Elyse Kufeldt Photography

3 Years & A Sale!

Elyse — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:36:29 +0000

Three years ago today, I purchased elysekufeldtphotography.com (btw, did you know you can reach me now by going to the much simpler “ekuphoto.com”?), and began the crazy journey of photography. It’s both terrifying and incredibly rewarding to see how much I have improved both in terms of my technical photography skills and business skills. And I can’t thank all of you enough for sticking along for the ride. I’ve done this all the way through college, which has made it difficult to do all the marketing that I deserve and should be doing, so for those of you diehards out there, and you know who you are, I love, appreciate and am beyond thankful for you, and not just because it’s Thanksgiving.

I love you all and present to you my sale for this year — my way of saying “thanks for rocking so hard!” :)

If you have been following my facebook page, then you know that from today until midnight Saturday, you can book a session with me for $75 instead of $150! And here’s how you can do it!

1) Go to this appointment page and snag a spot! You’ll need a google account to get one, but once you claim it, the spot’s availability will disappear! You can claim any slot from now through June!

2) I will email you within an hour of you snagging an appointment slot with full pricing information, session agreements, etc. and a link to pay your $75 non-refundable session fee. Within six hours of your receipt of that email, I will need an email that confirms that you agree to everything in the session agreement and your decision on the model release form as well as paypal payment. If I do not receive that information, the slot will become available again (though you are more than welcome to try again!).

Please note that the $285 minimum purchase requirement still applies.

Additionally, if you had a session with me between October 2010 and November 2011, on Saturday only, your gallery will be reactivated and you will be provided with a coupon code which will give you a 30% discount on all products!

Again, I cannot say enough how lucky I feel to have met each and every client that I have and how excited I am to meet more of you. This business gives me such a wonderful opportunity to be both creative and analytical and I love every second :)

Have a happy Thanksgiving! :)

Henry’s Senior Portraits | Bay Area Senior Portrait Photographer

Elyse — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:00:08 +0000

This past week, Randy and I were in San Jose visiting with my aunt, uncle and cousins. I’ve got tons of posts worth of pictures to cycle through and show you, so don’t worry, but for today, I’m doing a sneak peek of my cousin Henry’s senior portraits! We went out to one of the hills near their house and goofed off with a guitar, I got burs in my double blister (more on that later), and we watched an awesome sunset.

Thanks so much for all your hospitality, Phil and Kristin! The rest of this set of images will be ready soon!

*Note! I do travel for sessions! If you’re interested, see my travel page for more details!

Tom & Carol’s 25th Anniversary | Eastside Couples Anniversary Photographer

Elyse — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:56:57 +0000

On August 9, my parents celebrated their twenty fifth wedding anniversary! Yesterday, I took photos of them to mark the occasion. We started at sunrise with some shots of them waking up, doing their morning ritual of howling with Chelo (their dog), and making coffee before we headed out to Kirkland, hoping to go to the French Bakery for a delicious breakfast, but we probably should have figured they would have been closed on Labor Day. Instead, we went down to the park at the Kirkland waterfront and took some pictures there.

Mom, Dad — I love you both so much and I’ve said it a thousand times before, but I am so grateful to have such excellent role models for my own marriage. You’ve shown through example what it means to stick it out through good times and bad, and I am so lucky to have parents as committed to making their marriage not just work, but thrive over the years. It’s easy to stay together just to stay together, it’s not so easy to stay together and stay in love. I am so lucky to have parents that have managed the latter.

Anyway, here are just a few pictures from yesterday, with more coming soon. Love you both!

Love what you do

Elyse — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 23:53:21 +0000

For a short time in 2008, one of my since deceased blogs was in the 9rules network. Throughout high school, I had loved the assimilation of top notch content that the website pulled together. By the time I was a part of it, it had gone through a few different changing of hands and was no longer the seal of quality that it once was.

All the same, the tenants of 9rules have stuck with me, even five years later:

Love what you do.
Never stop learning.
Form works with function.
Simple is beautiful.
Work hard, play hard.
You get what you pay for.
When you talk, we listen.
Must constantly improve.
Respect your inspiration.

I still find myself living, and particularly doing business, with these things in mind. Working for yourself is hard. But at the end of the day, if you truly love what you’re doing, then I think all the rest of that list falls into place.

When you love what you do, it’s impossible to stop learning about it because we all dig into the things we’ve fallen in love with and try to find out as much as possible.

When you love what you do, you begin to understand it differently — both how your profession works on a functional and aesthetic level, and how both aspects are equally important.

When you love what you do, it’s easier to see that what you love is inherently simple, and the rest doesn’t matter so much.

When you love what you do, work is play and play is work and you do both hard.

When you love what you do and you know you do it well, you stop being threatened by the competition who might charge less than you because you understand you get what you pay for. This doesn’t always mean that your competition is less valuable or has a worse service than you, but just that your offerings and goals are different and that a customer gets what they pay for.

When you love what you do, it’s easier to listen to what people have to say because you’re not trying to convince yourself you love something that you really hate and it’s easier to stand by your principles.

When you love what you do, you’re always trying to improve and be better at it. And it doesn’t feel like such a struggle — it’s fun!

When you love what you do, you can respect the people and things that inspire you while also feeling sufficiently proud of your work so that you don’t feel discouraged by those who are more successful than you in some way or another and without having to steal. When you love what you do, you’re proud of what you do.

So what about you? Do you love what you do? I know I do, even when it’s tough! :)

Check out my featured profile on Young Female Entrepreneurs!

The Explanation

Elyse — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:34:32 +0000

(That’s my sister up there :D)
So! I’ve launched the new website and the new focus, and it’s time I explain myself, don’t you think? :)

The past couple of months I’ve been thinking a lot about my marketing strategy or lack thereof. And I’ve been realizing more and more that my issue is that I wasn’t marketing what I love to take pictures of — I was marketing across the board. So I sat down and thought long and hard about what shoots and sessions I look forward to the most, and to be honest, the answer wasn’t that difficult to find — it’s easily couples in love and individuals.

What I look forward to most about couples sessions is finding and capturing the unique facets of your relationship that make it unequivocally yours.

But honestly, I think that part of it is that for a photographer, the lens is a way to interpret life. At this point, while I can still make guesses and turn out pretty good shots of families and kids, I’m just far better at dealing with couples in love (who are perhaps anticipating their first child [though don't get any ideas, family, I'm not pregnant, myself!]) and individuals. Because I get that. I know what to look for. I know the ins and outs, at least a little. I know what quiet, understated things to look for and bring out.

And that innate knowledge is, I think, what makes me so excited about couples and individuals sessions. It’s a challenge to unlock the secrets of the people I’m photographing, and in both of those cases, I just have far better odds at doing so.

But at the most basic level, the bottom line is that I just plain ol’ get excited to either meet a new couple for photos or take someone out and make them feel beautiful.

So that’s where I’m at. There are a few more changes I’ve made that I’ll be explaining over the next few days, but this was an important start.

I appreciate all your support!

Joe’s Birthday

Elyse — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:32:05 +0000

Friday was our good friend Joe’s birthday. We went over to his parent’s house for some birthday pasta, some birthday shots and some all around birthday fun.

Shortly after we arrived, Joe started making bruschetta.

Then, the hubs and Joe smoked a couple of birthday cigars (which, while I don’t really like hanging around while they smoke, made for pretty cool pictures, I’d say!)…

And then, of course, it was time for birthday shots! (In the first picture, can you see the mesquel tequila worm?)

Next, was birthday pasta time!

And then, Joe played us all a song that he had written for Nicole. I don’t know if he had named it the DVD song, but that’s certainly what it’s called now. It was pretty darn cute.

And then, Joe and Nicole were just being generally adorable as he prepared to walk down to Pete’s Bar & Grill to perform a set at the Talent show.

And then, finally, was Joe’s set, which was pretty great! I have some pretty talented friends!

I hope your birthday was fantastic, Joe!

A day at Golden Gardens

Elyse — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:00:34 +0000

On Sunday, Randy and I headed down to Golden Gardens Park with our dog Vera to catch some rays, take some pictures, and see if we could convince the dog to go swimming. She didn’t even stay in the water long enough for me to get one rapid fire picture. In fact, we had to drag her down to the water — while she’s little, she’s strong. So that didn’t work and we had to pick her up and set her down and she scrambled out of there and started pulling her leash upward in a flash! So we sat on a log with her while she panted. Luckily, she seemed to like the log.

Anniversaries Five and Two

Elyse — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:43:59 +0000

This week, Randy and I celebrated five years of being together and today we celebrate two years of being married. I still can’t believe I got so lucky. It has been such a privilege to watch him grow and change, and I am so proud of him for going after his goals (in particular, this year he went back to school to pursue nursing and he has lost over 60 pounds)! Five years ago, Randy didn’t read books, and this year alone he’s read four and he’s on his fifth. Five years ago, Randy had just graduated high school and had no intention of ever going back to school, and now here he is, back in school and doing extremely well considering. He works hard at everything he does with such dedication. I am so glad that I’ve been here to witness, and I hope help facilitate, these changes, and I can’t wait to see the rest. I can only hope I’ve shown as much positive growth as he has over the years!

I love you, Randy, and I’m so honored and overjoyed to have spent the last five years with you and can’t wait to see all the rest unfold!

Camping at Crescent Bar | Seattle Lifestyle Photographer

Elyse — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:59:51 +0000

Last weekend, the hubby and I went over to Eastern Washington for some sun and relaxation. While I didn’t bust out my camera as much I wish I had, I definitely did make a good deal of progress reading “A Song of Fire and Ice” (great books — read them!), and got to spend time with my cousin-in-law and her 5 month old, which I haven’t really gotten to do! In all, it was a good, warm, sunburn yielding weekend :)

Camping at Deception Pass | Seattle Lifestyle Photographer

Elyse — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:19:06 +0000

This post is a bit overdue, but better late than never! For my husband’s birthday back in June, we and two of our dearest friends ventured out to Deception Pass to camp for the weekend. If you haven’t been, you really should. The campgrounds are lovely (especially if you can snag a stellar spot like we did right next to the bathrooms. Seriously, for someone who has to pee as much as me, that made all the difference!), you’re only a short walk from the beach, you’re surrounded by the Olympics and the Cascades, and at night the stars are to die for.

It was a beautiful weekend and yielded lots of pictures of our friends Joe and Nicole, and even a few of us, which is pretty rare! (I’m the one in the blue sweatshirt everywhere.) Not only did I get to take adorable pictures of our adorable friends, however, but I also had an opportunity to practice my landscape photo skills, and I think I did pretty darn well! I’m really pleased with quite a few of these! If you’re interested in seeing the rest of those shots and/or in purchasing prints of any of them, head on over this way and take a look*. :)

* Note that the prices listed there are not the prices for clients. Additional markup has been added for my private, non-commissioned work.