Rainy Day in Kansas

Plaza Art Fair

I made it through the busy weekend. I was in Wichita on Friday for a golf tournament and wedding consultation. Then, on Saturday, I came back to shoot a wedding in Kansas City.

On Sunday, after church, I went to the Plaza Art Fair with my friend Erin and her daughter Sophie. We had a great time looking at all the different styles of artwork. I am a huge fan of the photography but I also enjoy some of the more contemporary stuff too. There was one guy that hand-carved wooden dolls and then added motorized parts to them so that they could move around. He told me it took over 150 hours for one of his pieces!

The best artist I saw there was Chris Honeysett. He is an amazing photographer out of San Francisco. He is so good with creating shape and form with his black and white photography. Chris shoots with 4x5 film which he creates beautiful digital prints from. He had such great contrast and simplicity to all of his images. Whether it's a photograph of bamboo sticks or the Golden Gate Bridge all of Chris's work had such an emotional appeal to it.

We couldn't leave without letting Sophie create her own artwork so we stopped by the tent for children. They had bracelets for her to make and glass windows to draw on. The windows were funny because Sophie didn't draw on them at all, she just cleaned them with a sqeegee the whole time. She will make a great wife in 20 years:) We also did some of our own drawings. I think mine was the best but Erin and Sophie would argue that. I am a Kansas State WILDCAT and they are lil Jayhawks so we always tease each other about our teams. You can see why they didnt like my drawing in the photo below. Enjoy some photos from the festivities. Thanks for sending these to me Erin!

Sophie being an artist. Isn't she the cutest?

Here I am posing with Sophie and my artwork (notice the Wildcat eating the Jayhawk:)

Chris Honeysett's booth

Stephanie and Nathan Moxley 9.22.07

Saturday I photographed the wedding of Stephanie and Nathan Moxley. They were a great couple to work with. Their both so laid-back and they have three of the most beautiful children I have ever seen. The reception and wedding were at the Bacchanalia in Overland Park. It's a beautiful place and the owner, Eric Parrinello, let me play the slideshow on all of their television screens. Thanks to Crystal for assisting me! There will be a showit slideshow to come but here is one nice photo of the beautiful couple for now. Congratulations Stephanie and Nathan!

Did you know I am also a Graphic Designer

Some people don't know this but before I was a photographer I was a Graphic Designer. I got my BA in Graphic Design from Kansas State University. I then worked for 2 years at Pine Cove Christian Camps in Tyler, Texas as the Graphics Media Artist before I realized my true passion for photography. That led me to Brooks Institute of Photography and now back to Kansas. I am so glad to have design as my background but being a professional photographer is the greatest career I could ever have. Above is a promo piece that I put together for my business to handout to vendors and clients. I put up a link to my graphic design work and you can see more of it by clicking here--> Kevin Keith Graphic Design Portfolio.

Busy weekend... I will be in Wichita tomorrow to photograph a golf tournament and then back up to KC to shoot Stephanie and Nathan's wedding. This weekend is also the Plaza Art Fair so I will be going there on Sunday. I look forward to sharing with you all. Have a blessed weekend. I will try to post the wedding photos from last weekend before I leave town.

Stephanie and Nathan

I met with Stephanie and Nathan last Sunday and I will be shooting their wedding this Saturday in Overland Park, Kansas. That's right, this Saturday... Stephanie called me last week and her photographer had canceled on her less then two weeks before her wedding. How stressful would that be? Fortunately for Stephanie and Nathan I had that date open. We met briefly on Sunday and it was great. They are so laid-back and we all connected well with each other. They have three kids so I am sure that looking for a photographer last minute was not something they were wanting to add to their busy schedule. I am glad that I was able to come through for them. Stay tuned for the wedding photos!

Celebrating a birthday with volunteer work

Today my friend Christy Crick celebrated her 31st birthday by having friends and family come to the Harvesters Community Food Network in Kansas City. She bought everyone BBQ for lunch and instead of receiving presents she asked each person to bring ten can goods to donate. There were about 15 of us and we all spent 3 hours separating food to give out to the community. This was such a humbling way to celebrate Christy's birthday and I loved it. It was so cool to see her giving away her time and energy to others for her birthday. Christy is so caring to others and does a lot of volunteer work in Kansas City. If you want to know more about Harvesters you can click on the link above. Most of the work done there is by volunteers and they always need your help. It was a fun experience so I recommend you check it out. We did so much work in three hours yet it was so little compared to all the work that is needed to feed those that need help. Here is a video to show you what we did today. Sorry about the bad audio but it was taken from my phone. Hope everyone is having a blessed weekend!

Another KU Photoshoot (and I'm a WILDCAT)

My friend John Jordan and I did another photoshoot with KU Medical Center here in Kansas City. They wanted photos of the students and doctor interacting with each other and photos that showed the real class environment at KU Med. We had to capture this in twenty minutes with real students and a real professor while he taught his regularly scheduled class. There were no models and no art director. This made it challenging but I LOVE challenges. We got some great shots in the classroom. Afterwards, we took some additional photos around campus that we thought they may want to use for future purposes. We showed these photos to them and they were more then impressed. John and I are looking forward to doing future work with KU Medical Center.

Visiting friends in St. Joseph

I went to St. Joseph, MO on Sunday for a small photo job. My friend Crystal was with me and we stopped off to visit my friends from college. I have known Joe and Amanda Pontius for close to 10 years now. They are such great friends. I actually got to see Amanda come to know the Lord and Joe has always been a great spiritual mentor and friend. They have four kids now and their oldest, James, has autism (click here to learn more about autism). He is a lot of fun to play with but definitely a hand-full. I am just so humbled and encouraged when I am around them because of the way that they love each other, their kids, and everyone around them. They don't get a lot of time away because they have four kids and there is demanding time of raising a child with autism so I cherish every moment I get to spend with them. We always share stories from college and it is a good laugh to remember some of the things that we did back then.

Below is a photo of them with two of their children, James and Elizabeth. The wall they are sitting on is a wall that Joe just built in his front yard and I call it the Alpha Omega Wall. See, Joe is an architect and there is a funny story where he was taking me around town to show me the projects he had worked on. There was a nice stone wall that he was taking me to but by the time we got there I found out that he designed a concept but the one that was actually built he had nothing to do with. So we have this running joke about Joe designing a lot of buildings and walls that never get built. This wall is unarguably the Alpha Omega Wall because Joe designed and built it all by himself. He was the 'beginning' and the 'end' of this project. I am proud of you Joe:) By the way, Joe is great at what he does and he is one of the few licensed architects in his firm. I love you guys!

The Alpha Omega Wall...

Crystal and me on the Alpha Omega Wall...

How Hilarious Is This...

So I went on to MyHeritage.com and did a celebrity look-alike test. These are posted all over the place on MySpace and I wanted to see what it came up with for me. The results were really scary... You get to choose 5 out of the 10 celebrities that it matches you with and only 3 of mine were guys... OUCH! Do I really look that much like Katie Couric and Nicole Kidman?

Rachel and Sean Navarro 9.1.07

Congratulations to Rachel and Sean! They got married last Saturday at St. Marks Catholic Church in Independence, MO. I photographed this wedding for my friend Ryan who owns Kansas Memories. This was a beautiful military wedding. Sean is a marine and two of his groomsmen were also Marines. Rachel looked beautiful in her dress and she was a real trooper when it came to taking photos. Together they were great. We went to a nearby park that had nature trails and some open prairies. I love it when the bride and groom have time to take photos after the ceremony. This allows us to go to different locations and get some amazing shots. The trails were a little narrow for the whole wedding party but we found some open areas that worked great for the photos and the lighting was amazing. The sun came through the trees making everyone look so angelic and it was beautiful!

Afterwards we went to the reception at Adam's Pointe Golf Club. The country club had a stunning view of the golf course and we got some more amazing photos of Rachel and Sean at dusk. They never got tired of taking photos and we had a blast. A couple of things happened at the reception that I have to share with you. First the funny one... Sean dipped Rachel after one of their many kisses and Rachel's veil went into one of the candles on the table. It burnt a nice hole in her veil (see photo below) but, luckily, Cameron (Marine groomsmen) was there to save the day. Those Marines are always looking out for us!

Finally, the tear-jerker was watching Sean talk to his dad on the phone cause he couldn't be there. Sean's dad is in the Army and he is still in Iraq and was unable to make it back for his wedding. He was up at 4am to join the reception via cell phone. They put the phone to the PA system and he gave a very nice toast to his son and Rachel. It was great to be there and see that. Thanks Rachel and Sean for making your wedding so much fun to photograph and 'thank you' to our military for the sacrifices they make to serve our country!



The burn hole in Rachel's veil after the candle got a hold of it...

Sean holding the phone up to the microphone so his dad can give a toast to his son and Rachel from Iraq...

Rock the Light Concert

So I went with my friend Erin to the Rock the Light Concert in Kansas City at Starlight Theatre. It was awesome! Rock the Light is an annual Christian music festival. It goes for two days with bands playing on three stages throughout the day. We just went for one day on Friday. We saw Derek Webb, Barlow Girl and Chris Tomlin. They all put on awesome performances and the worship music by Tomlin was an amazing way to end the night. The gates opened at 3pm and we played on the blow-up games before the music started. We started at the joist where I dominated Erin and her brother but unfortunately we didn't get that on video. Erin is nearly a black belt in karate so I was a little worried going into it. Afterwards, we went to the bungee game. This game has you strapped into a bungee and you run-n-shoot three basketballs and then you get three chances to see who can place their bag the furthest on the velcro-strip. I had the red bag and Erin had the blue. We played best 2 out of 3 so I will let you be the judge of who won this watch-up. Enjoy the video:



Erin and I listening to Derek Webb

Nicole and Phillip

I just did an engagement session with Nicole and Phillip (Robles) at Shawnee Mission Park. They both have such fun personalities. They would look at each other and start laughing or make faces whenever I told them to "just act natural." We ended up with some great photos. Their wedding is June 14th of next year. Thanks Nicole and Phillip!