the wedding I shot in Costa Rica this summer -

Wisconsin

2008-01-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

A few more shots from that same trip home - while I was there I was the featured artist at the Lake Gallery in Lakewood, WI and attended the opening. I also spent some time in Green Bay with my best friends from high school and finally got to check out the remodel of Lambeau field.

some shots -

I shot this series when I first started photo school and it is still one of my favorites - it was really cool to see it hung -

my grandpa and dad checking out my portfolio -

who wants jerky?

my friend Jim gave me a yearbook from West High from the 30's - my grandmother sat down and made notes by the teachers she remembered and various people that we are related to -

Jack at the barn -

Shay Lake sunset -

Shawn, me & Leah -

courtesy of Jim Rivett

my brother -

the new atrium at Lambeau -

60th anniversary

2008-01-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

I made a trip home this summer to attend and shoot my grandparent's 60th anniversary brunch up near Lakewood, WI. All of my mom's siblings were there along with my brother and I and a few cousins I hadn't seen in a long time. I got some great shots of my grandparents and my grandfather with HIS siblings...here are some of my favorites:

my grandpa -

my brother Bob -

the happy couple -

these were on a shed outside the restaurant - aren't they neat?

my grandpa (on the right), his sister and twin brothers -

my great uncle and his wife -

when my mom was little my grandmother used to line her and her brother and sisters up in order of age for all of their pictures...we just *had* to re-create one -

this is the bike my brother and I both learned to ride on - my parents gave (loaned?) it to some friends of theirs when they had kids -

photo courtesy of Bob Parins

it's back

2008-01-17T20:50:00.001-07:00

wahoo my computer is back! One power source, one logic board and one optical drive later...

So I finally got to go through some of the pictures from Christmas and realized I have about ten times as many pictures of the dog as I do of my husband or myself. When and if I do get pregnant I think we're going to have to get a separate hard drive for baby pictures.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite shots from Christmas day - the one of me was taken by my lovely and talented husband Nate.

he's sending turkey related mind bullets:

computer update

2008-01-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update - my computer is back in SLC after coming home with the same problem it left with. I'm tempted to think it's something to do with the power supply in our house since it tested just fine in the shop. I really hope they can get it fixed and back to me soon - I am just dying to work on my photos from Christmas!

In the meantime, another shot from my latest Jackson series:

how I spent my Christmas break

2007-12-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

photo courtesy of Nathan Gray.

Snowboarding 15" of new snow at Grand Targhee in Alta, WY. Woo hoo!!!

Followed by a gigantic meal with our roommate and his new fiancee and my good friend Jon. A very good day, all in all.

computer problems

2007-12-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

My computer has inexplicably broken. It gets as far as the login screen and shuts itself off. What this means for the blog is that there probably won't be many posts until I get Roger back from MacDocs in Salt Lake as I now don't have any way to process my photos. Thank goodness I got the website and my ad done before he decided to take a powder.

Speaking of powder...7" in the last 24 hours - I'm on my way out to snowboard!

from my recent jackson series:

updated website

2007-12-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to thank everyone for all of your input and suggestions on my website overhaul - I've made a few final tweaks and I think I'm done. For now. Check it out at www.katygray.com and let me know what you think!

A portrait I re-discovered while updating the site:

I've found quite a few images from this session that I'm interested in re-processing - it's like finding buried treasure!

jackson, wy

2007-11-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

I spent the afternoon wandering around Jackson, documenting the old signs and buildings that are probably not going to be around much longer for whatever reasons. The full set is here, but here are some of my favorites -

prague again

2007-11-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

A few more shots from my re-processing of Prague pictures. These are from the Charles Bridge area.

sunday afternoon

2007-11-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

We took a field trip out to our lot today. I've been trying to take a few pictures every week or so - I think it will make an interesting record of the whole building process. They put in our road a few weeks ago and just poured the sidewalks last week. A few of my favorites from today:

my two favorite guys:

and the poor little trailer across the street:

prague revisited

2007-11-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today I downloaded the trial version of Adobe Lightroom and have been happily tinkering away for the better part of the afternoon. I've gone back and looked at my pictures from Prague and have re-processed a few of them - mostly images I overlooked the first time through. Here are a few of my favorites from this afternoon (more to come, I'm sure).

and the newlyweds -

restorations

2007-11-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished the restorations that I've had since MAY (shame shame shame on me) and will be sending them off soon. Matting multiple images into one mat has always been a bit of a challenge for me; the first one did NOT come out with the right size windows so I had to start over. But I perservered and they look great; I think Janet (hi!) will be happy with them.

original:

restored:

She wanted to keep a sepia-y tone to them so after touching them up I converted to true b/w and added a browny-yellow layer in overlay mode and adjusted to opacity until I thought it looked right. I used the same color/opacity for the other images in the series so they would hang well together and not be all over the map.

afton, wy

2007-10-29T17:05:00.000-06:00

Recently Nate & I took a drive with his parents down through Star Valley and into Afton, WY. I can definitely see more trips down there in my future; Afton is super-funky and there is a lot of interesting stuff going on between here and there. Some shots:

And a self-portrait:

idaho falls

2007-10-29T16:24:00.000-06:00

I love Idaho Falls. It is such a gold mine for a photographer...I usually have to have Nate drive because I can't concentrate on the road once we get to town. Here are some of my favorites from my last trip there:

whew

2007-10-25T21:23:00.000-06:00

Photo submissions sent, ad uploaded. Now I can't wait to see it it print! I decided to go with a variation of #1; added a bit of color to it and toned down the contact info to a light gray instead of bright white. Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

Now it's on to some restorations that I should have done months ago (sorry Janet!) and a website overhaul. No rest for the wicked, I suppose.

adverts (I'm British today!)

2007-10-21T13:52:00.000-06:00

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my ad for A Grand Wedding magazine and thought I would post what I came up with here...it's down to three and I have to decide by Friday.

#1:

#2:

#3:

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

I'm also currently FTP'ing about 350 Mb worth of images for consideration for publication, so I had better stop clogging up the intertubes with my blogging! Heh, clogging with blogging.

finally done!

2007-10-16T14:05:00.000-06:00

Yup, that's right, I've finally finished editing all of my weddings for the summer. The last few proof packets should be coming in tomorrow and the boxes the next day, so pretty soon I'll be able to turn my full obsessiveness to my ad design and layout.

The full set from Emily's wedding is here and I'm so pleased with how everything turned out. I had so much fun shooting and feel like I got some really nice images.

I took a quick trip to Idaho Falls this weekend to do some shooting and shopping...it ended up being more shopping than shooting but hey, sometimes you just gotta shop. Here's one of my favorite shots from an earlier trip to IF:

I'll add the new ones to my IF Flickr set once they get processed. They'll probably sit on the back burner for a bit though - my ad is due to "A Grand Wedding" by the 26th, so I'd better get on it!

costa rica wedding set

2007-10-05T08:20:00.000-06:00

I have put the finishing touches on the wedding in Costa Rica and it can be viewed in its entirety here. I'm pretty excited about it, and I love my new slideshow software (thanks to Jonathan for telling me about it!). You can all look forward to a slightly re-designed website once I get some time at home...possibly this weekend but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm still in the midst of working on Andy & Emily's wedding from 9/8 and am very excited with how things are looking so far. It was a gorgeous day and being able to spend the whole day recording the events was wonderful and really gives the photos a good flow.

It was my first chance to shoot a wedding day from beginning to end and I feel like it has made a big difference in how I spent the day and also in how I shot the day. I was able to get more precise but also more relaxed...I'm not explaining myself well but I'll content myself with saying it helped to solidify the fact that I want to do this as a career.

....and we're back!

2007-09-21T08:30:00.000-06:00

It's been a whirlwind! We returned from Costa Rica on the 28th and immediately set about moving out of our house. Thank goodness our landlord cut us a break and let us take the weekend to finish up or we never would have gotten out in time.

Costa Rica was wonderful, the wedding was beautiful albeit a bit wet and we had a fantastic time. My full Flickr set is here and I should have the wedding photos up soon!

I also have attended two weddings in September, one as a photographer/guest and the other strictly as a guest. Still processing the one I shot professionally but I managed to get the one I attended as a guest online - it's a good thing the battery on my point and shoot died when it did or I would have had some very compromising pictures of my co-worker!

Things are starting to settle down so with any luck I should be able to start posting more regularly soon. I've just gotten the internet at the new house and almost have the office unpacked...just a few more boxes and it'll feel like home!

costa rica here we come!

2007-08-17T15:58:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update - Nate and I are off to Costa Rica at 6 pm...well, actually we're off to Salt Lake City at 6 pm and THEN off to Costa Rica at 8 am, but you know what I mean. The overall journey starts this evening. We're attending a wedding for one of Nate's childhood friends, and I have the honor and pleasure of being their photographer. Not much opportunity to shoot beach weddings in Wyoming so it'll be quite the learning experience!

I'm still very excited about the pictures I got on our *last* trip abroad (to Prague last September) so I can't even wait to see what there is to shoot down there. I've never been on any sort of tropical vacation so this is a real departure for me!

I am off to the airport; there will be many pictures upon my return!

excerpts from a wedding in June

2007-08-03T15:51:00.000-06:00

I have just recently gotten photos online at my old website for my first wedding of the summer. I wasn't the official photographer but a friend of both the bride and groom and asked their permission to pester them endlessly, which they graciously gave.

I had a great time and got some shots I probably wouldn't have gotten at a stranger's wedding - I mean, who would grab you on their way to the porta-potty, other than a friend?

The rest of the set is here and also on Flickr if you'd like to comment on any of the images.

And congratulations to Kim & Scott!

from the great Northwoods

2007-07-29T14:04:00.000-06:00

Today I'm posting from Northern Wisconsin at my parents' house after a gigantic brunch for my grandparents' 60th anniversary. The gallery opening was yesterday and was a tremendous success; drank a lot of coffee and sold two small prints. It really makes it look like something exciting is happening when there are 30 people standing around a small gallery...no one needs to know that it was all family. Oooo except I just gave it away there, huh.

The meeting with Arketype went very well - very low key and everyone seemed to enjoy my book. I gave out all of my cards, too, so now they have NO excuse not to call me. :)

The plan for the rest of the week is to spend some time on the dock and hopefully get to tour around up here in my dad's '56 Willys Jeep and shoot some backwoods goodness. The brakes are a bit soft so I'm a little hesitant to take it out on the highway, but bouncing around Forest Service roads is just what it's made for.

(my favorite lake activity)

My aunt Ginny has organized and categorized about 25 years worth of slides from my grandparents and I have cheerfully volunteered to curate the collection. There are some wonderful images in there of my mom and aunts and uncle as kids, not to mention my grandparents in high school and right when they got married. And my grandma said she was going to get together her old black and white negatives for me - I can't wait to get those to a darkroom! I will definitely post some samples when I get them digitized.

what if work IS play?

2007-07-23T18:56:00.000-06:00

I am furiously preparing for a trip home (Green Bay, WI - go you Packers!!) which will encompass the following:

1. A meeting at arketype group to check out my portfolio and see if they are interested in hiring me for any stock work or assignment type things. Prognosis? Nervewracking.

2. An artist meet & greet at my mom's gallery in Lakewood, WI to kick off my show, The Art of Tattoo. My entire family will be there and most of them are decidedly ambivalent about tattoo photography.

3. My grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary brunch (hence the whole family being in town).

4. Trying to fit an entire year of gossip and silliness with my best friend in one night.

5. After all of these activities are through I will do nothing but relax by the lake for the next 3 days. And it will be glorious.

So I am a printing/website/portfolio fiend right now; trying to multi-task but really just fantasizing about nachos. And possibly a magical laundry fairy.

time to start a'bloggin....

2007-07-22T17:42:00.000-06:00

a bit about me - i'm 31 years old and having been living in jackson, wy for a little over ten years. i took a small break from 2001-2004 to return to school and get my degree in photography from montana state university-bozeman. while i was up there, i met the man who was to become my husband and managed to convince him to move back here with me.

i work full time as an accountant for the jackson hole mountain resort but am heartily looking forward to the day when i can take pictures as a profession and not have to worry about a day job.

nate (that's the husband) and i are currently in the process of building a house; we hope to break ground this fall.

we have a wonderful dog, norman, who will be 9 this fall. he's a lab/border collie cross and is the funniest dog i've ever seen. i may be a bit biased.

that appears to be the basics...what it comes down to is that i love to take pictures. no matter if it's with the fanciest dSLR at a super-posh wedding or with a holga at a demolition derby, i'm tickled pink to be freezing time and capturing moments.

katy gray photography | blog

i've moved!

bad blogger

dillon, mt

after some delay, part 2!

brendan & angela, part 1

brendan & angela

miluse

product shoot

ingrid's maternity shoot

belly shots

big news!

nursery, etc.

jessica's baby shower

jessica

sunday drive

sleepy weekend

horse ranch

visitors

victor

dick's ditch

idaho falls

pinecrest inn

kim & scott

emily & andy

textures

fisheye

Wisconsin

60th anniversary

it's back

computer update

how I spent my Christmas break

computer problems

updated website

jackson, wy

prague again

sunday afternoon

prague revisited

restorations

afton, wy

idaho falls

*whew*

adverts (I'm British today!)

finally done!

costa rica wedding set

....and we're back!

costa rica here we come!

excerpts from a wedding in June

from the great Northwoods

what if work IS play?

time to start a'bloggin....

whew