Kelsey Tice Photography

Atlanta Wedding & Portrait Photographer

Just Cause | Hunter & Beth | Jacksonville Portrait Photographer

It was something I had dreamed of for over a year, but that didn’t stop the nerves. About a month before shooting my first wedding, I started having nightmares where I would forget all of my memory cards… Or drop my entire camera bag in a fountain… Or my flash made the bride’s dress catch on fire. Yeah… I’m pretty sure that last one isn’t even possible, but that’s just a testament to how nervous I was. Not only was this my first time being the ‘official wedding photographer’, but it was my first time ever shooting a wedding. EVER. Like, I had never even assisted another photographer before this day. Looking back now, this was probably not a smart move of me, but I was blessed to not have any major problems. I am SO thankful for Hunter & Beth, who basically put all of their trust me to capture their wedding day… Despite my total lack of experience. Here’s a look at their wedding. I love being able to see where I’ve come from and how I’ve been able to develop a style of shooting since that day.

My last month in Jacksonville before moving to Arkansas, Hunter & Beth were in town, and I was able to take some married pictures of them. This is one of my favorite kinds of shoots… Nothing can compare to the excitement of a bride & groom on their wedding day, but married couples just have a different kind of love and friendship… More intimate, more hilarious, more love. So just because you’re married, that does NOT mean you should stop having pictures taken! Here are some of my favorites from our shoot. :)

Love this series!

Yay symmetry!!

I’ll end with my favorite. :)

Happy Tuesday! :)

A New Approach

When I first decided that I seriously wanted to pursue photography, I discovered Photoshop & Lightroom Actions. For those who don’t know, actions are one-click photo adjustments… They can do anything from make a photo look vintage, sharpen, add contrast, turn the photo black & white, etc. Some of my favorites are Totally Rad! Actions, Jesh de Rox’s Colorshift Actions, and Kubota Image Tools. They’re really cool and are HUGE time savers, BUT I realized recently that I wanted to take a step back from all the action craziness and only use them a very minimal amount. It can be so easy to get wrapped up in trying a million new combinations and effects, and before I know it, my photos can end up looking insanely different than I first envisioned. Also, I’ve noticed the more I allow myself to play around with actions, the more my photos end up looking inconsistent. So here’s to taking a more minimal approach to find simplicity and consistency. Cheers!… With my glass of Coke Zero, obvi.

With all that being said, I’ve realized that I can’t NOT be friends with Totally Rad!’s RadLab because it is just so awesome. I just have to be super careful to remind myself of my new minimalist approach. :)

Here’s a picture I snapped last week during my maternity session with David & Rachel. I think it’s a cross between The Notebook and The Little Mermaid. You gotta kiss de girllll! I made very minimal adjustments to give it a little more of a pop, but honestly, the photo didn’t need much! (Oh! And I edited out Baxter, the adorable little dachshund that just decided to crash our shoot.) And this photo WILL be blown up and hung in my office one day. LOVE IT! Here’s the recipe I used to achieve this look in RadLab…

Grainstorm – 30%
Claire-ify – 30%
Divine Light – 20% (Warmth – 40%)
Vanilla Kiss – 50%
Boutwell Magic Glasses 40%
Be looking for a full post of all of their pictures to be hitting the blog this week! Happy Monday! :)

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Happys & Sads

Growing up, my mom always had my brothers and I share our “happys & sads” with each other before bedtime… Basically, are favorite and not-so-favorite parts of the day. I decided that Fridays on the blog will be happys & sads day, but a look back at the entire week.

This week’s happys go to:

-Launching my new blog! Yay! It was a huge stress relief to FINALLY see it go live on Monday, and I am SO thankful for all the sweet words and encouragement that so many of you have sent me over the last few days.
-Starbucks’ Iced VIA. Love that stuff.
-Having my awesome Aaron accompany me to a session this week. I’m trying to teach him a little bit each week, and he’s seriously getting good! Maybe I’ll have a permanent second shooter pretty soon! :)
-Getting all of my new packaging & marketing materials in the mail!!!
-Scoring 4 shirts, a pair of pants, a dress, a cardigan, and a vest at Goodwill for $26! Thrifting for the win!
-Being able to say that I’ll be in Florida in 47 DAYS!!!!! :D

This week’s sads go to:

-The disaster that is our guest bedroom/my office at the moment. I literally have to jump over things to get around.
-The amount of laundry that is currently waiting for me in the hallway. :(
-This is more shocking than sad, but both of my parents got iPhones yesterday. I await about 800 confused/frustrated phone calls from them.
– The Bachelorette, and how all those ridiculous guys have already sucked me in. Don’t judge me, Internet.

HAPPY WEEKEND! :)

Ps… Here’s a peek of some of my new packaging/marketing goodness! (Taken with VSCOcam for the iPhone4s)

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