Its been months but feels like years since last I held my camera.  When I strap on this gorgeous 4lb weight to my hand, it feels like home and I can start breathing again.  So, as soon as the opportunity presented itself I almost jumped out of my skin from excitement!

This fun-loving mother and daughter came to visit family in New York all the way from Poland for a couple of weeks. We met and became fast friends. Shopping and dancing became a part of the schedule for me and Edyta, who teaches physical education and sings Bulgarian songs with beautiful zeal.  One of the things I loved about her is that she looooooved to take pictures everyplace we went, from the majestic SouthStreet Seaport to the amazing Brooklyn Bridge.  Finally, when she approached me for a shoot I laughed because she took the words right out of my mouth!  She wanted professional images of her daughter, Maja, who is an A student and is about to start her college career. She is an aspiring model with a keen sense of fashion, which makes it even more fitting.  This striking beauty with a gentle soul moved with a natural ease and made my job of capturing her super easy.  

How grateful was I?  Well, what was supposed to be a family portrait shoot at the beach turned out to be something you’d see in Glamour magazine, if I do say so myself, take a look...

Christian is soft spoken.  In all his tall, brawny masculinity, he walks into Starbucks smiling.  It immediately draws you in and you feel the warmth behind the smile as we chat about his friends, his mom and brothers and his new found passion for acting.  He's magnetic as he is handsome, secondary only to his natural charm.  He has decided to go for it and thus, his journey begins.  He's done it all, lending his skills to everything from Bartending to Personal Training.  The acting bug bit him and he's not looking back.  I can see why he is getting recurring call backs.   New headshots are imminent.  He calls on Honeyshot to deliver. And that, we did....

ACTION!

Shoot day and we start right off, with the drama of shadows and shaping light, making for some serious variety in combination of looks and poses.  Then, we loosen up a bit for more relaxed, candid moments that signs off the day on a sweet and swaggy note.  

Sneak peak anyone?!

In case you were wondering, I am not an enigma.  I am not a mystery.  I am not a phenom by any means.  I am simply Kay.  Yes, its short for something.

Kay is a mother.  She was a young mother, having her first daughter at 17.  Having her second at 19.  Kay was a single mother when she realized that she likes things done HER way.  She didn't want to marry at 17 nor at 20.  She wanted to continue her education and "Live the life!"  The life of a student, the life of a young woman, learning about herself; her style, her sense of humor, her passions, her goals and career choices she has yet to set..she wanted to learn about love.  She learned the meaning of unconditional love throughout raising her two daughters.  She learned all about responsibility throughout raising these two human beings who were blank slates.  Just. Like. HER.  

Kay never called herself an artist due to her struggles with insecurity and self-doubt.  Even when she would put extra money on the side so she can take the train to the studio on 34th and 8th, where she was given vocal lessons as part of developement and sing in a booth while her little daughters looked on, patiently.  She didn't call herself an artist when she wrote songs and poems that DJs used to put on their music tracks.  Years pass, and her daughters are undergrads.  She recognizes the artistry in her daughters, who sing, teach themselves to play musical instruments, write poems and stories, sing in church choirs, take beautiful pictures of themselves and the cityscapes, of their mom, sketch....she also has not given up on her artistry.  Her daughters are supportive of her.  Her daughters call her an artist, an inspiration.  Kay beams.  Kay writes blogs.  She started a blog about affordable fashion and classic style.  Her daughter would model for her.  The price: borrow her clothes ;-P.  She styled these "fashion" shoots and edit for hours and hours using Picasa.  She was then gifted a semi-pro camera body in 2014 because someone very important noticed that she loved taking pictures.  Kay then decided it was time to learn how to operate such a beautiful piece of equipment.  She signed up for online courses and soon found that the education never stops.  There is always something new to learn.  Composition, lighting, posing, retouching,  color gamut, marketing; Kay gets excited.  She falls in love with Portraiture and learns the true meaning of Professional Photography.  She hasn't looked back since.  She signs up her friends as models, designs new shoots in all the genres, just to identify herself in the field of photography.  She asks herself, "Can I really do this?" 

My eldest, ca 2012; Brooklyn NY.  Featured in Generation Glamour and Chicstreetnyc.com

My youngest, ca 2012; Rego Park NY.  Featured in Chicstreetnyc.com

My eldest, ca 2015; DUMBO shoot

My youngest, ca 2015, Rockaway Beach shoot

Kay has since developed a career in her full time 9-5, married, separated, and is now an empty-nester.   She decides to become empowered and finally identify as an artist and a budding entrepreneur, while she still works at her full time.  With wedding, family, newborn and portrait shoots, she now can say "I am a photographer, and I would love to take your portrait!"  Kay decides that Portraiture and Weddings are where her passion lies.  She loves faces and cropping in really close.  She loves to celebrate love in all forms; couples or self.  She believes everyone possesses their own unique beauty and she wants nothing more than to share it with the world.  The world!  She loves when people smile and laugh at her inappropriate jokes while she's shooting.   It fills her heart with pure joy at the reveal, when clients see their images for the first time and are truly happy.  Kay loves what she does.  She aims to replace her full time 9-5 with a newfound career in her passion of celebrating life's beautiful moments in photographs for the rest of her life.  She wants you to know that she is happy to make you happy.  She strives to provide a service that even she would be happy with.  She is a tough cookie and wholly believes that anything worth doing is worth doing right!  Kay is a semi-perfectionist.  Kay is anal-retentive; everything must line up.  Kay takes her time to do it right!  Kay likes to laugh out loud.  Really loud.  She works hard. 

I am Kay.  At 40, I decided to work towards becoming a creative entrepreneur.  I am an artist.  I would LOVE to take your photograph and show you how beautiful you are! Come, lets sit here.....