KENZIE KATE

  • adventure is out there: long car rides and good music and open markets and sandy feet and bad moods and dinky donuts and 5rand icecream cones and not swimming in the indian ocean

    [audio:https://blog.kenziekatephoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Hillsong-UNITED-Oceans-Where-Feet-May-Fail-Lyric-Video.mp3|titles=Hillsong UNITED Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) Lyric Video]
    sometimes i really hate taking pictures. and sometimes i love it. need it.
    and i’m learning that maybe that’s okay.
    not everything has to be documented through still or moving pictures. or on thick paper with colored ink dipped in water. or even in messy, quick writing scrawled across my already full journal.
    …

    some days my hair is grosser than i would like or i dont want to be cheerful because i’m NOT a morning person. or i just want to sleep all day or i just dont want to eat meat for lunch again. some days we go to the beach and we just don’t have good attitudes.
    and i’m learning that my humanness and my worldliness is much more real than i would like to think it is.
    …

    sometimes i have a lot happening in my head. and i try to articulate it and explain it to sweet friends, but i cant. and i get frustrated and “sassy”.  and i say things i dont mean.
    and i’m learning that i dont have the answers to a lot of things. and i’m learning that maybe it’s okay to wrestle with heavy stuff. and i’m learning that i take things out on the people i love the most in this world, but that’s not how it’s supposed to work.
    …

    some days i just want to avoid people in general. some days (most days), i say bye to people as they go to sleep but all i want is to ask them to stay awake with me and talk about life.
    and i’m learning that i’m way more impatient than i want to be. i’m learning that i’m way more extroverted than i thought i was, but i’m also way more introverted than i thought i was. i’m way more independent than i thought i was, but i am also way way more dependent than i thought i was.
    …

    sometimes i hear about things–real things– in my hometown and my heart pulls. heavy. and i beg my sister to send me pictures of our new front door because i want to feel like i know what’s happening. familiarity. and she sends me pictures of my mom and puppy sleeping on the couch and i laugh.
    i’m learning that while everything is changing always….things are staying the same, always.  i’m learning that i was born into my home and community for a reason. but there is also a reason that my school isn’t at “home” and right now i’m not at “home”.
    and i’m learning that home can look a whole lot different and mean a lot of different things.
    …

    and it seems like all the lessons i’m learning are small and incomplete and hard. and maybe a little petty.

    but i’m also learning about god’s providence. and i’m learning about his faithfulness and consistency in my life and in the lives around me. i’m learning that sometimes it’s good to spill your heart over thai food or wrestle out your frustration in the grass late at night. i’m learning to sing the songs, loudy, even if i my heart is still fighting to believe the words. i’m learning that even if the lesson is a repeat, i’m not backtracking. and it’s still important. i’m learning patience and trust and how to love and how to be loved and when to talk and when to listen and what the idea of “god’s will” really is. i’m struggling with faith and i’m experiencing faith.
    growth.
    hard, subtle, there.

  • there once was a sweet family living in the most charming cabin in the teeniest little town. this is them

  • 2012 recap // what a freaking year

    twenty twelve.

    holy cow. as this year is wrapping up, the time has come for me to look over this beautiful year of pictures & friends (you can see my recaps of 2011 & 2010 here). as i was going through blogposts to find pictures for this summary, i was blown away by the different things i had forgotten, the different shoots that i thought were AGES ago, but really happened this year, the different people i met & befriended as a result of my business. wooo so much fun! just, so much about this year. it’s so crazy to look back & see how my style has changed–i really think i got to a place with my work that i feel is truly representative of me.  i truly am so so grateful to be closing out my third year of business. seriously, what a blessing. what a blessing that i still love it, that i get to meet the most fantastic people, that i get to learn and make mistakes and keep trying, that i get to do this as my job, that i get to live this life. 2012 was truly one of the best years ever (& i’m not just saying that). i am so thankful that i get to have this “photographer” life, but i am even more thankful for the life i have aside from photography. these pictures dont show the conversations and friendships and tears and laughs and vanilla chais and cous cous and notes and car rides and dance parties i have shared this year. last year brought seasons of closure and change and challenge, and this year brought seasons of waiting and growing and faithfulness and blessing. as the years go own, my two lives are beginning to overlap more & more, which is so fun. because i just love them both! before i get to the oodles & oodles of pictures from the past twelve months of weddings & portraits, here are some of my most favorite moments from this year:

    -getting a disneyland pass & using the heck out of it
    -spending long weekends at my parents’ cabin in wrightwood three different times with three different groups of beautiful friends
    -seeing needtobreathe (for the best concert ever) with my bestest friends
    -piercing my nose on a whim with my twinsie kenzie
    -spending the BEST spring break at una rosa orphanage in mexicali with some of the most wonderful people in the world.
    -attending pursuing the light in washington and making & maintaining oodles of new friendships
    -actin’ classy at the getty for college night
    -watching my older brother graduate college
    -roadtripping to san francisco with sidney: wandering my most favorite city for three days, taking pictures, making friends, talking about life
    -late night game nights, bachelor nights and movie dates with my best solvang friends.
    -visiting my bestie olivia in san jose for a week of friends and cheese and holga pictures and beaches and photoshoots
    -spending the summer shooting portraits of both old & new friends
    -showing our little georgia peach, emily, around santa barbara & solvang with lauren
    -turning nineteen with my faaaavie favorites & ushering in my last teenage year (it’s truly been the best yet)
    -spending a week in the tenderloin district of san francisco to kick off my craziest season of life
    -moving into my first apartment (& spending the first few days in basically the deepest, hottest and darkest pit of hell)
    -celebrating our acceptance into the south africa program for this spring by dancing and screaming and running around our apartment complex
    -standing outside on west campus on the most tiring day ever, carrying a big “100” sign & anxiously awaiting the arrival of my alphies
    -delirious late night drives home from weddings, blasting music and de-briefing about every second of the day
    – (literally) hundreds of coffee dates with sweet friends, talking about life and jesus and school and family and dreams
    -probably breaking the world record for giving & receiving the most sweet and encouraging notes from my three roommates
    -a semester worth of sunday night alpha meetings with eleven of my favorite people
    -randomly driving to san diego to see macklemore & ryan lewis (best.decision.ever)
    -late night conversations with best friends sitting on the kitchen counter or living room floor or at 3 in the morning while trying to fall asleep
    -sitting on segerstrom roof with my AC group, toasting to a semester of friendship, memories & growth
    -having hales visit from north carolina for a whirlwind weekend of disney, beaches, cabins, pictures and conversations
    -filling two and a half journals in just four months. so many lows, so many highs. so much growth.
    -and, of course, all of this:

    BOOM. 2012, there it is. thank you so so much for being a part of it, you beautiful people.