A huge thank you to all the couples and families who I have worked with since I began this photography business in 2004. It has been wonderful working with all of you and making so many friends through my work.

- This blog is filled with sneak peeks and slideshows from all of my weddings and photo sessions.
- To get a little glimpse into my family life and see some of my personal pictures and what I'm up to lately, visit bykrista.com.

NOTE: I am no longer booking new weddings at this time. I am still booking family photo sessions on a limited basis.
Contact me for more information.

Baby Wesley • slideshow

Here are a few more pictures from my session with baby Wesley. Such a happy little guy. 🙂

And a bigger size slideshow to go with the new blog. 🙂

view larger version HERE

dailey family • slideshow

I have just loved reading the sweet comments people have left on here for the Dailey family on the adoption of their sweet little guy, Saxon, from Korea. Here is a slideshow with some more pictures from the big arrival! 🙂

View larger version HERE.

rachael + nick • coffee table book

I’m always so excited when an album arrives on my doorstep. Rachael & Nick’s coffee table book arrived yesterday and it looks fabulous. I love seeing the design in print and I know they are going to LOVE it! 🙂

I snapped a few pictures before I boxed it all up for them. Laid it on this sweet afghan my mother-in-law crocheted for me this past year for Christmas. Made in my business colors. How sweet is she. 🙂

A few layouts:

my favorite picture from their wedding!

And a slideshow of the entire design:

View larger version HERE.

Enjoy!

florida 2008

As promised, I posted a bunch of pictures from our family vacation to Florida over on my Flickr page. We had so much fun! Our first big family vacation! I took many more pictures than I shared, but I’ll be working on a little vacation album soon, so I’ll share that when it’s finished, too. 🙂

Hope everyone’s having a wonderful week! The weather here is gorgeous! In the high 70’s today. Almost as nice as Florida was. 😉

wesley (and big sister, too) • babies

Last Saturday, I was so happy to see my dear friend, Cherish, and photograph her 3 month old, Wesley. He is the cutest little guy with such wonderful expressions. And I really didn’t have to do much more than smile at him to get him to respond. It was great!

I love how his little fingers look like he’s signing “I love you”. hehe!

Big sis, Maggie, playing peek-a-boo with him. So cute.

Getting tired of the camera

Maggie loves to dance. 🙂

This was one of those shots that you get when you’re trying for something else. I wanted her to look up at me with her cutest smile, but she would only look up briefly and then lower her head again. She had her hands all clasped together and as soon as she glanced down, I snapped this one. Looks so sweet, like she’s praying. Love it.

It was so good seeing you guys! More coming soon! 🙂

dina + andreas • engagement – slideshow

Here’s a slideshow with some more pictures from my Florida engagement session with Dina and Andreas a couple weeks ago. 🙂

view larger version HERE

welcome home, saxon • babies

This was by far one of the coolest things I’ve ever photographed. I got to capture this sweet family of three …

… becoming a family of four.

This was such a blessing to be a part of. Kathy and Tim (fellow photographers from the Boston area) contacted me early last week to tell me that they just learned their son would be arriving from Korea on Friday in Detroit and they wondered if I could photograph the arrival for them. I was so thrilled that they called. We have known people who have adopted from Korea, Vietnam and Russia, but we’ve never been there when the babies arrived. So it was really interesting as well as one of the most special events I’ve photographed thus far. Here are a few pictures:

waiting patiently

getting anxious

Finally, the much anticipated moment. Baby Saxon arrives. I love the pure joy on their faces as they see their new son face to face for the first time. Such incredible love.

first kiss 🙂

daddy’s turn

and, of course, big brother wants to hold him

One of the coolest things about this is that he really is Saxon’s big brother. They have the same birth mother, which is so special and unique. To be able to adopt one child and then adopt his brother three years later. Very cool.

LOVE his chubby cheeks 🙂

Congratulations, you guys! It was such an honor to share this moment with you. God Bless your sweet family. 🙂

dina + andreas • engagement | clearwater beach florida photographer

While on vacation in Florida, I was able to meet up with Dina and Andreas, whose wedding I’m shooting in Naples, FL in October. 🙂 I told them I’d be in the Orlando area for vacation with my family and we worked out a time to get together. We met in Clearwater Beach on the Gulf side of the state. Jake and I had vacationed there several years ago so I was familiar with it. Unfortunately, the cute, quaint beach town I remembered was overtaken by construction of a big hotel right in the middle of the strip. All the cute shops and restaurants were demolished to make room so it wasn’t exactly as I remembered it. But despite all that and the crowds that were there for a craft fair on the pier and for spring break, we managed to find some great spots for pictures. Dina and Andreas are the sweetest couple. So nice and easy to talk with. I’m so looking forward to their wedding and visiting Naples, which sounds really beautiful. Here are a few more from our evening together:

Thanks again, you guys! I had such a fun time with you. 🙂

the happiest place on earth

Did you miss me? I spent the past week in sunny Florida with my family. We took the kids to Disney for the first time and they loved it! It will take me a few days to recuperate and get caught up on things. I’ll be sharing some pictures from our trip, of course, as well as a fun engagement session I shot in Clearwater Beach, FL on Friday. 🙂

what’s in a name?

a picture’s worth photography

To me, pictures are one of the most important things in my life. I’ve had a camera since I was about ten years old, I think, and I have books and books full of pictures from elementary school through high school and college and onto marriage, travel and my kiddos. My pictures are worth so much to me. I look at them and I’m instantly transported to a different time in my life. My first crush, slumber parties with friends, life in the college dorm, being a newlywed, living in Germany, traveling around Europe, our first home, the days my son and daughter were born. If not for pictures, I may have forgotten a lot of the details of these times in my life. I cherish these photos and believe so much in the importance of photography.

When I was trying to come up with a name for my business several years ago, I kept thinking about what I wanted it to represent – how important photography is to me. I toyed with a lot of names and considered using my own name as so many photographers do, but in the end I decided on “A Picture’s Worth” because of how much I value my pictures. They are priceless in my eyes. Photography captures moments, freezes time forever, there in that image. A father glancing at his daughter just before he walks her down the aisle, the first time the groom sees his bride coming toward him, the joy on the newlyweds faces as their minister says “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” These are moments that go by so quickly and to be able to capture them is one of the greatest joys of my life.

Most of the pictures I post here are my recent wedding/portrait work, so I’ve decided to start sharing some of the pictures I have taken through the years so you can get to know me a little better. I apologize in advance for the quality since a lot of them are film and I’m scanning them in. 🙂

Thought I’d start with this scrapbook page I did last year of some pictures from my trip to Italy with my college roomie Julie. Jake and I lived in Germany in 1997 while he was stationed in the Army so I had the opportunity to travel around Europe and see some of the places I had only ever heard about. Julie saved her pennies and came to visit in June of ’97 and we took some tours to Paris and Italy. Our last day in Italy was spent in Venice, riding gondolas, shopping, walking the streets. It’s an amazing place that I would love to visit again someday. Maybe shoot a wedding there … hint hint. hehe! 😉

I hope by sharing, you’ll see just how much my pictures are worth to me. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!