kristianne koch photography—-photo blog

Just over a year ago I was in a rut and on the verge of throwing in the towel on photography. I have been doing it for 20 years professionally off and on and was done with commercial work being completely un-gratifying and getting frustrated with my own fine art work not evolving. With the kids taking the front seat in my life I thought there would be no way to keep putting my energy into it. Until I “met” Bonnie Berry online. At first I only saw her design work and bookmarked her site.

Then at the beginning of 2008 when I had a broken camera and was looking for inspiration for print design, I came across her blog. I was blown away. I don’t know what did it: her honest and endearing posts, her absolutely dreamy but natural, tack sharp at the critical, Henri Cartier-Bresson moment photographs or her delightful, intelligent mom-wit.

No matter what, I was hooked, inspired, and motivated to at least try to take my own family photographs to the next level even though I promised myself in college that I would never be a portrait photographer. I also promised myself that I would never go to Hawaii again and only travel to truly exotic locales. Well, I have been known to break a few promises to myself with positive outcome.
So, I have been photographing my own kids with a new found vision as well as other families and children along the way. I am excited about photography again to say the least.

When Bonnie said she was going to be in Southern California for photography sessions I knew I just had to have her photograph my whole family-including me (which I don’t have much of except for the snapshots by the stranger on the pier that we hand over my camera to) with her own honest-dreamy vision. And so she did. Thank you Bonnie for being you and for the gift you shared with us.

Kristianne Koch Photography

Kristianne Koch specializes in on-location portrait photography for the contemporary family and child for all of Southern California. 949-702-7707 kristianne.koch@cox.net

April 28th, 2009 | Tags: bonnie berry, home, my family, photo session, photography | Category: my family, photography | Comments (2)

I find myself spending a lot of time at our local pier. So much so that I have actually started a new project based around the pier. The series is titled ‘Pierside’ and it incorporates images that I have taken at the pier over the last several years. You can see a couple of the images in a past post here. You can also see the ongoing series in my Current work here.

The pier is a special place in my life. It is a grounding for me as I wait for the time we can all be on the water. It is, I suppose, a surrogate to our boat right now since we don’t have a place to put one yet and we aren’t ready to head out to sea.

The San Clemente pier is our gathering place where I can still spend time with my parents and have fun with the kids. We play in the ocean at the pier, ride bikes and walk along the beach trail starting at or near the pier.

Last week, I found myself once again at the pier and walking along the beach trail with my mom, Merrik and Maliea. Each time it seems like an entirely new experience and it never gets old.

The light is beautiful there and I love the colors of the native plants, sand, sky, and dark wood of the pier as a backdrop.

It is a place where I can pretend like I am getting exercise and where I can be without a care in the world.

Kristianne Koch Photography

Kristianne Koch specializes in on-location portrait photography for the contemporary family and child for all of Southern California. 949-702-7707 kristianne.koch@cox.net

April 26th, 2009 | Tags: beach, maliea, merrik, nana, pier | Category: my family | Leave a comment

I started this blog as an easy way to share the most current photos of my kids with the rest of the family (a photo blog). But when I decided to start doing portraiture for other families it has become a focal point of both my family life and my work photographically.

Most of you who have been following this blog have seen mostly photos of my children with a spattering of portrait sessions so it seems my life is heavily focused on the kids. Well, it is, but there is so much more being balanced behind the scenes that I never talk about here.

I am so fortunate to be a full time stay at home mom while only being committed to teaching one class at Cal State Fullerton each semester. It allows me to be a mom and continue to pursue my personal career interests in fine art and portrait photography.

The underlying theme along this path, however, as some of you may know, is that we want to take the kids cruising when they are older (approximately 5 and 8). Not cruising on a cruise ship but open ocean sailing with the intentions of going all the way around the world. I am hoping that this blog can become a communication outlet for the process. Yes, my photography will continue to dominate my life as it has since 1989, but with a continuing evolution toward journalism to support our travels. I am hoping it becomes a synergy of everything I love about life: my husband, my kids, photography, living an alternative lifestyle and travel.

I don’t know why I am bringing this up now but our dream has been heavily on my mind as of late because of our financial balance sheet. We are so lucky that Jim still has his job and we can continue to live our stripped down life to the maximum. However, a lot of the money we put away for the boat and our travel (aka: the kids education money) is gone. It’s not much compared to what others have lost and many so close to retirement so I am not whining, just bummed.

We will still go, I know. We are focused and have support from friends and family to do this. Even if we get a boat and spend several years along the coast of Mexico and parts south we will do it. It is our dream as a family and since May 2, 2000 when Jim and I let go of the dock lines after much emotional ado, and headed across the big, wide Pacific, we moved beyond the feeling of wanting it and actually did it. So, we know the difference between talking about it and actually doing it. But it’s still scary to think what it will be like to do it with kids.

Kristianne Koch Photography

Kristianne Koch specializes in on-location portrait photography for the contemporary family and child for all of Southern California. 949-702-7707 kristianne.koch@cox.net

April 25th, 2009 | Tags: cruising, dreams, eco living, my family, photography | Category: my family, photography | Leave a comment

On Saturday we went to a big family picnic organized by Heather Newman who is “no one” to us. However, her husband is Jim’s sister’s husband’s brother so of course we’re all family! Anyway, we always have fun with family whether it’s Jim’s family or mine. We’re all one big happy family.
See more of the fun photos here–>

Kristianne Koch Photography

Kristianne Koch specializes in on-location portrait photography for the contemporary family and child for all of Southern California. 949-702-7707 kristianne.koch@cox.net

April 20th, 2009 | Tags: my family, picnic, spring | Category: my family | Leave a comment

We spent a fantastic day at the beach on Sunday and we are all tasting summer on our tongues. It has been gorgeously warm-warmer than some people around here like. We LOVE the warmth but wish it was a little more humid like the tropics. It was so great to have the windows open all night and hear the palm leaves rustle in the wind. I dreamt I heard the Mangoes dropping on the wet, muddy ground…

Kristianne Koch Photography

Kristianne Koch specializes in on-location portrait photography for the contemporary family and child for all of Southern California. 949-702-7707 kristianne.koch@cox.net

April 20th, 2009 | Tags: beach, maliea, merrik, my family, spring | Category: my family | Comments (1)