Meet Kara S | Images By K | San Diego County Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kara S and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kara, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Growing up, my grandma’s from both sides of my family always had a camera or video recorder in their hand. As I got older I would spend hours going through hundreds of family photos that they would store in photo boxes in their living rooms. I feel that my love of photography started from being able to be brought back to a time and place just by looking at a photo. Not only images of my childhood but of their childhood as well. The different clothes, hairstyles and cars that they grew up with were so intriguing to me. To be able to go into a moment in time in my life or others was so fascinating that I started to really get into scrapbooking. I was just a kid when I got my first scrapbook. To me, a scrapbook allowed me to add context to my photos from my moms digital camera or a disposable camera. She would print out a lot of my photos and I would add them to a scrapbook album with stickers and notes about what I was doing or who I was with. To this day I still treasure those scrapbooks. I have them all saved in the attic in a memory box. As I got older, I wanted to take my own photos. I got a chunky, silver Kodak digital camera with the smallest screen ever compared to today’s models, but to me it was amazing and so advanced. I did my first paid photoshoot on that camera when I was about 14 years old. The session was of my sister and two cousins and my aunt paid me for the photos because she loved them so much. I will never forget that moment. This instilled an entrepreneur spirit in me. Could I really earn money doing something I considered fun? This started my love of photography mixed with practicing sessions on my siblings. Each year I would grow and learn more and eventually I got a degree in photography when I was in college. The pure fact that I could be apart of something people look at for years and treasure for a lifetime is what drew me into the photography world. I truly feel that beyond “art” and “creativity”, that usually encompasses the photography world, the raw emption and ability to freeze humans in a time and place and be able to go back to that moment time and time again is my true reason for loving photography. For my clients to see a photo and feel what they felt right then in that moment is a powerful tool. I love photography so much and I truly love the legacies I get to be apart of. I feel that there in that moment I am apart of my client’s journey in life and the legacy they leave behind from the images I capture for others to look upon for the years to come. What a gift to be able to give other’s something as simple, timeless and priceless as a photograph.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The concept behind Images By K is to allow families to have access to affordable photos. Whether they are booking a session every year or just for special moments in their life, I want to be able to provide my best work for the best deal. I have set pricing that are competitive with other local photographers but what really sets my company apart is that multiple times a year I offer discounted sessions and sales. Coming from a family of nine, I understand that professional photography can be expensive and out of budget for many families and couples. Last summer I started offering Pay What You Can sessions that allow clients to book a session and pay whatever they were able. I aim to offer these type of sessions once a year to help those who may be struggling to still be able to afford professional photography. In my heart, I would give every session away for free, but unfortunately bills have to be paid. My goal in the coming years is to be able to offer a program where others can sponsor or recommend a family or couple in need for a discounted session. Or to be able to bless someone whose had a rough year with some photos to capture the fact that they made it through. One thing is for sure, I will always work with others to help them get their needed photos captured because at the end of the day, I just want them to have the images to look back on. That’s what is truly important to me.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The two people that come to mind when I think about how my love of photography started would be my Grandma Kathy Markwell and my other Grandma Lorraine Chavez. Their love of photographing their family allowed me to have so many amazing photographs and memories to look back on. In addition, now that they are both no longer with us, the photographs they took allow their legacy to live on. All the important things are all captured and available for the loved ones to look back on when our memories begins to fail us and we need something tangible to ignite the moments, feelings and love passed though those images. So thank you to my grandma’s for passing along their love of photography to me.

Website: https://unscriptedphotographers.com/imagesbyk

Instagram: images_byk

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