Kristilee Parish Photography

I had a fantastic shoot with this wonderful couple a few weeks back. One of Alberta’s typical “spring” days… where it snowed all day. But we made it work, Sherwood Park library has a beautiful indoor location for small shoots  and I think it was perfect for this shoot. I graduated University with Jenna and it was so wonderful to catch up with her and meet her husband. If you have a second you should check out Jenna’s photography, she is fantastic!

 Let me know which one is your favorite! I love the ones of these two against the brick! <3

So here we are, I am 25% done my personal project. It doesn’t sound like I am very far. But for me it is. Usually I find things to put ahead of personal projects, but this time I am actually enjoying it. I love having no idea if my photos are going to turn out. I love seeing how the film reacts in different light. Check out Part 1 & 2 of my personal project as well.

This 12th day of March was a very busy one, it was a friday as well. I got up bright and early to edit. Grabbed starbucks with my little sister, picked up my Dads brochures that I designed and sped over to the Sherwood Park Trade Show. I broke my iphone, but was able to get the iphone 5 for super cheap (with a super cute case I might add). I helped my sister get ready for her dance competition. Went location scouting with my boyfriend. And finally received a lovely thank you note in the mail from a client. Over all it was a wonderful day and I am happy it was the day I got to photograph!

Let me know which photo is your favorite! & Thanks for stopping by!

I got to spend the afternoon with these three stunning ladies. We froze our butts off but we had a great adventure! Thanks for the lovely afternoon ladies!

Arn’t these ladies gorgeous?! Which ones your favorite?

Back when there was still snow on the ground here is Sherwood Park (thankfully it’s almost all gone now!), the sun was shining one afternoon and I just had to get out and take some photos. So naturally I called on one of my sisters. Usually they get dragged into these shoots when I just need to randomly shoot. Lucky enough my job isn’t just my job, it is my creative outlet and my passion. Thank you to everyone who has supported me on my journey so far!

Thank you for stopping by! We also had my other sister “assisting” aka she was the snow thrower, I think she liked her job the most!

When Robbin first contacted me about setting up a photoshoot I was so excited and then she told me she wanted to be photographed in a Trisha Pasnak dress. Both the dress and Robbin are gorgeous and well we happened to pick one of the coldest spring days in Edmonton. It took me about 45 minutes to fully warm up after this shoot. I just want to say thanks to Robbin for being such a tropper cause well lets be honest.. I could never look that good while freezing my butt off.

Model: Robbin Reay
Designer: Trisha Pasnak
Makeup & Hair: Robbin Reay

 Thanks for stopping by! Let me know which photo is your favorite!?

Up till now I have more or less been a “shoot and burn” photographer, well times are changing and so is my business.  So what is a “shoot and burn”  photographer? It is someone who takes the photos, edits them at a high quality professional level and then hands the CD over to the client. I have always offered my A La Carte prices, which contain prints, canvases and albums, but many times I have been asked, “Why should I pay top dollar for a professional print when I can get the digital file and print it at the drug store for 12 cents? “Honestly some times it makes the most economical sense, I understand that.  Believe me, putting prices together has always and will be the hardest part of my job as being a photographer. But many times I want to ask, where are your photos now?

I just wanted to throw together some thoughts not only as a photographer but as a consumer and someone who loves to document her family.  Right now I have 7 terabytes full of photos, do you want to guess how many photos that is, well it’s approximately 3,863,174 images (depending on files size), plus I have tons of CD’s and printed photographs. When I was in University my laptop hard drive crashed as well as an external hard drive. Thankfully I was able to recover all my files off of my laptop, but I was not so lucky with the hard drive. I lost over a year of family photos on that hard drive, some of the photos were our family vacation to Indonesia, a whole month in Indonesia just gone like that. Thankfully we had more than my camera so we still had some photos, but I was heart broken.  I had just never gotten around to printing any out or making an album of my own. So there, we all have to learn from our mistakes. Since then I have slowly started making albums of my own life so I will be able to sit down on the couch with a cup of coffee and relive those cherished memories. That being said I absolutely love all 7 Terabytes of photos I have stored away, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I booted up my computer just too take a stroll down memory lane and look at images from a family vacation.

Thank­fully now, I’m super care­ful about it and have back ups in mul­ti­ple places! But I have discs from other photographers that I have yet to make any prints. It’s not that I didn’t like the pho­tos, I loved them — that’s a main rea­son I wanted the disc in the first place. No, it’s more just that I got busy and let it slip by. We all have very busy lives and I per­son­ally have thought, “I’ll get to it… eventually.” How easy would it have been to order a few of my favorite prints or canvases and have them get delivered to my house from the photographer? But instead they are sitting in a case on a shelf getting dusty… I’m sure I’ll get to it, right?

This leads me to discuss professional prints vs drugstore prints. This subject has been discussed 1000’s of times so I am not going to talk about it too long.  Many ask is there a difference between your professional photos and the photos at walmart? And the answer is yes, there is a huge difference. There are many variables that affect the quality of print. Just because the digital file looks fantastic does not mean a 12 cent print is going to look fantastic. Some of the variables are the soft­ware they use, the age of their equip­ment, dig­i­tal vs. press, even the brand of their ink all these can all lead to dif­fer­ent results. When I started my own business I searched high and low and tested my dig­i­tal files with many dif­fer­ent print labs. The labs I cur­rently work with use the best archival inks and papers — mean­ing the prints you get from me will last decades with­out fad­ing or peel­ing, and the col­ors and con­trasts are exactly what I planned for them to be. Drug­store or Big Box photo labs just don’t care. They won’t call to tell you if your crop­ping or con­trast doesn’t look right. Mine does. Bot­tom line — your photos will look good printed no matter cause well they are not in your drawer anymore, but they will look outstanding professionally printed and as your photographer envisioned them to be printed.

Well now that we have some photos on the wall that’s a good start, what about the rest of them? We can’t always rely on technology; CD’s get scratched, hard drives die, computers crash, etc. Think of getting that CD of all your wedding photos and getting a few printed maybe one to hang on the wall, a few to give to your parents and that’s it.  What about the other 1000 photos that tell the story, that show emotion and details. That look of your dad giving you away, or the look on your face when you see your bride for the first time, those are the moments that mean the most, those are the moments you want to cherish. What about when you have kids and they are ask you to see wedding photos and you have nothing but a CD to show them, which by then might be too scratched to view or we might not even have the technology to view it. Think about it….do we use floppy discs any more? How easy is it for you to play your old VHS collection. Why are JPEG files and CD’s/DVD’s/USB’s going to be any different? By the same token, when I go to my Grandparents house I can still grab their wedding album from 50 years ago and flip through their memories and their story. My cousin who got married a few years ago well it’s not the same I have only seen two of my cousin’s wedding photos, cause they are sitting away on a CD somewhere.

Hopefully you’re starting to see why I believe wedding albums are as important today as they ever have been. Here at Kristilee Parish Photography, I record your day with artistry and mastery. We take the photos that tell the story. I create imagery that stands out from the crowd. And I believe that you should be proud to display and show these photos off through quality custom-designed albums.

Now spin the clock forward 20 years. Your children come to you and ask: “Mom, Dad, what was your wedding day like?”, and you are able to take them into the living room, sit them down on the big comfy couch, and show them a beautiful book that contains your wedding day, memories in all their beautiful glory. As they turn the pages and become mesmerized by how stunning you looked, and the story that is unfolding before their eyes, you too are transported back to one of the happiest days of your life, surrounded by your closest friends and family.

Having the ability to do that is priceless. And that is why I believe wedding albums are so important, and as relevant today as they were and possibly always will be. I want to be able to tell your story for decades to come.

Here are some quick photos I snapped of one of my albums. They are all uniquely designed by me. Each and every client I had one of these over to are usually in shock. It’s amazing to relive your day through an  album.

All I know is when I choose my wedding photographer, an album will be on the MUST HAVE list!

Okay I am done for today - I know this post is a lot to take in on a Saturday! But if you have any comments or anything please let me know! I would love to hear from you!

If you follow my blog at all you will know I recently traveled to Holguin, Cuba to photograph a lovely couple from Sherwood Park. You can check out their beautiful wedding photos Here!

I had my little sister Karlee come with me to keep me combany & also assist me on the day of the wedding. We also had a bit of fun when we weren’t working, These are just some of the film shots that I took, I took a bunch on digital as well.. but I think I would just keep this blog to the beautiful Portra 400 film. Most of the days we hung out by the pool or beach but we did travel into the city and we also went and swam with the dolphins which was amazing!

Thanks for visiting! I hope everyone gets the chance to visit Cuba, it is beautiful!

What are some of your favorite travel spots? I love to get ideas for my every growing list! Feel free to let me know in the commnet section!