Maternity by Koren

A New Web Site!

MaternitybyKoren has a bright, new look! With a fresh, clean, white background and subtle use of the voluptuous pear, the new look is now right on brand. Even the portfolio thumbnails take the pear shape! Take a test drive and let me know your thoughts.

Maternity Meets the Redwoods

This client loves the precious, giant Redwoods looming large in my California neck of the woods. I found the perfect setting to celebrate her beauty with this stunning environmental portrait. A very good sport, she lugged her very pregnant (with twins!) belly down a trail to this magnificent trio of trees.

The Newborn Add-on is a Big Hit

There's nothing more heart-melting than a newborn! As an extra incentive to honor that precious gift, book the Newborn Add-on in addition to your maternity session and save $200. To read more, click here.

Columbus Day is October 9, 2006

It's not too early to book a family photo session for your holiday cards. Why not take advantage of the day off to schedule a family portrait? Call my cell to toss around some ideas.

Koren shoots "Mommy & Me" for Jupiter Images

In early August, Koren and a crew of 5 assistants and 15 adorable models worked our little tails off to produce a slew of "Mommy and Me" images. The shoot took place on the two hottest days of the year in New York City and, lucky for us, the power didn't go out!

Jupiter Images owns more royalty-free stock photography than anybody else on the planet. If you buy imagery, they're a fabulous resource.

Female Athletes with Stories

While physical fitness has always been a part of my life, my story and my relationship to it aren't special. This is NOT the case with the women in my current project.

These female athletes all have one thing in common; they've overcome obstacles or personal tragedy through their athletics. Some faced medical issues, others faced emotional trauma. All credit their sports as the healer that ferried them away from dark days and helped them build strong, stable character.

The images and stories will come together over time in a multimedia installation that will widen eyes and turn doubt into determination. My hope is that someone somewhere will turn her life around because of this collection. Read more below...

Janice, 48, lifelong competitive swimmer diagnosed at 25 with a sudden cardiac arrest condition.

Thus far, I've worked with a small and beautiful hockey player who skated harder and better than her male teammates and earned their respect, an elegant equestrienne who at 13 found refuge at a horse ranch after escaping a child sex predator in her family, a 40-mile-a-week runner who defied her doctors who said she'd walk with pain for the rest of her life after they inserted a 10" titanium rod down her spine 25 years ago.

Perhaps the most inspiring is Dailyah. Despite being diagnosed with MS ten years ago, she trains for competitive wheelchair basketball and is an internationally ranked butterfly swimmer.

To see more amazing women in the portfolio, click here.

Latest Success with the Sausalito Fine Art Series

Heartfelt thanks to Steve Effron from upstate New York who receives my client appreciation acknowledgment of the month.

Steve found my work on the Internet and surprised me by buying two prints right off my web site. No phone call, no email, no warning!

I printed the images Steve chose on Crane's 100% cotton Museo paper. These black and white exhibition prints measure 11.5x9.5 inches and arrived matted in a luxurious, 8-ply mat and a 16x20 frame.

To have a look at the images Steve purchased, please click here.

Tips and Tricks

1.	Taking your own baby pictures with a digital camera?
	Whenever possible, turn off your on-camera flash! If you can stand learning a little about the manual settings, you can get fabulous results by looking for bright, even light without hard shadows, keeping shutter speeds 1/60th of a second or faster, and using the auto white balance. If you don't have enough light, suck it up and dig out the tripod! And remember to use the lowest possible ISO equivalent for the least amount of noisy grain. This means don't go above 400. If you can, shoot at 100!
2.	Familiar with Kodak's Endura Metallic paper?
	This paper is wonderful!!! It doesn't matter if you're printing in color or black and white, skin tones pop off the page with a luminous but still subtle special effect. I LOVE this paper. I get prints on this paper at White House Custom Color. Their ordering system isn't the easiest to understand, but they'll help you through it if you call with questions.

About the Photographer

Thank you for making it to the bottom of this long update! I am Koren Reyes and I'm a multi-location portrait photographer with studios in San Francisco and New York City. I create sophisticated, uncluttered imagery on both coasts, and I'm known for stunning, high-key studio work in the commercial photography world. See more at www.facesinphotos.com or www.korenreyes.com