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!