Robin & Steve

Robin and her husband Steve came to the Arizona studio to get some unique maternity portraits - Robin is 36 weeks along and expecting a baby boy! She really does have a glow about her and it shines through in the images. I think the pictures also capture the excitement and tenderness that come with expecting a little one and a growing family - it really was a neat moment to behold being behind the camera.

Melissa's Family

Busy, busy, busy! Since I landed in the west (in Phoenix at the moment), I've been getting caught up on everything and wanting to update, but then I also want to process, and all this in between shoots! But the wait is over - it's update time.

While I was back in Iowa, the weather was the definition of perfect - imagine 70 degrees in early November, and if you grew up in the midwest, you know you really can't ask for much better than that. Presently I'm a bit spoiled by both the weather of the Valley of the Sun and the Bay Area, but I doubly appreciate it when it's nice back home at this time of year and dread the possibility of bitter cold, which can be standard at times.

So, much to my surprise, the weather was absolutely amazing for Melissa's outdoor family portrait session in Muscatine, Iowa - a mid-sized city by Iowa standards, bursting with history, right along the Mississippi River (check out the Wiki more info and pretty pics of the sights around town). We shot at an old, character-rich building and it was the perfect location. As a bonus, no one had to bundle up, and you can't tell the season just by looking at the images. They were so much fun to work with - plus, her boys were great in front of the camera and enjoyed playing around, so we got some very cute shots!








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What else is going on? The fan page has almost doubled in size since I last commented on it here about a month ago - we're now approaching 600 fans. Thanks for your continued support. And I did update KarlyKoren.com with some new images about a week ago - so enjoy! I've got some unique shoots coming up as well - keep checking in here, or subscribe to stay in the loop. Finally, just a heads up: it looks like I'll be in San Fran in less than a month and then it's off to Iowa again :)

The Beauty of the Bay Area

Just one of the reasons I love living there. Here's a little taste of wine country - the famous Napa Valley, only around 40 miles from my neck of the woods.

A sample sip of my recent views through the glass on the coast:

Back in the midwest

I'm in Iowa until mid-November! Fall's in full force - the weather, the colors, and then of course, my favorite - the style! I've got some shoots lined up and I'm very excited to blend all those elements together while I'm here.

I just had to share these images from Max Mara's Fall 2009 collection - I *love* their coats and overall look.



Here are a few shots from last week - my grandparents were very antsy and were photographed for all of five minutes! I only got about 30 clicks, but I was very happy with the results. These two have been married for 55 years, and they appear shy yet the raw emotion and love for each other shines through. At times it looked like they were welling up...

Very cool.

So facebook.com/karlykoren went public... *checks calendar* ... three weeks ago today. (It was actually created back in May but was not publicly viewable - which is why some of the images on there are older than three weeks ago!) It's currently got over 350 fans - and I'm very much impressed. Thank you for showing support, and for spreading the word! As you can see, it does get updated pretty frequently so I hope you enjoy seeing the new work as it comes out. Comments welcome, and I do respond to all inquiries - if not publicly on the page, then privately via message.

I've been so busy! Last weekend I shot a wedding in the northern part of the metro with the very talented Nicky H-Zadeh. Yes, it was officially my first wedding and I was quite nervous - but it was oh so much fun. Everything was lovely! I can't wait to show more photos from that.










I also spent a full day working on some beauty creatives with former Baby Phat designer and current make up artist Didi Clark and new-to-the-scene model Ashley Geiger. We were in the studio for about 7 hours that day. The inspiration for the look was Twiggy!

On to the next one

First things first! The site has a brand new design, and just in time for fall. The update process was actually started in August (as I'm sure many of you noticed) and just now got finished - but it looks great! I really like it and hope you do too - let me know what you think. It's got a completely different layout and feel than before, new categorization, and all that jazz. A bunch of new work too!

I've also opened a Facebook Fan Page to the public - if you join up, you'll be the first to know about updates and news, since I plan on using it frequently! And it's a good way to interact with you all, since so many more people have Facebook than have a Blogger account.

You can always follow or contact me on Twitter too.

My travels have taken me all over the US - I'm based in both San Francisco and Phoenix and I've spent a lot of time in both during the last three months. I also went back to my home state of Iowa for awhile, as you can see in the previous post. It was great, and you'll soon see even more work from all three of those areas on the main site.

My schedule for October and November is hit and miss, but if you'd like to set up a shoot, let me know as soon as you can - we can talk and design a customized shoot that's just what you're looking for.

Harvest season sneak peek

Well here's a change of pace from what I usually shoot...

I was back in Iowa just in time for the harvest to begin - so naturally, I had to get a few snaps of "business as usual" for farmers. I know that a lot of my clients have always lived in heavily urban areas and don't get to see this everyday, so here's a little glimpse of what I saw and a sneak peek of the photos from that trip.

See the pinkish stuff in the first picture? - It probably looks weird if you've never seen it! They're called "bee's wings" - the second picture shows how they float around in a flurry anywhere near where corn's being unloaded. Just like snow, bee's wings coat pretty much everything! When the combine rips the individual kernels of corn off the cob, the bee's wings come loose off the ear too and go where ever they please. They look kind of pretty in these pictures - as long as you don't have to shake them out of your hair, wipe them off your windshield, and inhale them, they're tolerable I guess!

The last picture is just one of many loads of grain that were harvested that day in the great state of Iowa - and across the nation!

In case you've never seen a combine in action:



More to come from that trip soon.

Newest additions

Went through and subbed out quite a few pics, added around 50ish new ones. I'm getting to be more and more picky about processing so it takes a bit longer to do - but I think that's a good thing!

Flash re-worked yet again, updates

KarlyKoren.com has been switched up, yet again - it's got a much faster load time. There's now a playlist you can scroll through or turn off. I added about 50 new images - mostly concentrated in the "Works" section.

In other news, I have been to a few concerts in the past couple weeks - the highlight, of course, was Third Eye Blind / Jay-Z! It was great being able to see them together - Third Eye Blind is my all-time favorite, and Jay-Z is just amazing, period.

New stuff

FYI: I added new photos this weekend :) We're getting this thing going!

More Europe Pictures

Weekend went off without a hitch; it was excellent. I haven't laughed so hard in ages!

I ended up shooting on Saturday before VP#2, so I had about 600 pictures to choose from, and have only processed about half of my favorites so far, on top of images from the last two batches this month - which would explain the delay. But I do have some more pictures from Europe to show you!


Outside (or on top of!) the Louvre in Paris
















Personally I feel that the Mona Lisa is overrated; this was quite possibly the worst picture taken of it all day






Getting close...



Map of the Paris Metro... trying to get around in the city with limited French was intimidating at first!



Personally, I liked the London Underground a bit better... I wish the US would implement public transportation like this!


Ooh la la!




Amazingly, *not* the worst flight I've ever had!





Arc de Triomphe, Paris






The gorgeous English town of Tamworth



The River Thames, Parliament, and Big Ben



On top of the London Eye



"Thees ees eh Peekadehlay Loyne suhvuss. Pleese moynd the gap."



London Underground