Kate McElwee Photography

Monthly Archives: October 2007

Click on the title of the blog post to view the entire entry.

Downtown Engagement Session: Krystal & Ratana

October 22, 2007 – 3:30 pm

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon photographing Krystal & Ratana’s engagement photos in downtown Seattle. They’re both long-time Seattleites, but they’d never been to the Public Library downtown, so I just had to show it off to them! We got some fun shots there, then moved onto Pike Place Market, Post Alley and the surrounding area. It was crazy busy down there! We found a couple of cool spots in Post Alley for some funky brick wall shots, and we climbed up above the market to get the shot with the market sign in the background. While we were there, we decided we had to get a couple of pictures with the famous Pike Place piggy, and then we moved over to the little park area for the last shots of the day.

Here are a few of my favorite photos - and I’m excited to be photographing their wedding next July!

By Kate McElwee | Posted in engagements, portraits, seattle | Comments (0)

The other thing that I do …

October 11, 2007 – 10:54 pm

When I’m not busy shooting weddings, engagements, boudoir sessions and portraits, I really enjoy self-portraiture. It’s been a while since I’ve done any, and I really miss doing photography ‘just for fun’. So, starting today, I will take a self-portrait (SP) every day for a year. Am I crazy? Probably. Will I learn much? Oh yeah!

My main reason for doing these daily SPs is that they force you to really learn more about your camera, your technique, and especially your lighting style. It’s a lot harder to get it right when you don’t have someone there as your subject, modeling the light and providing a point of focus … but it is so rewarding when you finally nail it. You have to learn to pre-visualize how you want your shot to turn out.

So, here’s to a fun year of SPs! I’ll post my favorites here, maybe once a week or so. And if you like what you see, let me know so that we can recreate the look for your portrait, boudoir, engagement or bridal session! Here’s my photo from Day One (today):

By Kate McElwee | Posted in fine art | Comments (2)

Discovery Park Engagement Session: Kipper & Andrew

October 8, 2007 – 12:29 pm

Saturday was so much fun! I spent the afternoon at Discovery Park with Kipper and Andrew, taking photos to celebrate their engagement. It was really cold, and very windy, especially down on the beach, but I’m so glad that they took me there because it’s a beautiful location. We spent the first part of the session on the beach, and I think my favorite shot is the black and white one by the lighthouse. We then went up to the south parking lot and wandered through the meadows to the bluff, taking photos, piggy-backing and skipping as we went!

I had a really hard time narrowing down the selection … although we didn’t get the autumnal colors we were hoping for, they were great subjects and I love so many of the photos. I hope I’ve captured the essence of the Pacific North West for them - Andrew is from Australia, and I think they are hoping to send some photos back home to entice his friends and family out here for their January wedding (which, by the way, I am *so* excited to photograph!) Anyway, enough talk! Here are the photos: