With Thanksgiving just a few days away it’s the perfect time to reflect on the blessings that came into our lives in 2011. We have so many stories to share with you from the events we photographed this year, but first we need to start with our biggest blessing – all 7 pounds 15 ounces of him – our son Eli.

We planned to have Eli at home, but after 21 hours of natural labor at home plus another 9 or so hours at the hospital it became apparent that a C-section was necessary. This image wouldn’t have been possible without our birth photographer, Kelli Collins, who let Curtis borrow her gear since no one else was allowed in the operating room besides Curtis and myself. Even though I didn’t want Curtis to “work” on the birth day of our child, I cannot thank him enough because he photographed Eli for the first time right as he was being born. And despite having thousands of photographs of our lives together, this is one of the most precious by far.

Eli – 2 days old

Eli at home – 1 week old

One of my favorite portraits of Eli, not only because he’s so stinkin’ adorable but the memory behind this photograph. While setting up for this shot he peed in the mixing bowl at least 2 times! Don’t worry, it’s since been washed!

Eli – 4 weeks old and learning to smile

Who wouldn’t give candy to this cutie?! No, we didn’t take him trick or treating this year but we’re definitely looking forward to eating all of his candy earnings next year!

Eli – 8 weeks old

With so much going on, sometimes we forget to appreciate the little things we take for granted. This holiday season, take a moment to stop, think and be grateful for all the blessings, big and small, in your life. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

As a little girl I never dreamed about the day that I would get married, what kind of wedding dress I’d wear or who my Prince Charming would be. I was a “girly-girl” but just not the kind who thought about those things. All I wanted was to be able to grow my hair really long and wear Lee-Press-On-Nails! Neither of which I do now.

The same goes for having babies. Until I caught the baby-bug about 4 years ago I didn’t dream about buying baby clothes or start picking out names. Then as soon as we started planning to have a family I immediately began thinking about my baby shower and maternity portraits! I’ve been excited about these events for many, many months and am so thrilled that quite a few family members, and a lot of good friends, were able to share the excitement with me.

Especially my sister, Liz, who flew in from England and will stay with us until Eli makes his appearance.

Also my Grandma who came down from Michigan.

Here are some of the treats that our incredibly talented friend, and past Kismet bride, Bunny, made for us to enjoy! All of which were fantastic!

Our theme for the baby shower was “nothing disposable”. All the decorations were handmade and/or reusable, like this alphabet banner for Eli’s room.

And one of my favorite things, the cloth diaper cake that my dad engineered!

A big thanks to everyone who helped make the shower so special and wonderful!

And now for Part 1 of my Belly Portraits – the Water Theme!

I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me when I was going to post my Belly Portraits. With only 2 weeks to go until my “guess date” I know I’m cutting it close, but our planned “maternity leave” only recently started and we still haven’t taken all the portraits we have planned. Hopefully I’ll have the rest up before Eli arrives.

Swimming has provided incredible relief from the largeness and body ache I’ve been feeling lately and that’s one of the many reasons we’re planning a water birth.

My sincere appreciation goes out to my amazing husband, and photographer, Curtis. I love my Belly Portraits and can’t wait to do the rest!

Emily

Kismet Photography

Our pregnancy makes it’s debut on the blog!

For those of you who don’t know yet, we’re expecting a baby boy, Eli, who is due in September. Curtis and I could not be more excited about meeting our baby in the near future. Eli will most likely share his birthday month with yours truly along with a handful of other important people in our family. Talk about a lot of cake in one month!

Besides working hard creating beautiful wedding images for our couples we have also been busy turning our once empty storage room into a nursery. After things are a little more complete we will be posting pictures.

And now on to other bellies…

Our first pregnant momma, Pucci, who has already had her precious son, inspired me with her colorful, dramatic belly-dance costumes so we had to incorporate her hobby into the portraits of her baby belly.

At-home maternity portraits were perfect for our second momma, Melissa, who’s baby boy will be here later this month.

Can you tell her and her husband are Greenville Drive fans? They also had a Drive onesie and matching bib!

Our Maternity Portrait sessions are tailored to each woman to fit her style and personality as well as where she feels most comfortable. Another option for your Maternity Portraits is an Underwater Portrait Session.

As pool season is beginning, now is the perfect time for an Underwater Session at our pool (or yours). And, for a limited time, our Underwater Maternity Portrait sessions are only $75 (normally $100). You can make this session all about you and your belly or if your partner is willing to take the plunge, they can join in too!

Our summer availabilities are going quickly so call or email us today so we can talk about your Maternity Portraits.

Emily
Kismet Photography

We’ve had an absolute blast photographing all the adorable babies for this portrait contest and now is when your fun begins! The voting is open for Kismet Photography’s 1st Annual Cutest Baby Portrait Contest! Here are several ways you can cast your vote:

1) Check out all the adorable babies below and cast your vote by clicking the “Like” button below your favorite. Feel free to leave a comment but remember that we are only counting the number of likes.

2) Then head over to our website (handy link: www.kismetphotography.us) and click on the “1st Annual Cutest Baby Portrait Contest” banner and follow the super-easy instructions.

3) From our website you can click over to our Kismet Photography Facebook page (or click HERE) and click “Like” at the top of the page. Then navigate to our “Cutest Baby Portrait Contest” photo album and click “Like” on your favorite.

4) All the above voting options require a Facebook account but if you don’t have one, don’t fret. You can email us at info@kismetphotography.us with your choice in the “Subject” line. Only one vote from each email address will be counted so please don’t spam us.

It’s that simple! The winner of the contest will receive, in addition to bragging rights, a 15″ Wall Portrait of the winning photograph as well as a Gift Certificate for One Free Family or Child’s Portrait Session (a $300 total value). Remember, the voting ends at Midnight on Saturday, March 19th so tell all your friends and family to get their votes in before then.

And now…prepare for cuteness overload…

Addison

Annabelle aka “Belle”

Carson

Nicholas

Sarah

Sophia

Trinity

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Think you’ve got the cutest baby around?! Then why not enter your adorable child in our 1st Annual Cutest Baby Portrait Contest. Kismet Photography is hosting a FREE contest and all you have to do to enter is schedule a FREE portrait session for your baby to take place on or before March 12th.

After your baby’s session, we’ll select the most adorable portrait and feature it on our website, blog and Facebook page so all your friends and family (and anyone else that thinks your baby is cute) can cast their votes by clicking “Like” on your baby’s portrait. The baby with the most “Likes” after one week will be declared Kismet Photography’s 1st Annual Cutest Baby! In addition to bragging rights, the winner will receive a 15″ Wall Portrait of the winning photograph as well as a Gift Certificate for One Free Family or Child’s Portrait Session (a $300 total value).

Their is no cost to enter and no obligation. All we require is a model release allowing us to post the portrait(s) online. For this particular contest we are limiting the age to 2 years old. Families with multiple children under 2 years of age are welcome to enter more than one child.

Remember, your FREE portrait session must take place on or before March 12th so don’t delay, call (864) 350-2338 and schedule yours today! Or email us at info@kismetphotography.us. Session availability is on a first come, first served basis and may fill up quickly.

Let the Contest of Cuteness begin,

Curtis & Emily Snyder
Kismet Photography

Still looking for a heart-warming gift for your husband or wife this Valentine’s Day? We’ve got the perfect gift for you! Through February 4th we’re offering a $49 Portrait Special that includes a mini baby or child’s portrait session along with a custom Love Letter Folio. Your folio comes with one portrait of your baby or child(ren) and a personalized love letter from them to mommy or daddy telling them why they mean the world to them.

Imagine your loved one opening their gift and seeing their child’s adorable face and sweet smile…

and then reading this…
Talk about tugging on the heart strings!

Sessions are limited and this special offer is only available through February 4th. Just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Call or email today for more information or to schedule your child’s session!

info@kismetphotography.us
864-350-2338

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Unfortunately we have zero time to post some of the awesome new things we’ve been doing, much less some of the many weddings and engagement shoots that are waaaay past due. But we do have a quick sec and thought we’d share some of the great things folks are saying about the images we are posting on Facebook. By the way, that’s where to go to see all the new stuff as it’s posted there first. So go ahead, click on over to our Facebook fan page and “Like” us to see the latest and greatest Kismet imagery. Back to the post at hand…Not many people leave comments on this blog (even though hundreds of people are reading it as evidenced by our web stats) but our Facebook fans and friends of fans are quick to show some love. Check out all the raves one of our couples, the undeniably awesome and fashion-forward Shannon and David, got for their engagement sneak peek we posted. (Names have been blurred to protect the innocent)

As if that wasn’t enough of an ego boost for us, the lovely Shannon posted this recently to our fan page:

Doesn’t that just make you feel all warm and gooey inside? Well it does for us! A special thanks to everyone who has ever and will ever say nice things about us and our work either to our face or on some form of media or whatever. It’s that praise and acknowledgment that lets us know we are accomplishing our number one goal: Make people happy through photography.

With love & thanks,

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Check out our special for July. If you are a past Kismet bride you get a bonus offer!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

So we were in Atlanta this weekend for Christina and Minjae’s awesome wedding (which we will be blogging about soon) held at the Sugarloaf Golf & Country Club and we just happened to stumble upon our next house!

Ain’t she a beaut?! And this is just the backside that faces the lake! This was just one of the many colossal mansions in the “we’ve got more money than we know what to do with” area called Sugarloaf. Who needs this much house? Seriously?!

After much deliberation we’ve decided not to purchase it because we just like the Upstate too much to abandon it for the 6 lane megatropolis of Atlanta. And besides, we’d probably have to shoot 300 weddings and 1,000 portrait sessions a year just to afford the electricity to run the place. Not to mention it would be a full time job just to keep it all clean. No thanks. Live simple so you can enjoy life is our motto.

Enough lolly-gagging. Time to get back to work. Look for more fun e-shoots and wedding posts soon.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

We have heard so many stories of chain-like wedding photography mills that offer “cheap” packages and then farm out the actual photography to sometimes less than reputable or inexperienced photographers. Check out this news article in which the photographers were not the problem but the company itself. They just never delivered the photos and haven’t been since 2005 but kept booking weddings and taking people’s money up until recently. Now they’ve just closed up shop and anyone that booked their wedding with them is out of luck and probably out of their deposit/full balance (unless they sue for it) not to mention that now they need to scramble to find a photographer.

As wedding photographers ourselves, we hate to hear horror stories about other couple’s bad photography experiences for their wedding. It’s such a happy and momentous day in a couple’s life, we wouldn’t wish anything bad on anyone, especially when it comes to the photographs since they are usually the only tangible reminder of the day.

Reading this story got us thinking about how the economy may force more and more people to go bargain-hunting for their wedding photography and how that could result in more tragic stories like the one in the article. If you’re considering a photographer or even a wedding mill that subcontracts the actual photographer, like the one in the article, then be sure to look at their experience and track record. Check references, do a google search to see if there are any complaints against the photographer or company (like this one), check the bridal boards like The Knot and ask for other bride’s opinions (though take them with a grain of salt from what we hear). A new photographer just starting out may have great talent (we all have to start somewhere right?) but they may be lacking in the experience needed to handle all the possible situations that tend to come up on a wedding day. At the very least, ask to see an album or a set of images from an entire wedding day. Anyone can compile a sample album or website of their very best 20-30 shots but the proof of a wedding photographer’s abilities is in how the images look throughout the entire day from any one wedding.

We don’t want to read an article about you having to sue your photographer because they over-promised and under-delivered when it may have been avoided by doing a little research. Even if we are not the right photographers for your wedding day, we urge you to do your homework on whoever you are considering because you deserve to have beautiful photographs of this amazing time in your life.

Emily and I have been photographing weddings professionally for 7 years and have been in business as Kismet Photography serving the Upstate for almost 5 years. If you have any questions for us or want to know what other questions you should ask any photographer you are considering for your wedding, just email us: info@kismetphotography.us.

Have a Great Week,

Curtis & Emily Snyder
Kismet Photography