:: blogging: mccord style ::

This is the personal weblog of Kelly McCord...it is here that I write about my family, friends, and the often mundane day-to-day, when it strikes me. I love shooting weddings, portraits and events, which is my career. You won't find much of that on this site, this site is for telling storeies about my family, keeping our out-of-town (and in-town) families and friends up-to-date on our lives.

If you're looking for my photography, and ended up here, (search engines get confused sometimes), let me help you! My photography blog can be found here (which is where new work is posted all the time).  My professional (non-blog) website (which is out-of-date and 2.0 should be launched in January, can be found here. If you want to read about me, my family, et al, or get to know me a little better, of course you're welcome to look around here, as well. Thanks for your interest, either way!

Hot Summer in the City

Good LORD has it been hot lately!!  In fact, the wedding I shot a week and a half ago, up in the Santa Cruz mountains was 112 degrees. It was, physically, the hardest wedding I've ever shot. It was hardcore -- I almost passed out a couple times.  I had (what they think was a) gall bladder attack the day before (random!), and was totally weak and worn out from that, and then to have to (literally) run around with all my heavy equipment in 112 degree heat, well, it was rough, to say the least. Thank goodness I had my trusty assistant Alicia with me. If she hadn't been there, helping me every step of the way, I don't know if I could have done it.  Here's a shot of me, with the wedding coordinator (and a friend), Jen putting ice-packs on me, after shooting them getting ready, the ceremony and the portraits. I was feeling dizzy, lightheaded and was seeing spots, which for my body, means I'm about to pass out. Everybody working the wedding literally had sweat dripping down every where. I don't know if I've ever been in such extreme heat (and if I had, I was laying by a pool or on the beach). It was intense.

So I'm in the midst of extreme wedding season (which is why all my postings have been on my photo blog, and not here, on my personal site),   because I've just been swamped.  So with the exception of this weekend (wherein I'm shooting 2 engagement shoots), I've got at least one wedding every weekend, through mid-March.  Couple that with 25+ other photo shoots, and my girls, and my messy house and you've got a recipe for chaos. And barring chaos, at least being crazy-busy.  I can't complain, but it's certainly going to keep me on my toes. Don't get me wrong, of course, I'm incredibly grateful for the work and that I get to do something that I'm so incredibly passionate and excited about (and get PAID for it!), I'm a happy girl, albeit a slightly ragged one, at this point.

So, sorry for the total lack of posting and updating about my life, but it's all about the photography right now.  Which is why I've been posting loads on over there , and not at all here.

Here are a few fun shots that we took of the girls when we went up to San Francisco for my photo shoot weekend, a few weeks back. I love my goofy girls!

This Weekend

Want to hear about what I've been up to? And my crazy weekend that I'm in the midst of? You can read about it on my photo blog, by clicking here.

Posting

I haven't been posting a lot here lately, but I've been posting up a storm at my new photo blog, including an online wedding album, if you're curious, go check it out!

The Fair

Some of you have sent emails asking how the fair was, so I figured I'd just post on here because I'm lazy, and that way I don't have to email everyone individually. Kiddding! (not really).

The wedding fair went great. I was so busy the entire time, I was worked when it was over. And to be honest, I was way sick of talking about myself by the end of the day. We handed out more than 150 packets of information. My booth wasn't as pro looking as some, but I liked it, because it was defenitely me: bright colors, flowers, fun pictures, etc., etc. I don't know if I would want to be like everybody else, to be honest, and quite a few pcople said they liked my style and my booth, because it seemed different and more artistic than a lot of the others. I'm not knocking anybody else, by any means, because I was way impressed with almost every other (13!!) photographers there. I was just different. We ended up running out a of a lot of stuff. But, I had a lot of interest and people were so amazingly complimentary. And I've already gotten calls and emails about people wanting to book their weddings, so I'd say it was a success.

What I didn't plan on was getting to see people I knew from the past, even a couple of people from high school, which was really cool. I might even get to shoot a girl I knew from high school's wedding, which would be really fun.

A few more shots of my booth if you're curious, after the jump...

Where I've Been

A bunch of stuff has been happening with my photography lately (which is why I've been too busy to post much). But I'm getting caught up and thought I'd tell everybody some of the fun stuff that's been going on with my photography.

First of all, I've booked about 12 weddings for 2006 in the past 2 weeks. It's been CRAZY and wonderful. So I know this is going to be my busiest year yet. What's really cool (to me) is that all of my wedding referrals are word of mouth. I don't advertise, I've never done a Bridal/Wedding Fair/Expo (I'll be doing my first one this weekend). So all of my clients come from having seen my work, referred by former clients, or were at a wedding I shot. This means so much to me, because it lets me know that people are really happy with what I've done for them and tell their friends. This is the best kind of advertising, as far as I'm concerned.

Like I said above, I'm going to be exhibiting at the Bridal Expo at the Cocoanut Grove for the first time this Sunday. If you're in town and/or getting married, come by and say hi! My mom- and dad-in-law are driving down from San Joser to come see me, which means a lot to me (thanks guys)!

San Frandisco

Last Friday I drove up to San Francisco to shoot a new client and her fiancee. They're getting married up there and so we were able to go to the church and reception location before we started shooting their engagement portraits. We had such a fun time shooting. They were defenitely one of those couples (and this doesn't happen all the time), where I found myself thinking, 'If I knew them in real life, we would totally be friends.'

(That's funny, 'real life,' apparently my job is my 'fake life.')

Anyhow, I'm super-happy with how they turned out, and it was so fun to get to shoot some more unique, very San Francisco locations.If you want to see their shoots, you can do so by clicking here.

Also, and I know some of you who read this site have been waiting for (and others of you are like, huh? who?)...[DRUMROLL PLEASE]...

Marianne and Gary's Wedding

Ryan and Julie's Wedding in San Francisco

The wedding I shot in San Francisco a few weeks back is finally completely edited.  I've posted my favorites (well, some of my favorites, to be honest, I have so many that I even had to pare down my favorites, because there are so many) on Flckr.You can view them here.

One of my friends from college, Eileen, gave my name to her sister, Julie, and she and her fiancee Ryan (who graduated in the same class at SCU as me) hired me to shoot their wedding. It was a great day. Julie is gorgeous, as is her family and bridal party -- which makes it easy to shoot. Plus everybody was so fun and willing to do anything, which made for some great pictures. Like I said, I'm thrilled with how they turned out. If you want to see more than the ones I uploaded to Flickr,you can see the entire wedding here. 

Wedding Collages, Take 2

Let's try this again. Some people can open the last ones I posted, some couldn't, so I'm going to try uploading them to typepad. Click on the thumbnail for the full versions...let me know if you're still having trouble opening them. I shot Aaron and Shiloh's wedding today, so hopefully I'll have a new collage to show you soon. As soon as I clear off some of this hard drive space.

And before the collages (which you can click on the 'continue reading' to see), a picture of Shiloh, today at her wedding. She looked absolutely stunning.

You can either try click on this link, or click below and try those links. I'd start with this link though. =)

Wedding Collages

I just recently put together collages of some weddings I shot this summer for a prospective bride, and I thought I'd share them, since I haven't really posted links to weddings for awhile.