A blur of hair and laughter | Austin TX Photographer | Milano IT Fotografa

If I would have seen her across a busy restaurant conversing with a friend, I would have 1000% introduced myself and begged her to let me photograph her. That didn’t happen, but still the universe did its thing to get this legend in front of my lens.

I can hardly take credit for any of the resulting images because I didn’t direct anything. I couldn’t. It would have been a shame to, just as it would have been a shame to retouch the images. She flowed and grimaced and launched and stood up and sat down and buzzed in and out of the frame in a blur of hair and laughter. I couldn’t keep up. And I loved every second of it.

A musician, an artist, definitely a free spirit; this woman had me on my toes and left me in awe. What we captured in those 30 short minutes is animated, authentic, out of focus, grainy, raw, imperfect, and some of my favorite images of all time.

She moved me.

Reflected back at you | Austin TX Photographer | Milano IT Fotografa

“Kara taught me that I am more beautiful than I ever knew. I honestly didn’t know until she showed me. I feel emotional just recounting this story. It’s a powerful thing to see the truth reflected back at you. I would do this every year if possible.

A freedom ritual. A joy pilgrimage.” -A

This image speaks to me in so many ways. The dappled light, her gorgeous skin, the pose and expression that says “I can be exhausted and powerful and beautiful simultaneously.”, and most importantly, the amazing woman in the frame who graced me with her glowing attitude, unbridled enthusiasm, contagious energy, and all the words she said above. It’s about so much more than photos here. So much more.

Exposed x2 | Austin TX Power Portraits | Milano Fotografa

In-camera double exposure with my Fuji XT-1, my darling repeat client Jennifer Marley, and the orchids that I carefully escorted to the studio for the shot I dreamt up last night when I was trying to sleep. I’ve photographed Jennifer over the years celebrating other milestones of hers, and was so honored when she commissioned some maternity images from me as she awaits the birth of her little one.

Inspiration struck last night and I was furiously searching to see if the idea was unique (I don’t like setting out to do things that have been done to death, and sometimes my “genius ideas” turn out to be old news.) I couldn’t find anything like what I was envisioning, so I ran with it and I’m so happy this goddess-of-a-life-creator hung in there with me at the end of her shoot so I could try to turn the concept in my head into a finished product. It’s not at all how I envisioned it, but that’s fort of how inspiration and execution has always worked out for me.

For those unfamiliar with the process, double-exposures are created when two images are taken on top of each other as a single frame. This used to happen oftentimes by mistake on film, but eventually became its own art form.

The first shot was taken of Jennifer on a white seamless paper backdrop, underexposed to ensure she was the darkest part of the frame (paying extra close attention to the highlights and shadows is important when creating this kind of image), and the second image was taken of a single branch of orchids cascading down a black backdrop, arranged in a way that would flow with the silhouette of her body resulting in this single frame.

Camera: Fujifilm XT-1

Lens: 23mm f/2

Subject: Jennifer Marley

Processing: KMBW Preset, tweaked.

Our granddaughters... | Austin Power Portraits | Milano Fotografa

“Let the stories of who you were send shivers down the spines of our granddaughters. Let them hear about you as the woman who was Herself who did her own thing and helped others along the way.” -Tanya Markul

The elegant Ms. McFayden was most certainly the first woman I thought of when I read this quote. So I thought they should go together somewhere in internet history.

Twisted up. | Austin Photographer | Milano Fotografa

She told me she loved all my “twisted up” poses….

Karen's Fire | Austin Portrait Photographer | Milano Fotografa

Yesterday this vivacious mother of four traveled from LA to ATX to shoot with me for a second time. Since Karen first started following my work less than a year and a half ago, she has done 2 shoots with me, my mentorship program, my Vegas workshop, @theportraitmasters SBE membership, completed my Boudoir Series, and has purchased every other piece of educational material I have to offer. When I first started working with her, she was in the very beginning stages of photography...and currently, such a short time later and later in life than many would expect to learn a new craft, her work has improved as though she’d been working and learning for years and years. She is doing the damn work.

I love seeing this sort of fire and drive to learn this craft. It’s the same determination that I’ve had from the beginning....and photographers...I assure you...that mindset is EVERYTHING. Your attitude will make or break your success. Stop with the excuses, stop expecting your mentors/educators to drop the skill into your lap for overnight success. Go after it. Be passionate about learning new techniques because I assure you, the learning is never over in this industry.

That’s one of the things that lights me up about photography—-I will never ever be the best photographer in the world. There are always more stairs to climb so I’m never bored. Let’s all be more like K, here, and get fired up about mastering our crafts. 🖤 
Oh, and also, I love these images of her. Sorry....I got a little lost on my soapbox. 

Speechless and Sobbing | Austin TX Beauty Photographer

This one right here….THIS ONE had me crying and goosebumping and rejoicing in this path of work I’ve chosen for myself. She was nothing but kind and sweet and trusting….but I could tell that she was going to be a hard sell on loving photos of herself. The woman standing in front of me was beautiful and funny and resilient and INCREDIBLE. However, my intuitive nature, along with all the words she wasn’t saying, told me that she perhaps was going to have a very difficult time seeing what I see. She’d been through SO much, and I could see the pain in her eyes as she tried not to get into it at the risk of not being able to stop crying during her session.

I’m not going to lie…my usual excitement and confidence going into a photo reveal appointment was replaced with nerves and jitters for hers. I knew how happy I was with the finished product, and I LOVEDDDD the images….but I wasn’t feeling assured that even these images that show her as the work of art she is would actually be as well received for her as they were for me.

We sat through her 3 minute theatrical slideshow in dead silence. Nobody made a peep, and I don’t think I took more than one breath the entire time…which would explain how lightheaded I got towards the end, waiting for any sort of reaction at all. The slideshow ended, she turned around, we locked eyes, and through tears and sobs she repeated “Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.”

She had seen what I saw, and she was art.

Her words:

““AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING. Best photoshoot experience I've ever had in my entire life (and I've done A LOT). I felt completely comfortable, safe, at home, trusting, and valued every step of the way…”

“I've had a REALLY difficult year in every way imaginable, filled with so much trauma and loss, so I went into this shoot with hopes that I'd feel more comfortable in my skin and with who I've become.

I mean, I knew Kara was an incredibly gifted photographer, Ioved her work, and trusted her process, but I guess I wasn't expecting them to be so good because of my own lack of confidence. I'm my own worst critic, type-A personality, OCD to the max, and SUPER picky about photographs of myself. I told myself I'd be lucky to find a dozen that I was okay with.”

“Boy, was I WRONG. The slideshow at my reveal left me SPEECHLESS (which is also rare) and with tears uncontrollably streaming down my face. Sobbing was all I could do in awe. Seeing myself in a positive way was empowering, but caught me completely off guard. It was overwhelming…”

“Kara was able to catch the true essence of who I am and a vulnerability that doesn't usually come through in photographs….”

“With well over 100 shots to choose from, I LOVED EVERY SINGLE ONE. KARA: THANK YOU FOR FINDING & SEEING ME.” -C

And with that, I’m again covered with goosebumps. This is what it’s all about. It’s about opening eyes, gaining self love, shifting perspectives, and recognizing how incredible YOU are. Thank you SO much, C, for your kindness, your beautiful words, and most importantly for trusting me to give you this experience and these finished products, even when you were unsure you’d be able to cherish them. I’m over-the-moon that you have the most exquisite collection of images to treasure forever.

The Wild Woman Pt. III | Photography For the Modern Woman

WILD WOMAN

To nominate a wild woman for this photo project, e-mail studio@karamariestudios.com telling us how this woman owns her wild and shares her light with the world.

The Wild Woman Pt. II | Photography for the Modern Woman

“you will become a graveyard
of all the women you once were
before you rise one morning
embraced by your own skin.

you will swallow a thousand different names
before you taste the meaning
held within your own”

— pavana

The Wild Woman | Photography for the Modern Woman

“Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is: Wild Woman…but she is…an endangered species.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés | Women who run with the wolves

WE JUST ARE.

“When we accept our own wild beauty, it is put into perspective, and we are no longer poignantly aware of it anymore, but neither would we forsake it or disclaim it either.

Does a wolf know how beautiful she is when she sleeps? Does a feline know what beautiful shapes she makes when she sits? Is a bird awed by the sound it hears when it snaps open its wings?

Learning from them, we just act in our own true way and do not draw back from or hide our natural beauty. Like the creatures, we just are, and it is right.”

-Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Book Recommendation: Women who run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Note: You have to be ready for it. And by “ready”, I mean you need to be emotionally mature enough to have lived through some heavy stuff, learned from it, and have achieved a developed sense of self awareness. I couldn’t have read this book even 3 years ago. Now that I was ready to receive the lessons, it is the single most powerful piece of literature I’ve ever read and I cannot stop recommending it to my wolf pack of fierce females.

Click to buy on Amazon.