Posted in Uncategorized

Thanks to a giveaway from the good people at Brooke Courtney Photography, I was finally able to get my hands on VSCO Film for Lightroom a few weeks ago. In short (and totally not official definition), VSCO Film is a group of very film-looking presets that allows photographers to manipulate their images in post-processing. Out of all the presets I’ve tried in the last 3ish years, these are my favorite. I’m definitely learning how to use them to best suit my style and have realized that I can only use them in minimal amounts if I still want my pictures to look like they belong to Kelsey Tice Photography. Even so, I love some of the tools they have for making those minimal adjustments. Some of my favorite tools are ‘orange skin fix’, ‘sharpen +’ and ‘lows boost’, and ‘Kodak Porta 160++’ is my favorite film preset so far. I say ‘so far’ because I’ve only edited one session with VSCO, and I know I still have a lot of experimenting to do!

I wanted to share a before and after that really shows how awesome VSCO is! This is from Danielle & Will’s Florida engagement session that will be hitting the blog later this week! Here’s the image straight out of camera (SOOC):

Here are the presets I used on this image:
Kodak Portra 160++
Grain (none)
Fade+
Lows Boost
Sharpen++

Super simple adjustments that took me about 30 seconds to do and then apply to the rest of the images in this series! Simple = Happy Kelsey. Also, I edited out those two distracting signs that were in the background of the image. Obviously, I’m not an editing master, so now that you know they were there, you can tell I edited them out. But let’s be honest, if you had never seen the ‘before’, you never would have known. :)

A have to give the people at VSCO some major high fives for being so awesome and creating this equally awesome product, and I 100% recommend it to other photographers. They also have an app for iPhone called VSCO Cam that I use ALL THE TIME… It’s my favorite camera app, and trust me, I’ve tried pretty much all of them. Haha. :)

Happy Tuesday!

ps. Aaron just texted me to tell me it started snowing, so I won’t be going outside for about 2 weeks. Snow = the worst. :(

Posted in Personal

-Drink more water. Up until last week, my daily water intake was determined by how many cups of coffee I had during the day. Cause coffee TOTALLY counts as water. I mean, that’s what it started out as, right?!

-Go to the gym 4 times a week. Aaron & I just joined a brand-new Planet Fitness that opened .4 miles from our apartment (No exaggeration… It’s that close.) Maybe one day I’ll stop driving there and actually count the walk as part of my workout! Not likely.

-Cook healthier meals. I’m starting to notice a trend here. Ya’ll know I love a good Pinterest recipe… It’s definitely where I get a majority of meal ideas that I end up cooking. With the exception of one or two, most have been really, really good and totally repeatable. However, it seems like some of my favorite Pinterest finds (Mexican Dorito Casserole, White Chicken Enchiladas, and Outback’s Alice Springs Chicken) are not the healthiest choices, to say the least.

-Blog consistently. It wouldn’t be a blog post about goals if I didn’t mention this. :) This time, I have a fancy new blogging calendar that will hopefully inspire some serious change. I sure do need it.

-Invest in an off-camera lighting system for wedding receptions.

-Stay in touch with friends & family. I’ve never been one to be good at this, but it’s never a reflection of how much I miss people that are far from me. After moving from Florida, I realized quickly how intentional I would have to be about keeping in touch, so I’d like to keep that up. Or else I’m pretty sure everyone would forget me for forever. Totally not dramatic.

-Learn to sew! I’m excited about this one! :) Aaron surprised me with a sewing machine for Christmas, and I attempted my first project over the weekend. It turned out pretty well… Just a simple infinity scarf that I sewed using this tutorial, but I definitely have A LOT to learn. Like, why does cutting the fabric seem to be the most difficult part?!

-Write more. This one goes along with the blogging consistently, but I’m also talking about prayer journaling, planning out my day, random notes to friends, etc.

-Take pictures of everyday life with my real camera. Notice I didn’t say take MORE pictures because sadly, I’ve taken NONE since we’ve been married. Sure, I use my iPhone camera constantly, but that’s obviously not the same. I don’t have any good pictures of Noley when she was a puppy, nothing documenting the adventures of our first 9 months of marriage, and no real evidence that I actually live in Arkansas, aside from my complete lack of tan. I need to start being a photographer everyday, and not just when I’m getting paid to be.

-Take Noley on more walks. Although, I’m just going to admit up front that this probably won’t really start happening until winter is over. Poor #NoleyGirl.

-Read a book a month. I’ve actually been doing pretty good with this since October, when I started reading the Harry Potter series. Judge me all you want. I’m just a girl living life vicariously through a made-up wizard world, still bitter that I never got my Hogwarts letter. All HP jokes aside, I really have enjoyed reading consistently the last few months and hope I’m able to continue. And I would LOVE fiction recommendations if you have any. :)

-Stop working when office hours are over. There are so many great perks with working from home. More than I can even count. This issue, however, is not so great. It’s so easy to read an email at 9pm (when I should be relaxing and spending time with Aaron) and think, “Oh, I’ll just respond to this really quick!” No more!

-Keep a cleaner/more tidy apartment. It’s very rarely a disaster (although, there have been times), but I could probably be more on top of this. Especially considering that I do work from home.

-Shoot 10 weddings in 2013. I would love nothing more than to see this happen. I realize that most of it is out of my control, as I cannot force couples to hire me, but I’m diligently praying that it would happen!

-Be a better wife. Marriage has been the greatest thing that I’ve ever experienced, outside of a relationship with Christ. Most people say that your first year of marriage is really hard, but Aaron & I couldn’t disagree more. Sure, we’ve had to learn how to do life with another person, but it was been the greatest blessing of 2012. I know life won’t always be butterflies & roses, and that’s why I want to continue becoming a more godly wife… For the good times & the bad.

Leave a Comment
  • January 16, 2013 - 9:27 am

    Kristin - You should read The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. Not only is it an based on a true story, it’s also written through the dogs perspective, which is amazing and will have you looking at Noley completely differently.
    I will warn you that about half way through the book you will be bawling your eyes out and will want to throw the book across the room vowing never to pick it up again, BUT I promise, it is totally worth it!ReplyCancel

    • January 16, 2013 - 9:35 pm

      kelseytice - I will add that to my list! Just in case I wasn’t already emotional enough about my dog/child! Hahaha.ReplyCancel

  • January 16, 2013 - 9:32 pm

    Megan Harness - I’ll hook you up with book recommendations! :-) I love reading your blog!ReplyCancel

Posted in Personal

To label 2012 as ‘The Whirlwind Year’ would be the biggest understatement of… well, the year. Wedding planning, getting married, honeymooning, moving 1100 miles to Fayetteville, Arkansas, setting up our first apartment, learning to be a wife, learning to be a youth pastor’s wife, learning to be away from the comforts of Florida, making new friends in Arkansas, rebranding my photography, traveling all summer for camps and missions trips, getting a puppy, having family and friends visit us, visiting friends in Texas, the holidays, traveling to Florida after Christmas… Yeah, crazy year.

Aside from learning how to do this whole wife thing, the hardest adjustment this year was definitely with my photography. It’s not that I expected to move to Arkansas in March and have 11 couples begging me to shoot their weddings that the summer. I knew it would a while before business would really pick up, and it’s totally understandable… No one knew me personally, I didn’t have a reputation (good or bad), and I didn’t have any word-of-mouth going. The thing I didn’t realize is how  S   L   O   W  those first few month would feel. Honestly, there were a lot of days that I felt like a bump on a log. Aaron and I had decided that I wouldn’t get another job so that I would be able to travel with him on the 4-weeks of youth-ministry related activities throughout the summer. I’m so thankful for this and that I have a husband who sees the importance of doing ministry together, but my downtime made me feel like a diva wife who sat around eating bon-bons and watching her soaps all day. (I promise I didn’t really do either of those things.)

I was blessed to be able to shoot a wedding at the end of June, and in the fall I had an occasional shoot every 3-4 weeks, many of which I did for free because I was just DYING to shoot. Since we had been married, Aaron & I had been praying almost every night for God to bring me business. It’s not that I thought God was ignoring us, I was just convinced that He was saying, ‘WAIT!’, as He does quite often.

In October, our pastor Nick taught a message on pride that hit me hard. For 6 months I’d been living in Arkansas, I had been super deliberate in NOT asking our friends here to pray for God to grow my business. Seems backwards, right? Well, I’ve never wanted to be the type of person that pushes her business on her friends. If people pick someone different than me to shoot their wedding or family photos, that’s totally fine, and I won’t be offended! So I guess my fear of turning into the extreme, self-promoting photographer pushed me to become the girl that wouldn’t ask her brothers & sisters in Christ for help… Pretty opposite of the entire point of the body of Christ. I quickly began to realize that I was trying so hard to portray humility that it actually turned into a nasty case of pride.

That next Sunday, I knew that God was prompting me to share this with my small group, so I laid it all on the line and asked for prayer. Honestly, it was really hard to do. I kept having all these thoughts like, “What if they think I’m just trying to get them to book me?” or “They’re going to think I’m just being their friend for their money!” Just admitting and typing it out is embarrassing. Well, after finally sharing what I should have shared months before, I felt a peace. And know what’s so crazy? The prayers actually worked! In the two weeks after sharing with my small group, I booked something like 12 or 13 sessions that took place that next month. Nothing like a little slap in the face from God to show you how small your faith can be.

In all honesty, I’m thankful that the Lord gave me this lesson… I just wish I wasn’t such a hard learner. :) What an awesome reminder that I need to live in constant surrender so that He can be the center of EVERY area of my life. Not just my marriage, health, or ministry, but also my business… Even when it makes me uncomfortable.

From the middle of October to the middle of December, God blessed me with multiple sessions each week. I had such an amazing time building relationships with new friends & clients and sharing my passion for His glory. I can’t wait to see what He’ll do this year, and I’m really praying that He’ll keep me from repeating my hard-headed, idiot ways again. I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from this year, in totally random order. Enjoy! :)

Happy 2013!

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