Oktoberfest

There's nothing like celebrating the Oktoberfest with Germans!

Last Friday I put on my best German face (not too hard with a name like Schweickert) and photographed an Oktoberfest party hosted by e.ventures, a company in San Francisco.  I've done corporate portraits for these wonderful people before, and it was great to spend the evening photographing them and their guests.

The park at the Transamerica building felt quite Bavarian, with German accents in abundance (as well as many others!), and many of the guests in dirndles or liederhosen.  A German rock band provided music for dancing, and of course there was plenty of German food and beer!

The Oktoberfest version of the corporate portrait...

 

 

Well, look who made it into a photo...even without a dirndle... ;)

 

 

My friend Mareike (on the right) did a great job coordinating the event!

 
Next up: getting ready to go take engagement photos of Kevin and Amy this afternoon!  I'll share soon.  :)
  
- Kelsey

Discovering beauty... 

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer

Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

SF with Joy

When a photographer friend from across the country tells you she's going to be in your area over the weekend, there's only one thing to do: drop everything and go have some fun!

Joy is originally from Chicago and now lives in Raleigh, NC.  It's not often I get to shoot with her.  So a few weeks ago my brother and I headed to San Francisco and spent the day with Joy, her husband Jamie, and their friend (and my new friend!) Jana.

Joy and I have been to China and Alaska together. Once you've experienced such epic trips with someone, you're friends for life -- no matter how infrequently you see each other!

We had lunch in Sausalito, took the ferry across the bay to SF, wandered around Fishermen's Wharf and Ghirardelli, and took the ferry back...and then because we'd been very, very good all day, we gave in to our urge to be crazy photographers and drove up to the north end of the Golden Gate bridge for some post-sunset photos.

(Many thanks to Chris, Jamie, and Jana for putting up with after-dark trudges up a closed roadway with a heavy tripod to get That Bridge Shot We Wanted.  It was worth it.)

Jana, Jamie, and Chris on the ferry

 

The sunset was thoroughly blah, but we waited for "blue hour" and made the most of it!  And yes it was rather chilly up on the hill while we waited...

 

 

But entirely worth the wait.  I love blue hour.  And I love making all the lights into little stars (f/8, for the rest of you photo wonks out there).

Then we took a rather interesting route to the freeway, thanks to Chris, careening down Lombard and Hyde not once but twice.  Since those moments are best experienced without a camera, I did.  And then we all went home and downloaded photos and grinned at all our memories of good times...  :)

Happy Thursday, everybody!
Kelsey

Discovering beauty... 

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer

Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Slightly random post!

This morning I was doing some digital housecleaning, and found that I never posted the last few photos from the Yosemite Landscape Workshop last March.  I got sick in April and a whole lot of things went by the wayside...as you can see, only one blog post made it out that month!

So in an effort to mend my ways, here are those last few Landscape Workshop photos. :)  Enjoy!

Erin, on the snowy meadow boardwalk leading across the valley to Yosemite Falls

 

Sentinel Bridge

 

Erin again...because she's cute :)

 

Amanda, across the river at Happy Isles, hard at work with a rock-o-pod ;)

 

I love the bright green moss and the soft green-brown tones in the water and rocks.

 

  

Moss macro...there's such beauty in the tiny details.

 

Sometimes getting The Perfect Photo means getting into some interesting shooting positions... 

Pretty wildflowers along the road, on the way back to the Bay Area

 

Playing paparazzi in the grass...Bethany probably has a very similar shot of me... ;)

 

We finished our trip in San Francisco at the Bay Bridge, the Presidio, and of course Ghirardelli.  Here's a fun sight at the Presidio:

 

Yay for some really awesome photographers!  :)

 

Parting "Blue Hour" shot...I just love the light at this time of day...so much gorgeousness.

That's all for now, folks!  This weekend I'm excited to be photographing Byron and Rebecca's wedding in Canada, so stay tuned for highlights from that.  There's also a slide show in the works from another recent wedding and some new website developments that I'm *very* excited about...more on that soon!  :D

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Dan and Julie ~ engagement session in San Francisco

It's so much fun to photograph people who are clearly meant for each other!  :) I'm so happy for my cousin Julie Thompson and her fiancee Dan...they're awesome together.

I love engagement sessions because I'm not just taking pretty photos, I'm portraying a couple's relationship.  And I love how these came out...you can really see the deep friendship, trust, and love that Julie and Dan have for each other.  :)

Dan plays the guitar beautifully -- the acoustics here were amazing, and I wished we'd had time for him to play longer.  You should have heard the music echoing through the huge brick hallway.

Drama...

(Well, yes, this one was a bit of a damp experience for all of us...but I think you'll agree the photo was worth it!)

And lastly, one of my favorite engagement session photos ever!  So romantic!!

I'll be posting more photos on Facebook as well.  :)

Till next time, friends!  God bless!

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

San Francisco in blue

You all know I'm crazy about Yosemite, and the outdoors in general...so it would seem that urban scenes aren't always my favorite.  While that's sometimes true, there's a certain time of day that I LOVE urban photography: blue hour!

Blue hour is a magical time that comes every evening after sunset.  The sun goes down, the colors fade, everything looks drab...and then as the sky darkens, it passes through the most sublime course of blue shades any connoisseur of color could ask for.

I'm too indecisive to settle down on a particular favorite color -- I have a whole repertoire of favorite colors -- but these deep, rich, magnificent blues definitely rank high on the list!

Everything around turns blue, reflecting the sky, and when you combine that with incandescent lights, I think it's just gorgeous.  Here's an image I took in San Francisco a few weeks ago during blue hour:

This was during Julie and Dan's engagement session, and yes, we did some photos of them at blue hour too!  Looking forward to sharing those with you soon!  :)

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Rusty old doors

I have a bunch more photos of Kira, but those will have to wait till after I finish a big project today.  Meanwhile...hope you enjoy this photo of some very cool old doors I saw near San Francisco yesterday.

- Kelsey Schweickert


Discovering beauty...

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Of cars and bridges

Amidst spinning out thrice on a Tahoe freeway in one car, and testing two other cars, and testing and buying a third car, I haven't been very good about keeping up with this poor blog. My sincerest apologies to you, my dear readers, but I'm sure you understand. And to top it off, there's just something about spending two hours of yesterday at the DMV...yeah...it effectively frazzled my brains to the point where I doubt I *could* have written an intelligible post last night even if I had tried.

The situation will soon be remedied, however, and in the meantime, here's a cool photo to look at. (It's actually a rather old photo, but in my humble opinion, that doesn't make it any less cool.) So here for your viewing pleasure, in honor of my new car (which I bought in SF), is San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
 
 

 
Laters!
 
- Kelsey Schweickert
 
 
Discovering beauty...
 
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Brent & Chantil's SF engagement session, part 1

I just love engagement sessions! Brent and Chantil's was so fun...we met in San Francisco and wandered all over the Golden Gate bridge area, photographing as we went.  More than once, we spotted a place to take a photo, and headed towards it -- and along the way, found something else even cooler.  (Honestly, I could never work in a studio...why confine yourself, when "all the world's a stage"!)  Besides pretty light (if you know me you know I looooove pretty light!), we found reflections and clouds and cool lines...ahhhh...photographer happiness!


It was fun to get to know Brent and Chantil a little better.  I met Brent about a year ago, when he was in his brother's wedding, which I photographed.  He has an infectious grin and a go-getter attitude.  And Chantil is a beauty!  They clearly think the world of each other, and it was a treat to do my best to capture that in their photos.  So here goes...

(Pretty bridge...the landscape photographer in me couldn't help it... ;)

(with Brent and Chantil, after we finished -- thanks to Britton for helping take this one!)

That's all for now.  Have a great Saturday, everybody!  :)

- Kelsey Schweickert

Discovering beauty...

http://www.photographybykelsey.net/  |  kelsey@photographybykelsey.net  |  www.twitter.com/partyinmycamera