kristin abigail

abbey and jerod host friends (and me!) for korean bbq

restroom portraits for the win! and that mirror coming in clutch with the funky composition!

this winter evening light was frikken everything!!

look how these two work together 🥺

the thing all my clients have in common : they are SO WELCOMING. i cannot stress this enough. abbey and jerod were NO different. immediately i felt at ease in their home.

also, if i hadn't been out most of the day i would have stayed all night just eating their amazing food, drinking their thc seltzers and listening to all their stories.

i mean, we all know dill here's got some stories to share.

abbey & dill share a moment in the evening winter light flooding through their back door

this winter was TOUGH.

amen?

FUCK it was hard. (this is my website so i can swear as much as i want with no censorship - right???)

FUCK! well it's done. for real this time. winter is DONE.

hallelujah.

i look back at this session which was in february - and i'm amazed that we were all able to bring so much energy into this space! i think it had to do with a few things.

1. jerod and abbey are just delightful and welcoming humans with impeccable taste for creating a welcoming space.

2. the strong evening light bursting through their home made it feel like spring as we all cozied up in abbey and jerod's adorable space.

3. abbey and jerod's community is so loving and present - this made it EASY for me to capture.

unlike most photographers, i make an effort to work my way into the session. so you'll definitely find a photo (or 2 or 3 with me in them! )

dill surveying the action

i didn't pose abbey and jerod here but i did tell them to sit on the floor and cozy up in some pretty light, dill couldn't resist the fun :) i LOVE puppies at a photo sesion.

my biggest most precious secret recipe for making the best session ever with my clients?

pure presence.

i don't want our photo session to be another stressful thing to check off your to-do list.

i don't want you to feel like you have to be perfect when i arrive.

i don't want you to feel like you have to put on a show for me.

i don't want to enter your space with expectations and then, by trying to manipulate the photographs, make you out to be someone you're not.

my work is focused on this entirely:

me, being purely present with you.

so i can capture the entirety of what i am witnessing in you.

if nothing else stick with you about my work let it be that.

this is why my clients hire me. this is how they find me. they see my images, they here the way i speak about my images and the way i capture them, and we just click.

i am not for everyone. and that is perfectly and beautifully ok.

in fact it's great - i'd like to cater to myself and cater to my special clients. i'd like to give a voice to our voices. not to the masses. i'm not appealing to the masses - i'm appealing to you.

you who sees my work and feels an affinity with its honest beauty.

you who see so many images online that feel fake to you - and you're just looking for a documentation of life that feels familiar.

you're looking for moments you can print - just so you can touch and feel the memory in your bones. you're looking for a photo you'll want to paste in a scrapbook. or stick in the corner of your vanity mirror. images that stir truth in your wily innards, images that you'd like to kiss with gratitude. photos that ignite a flare of imagination within your soul.images that provide a narrative for the beautiful life you are building.

my clients are looking for a photographer/artist who can tell their story - they want someone who can step in with their camera and care about what's going on in front of them. they're not looking for someone who is overly-preoccupied with surface things like:

trends, posing, perfectly happy feeling moments, getting more "likes" on social, projecting wealth as superior - "nice" things, expensive setups, etc. these things are so finite, so ultimately empty.

(ps can we honor someone's wealth and their fine things and tastes? ABSOLUTELY YES. but when these surface things become idolized again and again and again and again.. and wealth and influence and ableism is ALL you see online. it starts to feel like a cult. i do not use those words lightly - i honest to goodness believe that most of the photography industry is a tight-knit, gossipy group supporting white supremacy ideals of hyper-professionalism, grind culture and the neverending need to project PERFECTION. lord it is toxic.

(fellow white photographers did that rile you up?? i hope so...but, more on that topic in another post... ;)

the korean bbq was SO FRICKEN DELICIOUS

abbey is an actress - and as a photographer (and highly sensitive person who once acted myself ((think middle school plays)), i could TOTALLY tell. abbey is SO wonderfully expressive. it's a huge breath of fresh air to be around a human so fully present in their bodies. ABBEY YOU'RE A QUEEN!!!

as i said earlier, i would've spent ALL evening here if i hadn't had a toddler to get home to!!

i am so damn thankful for the moments i get to spend capturing my clients. you all mean so much to me it's hard to put into words. so, i take the images as is my job lol, and i think you kinda get it. i find you SO beautiful. i find your story beautiful. and i find it SO worth celebrating. the big, and the small. especially the small. this is where the magic is. don't let the internet fool you into thinking otherwise.