Bothered.

I know I shouldn't let people "rent space in my mind" as my husband would say, but sometimes I do.

I read a blog post this morning that bothered me. I don't know this girl, but she is a friend of a relative of a friend of mine. Ha. Still following? Anywho...she wrote about photography this morning and I felt like shit after I read it. I felt discouraged.

She talked about how much it annoyed her and bothered her that there are so many amateur photographers just buying expensive equipment and thinking they are "photographers." She would love to one day open her own business and, again, was bothered by the fact that so many other "stay at home moms" were doing this without any clue what the were doing.

Why can't people just be happy for other people? Why can't people just allow others to have something they are uber passionate about and takes a leap and goes for it? Just be happy for others, people. Why must we always judge and hate?

Should I be looked down upon because I am following my passion? Because I don't have a "mentor--someone who is more seasoned" teaching me the ropes and giving me criticism? Should my picture taking bother someone else and piss them off because I have not been taking pictures for 4,000 years? I took four years of photography in high school and have since taken pictures of anything and anyone I could for the past 10+ years. Does incessant practicing and honing my own skill not count? Must we learn from said professional before we are allowed to move forward and do something for ourselves--in my case, take pictures of people? Does that not give me the right to enjoy this thing called photography? It shouldn't. Everyone has to start somewhere...

Who the hell knows if I was lumped into her rant about how horrid these "amateurs" are, but it still got to me.

I do not like being negative, but I wanted to get my thoughts out and gain other people's perspectives.

Should we be made upset because someone else is following their true passion--doing what they love?

Weekend Recap.

Hi there!

It's Monday. I had an exam this morning and I have another one tomorrow. Woohoo! Tomorrow is my final and then I will be done with Peds. I enjoyed Peds, but I am ready to move on to something else.

Speaking of Peds, I had my NICU observation on Friday with my best friend, Rachel. If you didn't know, she is bad ass at what she does. I had the best time in there with her. She taught me so much and I enjoyed the babes so much. Saw some pretty awesome stuff. Awesome enough to contemplate working in that unit one day--if I'm lucky enough.

Anways...back to the point of this post: Weekend Recap. I busted out my cell phone pictures for you :)

We had a great one. Saturday was gorgeous here in north Florida, so we took FULL advantage of the day. We spent most of the day outside. We found a new, gorgeous spot for pictures! It consists of barns, barns, and more barns. Oh, and an old house and a river and old trees and docks and barns and trees and old houses and barns. Can you tell I am excited? Can't wait to get someone out there. Any takers???

Barns anyone?

It wasn't pretty out. At all.

Boo was scoping out the lay of the land for me :)

Dockin' it up! I love how I always squink. It's so attractive.

We also made homemade doughnuts this weekend. Yup, you heard me--homemade. And they were incredible. I will have to share the recipe with you soon. Super duper simple!

Mmm hmm...we even made the holes.

I made a Goodwill believer out my husband. We hit up Goodwill and I found so many good things for him. Hey, if I can find good things for myself and wear them proudly, I can do the same for him. Go to the one on Beach--they have buttloads of stuff. Amazeballs.

So, I am off to study for this final.

Have a marvelous week! I am taking pictures at a birthday party for these precious little boys. They are turning 1! Looking forward to that. AND I am taking pictures of a gorgeous girl named Jessica on Sunday. She is a great friend of Rachel's and she is so sweet. And did I mention gorgeous? SOOO stoked for this one. Cannot wait to see how they come out. I will be sure to show you some of both!

Love,
K

Exciting stuff!

Hi friends! Look over there to your left. Go on...LOOK! :)  You see I've given you the ability to "Like" my photography page. You know you feel privileged. ;) I just opened this up, although I have been working on photography for a while now. I absolutely love taking me some pictures! Especially of awesome people!

I've delved into the world of portriats, children, newborns, AND most recently, weddings! I was so excited when my friend, Jessyka, approached me and asked if I would take pictures of her wedding. Totally flattered, really. I had a wonderful time, to say the least! I have known Jess for about 12 years now (Eww...we are old) and I was so happy to be a part of her day!  Here's a little sneek peek for you. I literally took 1900 pictures and was beat by the time we finished, but it was an experience I'd love to partake in again!

Thanks again, Jess and I hope you are pleased with them!

Head over to Kristina Maor Photography on Facebook to see the rest! :)
If you are looking for or know someone who is looking for a super-duper cool photographer, send "em to me! ;)

Knickers, bowties, and suspenders.

I had the pleasure of taking pictures of a cute cute cute family this past weekend. It was FREEZING and windy as I'll get, but these small little people held it together as best as they could and I managed to get a handful of cute ones!

Here are a few of my favs:

Old-fashioned knickers, bowties, and suspenders? Oh, I think so. I couldn't have dressed these children any cuter!

I am seriously loving these chances to take pictures of these gorgeous people around me!

I am photographing a wedding of a friend of mine this weekend. Ahh! Wish me luck!

Have a great week!

Love,
K

Any-way-YOU-want recipes.

Happy Thursday!

I have a few recipes, or things I threw together, to share with you on this fine day. The first one is a quick, cute Valentine's treat you can make for your friends, coworkers, etc. It's a Valentine's Day trail mix:

Cute, right? Super simple too! The thing I like about homemade trail mix is that you can mix (No pun intended. Yeah it was.) in anything that YOU like. You can leave out that nasty nut that always gets pushed aside :)  I threw in some unsalted peanuts, red, pink and white M&M's, Craisins, and a few semi-sweet chocolate chips. So yummy. So adorbs.  You know what else I like about this trail mix? You can make it for any holiday! Just change the color of M&M's and the ribbon and you are set, my friend. Have fun with it!

Secondly, and most excitingly, green smoothies!

Don't you always garnish with a cucumber or something of the sort? Of course! Nah, this was just in the sake of capturing a cute photo. No, I don't garnish. I usually throw it in an old plastic Taco Bell cup or something. Don't worry. :)

I have recently fallen in love with these! If you are on my Facebook you may have seen a picture I posted of Ethan inhaling one of these. The base is always kale and/or raw spinach and cucumber. I'll throw in some fruit; anything I have on hand, really. Bananas, oranges, pears, grapes, pineapple, apples, etc. etc. etc! I'm am just so damn excited that I get these greens in Ethan every single morning and he dosen't even know it! You see, the natural sweetness of the fruit seriously overshadows any bitterness that the greens may have. You cannot even taste that you are sucking down cups of greens. I love that for him and Ofir and I! Makes me feel a little better knowing we are all getting that raw, healthy, green goodness every single morning! Give them a try!! You won't need any sugar or anything. You will need water (or you could use any juice if you wanted...I just use water though) to thin it all out. You can have this as a mid-day snack too! Whenever you want...just do it!

I hope you try these two, very simple make-them-anyway-YOU-want recipes!

Have a marvelous day!

Love,
K

Pictures. Of my best friend. Again.

I love my best friend. You know this. She's totally been my photography muse as of late and we have the best time running around like the professional photographer and super model we both wish we were. Although....looking at the pictures I've taken of her, she's not far from that super model thing. I call her Cindy--as in Cindy Crawford. She even has a mole on her lip. Yeah...she's beautiful.

 I took some of her about a month ago and adored the light that we chased. This time we were down in St. Augustine (which is about 20 minutes south of where we live, in case you are not from this neck of the woods). I am taking pictures for a wedding of a friend of mine in a few weeks down in said oldest city in the nation. Not gonna lie....I'm a little nervous. It's a bit out of my comfort zone, but I love a challenge. Especially a photography challenge. Anywho...Rach came down there with me to scope out some locations.

Between dodging tourists and horse-drawn carriages and those damn trolleys, we managed to get some fabulousness. This is what Cindy gave me:

And those, folks, are just a few. We even have a blast styling these shoots too. We are either digging through her closet or mine and throw things together and it tends to come out pretty good, if I do say so myself. We make a great team, yo!

Hope you're having a good week so far!

Love,
K

Which do you like better?

Well, hello there!

I feel like I have a pretty decent grasp on my decorating style. I haven't run into many roadblocks when it comes to making design decisions. But, I am stuck with this little 'ol one. Yesterday, Rachel came over to try on outfits for our photoshoot in St. Augustine on Saturday (p.s. SO stoked!) and we needed a long mirror for her to see the bottom half of herself. Enter this long white mirror I have in the foyer:

While it was down I wanted to see what a smaller mirror would look like there. I adore this little mirror:

So, now I'm stuck. Which do YOU prefer? Leave me a comment here or on the Facebook link, POR FAVOR. That's "Please" in Spanish for those of you who didn't take four years of Spanish in high school and can only remember a few phrases--por favor being one of them. Rather pathetic, if you ask me.

In other news, I hit my 55th sale in my Etsy shop last night. My sweet, little 'ol Etsy shop is growing slowly but surely. This is a big deal for me! I never knew anyone would like or want my stuff....so excited that they do!

Anywho...thanks for the feedback and have a mahhhvelous day!

Love,
K