Kristen Steele Photography

Creative Designs & Events | Sneak Peek

Tiffany of Creative Designs & Events is one lady who’s Making Things Happen these days. Here are some sneak peek shots from our photoshoot last weekend.

Don’t you LOVE the dress with the bow? It’s absolutely fabulous & from the great ladies at The Bride Room.

There will be a full recap of all the wonderful vendors who helped make this shoot a success soon… stay tuned!

Tags: Creative Designs & Events, Franklin Wedding Photography, making things happen, MTH2010, nashville wedding photography, Wedding Wednesday

Spring Mini Sessions

Update: Only one spot left, email me now to book it!! Scroll down for my most recent blog posts.

Spring is here and I’m doing Mini Sessions! These sessions are designed to be quick & easy on your budget without sacrificing quality photography. They are perfect for families, children or even pets!

I am SO excited that we’re doing these sessions at the beautiful farm of Southall Eden in Leiper’s Fork. Seriously, go checkout their website and get excited about the picket fences and the gorgeous red barn. There are enough spots here to make anyone happy!

To reserve your spot simply email kristen@kristensteelephotography.com. Hurry, there are only 5 spots left!

First Dance Pictures | Professional Headshots

I first met Bill and Deanna of The Governor’s Club. They are so much fun to be around {evidenced by the funny pic of Bill below!} and great videographers too!

They needed some headshots for their website and to update their Twitter pic and I was so happy to be able to do it! I really appreciate their kind words about our photo session:

“In starting our website and blog, we needed to get pictures of both of us made. Just considering getting our pictures taken was daunting, considering how many Photographers we know! However, one in particular stands out not only for her photos, but also for her great attitude and friendliness. She was there on our first wedding shoot, and she was incredibly friendly and helpful. She is also an up-and-comer in Nashville wedding photography, and we are proud to be able to share her work through her work with us!”

And since this is a post featuring these great videographers, here’s a sample of their work! This video was from the wedding that I mentioned before of Katie and Jon so enjoy:

Jon & Katie Wedding Highlights from First Dance Pictures on Vimeo.

Tags: First Dance Pictures, nashville wedding photography, Professional Headshots

Stepping into Your Fear | Fridays with Kristen

How often do we take a step back to think about what we’re most afraid of? Once we name those fears that we have, they loose some of their power over us.

Stepping into the fear and pushing through those insecurities opens up a world of possibilities. Stepping out of your comfort box into a new place can be a very good thing, as I’m continuing to learn more and more.

This past week has been my first week as a full-time photographer, see what I think about it so far:

Stepping into Your Fear | Fridays with Kristen from Kristen Steele on Vimeo.

Tags: making things happen, MTH2010, photography, stepping into your fear

fine art makes your home happier

Meet my faithful friend Kristin. She too has a hubby named David, get it?? Kristen & David + Kristin & David. We go way back… I mean WAY back to middle school with bad haircuts (me only, not her.)

Kristin is an amazingly talented woman and her art definitely shows it. The reason I love her art is that it makes me happy. She gave hubby and I two precious paintings (which I’ll post later for you to see) for our wedding present and they are hung in where I get to see them every day.

Now meet her cat Tank & her dog Sal. They are both precious & I love seeing them when I go visit. I hope you enjoy the art & that it brings you joy on this rather gloomy day in Nashville.

For information on how to have Kristin make a custom art piece to brighten your home head over to her blog and leave a comment. She’ll email you back!

Tags: kristin condurelis, photography of fine art

Growing, Taking Baby Steps

The past 18 months for me has been quite a journey: from getting married to deciding to quit my fulltime job to do this photography thing fulltime!! I’ll give you a quick recap in case you need one…. My sweet hubby David and I got married July 12, 2008 in Nashville, TN. NEITHER of us had jobs on our wedding day — talk about TERRIFYING.

But the Lord provided abundantly for us after weeks and months of praying for good jobs. The week after we got home from our honeymoon, David got a job offer on Friday and I got a job offer the following Monday. Whew! Crisis averted.

I worked fulltime on different digital media projects at an agency: email marketing, website design, content management updates to websites, etc. I am so thankful for the opportunities that I was introduced to while at that job, I learned SO much — it was like a crash course in all things technology that I would need to run my photo biz.

But all the while I had a desire to grow my photography skills & learn more about my craft. Up to this point in my life I had been a Canon-Rebel-toting-photography-hobbyist (which, there is NOTHING wrong with that, I just knew that I wanted more!). Sure, I had an eye for good composition, I could capture a great moment and my fine art travel photography was good. But I never felt sure of myself or of how I would nail a great photo in any lighting condition.

Enter into the story an amazing mentor: Becky Byrd. Becky befriended me one Sunday morning at church because I was taking pictures and she introduced herself as a fellow photographer. It was like friendship at first sight… haha! From that point on it was such a fabulous experience… having a mentor is indescribable. Being able to ask ANY question, no matter how dumb I felt was liberating. The very first time we met she mentioned a photography group called PUG and I knew that I had to go!

Becky also explained this thing called post-processing to me and then we went to a class taught by the great Whitney Carlson of Dove Wedding Photography. Sure, I knew that I should edit my photos but I didn’t have a workflow. I would just pick random pictures that I thought needed a little “umph” and then I’d open them in Photoshop, move some of the dials/settings around until I liked it and then VOILA!! Whitney explained in depth about her workflow and what good post-processing should be.

OK, so I had my post-processing workflow down, I had my community of photographers in place, I was networking my butt off with other photographers but how do I actually run a business??

I definitely soaked up all good info like it was a sponge! I listened to every good podcast I could find, and I would listen to Ask Dane by Dane Sanders as he would interview guests from the perspective of “Just starting out,” which was exactly what I needed. I would ask my photographer friends, “How did you know when it was the right time to go fulltime?”

Knowing the right time for me was hard, but one day it just kind of happened. Hubby and I had been talking about it for months but there never seemed like the perfect moment. What it boiled down to for me was that I was completely exhausted. I was so tired from doing two fulltime jobs & as my photography business kept building I realized that I was having to turn down amazing opportunities because of my fulltime job. So we had a good talk one night and just thought that it had finally come time. That God was leading us into a new big adventure, full of big photoshoots, beautiful weddings, chubby babies and wonderful clients.

So, last week I gave my two weeks notice and March 15th will be my first day as a fulltime photographer!! I’m really looking forward to what God has in store for hubby and I as we make this huge leap of faith!

I have very VERY big dreams of what this is going to look like and I’m sure it’s not going to be easy. I hope that documenting my journey into fulltime photography will help you in your process, wherever you are. I know that we can always be learning! One day I’d like to start a photography mentor program of some sort, since that’s been the best way for me to learn all that I know up to now. I’d love to setup great photographers with starting out photographers with huge potential & see where it takes us. If that’s an interest to you, comment below and I’ll add your email & info to my growing mentor list. I have more dreams but that’s the one that’s been on my heart lately!

Tags: fridays with kristen, making things happen, MTH2010, nashville photography

Designs by Sara Marie | Sneak Peek

Recently I had the awesome opportunity to photograph the amazing work of Sara Marie. Amy Lynn Larwig did all of the hair and makeup, Bonnie of Belles Fleurs provided flowers, the jewelry was made by P.U.R.E. Jewelry and the Governor’s Club hosted all of us!

This is just a sneak peak of the photos, there are many more to come this weekend! Checkout this amazing bridesmaids dress & stay tuned for more!

Tags: Amy Lynn Larwig, Belles Fleurs, Designs by Sara Marie, the Governor's Club