I am humbled that you’ve taken time out of your life to stop by. I am often seen with a in one hand and a Starbucks cup in the other all while balancing life in cute heels. I am a Portland girl, what can I say? But I wasn’t always a Portland girl, my roots come from Spokane Washington where I lived for 23 years. I haven’t always been stuck in little Spokane though. I have had the opportunity to study in England and travel the world such as Belize, Scotland, Africa, Hawaii, Mexico, and hopefully someday soon I can add Australia, Italy, France, and Greece. Some of these trips were for mere vacation while others were to serve the poor, widowed, and least of these in the world. I have spent the last 6 years living life for Jesus with my best friend and husband. To keep life a bit interesting we have 2 crazy cats and a goldendoodle named Annabell.
Photography is Art. It isn’t a job or another career. It’s a passion that flows from my heart. Each image I capture is a precious piece of art I treasure. If this is your first time here, I encourage you to head HERE to read more about the amount of time I invest into each session. I value each one of my clients and strive to produce the highest quality images and customer care. My clients are not just customers but rather have become friends.
It’s been 42 days since I’ve bid farewell to sugar, dairy, and gluten. To some this may be no big deal. But for this girl, this is a huge deal. On a normal day I’d eat cookies for breakfast and frozen yogurt or ice cream for dinner. Yes, sugar consumed my life and my meals. I looooove ice cream, cupcakes, cookies, and cake. I would give up all other food groups just to eat these yummy desserts!
Over the past 42 days I’ve felt amazing BUT these days have also been extremely difficult as I’ve grieved the loss of sugar in my life. Up until last week fruit was the only sugar I consumed as dessert. But then a miracle happened. A fellow photographer friend from Spokane, Christina, introduced me to Coconut Bliss. A diary-free, gluten-free, soy-free, vegan dessert! Saturday evening I ventured out and purchased my first little container of Coconut Bliss! After my first few bites I did a happy dance in my living room because I can have “ice cream” again!
Though I won’t be eating this for breakfast or dinner it is a delightful treat I can enjoy every now and then.
I highly recommend you go try some yourself…you’ll fall in love!~Katie
I’ve only tried one flavor so I’d love to hear your favorite flavor!
This world we live in is so fascinating. We have a love affair with celebrities and making idols out of people. Then after we build them up as a god we shred them to pieces for every little wrong doing. We have no mercy. Our words cut them down and we stomp all over them.
See this is the problem with idols. They never meet our expectations. And when they don’t meet them we feel that gives us the right to freely destroy them as if they aren’t human.
Words hurt. Period. It doesn’t matter who you are or how thick of skin you thought you had, words hurt.
But why is it that the negative voice is always louder than those who are positive and kind?
Critical and unkind people freely share their thoughts, yet those who truly appreciate others and are loving remain quiet. They don’t boldly share their positive opinions.
I ran across this quote the other day,
Let’s not be like this. Let’s be people who are BOLD and freely express our gratitude! You may never know how much that will mean to someone. I think often we underestimate the value of gratitude in someone’s life.
I have been working on this blog post for a few weeks now and let me give a disclaimer, I am by no means an expert or claim to know everything.
Now I have to share with you a little pet peeve of mine… It drives me CRAZY when people don’t utilize facebook for FREE marketing for their business. Literally I cringe when I hear of others not even owning a like page for their business or have one but don’t ever utilize it.
When people give me their reasons why they don’t use facebook I seriously can’t comprehend it because facebook is FREE and EASY. And we all no nothing in this world is free, so this is a big dealThe first year I started business I payed $1,000. for a yearly ad space online. And you know what? It was a huge waste of money and time.
The past year I have done a lot of research and reading. Did you know facebook even provides you FREE material to read on how to better market your business? In this PDF they give lots of examples of companies that are using facebook well! Very helpful. Why not capitalize on a free opportunity?
I know I have a lot to more to learn, but I want to share what I have discovered so far in hope that it encourages you to use facebook to market a little more serious
Now let me share with you this short video to help give you a background into how powerful facebook is…
Let me first off say, I don’t really address total number of people who “like” you page. Because I think way too many people get hung up on that number. If you have 5,000 likes and no one engages or even sees your wall, what’s the point. I’d rather have 1,000 engaged users than pointless “likers”
So on the left hand side of your page, Facebook provides you with Insights…they track the research for you. And they even have an export option were you can export all this information and keep a database.
So at the top of this picture is the number of unique people who were friends with people who liked your Page. Think about this, for me, I reached 319,929 people that normally I could NOT reach. All because of other people engaging with my page. YOU can reach thousands of people a day by keeping a current and engaging page.
Then at the bottom, Facebook shows you all your posts so you can see which ones you got better feedback on and you can also analyze if you get better blog views on specific days.
Now this explains your demographic. As we can see with my page 74% are females and 30% are between 18-24. This is perfect for me because this is the age bracket that my business serves, high school seniors and young brides.
It also breaks down cities and countries for youThis is always fun to look at.
The other arrow is pointing at Viral Reach. This is the number of unique people who saw a story published by a friend about your Page from. Then you can use the drop-down to see data for a specific story type. Each point represents the number of unique people reached in the 7-day period ending with that day.
This picture breaks down how you reached people. It breaks down tab views, this way I can see how often people look at my pictures, wall, information, etc.
The graph gives the number of unique people who saw a story about this Page published by a friend. These stories include liking your Page, posting to your Page’s Wall, liking, commenting on or sharing one of your Page posts, and taking other actions related to your Page that their friends could see. Each point represents the unique people reached in the 7-day period ending with that day.
This is why it’s HUGE to get user engagement on your page. If no one is liking or commenting on anything then it does you no good. Build relationships with your “likers”Do this by asking questions, posting pictures, caring about other, being genuine, and it’s always important to STAY POSITIVE!! Avoid posts that ask questions in a negative way.
All this to say, if you are consistently engaging on your facebook page you reach more people all over the world who otherwise would NEVER, EVER find you. And it’s FREEEEEEEE.
It doesn’t get any better!
Hope this inspired and encourages you to use your facebook like page!
Today I am blessed and honored to share an engagement session that is dear to my heart. Last week I had the privilege of traveling down to Gilbert, Arizona to shoot my cousin Mikayla and Tyler’s engagement session in the beautiful desert.
After spending a couple days with them and getting to see how much fun these two have I knew I was in for a real treat. Tyler and Mikalya chose a unique and special location for their session, Goldfield Ghost Town. I was in heaven when we arrived! Nestled near the gorgeous Superstition mountains sits this ghost town. When we first started shooting the clouds rolled in and the wind was howling, but soon the Arizona sun shone bright and I went for it! I embraced the sun-filled skies and gorgeous colors.
Thank you Mikayla and Tyler for allowing me into you lives as I captured your love and friendship for each other. Mikayla, girl you are STUNNING! Thanks for rocking it out and working all your gorgeousness! You’re beautiful, inside and out! Oh and I can’t forget you Tyler, I loved that you brought your A-game and turned on your swag!I could not be more happier for you two! I love that you laugh at little things in life and have a true joy that is evident. I can’t wait for your wedding in June. I love you both with all my heart. Thanks for a unforgettable day shooting your love story…you’re captivating.
Love ~Katie
“Love is when you see a persons flaws as perfection.”
Over the years I’ve heard my husband preach to high school students, come expecting BIG things from God. Yet, I have personally failed in this area recently.
When I launched Pursuing the Light I wasn’t expecting BIG things so quickly. I wasn’t expecting girls to respond the way they did.
Yesterday afternoon tears streamed down my face as I sat in unbelief.
~Katie
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