Tiffany & Matt are Married!

Here are a few photos from Tiffany and Matt’s wedding we shot a couple weeks ago. This wedding was held at Kurtz’s Beach. If you’ve ever been there for an event, you know how beautiful this location is…right on the Bay. It was a perfect location for the beach theme of the wedding.



To go along with that theme, it threatened to be a fairly hot day, but as it turned out…it wasn’t that bad. This was mainly because the ceremony took place later in the afternoon. A heavy summer thunderstorm did roll through shortly after the ceremony, but by that time everyone was inside for the reception.


The reception hall layout, which was somewhat round, made it easy for us to move around the crowd for some great shots. With the casual, laid-back atmosphere of the venue and the event, we didn’t feel like we we’re working. We had a great time, and really felt like one of the guest.



Tiffany and Matt - It’s our prayer that your marriage will be full of God’s blessings. Best of luck, and thanks for allowing us to photograph and be a part of your special day.

Stacey & Travis

What a good time we had shooting an engagement session for Stacey and Travis. This session was originally scheduled earlier in the Spring, but with so much rain at that time, we found ourselves rescheduling most shoots…including this one.

Well, the wait was well worth it! There were so many photo opportunities at the house of Travis’ parents, that we could’ve shot there for hours. As with most shoots, Krista and I get so wrapped up in the sessions…we don’t know when to stop. If it wasn’t for losing the sun light that evening, we may well have shot hours more. Hey what can we say, we love this job!

Although the daylight ran out quickly, we managed to cover most ideas that all of us wanted to try. The hardest part of this session wasn’t the shooting. It was selecting some photos to post to this blog. We like so many! Finally, we managed to narrow the selection down and post a few.






We can’t wait until the Fall when we’ll have the opportunity to witness a very special day in their lives, and be there to photograph every moment of it.

Stacey and Travis - thanks for a great evening. We are really looking forward to your Wedding . . . it will be beautiful!

Trash the Dress....well, almost.

For those not familiar with a "Trash the Dress" photo session, check out this Wiki link for an explanation.

One morning last weekend we met Ana at Patapsco State Park, with the intent of shooting her at Cascade Falls in a wedding gown we bought on Ebay. Well, the Ebay dress didn't fit...but she'd also brought her own wedding dress. Not wanting to totally trash her own dress, she was willing to at least let it get a little wet on the bottom. Hey, that will work for us we thought...let's do it. Off to the falls!


Although it was a short uphill hike to the falls, by the time we got there, we all realized how out of shape we were. Fortunately for us, there was no one using the falls when we arrived...so we were good to go! There was however a tree that had fallen right across the pool at the bottom of the falls. Note to self: add chain saw to photo equipment bag for all future wooded shoots. Just kidding. The tree, although in the way, was worked into the session quite nicely as you can see.


We set up some lights, Ana changed into the wedding dress, we did a few test shots to check exposure, and we were ready to roll. Several locations in and around the falls were used, and we were only interrupted a few times by hikers and bikers...one person even congratulated Ana on her marriage. Within the couple of hours while there, we got a fairly wide variety of shots done. When a family with several kids arrived to use the falls and pool for swimming, it was time to call it a day.

As we edit the photos, we'll post more here for everyone to see.

Ana - Thanks for a great session! We look forward to working with you again soon.

Senior Rep Model Search

Are you graduating in 2010?

If your answer was yes then you have a chance to win a FREE senior photo session. Kanda Studios is looking for outgoing seniors to become our Class of ‘10 Senior Reps. Two seniors from each high school will be selected and receive the following:

-one complimentary on location photo session
-4 of your favorite images watermarked and sized for Facebook/Myspace
-2 sheets of wallets with an image of your choice
-50 Custom Senior Rep cards

What is a senior rep?

A senior rep promotes Kanda Studios by personal testimony and referring seniors to us by handing out senior rep cards. These cards will give them 20% off their print purchases. Then, for each of your referrals that completes a session with us, you will receive two sheets of wallets from your session or $10 cash, depending on what you prefer.

If you would like to enter for your chance to win, please have your parent send an e-mail to KandaStudios@Verizon.net and be sure to include the following information:

1. Your name
2. High School name
3. A contact phone number
4. A recent snapshot

All entries are due by July 1, 2009.
The seniors selected will be notified by July 8, 2009.

**All contestants must be graduating from high school during the 2010 school year.
**Winners must agree to be a participating Senior Rep for Kanda Studios.
**High schools are limited to Howard, Carroll and Anne Arundel counties

If you have any questions feel free to contact us at KandaStudios@verizon.net

We look forward to hearing from you!

Blue Chevy & Blue Jeans

Here are a few images from a session we had recently with the Decker family. As with most of our sessions in the last couple of months, rain was again threatening to force us to shoot inside. We were lucky enough to get most of our shooting done outside without getting wet.




Their property had many great locations to use as backgrounds for our photos. To save time, we didn’t stray far from the house to shoot. In fact, the house plays a major role in most of the session's photos. At our request, they even pulled their blue 57 Chevy out of the garage, and parked it in the driveway for a few shots. These were some of our favorite shots of the day.






What about the rain you ask? Well, it held off until after the session, and we were well on our way home...then the flood gates opened!

Baby Chloe

Meet beautiful Chloe. She was 6 weeks old at the time of our session and very much aware of what was going on. We had a hard time getting her to sleep because she hardly takes naps on a normal basis.

Our intentions were to have her sleeping in the majority of her pictures but ended up with a bright eyed baby. When she was content we were amazed at how well she would look at the camera. I think we have a future model on our hands.

Relatively Speaking...

This entry is titled “Relatively Speaking” because the family in the pictures are related to Krista and I.






When planning this session, Mom told us that her daughter Julia might not cooperate in front of the camera. Well we've handled situations like this in the past, and we were ready with all the tricks we normally use on little kids to squeak out a few good session pictures.


We were even ready to use some things we learn in a recent Sandy Puc seminar "Tots to Teens." Turned out, we used very little from our bag-o-tricks because Julia cooperated extremely well. As a matter of fact, we captured so many cute images of her that it was hard to narrow them down for touch-up and editing.





Here’s a preview of a few images from that session.

Fitness Modeling

Last week we finally got the pleasure of taking pictures of Sarah. Sarah is a relative of ours that we’ve been trying to schedule a photo session with for quite some time. Busy schedules on both sides have delayed us getting together to take pictures, but we finally managed to find a date that was open for us all.


The main purpose of the session was to add some new fitness style images to Sarah's modeling portfolio. As you can see, I think we got some nice shots for her to use.


Since the weather was rainy that day and we couldn't go out, the entire session was shot in the studio. Hopefully soon, we’ll be able to get on her schedule again for some photography out side.



Sarah - It was good to see you again, and we hope you had as much fun doing this session as we did.

The Smiths

We had a session with one of the sweetest families a few weekends ago. We had intentions of doing the session outdoors but the weather ended up being terrible that day.

Lucky for us their house was gorgeous and it made for some great portraits. Hopefully next time we are able to make use of their beautiful yard as we intended to that day.

Thanks again! We had a great time!

A chilly afternoon at Savage Mill

Last weekend we had the privilege of shooting a family at Savage Mill. Lucky for us, we found lots of great spots for the kids to play and be themselves. The area was full of statues for the kids to climb on, a big red barn, and a beautiful church court yard.

Zach was full of energy and personality. He loved to have his picture taken. Aly took a little longer to warm up to us, but she very quickly broke from her shy shell and all of her adorableness shined through.

Their Grandmother was in town during the photo shoot, and we were able to get her in a few shots as well. Some of them ended up being our favorites from the day!

Brandi, we are so glad to have met your family and boyfriend. You made this "sneak peak" blog posting very difficult for us… way too many wonderful pictures to choose from. We look forward to seeing you all again!

Spring is finally upon us.

This month has been interesting. Snow showers mixed with sunshine, rain the next week and the beautiful signs of new life….spring is finally upon us.

We are very excited about the coming season! We love to get outside and enjoy the weather with our clients. The cold always seems to keep people home and you can only have so many studio shots. We love to change it up taking pictures against any backdrop the earth has to offer, and have you going home with portraits that are unique and fun. So, if your looking to get some nice spring photos, we are ready when you are!

Contact us at kandastudios@verizon.net to set an appointment.

In the mean time, here are a few spontaneous shots of my son enjoying the warm weather for the first time this year.

Creative Sessions

What do you mean we are not getting paid for this?

That’s right; sometimes we as artist need a creative outlet that’s not driven by money. Something for our own fulfillment. When we don’t have a customer’s need to satisfy or meet, we are free to experiment and try some of our own ideas and techniques. Not only does this give us a creative outlet, but it helps us to improve our techniques for those future paying gigs.



For those creative sessions, we usually call on someone to model for us. Sometimes this model may be a relative or a good friend. Other times we pull from the resources of groups like the web based Model Mayhem. When using people from MM, the shoot becomes an opportunity for all of us to practice our tradecraft. Ultimately, everyone involved in this type of shoot walks away with images to freely use as they wish.



Recently we contacted Carrie, a Mayhem friend and model, and set up a day and time for one of these creative sessions. We had a couple of shot ideas we wanted to try, and then we were just open to experiment. As usual, it’s always enjoyable working with professional models. Just point the camera at them, and they know exactly what to do. They can really make the photographer’s pictures look good…and as you can see, Carrie did just that.

Thanks for a great session Carrie!

Jessica & Ray

Last weekend we had a HS Senior photo session with two great teens...Jessica and Ray. By far, these were the best seniors we ever had the pleasure to photograph! We have to say that because they're family :-) Really, they were great, and we had a lot of fun doing the shoot. We even think they may have enjoyed it a little.


Usually we try to get our seniors out side for their sessions, mainly because this gives us much more to work with as far as backgrounds and scenery. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, and the temps were a little on the cold side. So, in the studio we stayed.


After a few individual pics of Jessica and Ray, we got them together for shot or two. The session ended with a requested shot of them both together, and included some props they brought along. This was a fun picture that would be used later in an invitation to their graduation parties. The shot ended up really looking cool, and we'd like to post it here, but we can't right now. That would just ruin the invitation for those of you on the invite list, wouldn't it? Although, we're sure that if you keep an eye on the High School Senior Gallery of our web site, it should show up there sometime before summer.