Kimberly Reed Photography

ray and i went to liquid sundays at club cafe on sunday. I took my camera along to capture the bands in action:

kevin finn did some spoken word.

soulharmonic

ryan from soulharmonic

ryan in action

yourself and the air- all the way in from chicago

keeping the shutter open to let some action in.

this might be my favorite shot from the night.

shade

for the photographers out there that may be wondering, these images were all taken using the lighting from the club (no flash) at 1600 and 3200 iso, handheld, at 2.8 and 1/80 (except for the long exposure ones, which are handheld at 1/2 second), and are pretty much straight out of the camera.

abie and i spent saturday night at the union project for their annual holiday fundraiser. it was a delightful evening of fabulous food and entertainment.

here are a few shots from throughout the night:

mon aimee chocolat in the strip provided the chocolate table. the dark chocolate with sea salt and lavender was amazing.

students from CAPA performed excerpts from the grinch

and dwg gave a cool urban dance performance

hilary brown and andrew stockey. this is hilary’s reaction while dwg was on stage.

there was a live auction and a silent auction

to see more from the evening, check out the slideshow

if you’re at a loss for something fun, entertaining, and philanthropic to do this saturday, head over to the unwrapped, the union project’s annual holiday fundraiser. there will be live entertainment, a silent auction, food and drink (i’m hearing rumors of a chocolate table…bliss).

tickets are $35 in advance, or $45 at the door. for more information or to puchase tickets by credit card, call Hilary at 412.363.4550 x 26.
i’ll be there photographing the event for them, so be sure to stop by and say hello!

local motion was a huge success. tickets sold out and a lot of money was raised for charity. if you’ve never been backstage before a fashion show, it’s total chaos. people are running around from hair to makeup and back again, getting last minute wardrobe adjustments, practicing their walks. its full of frantic energy, excitement and anticipation. high heels and energy drinks abound. here are a few of the things that caught my eye backstage:

a peek at the craziness: models, stylist and makeup artists everywhere.

found still life; pink stilettos, cell phone, and tab energy drinks. i thought this pretty appropriately summed up the scene backstage.

looking over the shoulder of the fabulously talented dee dee malloy

another little vignette of the (well-organized) chaos

ok, so yes, he’s in great shape, however, his abs have been artificially enhanced with makeup.

mayor luke ravenstahl getting his hair did

getting ready to walk the runway

if you’re free thursday evening, check out local motion, a fashion show at new hazlett theatre that features local designers. proceeds benefit dress for success. say hello if you come out; i’ll be the girl with the big camera documenting the scene behind the scenes.

if you are looking for an amazing children’s photographer in the pittsburgh area, check out my friend kelley calvert. she’s fabulous at capturing real moments in a candid, photojournalistic style that really reveals the personality of your child. she does lifestyle portrait sessions as well as coverage for birthday parties, baptisms, bar and bat mitzvahs…you name it. check her out!

simone wanted to do a trash the dress session to celebrate her two year wedding anniversary. not wanting her husband don to miss out on the fun, they decided to do a joint session to celebrate their marriage with some fun, sexy photos. simone swore to me all this week that she is shy and self-conscious in front of the camera, so i was prepared to have to do some coaxing to get her to open up. was i in for a surprise!

simone and don were both so natural! not only is she incredibly sexy, but she and don both have amazing chemistry together. they were a dream to work with. i would start to give them direction or have them change positions, and before i would even finish the sentence they were doing exactly what i had envisioned. we had a blast walking around station square (in the rain, no less) making some great images and sharing some laughs.

here are a few of my faves:

this is actually the dress simone wore for her wedding. there’s not much traditional about simone. that’s one of the things i like about her.

simone is originally from jamaica. she has the most beautiful skin.

the chemistry between these two is incredible.

i love this one.

we were pretty wet by this point

seriously. how sexy are they?

i love that you can see the rain falling in this one.

and some more in their slideshow

happy anniversary simone and donny! you guys were amazing to photograph and work with! thanks for making it a fun evening.

do you ever notice in life, change comes in waves? at least it does in mine. my friend bre and her husband are having their first baby at the end of the month, and my friend shannon and her husband are moving to colorado in a few short weeks. i’ve been friends with bre and shannon for years now, through singleness and dating and marriage and now the first of the babies. it’s crazy to think that by the end of this month, things will have changed so much in our lives.

anyway, life often gets in the way of us getting together regularly, but this week we suddenly realized that shannon won’t be just a short drive away for much longer, and bre won’t be able to come out for a girls night at a moments notice (at least, not for a while). so sunday night we all got together (with the hubbies) for some vietnamese at trams, then off to crazy mocha for some coffee and dessert. Later on in the week Shannon and Bre and I went to lunch and indulged in relaxing massages, and Friday night the couples got together again! I can’t remember the last time we saw each other three times in one week!

Friday evening we dined at Tusca, which is a mediterranean tapas restaurant in Southside works. It was my first time there and I definitely recommend. I had hummus and salmon salad (the salmon was the best salmon i’ve had, ever), and between the rest of the table we passed around tabouli, tzatziki, kafta, rigatoni bolognase, kafta flatbread, margarita pizza, eggs in purgatory (we had to get it just because of that name) and a few pitchers of sangria. (on a side note, i think i’m developing a secret love affair with hummus. and sushi. i just can’t get enough).

afterwards, we went to see the new bourne movie, which i highly recommend. best of them yet, in my humble opinion. all in all, it’s been a good week, and i’m super excited for bre and scott to welcome their new baby into the world, and for shannon and wade to fulfill a long time dream of living in colorado. great things are coming, but a part of me will miss the dynamic that’s being left behind.

It’s that time again…Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 is right around the corner on August 17-19. Never heard of it? It’s a free conference for people who create, enjoy or are interested in learning more about blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video, content networks and new media monetization. The original PodCamp Pittsburgh took place in November of 2006, and was super fun, with attendees and presenters from all over the country.

Justin Kownacki, co-founder of PodCamp Pittsburgh writes “Unlike most conferences, PodCamp is essentially one gigantic 2-day conversation. This means it’s a great opportunity to exchange information, meet interesting people and generate new ideas — but, ultimately, it’s about having fun and being social.”

I attended last years event and provided photography coverage, and will be doing the same for this years event.

Interested? Get more information, register to attend, and see the current line up here.

james owns the junkyard that we used for the shoot with emily a few weeks ago. i snapped a quick picture of him while we were getting permission to take some photos on his property. james is a pretty cool guy- he’s the youngest of 11 children, and his dogs name is ‘little dummy’.

i shot some pics for the folks that put together liquid sundays, which was held at garfield artworks this past sunday. this was the first time i heard donora play, and they were awesome! here are a few things that caught my eye:

after i get some standard band shots, i like to look around for other perspectives- different angles, points of view, details. i love using shots like these to help tell the bigger story. that’s where i saw the shadow (above), and the shot below, with the guy as the focus point in the foreground, with the band in the background to give context to the shot.

as the night wore on, it started to get crowded. i used that opportunity to ’shoot through’ people, so the members of the band were framed by their fans in the foreground.

if you havent been to liquid sundays yet, you should check one out. they are held once a month at various venues around the city, and focus on highlighting local artists and musicians. good times.

i love to photograph abandoned spaces. a lot of people know that, and give me hot tips on great places to check out. someone told about this junkyard at my last gallery show in march, and i’ve been dying to get out there to photograph since then. i finally made it this weekend, and did an amazing trash the dress session with emily. here are some of the results:

check out her rockstar shades- aren’t they awesome? they fit so well with the locale that we decided to keep them on for most of the shoot.

incidentally, the dress didn’t get totally trashed- just a little dirty. for more pics, check out the slideshow from our session.