I am a rare statistic. I have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. I am one of the few women that do not fit the profile of a woman with PCOS. The long and short of this diagnosis is that you ovulate at weird times, if at all and your ovaries tend to create little pockets that turn into scar tissue making it extremely hard for an egg to implant. I was 23 years old when I found out I had it and when I was told I may never have children. I was 29 when I got married and a little nervous about any future having children with Ryan.

God is bigger than any diagnosis.

We decided after 5 months of marriage we would pull the plug on birth control methods and see what would happen. Could I ovulate, could we have a baby, what will this almost 30 year old body do?

Make a baby of course!

Yup…first month with our guard down the Lord saw it fit to bless our family with one of the most endearing, clever, smart, imaginative little girls we could have ever prayed for.

Chloe Grace…born November 4, 2006

and now…..a beauty beyond beauty.

Now I had a plan…a very good plan. Have two more children about three years apart. That way I could spend time with each child for a few years without interruption. I thought this was a good plan but the Lord had a better plan. He thought it would be better for us to open our hearts up to a passionate, energetic, hilarious, athletic, and compassionate little boy. Yes…while Chloe was just 9 months old I found out I was pregnant again. We had just celebrated our 2nd anniversary and now we are preparing for a second miracle to enter our lives and hearts and change us forever.

Bennett Wade…born May 3, 2008

and now…..pure stud. This boy has my heart on a string…yes he does.

Now before I go any further in our reproduction journey…haha…that sounds funny. Let me just share some insight into our marriage and business.

There are countless times in our little six year marriage that I thank the Lord on high that Ryan and I were friends for many years way before we crossed into Loversville. When push comes to shove…and let me tell you…we’ve been SHOVED….we have never lost the ability to laugh with one another. I think that has been the glue…that and heartfelt prayer. Anyone who has one child can tell you that the baby becomes the center of your time and attention. As a mother especially you are on duty 24-7. What little time, energy and affection you have at the end of the day you hold precious and dear and selfishly hold on to. It’s hard to ration it out to your spouse.

We started Kellan in March of 2006…the same month we found out about Chloe. The same month the realization that we would no longer have my teaching income after the fall. It was born out of a hobby of photography and a financial need. We had no idea what was going to come of it and I assure you…we never dreamed as big as what has fallen into our laps.

With any small business it requires a LOT. Type-A, business-minded Kelly snapped into gear to get us legally set up and run our customer service front while Ryan established our public front. Together we created what has evolved into our “signature” Kellan style. It sounds so simple when you type it out in one sentence. What you can’t see are the years and years of strain on our marriage. Ryan working full time, me a full time mom of two little ones working a full time job out of our home office. The year Bennett was born we shot 25 weddings and 20 personal sessions. YUP…..that’s almost half a years weekends out the door while breastfeeding. How did we do it?

Well we survived…we did not thrive.

What took the biggest hit was our marriage. We thought we wanted full time photography. We thought this is what the Lord was leading us to…after all we were starting to blow up…wasn’t that a sign. NOPE. That was just good business sense…but it wasn’t a fit for our family. We were growing so far apart after just three years of marriage. My partner, my best friend, my husband. We co-existed under one roof….laughter and prayer barely holding us together.

Then the final straw.

November 21, 2008….just six months after Bennett was born. I thought I was having the worst menstrual cycle of my life. For hours I writhed around on my bed in some of the worst pain of my life. I kept telling Ryan “I feel like I am in labor”. I won’t tell you the awfulness that came out of me. I can only thank the Lord for my utter ignorance of what was truly happening. I was miscarrying our third child. A child we didn’t even know existed. One that was conceived while we were shooting 25 weddings, raising and infant and toddler and barely holding on. A baby we will only ever know in the heavenlies. It was over before we even knew he existed. We named the baby Jory Lee “God will uplift and heal”.

It was at that point we knew what we needed to do. Trust the Lord with our finances and back off Kellan. Stop letting this business run us and start to run it! We cut back on our bookings, said no, changed our marketing strategy and got marriage counseling from our beloved pastor. I can only tell you that 2009 was a year of great healing for us. Ryan and I found one another again. God also blessed our SOCKS off by giving Ryan one of the coolest jobs on the planet. He became the full time commercial photographer for the prestigious leather company, Moore and Giles Inc. He gets to use his camera every day. He gets to create AND he gets a paycheck and insurance…SCORE for family!

We took a very conscious and cautious break from getting pregnant in order to continue healing and gaining back precious ground that was stolen in our family. It was a good season. In spring of 2010 we started discussing finishing off our family. We’ve always wanted three children and heck…might as well tackle it sooner than later. Well as God’s sense of humor would have it…..the month we started tossing around the idea…..you guessed it….little Rhett was firmly implanted in his little 9 month incubator. I can’t tell you the sheer joy and peace we felt at the timing of this little wonder. After such a season of stress and great grief…this was our season of celebration and joy. The Giver of Life had blessed us yet again. Let me take you on a little belly journey. At 5’2” you can only look not pregnant for so long.

12 week mini bump

13 weeks

16 weeks

18 weeks

19 weeks (Photo by the wonderful Adam Barnes)

24 weeks

28 week (photoshoot by the incredible Sara Ernst )

34 weeks

38.5 weeks- good golly that’s a pale belly. These were with Ryan so we were messing around.

39.5 weeks-drink it in…it is glorious. The day before induction

So if you are still hanging in on this journey then we are getting to the part where I get Rhett OUT of me. This pregnancy was a doozy. I mean puking every day 1st trimester only to be revisited by it again 3rd trimester, a trip to the ER with a kidney stone, and just for kicks and giggles…the last 5 weeks of my pregnancy I had pre-term labor. For those ignorant of that little gem, that means you are contracting daily….so much so I had not one, but TWO false alarms to the hospital because the contractions were 2 mins. apart; an emotional and physical roller coaster. Because I was over 4 cm. dilated and 80% effaced by 39 weeks I was a great candidate to be induced a few days early and not have to sweat it out any longer. I’ve never been induced so I can only tell you my story….and I LOVED IT!

I’ve always been a wait and see kinda girl about labor. I’m not looking to win a trophy by going natural but I also never hopped right on meds either. I was all about going as far as I wanted to naturally and then waving my white flag when I was done “laboring”. With both Chloe and Bennett I got to 7 cm and then threw in the towel. Two great experiences. Being induced I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is I was sick of LABORING for 5 weeks.

I made my decision pretty quickly after I was checked and was already 5cm. when I entered the hospital. I was going to get my pitocin and my epidural at the same time. Everyone who sees my hospital pictures comments about how I am smiling and laughing the whole time. You’re darn skippy I was! I didn’t feel a darn thing. NOT. ONE. CONTRACTION. I had a blast with Ryan, my mom, my friend Amy Martin who came to photograph the birth, and our AWESOME L&D nurse, Amber. It was the party room for sure.

After 4.5 hours I was 10 cm. dilated and ready to push. I could not believe how fast things progressed. We were just minutes away from meeting this precious boy. When I say minutes I mean minutes. I actually crowned on my FIRST push. They literally had to hold him in so the doctor could run down the hall and get in just in time to deliver me.

On my second push I was able to reach down and pull the most perfect baby out and up onto my chest. I am pretty sure I heard trumpets sound and angels applaud. It was the most PEACEFUL, easy labor and delivery. There staring me in the face with his GIGANTIC eyes (all of our babies have huge eyeballs!) was our little Rhett Anderson.

He cried for a few seconds and then he literally smiled at me and showed us who he was. A little messenger of peace. He has the most calm and sweet demeanor. Literally everyone in the room could not get over how alert and placid his disposition was.

8lbs. and 4 oz. of perfect boy.

To truly understand how amazing this experience was…you have to watch this 2-minute video. These photos were taken by our dear friend Amy Martin who came to document the completion of our family. She did an incredible job capturing the mood of the day. Video HERE. All births are miracles. Words fall short to explain the surreal and mind blowing process God carved out for a woman to sustain and deliver life into the world. I am very privileged to do this three times and I will never forget how blessed I am as I have so many friends that struggle greatly with fertility.

So here we are. A family of five figuring things out. We aren’t in any semblance of a rhythm. I am insanely sleep deprived. The older two are driving me nuts with their fighting and whining. But man…what a life we have. Ryan and I marvel at our journey to this point. Where our marriage has dipped and then set back on a high place. We are far from perfect…but we are so aware of all that God has redeemed over the last few years and we sit with grateful hearts in this little cottage we live in.

Rhett is holding steady at 7.5 weeks of barely crying and being the easiest baby in the world to read. I literally forget he is around most of the day because he is so non-demanding of me.

We are blessed. Enjoy a few more photos of his first 7 weeks on this earth starting with his 5 day old photoshoot by Sara Ernst.

one week old

two weeks old

three weeks old

7 weeks old- all smiles and awesomeness

Thanks for reading, thanks for caring.

To God be the Glory.

This is Daisy, she is another gorgeous blue-eyed beauty that makes a few cameo shots!

There are glimpses of a carefree teenager in there.

I kind of love this shot Ryan snagged when he was changing lenses. I’m sure it isn’t the first or last time anyone has done this, but it is intriguing nonetheless.

So what has turned out to be one of our favorite shots of the year was a total and utter collaborative “what if” moment. I saw this random two foot dead patch of feathery weeds. It called out to me “Kelly…..USE ME!” I told Ryan we needed to use these weeds somehow. Natalia was game to lay her head in the rapidly shedding and flecking dried up weeds. I broke off some branches and laid them around her face, Ryan executed the shot and VOILA!!!! She looks like a fairy princess emerging from the ground. There is so much depth and the intensity of her eyes just sucks you in You would never know she is laying in this tiny patch of weeds in a horse pasture in broad day light. LOVE IT!

Another spin on it.

Last outfit change of the evening….rapidly falling temperatures.

I promise, she really does have a light side to her she is just so dang amazing at doing the intense poses and looks.

We set up some lighting at sunset to round out the night under this awesome tree.

I love with this next series. I wanted some movement and freedom. She was a jumping queen for us! Go Talia!

Did you have to remind yourself over and over SIXTEEN AND A HALF????? I can’t wait to see what 17 brings for out next shoot! Amazing job Natalia, we love you!

Sara and Todd have become some of our favorite people to hang out with. We laugh ourselves silly and yet have always enjoyed meaty conversations about marriage, family and the Lord. We just love them and can’t say enough about the stellar character of this couple.

We knew she was up for a real challenge with our two gems. Bennett can be fairly cooperative with the camera but Chloe is flat out disinterested in anything having to do with photos. It is beyond frustrating to take photos of them. After 2 years of Bennett being around we still never managed to get one photo of the two of them together. I kid you not. You will see Sara’s brilliance literally emerge through these photographs as she worked her magic and broke through their stubborn disinterest and pulled out some amazing candids and some fabulous posed shots. Enjoy the two greatest things we have ever done.

Not the most enthused about photos being done.

The picture of cooperation.

slightly better

Success

One money shot of both looking and BOTH smiling. It is Portnoy history. I was hoping for one and we got it! Sarah and Cookie the dog on her head were a magical team.

We tried to recreate a picture that Ryan’s brother shot almost three years ago. It is blown up in our house and one of my favorites!

Unfortunately, Chloe managed to be a Class A Poophead and not cooperate. Okay, I’ll admit, it is kinda funny and really adorable.

Because we can and it is glorious.

Time to wrangle them into their next outfit change. As if it wasn’t hot enough.

I’m going to break you into the cuteness a little at a time.

Yes, she is 3.5 and her hair is that amazing. This kid is follicley blessed.

A moment of sharing, this is definitely worth documenting.

I’m obviously unaware of the next photo. This is the major inside joke between us and Sara. She used to have a Facebook profile picture that was sorta squatted down like this. When we were taking their pictures in the fall Ryan kept leaning down like this taking shots to make them laugh and poke fun at Sarah. His four foot long legs look like a praying mantis so somehow along the way of joking the move got coined as “The Pantis”. Now Sara and Todd refer to us as the Pantis’s. There, now you are in the loop, don’t you feel special?

Love this one of Bennett

I have to end with these last two because they make me smile and laugh and thank the Lord I got a girl! She is obsessed with wearing my heels and is amazingly coordinated at wearing them around even on brick!

Sara, I could never do what you do and these were my kids. Your patience, humor and encouragement during the hours we spent together were incredible. You are so insanely dear to us. We love you and Todd so much and look forward to the next double date with you guys. This time, don’t get all dramatic and break your foot again :-)

As you all know we like to photograph children as unobtrusively as possible. What better setting than a playground to get authentic laughter and joy. All the cousins and second cousins headed to the playground for some afternoon fodder.

Big sis, Ella.

Big brother, Sammy.

Little sis, Janie Kate.

Couldn’t resist her sandy little bottom.

I love Ella trying to make Bennett laugh.

Our baby boy, Bennett.

Steve and Janie playing peek-a-boo.

Our little brown eyed beauty, Chloe.

One of my favorite shots of the day, Ryan got this one.

His eyelashes bring the ladies to the yard.

Bennett, party of one, Bennett, party of one…your table is ready.

Ryan got a little too close, Janie was over the paparazzi.

Love Bennett’s sand goatee.

This has to be one of the coolest boy kid toys ever!!! It had a little fake GPS and a real working radio, gas and break pedal. AWESOME!!!

I finally uploaded some pictures of our kids after church a few weeks ago. Just had to keep exploiting their cuteness.

I don’t think you realize how stinking funny I am. It is a good thing Chloe does!

Her teeth are so adorable.

One word…STUD!!! I could eat his face off! It’s a good thing he is cute because he is going through the worst screeching phase we call “The Tea Kettle”….it’s like razor blades in your ears. It’s only a phase, it’s only a phase, it’s only a phase…..this is what I keep telling myself.

Okay that should give all the ladies an ovary fix for awhile.

Keep it spicy brides and grooms! Keep it spicy!

Happy B-day Can, thanks for the great night!

The b-day girl and hubby Tim looking schexy!

Not one to be too serious

Chick band…watch out!

If only you could have heard some of the notes John was attempting to hit. We vacillated between awestruck and laughing. He gave it 110%.

Can we say perfect teeth! Joseph was another one that sang his heart out.

Live the dream Ry, live the dream.

We did a stellar rendition of “Hotel California”. The family that sings together, stays together. Words to live by.

Ryan channeling his inner Steven Tyler but with an incredible cheese-ball grin.

Things got a little crazy by the end. The scarf came off Candace’s neck and onto her head, the music was turned up and then there was dancing. That’s what people in their late 20’s and early 30’s do….we’re wild I tell ya, wild!

We can’t talk about someone we love and are related to and make it brief.

This day finally arrived.

So I never grew up with a sister. Just one lucky brother (cough, cough)! I never knew what it would be like to argue over boys or sneak clothes out of each others closets and I guess I never will! Inheriting sisters in my adult years is like winning a relational lottery. I love my sister in laws and I am thrilled to now have Jo in my life. I feel like I have a small glimpse of what it would have been like to have a sister.

This weekend was definitely a sprint not a marathon. We had a tight schedule to keep and all of us were scattered between Maryland, DC and Northern VA. So there was lots of shuttling around town but it made for some fun moments in the car.

Friday night we arrived in time to help set up the wedding/reception site and then off to DC for a delicious rehearsal dinner, courtesy of Ryan’s parents. Moe’s Southwest Grill catered the event…..HEAVEN!!! I am fairly certain I could survive on Tex-Mex the rest of my life. I ate until I ran out of buttons to let out on my pants. When I die, embalm me with guacamole please.

The boys dressed up Joe for a night on the town. This is just a small version of payback for what Ryan had to do at his bachelor party. Let’s just say a wig, makeup, dress and large sign were involved as well as being pranced around town to busy retail stores.

The guys headed off to the DC Improv to watch Harland Williams perform and the girls had a girlie night at Joanna’s townhome.

Saturday was the big day!

I stuck with the boys due to having one vehicle. They got ready over at Joe’s apartment. Banana Republic outfitted the guys with some sweet gray pinstripe pants, argyle sweater vests and Joe’s gift to the guys were a pair of Chuck Taylors and red ties.

Joe and Joanna decided to do a private reveal before the wedding. I love this!! Ryan and I did it too and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

This is the first wedding in four years that we have just gotten to enjoy the festivities with no photography responsibilities. You will see in the next few pictures some awkward angles because I was trying to stay out of the way of my two friends and fellow AMAZING photographers, Amy Martin and Kate Headley.

The bridal party went to various locations around town strutting their stuff. I LOVE the girls dresses from Anthropologie. I could write a whole post about that store in general as it is my FAVORITE…but I digress. The teal and red theme was in full effect with the ladies ensembles!

Dan is enjoying himself a little too much.

LOOOOOOOOVE Joanna’s headpiece. Ladies…take note…HAWT HAWT HAWT!

The four Portnoy brothers from left to right: Sam, Dan, Joe and Ryan.

close up of the Chucks.

The four girls in the center at the Charron sisters: Jean, Joanna, Jill and Jen. (Ryan’s sister, Meridyth, is on the far left…she survived growing up with four brothers!)

A few of The Jo(e)s….I hardly got any of the two of them. Tried to stay out of the way on those shots.

Playing around with some new actions we bought….trying to see if I like them or not…undecided.

Ladies get ready to grab your ovaries. This is Iris, Joanna’s niece.

Seriously…isn’t she just the most adorable thing? That tutu and patent leather red Mary Janes….oh man….amazing!

The girls all carried clusters of various white flowers.

This is my brother in law, Pat, who we call the 5th Portnoy brother because he strongly resembles the youngest Portnoy, Sam. Of course, Ryan’s sister who married Pat hates us saying she married someone who looks like her brother…but isn’t that what family is for…to make fun of you?

Pat said he wanted to give me an honest expression of how he felt. He had been chasing their toddler around for hours and was a bit worn out.

Time for the main event.

An old music hall was converted into the ceremony and reception location. Strings of lights, paper lanterns, and paper flowers adorned every square inch of the hall. Joanna tirelessly baked enough cakes to be a centerpiece for each table in lots of yummy flavors.

Hands down, Joanna’s entrance during the wedding march was the most dramatic moment ever! The song, “How He Loves Me” by Eddie Kirkland was sung by the amazingly talented, velvet voiced, Steph Modder. The music came to a crescendo half way through the song and WHAM the doors flung open and Joanna came down the aisle. There was no way you could have been in that room and not have your heart skip a beat…it was beautiful and powerful!

They “I do’d” and then the celebration began. We chowed on some seriously amazing BBQ!!!

On to the dancing. It felt SOOOOO good to dance! We may be totally mismatched in height but we can bust a beat together. Don’t let our matching outfits and goofy grins fool you. We are two bad mamba-jambas on the dance floor.

Ryan’s brother Sam and our niece Ella

Portnoy family sandwich.

The music stopped after about 30 minutes and friends of the Jo(e)s took the stage, “Rockseratops” ripped some amazing classic rock songs. We all stood with power fists in the air belting every nostalgic word to Journey until we were hoarse.

Joe took the mic at one point and finished off a song dedicated to his beloved.

Next came one of the highlights of the night. Joe and Joanna, along with about 15 other friends have been learning and practicing the routine to Beyonce’s “Put a ring on it” and performed it for us all.

For your amusement….a little sampling of the routine. (you may have to refresh the page if you don’t see a play icon on the video)

It was a blast!!! We had so much fun celebrating another monumental family event. Joe and Joanna we love you guys so much. Thank you for allowing us to be such an important part of your engagement period. We have loved watching you grow together through the highs and lows. We count it a privilege to pray with and for you both over this last year and a half. God has truly blessed you with each other and we can’t wait to see all that He does for you as you honor him with your vows you took that day.

We love you!

We have three sessions next weekend so we can blow the dust off this blog and get her revved up for spring….yeah! We are ready to jump in with both feet and start dazzling you with some amazing couples we have been blessed with this year.

Enjoy some photos from our trip to the local airstrip where Ryan’s mom works. The kids loved looking at the planes and running around despite the fact it was FREEZING out!

My ADORABLE nephew, Caleb. He is two.

Let’s play I Spy…I Spy the scene of an upcoming photo shoot……

I could not love this kid anymore. That smile just slays me.

Inside an airplane engine.

These next three pictures are the best we could do to get Chloe and Caleb to take a picture together. They would not engage with each other nor the camera. You just had to sit them close together and hope for the best before they scrambled away.

My beautiful Chloe. I would kill for her hair, maybe not kill….but severely mame.

Ryan’s sister, Meridyth and husband Pat

Ryan was jumping around making Bennett laugh as well as his dad. Really sweet moment.

Sitting on a tractor watching an airplane land

Very excited about the airplane coming in. I swear I am not picking my nose, I thought I was out of the frame. Always assume you are in the frame when a camera is near by.

That wraps up family time. Catch you next week with some highlights from our Portnoy Wedding Weekend Extravaganza!!!

I have to show off their unique wedding invitations. Joe and Joanna already have their clever signature of The Jo(e)s working in their favor. They really cashed in by having some very talented friends come up with a super fun branding using Jo and Joes’ silhouettes and screen printed them onto their invitations. Love it! To cute not to save.

outside of the wedding invite

We are sooooo excited to be celebrating The Jo(e)s wedding in a few weeks for two reasons.

A- We LOVVVVVEEEEEE Joanna and are so happy to be welcoming her into the family.

B- This is the first wedding in 3.5 years that Ryan and I get to really enjoy as a couple. Ryan is a groomsmen but other than that, we get to be a real guest! We are leaving the kids at home so that we can enjoy all our family coming into town and boogie down till the break of dawn. I do believe I will get to see Ryan’s “bend and snap” move that won me over 5 years ago. SCORE!

If you missed our engagement session with The Jo(e)s, then click right here.

Onto the mish mash part of this post.

We enjoyed our second snow of the season randomly on Monday. Only in Virginia can it be 8 degrees and 10 inches on a Monday and then that Saturday be 74 degrees.

We decided to bundle the kids up to “play” in the snow. It ended up being more of a nightmare than actual fun. Poor Bennett, his snowsuit was a size too small for him so he had to sit motionless like a gingerbread man arms straight out, unbendable. He did enjoy going down in the ducky sled.

Chloe, on the other hand, loved being out in the snow but had no interest in traditional snow fodder. She is a girl the walks to the beat of her own drum. She much preferred to take a stick and poke snow, eat it, and generally just wander around talking to herself. She is hysterical and quirky all rolled into one firey brunette.

I also wanted to share with you my default career. If Kellan doesn’t pan out I think I am going to going to look into becoming a whiteboard artist! My specialty is Disney characters.

Exhibit A:

I mean a blind man could see that this is clearly Bambi, Flower and Friend Owl. Masterpiece no?

Exhibit B:

Dumbo and Timothy….dead ringer, I know!

Well at least I have my two year old fooled. There is this sense of sadness when she starts scribbling all over my art pieces….she just doesn’t appreciate my talent.

Last but not least…speaking of art. This has nothing to do with photography but I am all about supporting the arts and especially my talented girlfriends. They are knitting and crocheting fools. I tried my hardest to fall in love with knitting, but like tea….it just doesn’t do it for me.

My friend Candance just opened up her Etsy store today. Check out some of her adorable HATS for infants and toddlers.

Chloe received one of these great hats for her b-day a few months ago so you can see how great they look.

Adorable! Go check out her shop and pick one up.

Yes we did a lot of this.

Our cameras were always “at the ready” but we weren’t getting paid to take pictures so we did leave them in the room and just enjoy.

We did a pinch of this.

We gambled a whole $20.00 in the quarter slot machines. Yup, we live wildly people…money is no object, therefore we can easily part with it. Seriously, I could never be a gambler. Once we were down $6.50 we decided to cash in and walk away with our $13.50. I wanted dinner more than I wanted to see my money slip away quarter by quarter.

We easily walked close to 5 miles per day. I have NEVER been in a hotel as big as the MGM Grand. Let’s just say a hotel that has three Starbucks in it, a stadium, Cirque de Soliel performs there, a convention center, close to 30 restaurants, of course more casinos than I can count, OH and a live lion…..you try to remember EVERYTHING you need before leaving your hotel room. There is no running up to grab something you forgot.

We never stopped doing this.

Lots of laughs! We hung out with some of the most amazing people with fantastic senses of humor. We have already declared our love for Christy and Dustin Heigh, Emblem Photography….but just one more shout out. We have such a soft spot in our hearts for these two. They encourage us, listen to our highs and pray us through the low spots. This trip would not be the joy it was without them.

Ryan’s brother drove over from LA to hang out with us for a few days. Bonus!

We walked down the strip at night to take in the lights and see some of the other hotels. If you ever go to Vegas you MUST go to the Bellagio and watch the fountain/light show! So fantastic. The end scene in Oceans 11 takes place where we are standing. Here Dan is conducting the fountains.

The Bellagio is beautiful.

Dustin took this shot, I love it! They have bridges above the main streets so you can walk across and avoid traffic. This shot reminds me of how overwhelming it felt to be in Vegas the first night. It is a very unique place.

We were mainly there for two reasons, to attend the WPPI tradeshow and meet some amazing photographers in the business.

The tradeshow was great! We went with a game plan to research album and proofing companies that could meet our growing need. It’s time we outsource all our post production with the exception of editing and album layout. You should see some of the albums available! After touching, inspecting, smelling, rubbing and ALMOST licking these covers (I can not believe how soft and buttery some of the leather ones were!) We came home with some solid choices in hand. Things will be changing with Kellan this year and we couldn’t be happier.

I got to do a little accessory shopping which was super fun for me. I picked up a great GoBee hip clutch for all my odds and ends while shooting. I am NOTORIOUS for losing lens caps amongst other things. This bag is FABULOUSLY comfortable, the leather is so ridiculously soft. I will admit it is just like a fanny pack, but the cool version of the fanny pack (Is there such a thing?)

My other splurge was on a new lens bag, the ever popular ShootSac. Hey, what can I say, the tradeshow had some great discounts so I had to cash in. I have been putting up with my clunky camera bag for years now, it was time I splurged a little on some stylish and lightweight accessories….SCORE!

We met so many photographers while we were there, others we just saw in the crowd and gave the courteous head nod. We hung out with our good friend and fellow photog, Amy Martin a lot! She is currently in Charlotte, NC but moving back to the Burg soon….we are thrilled to have her back here and think the world of her work. She is photographing Ryan’s brother, Joe, wedding the end of this month.

We went out for coffee with our favorite husband/wife team better known as, Mary and Justin Marantz, from Connecticut. I double heart, triple stampy, no erasey love these two. They are the real deal, genuine, fun, and just the coolest to hang out with. I only wish we lived closer. Mary is my girl, humor wise, and they both have a huge heart for the less fortunate and have founded The Portrait House which supports Habitat for Humanity. They really took the time to understand Kellan Studios and where our hearts are in this crazy industry. Very blessed to call them friends.

Another photographer that we could not get enough of is the ultra adorable and sweet, Punam Bean out of NYC. I seriously wanted to fold her up and put her in my pocket.
Ryan has had a major photog crush on her forever and got me hooked several months ago. We ran into her at the tradeshow and talked and talked and talked and talked. We ran into her later that day with her husband, Andy, which sparked another slew of conversations about music. Ryan is a major music connoisseur and Andy is one of the fabulous duo of the Two Man Gentleman Band. They will be coming through Richmond in April and we are hoping to go hang out with them. Punam is so unbelievably passionate about her work and clients. She is infectious to be around. We are so glad that we met her and can call on her.

So as you can see, we had a great time! We met amazing people, saw some incredible products, came back inspired and ready to make 2009 the most successful and creative year yet!