The Beginner Photography Podcast

Growing as a Beginner through Photo Challenges with Kimberly Irish

• Raymond Hatfield

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#563 Kimberly Irish is a community member and moderator of the Beginner Photography Podcast Facebook group. Kim, based in Wisconsin, shares her journey from picking up a camera out of necessity to document her family’s life, to becoming a sought-after photographer who now primarily shoots weddings. The discussion explores the evolution of Kim’s skills, her approach to learning both technical and creative aspects of photography, and her philosophy on gear upgrades, creativity, and client relationships. The episode is both an inspiring personal story and a practical guide for beginners, emphasizing the importance of consistent practice, embracing imperfections, and cultivating one’s own style.

KEY TOPICS COVERED

  1. Getting Started & Overcoming Beginner Struggles - Kim’s entry into photography was motivated by wanting to capture her children’s lives on a tight budget. She learned the basics, especially the exposure triangle, before even getting her camera, but struggled with focus and indoor low-light conditions. Key takeaway: Embrace the learning curve, practice daily, and accept imperfections like grain as part of the process.
  2. Gear Choices & When to Upgrade - The discussion details Kim’s decision-making process about purchasing her first prime lens, the importance of buying gear to match specific needs, and the benefits of buying used equipment. Takeaway: Don’t rush into expensive upgrades—let real photographic needs drive your purchases, and don’t shy away from secondhand gear.
  3. Creativity & Building a Consistent Style - Kim talks about attempting to push her creativity by using tools like the Daily Photo Challenge and focusing on self-evaluation rather than external comparison. She shares her methods for developing her style organically and offers insight into the value of authenticity and daily practice. Takeaway: Consistency, self-reflection, and deliberate experimentation fuel creative growth.

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. What challenges did you face when you started photography, and how did you overcome them?
  2. How do you decide when it’s time for a gear upgrade? What factors influence your choices?
  3. In what ways do you push yourself creatively, and how do you avoid getting stuck comparing your work to others?
  4. What are the benefits and challenges of using themed photo challenges to accelerate your learning?

RESOURCES:
Visit Kimberly Irish's Website - https://www.weeirishphotography.com/
Follow Kimberly Irish on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/weeirishphotography/

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Download your free copy of
46 Creative Photo Ideas to Get You Out of a Rut
at https://creativeimageideas.com/

Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Kimberly Irish:

I learned so much so quickly because I just kept on shooting. And so I would encourage myself to continue to do that. Shoot every single day. Just keep the practice going. It doesn't matter what you're taking pictures of. Like, I shoot weddings, but I didn't always. I took a lot of pictures of flowers and icicles and berries. It's all applicable and it all builds up in slow little layers of knowledge. So, I would just say, keep doing that.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield, and each week I interview one of the world's most interesting photographers to learn what it really takes to capture beautiful images so that you can start to do the same. In today's rewind episode, we are chatting with our very own community moderator, Kimberly Irish, about the technical challenges she faced when starting out in photography and how she overcame them. But first, the Beginner Photography Podcast is brought to you by Clouds Spot. Impress your clients with a beautiful gallery that is easy to view, share, and download on any device. With Clouds Spot, you can control image size at a watermark and download limits as well. So grab your free Forever account today over@deliverphotos.com and only upgrade when you're ready. Learning photography can feel super overwhelming, especially when you're just struggling to get a sharp image indoors or create an image that you're truly proud of. Today's guest and fellow community member and moderator of the Beginner Photography podcast community, Kimberly Irish, knows exactly how that feels. She began her journey as a parent, determined to capture these meaningful moments on a tight budget and ended up as well, honestly, one of the best photographers that I know. She shares the obstacles that she overcame, including battling tricky lighting, gear limitations and a lack of creative inspiration, and she shares how consistent practice transformed her photography. And if you're not in the beginner photography podcast community, why not? We would love to have you. Come join us in the safest place on the internet for new photographers by heading over to beginner photo pod.com/group. With that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview. To start off, why don't you tell us who you are and, where are you from?

Kimberly Irish:

Hi, my name is Kim, Irish, and I live in Wisconsin, and that's that. I live about halfway between Milwaukee and Madison.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay, yeah, I guess that was kind of the entire question that I asked you. But, you've obviously been shooting for a while, this is kind of new for the group. This is all about kind of like a community spotlight where we're going to be featuring somebody from the group to kind of talk and share your experiences. And I thought, we had Sandra on and now, when it comes to, you know, who's next, I thought, who better than the moderator of the group? The beginner photography podcast Facebook group and kind of the the creator of the daily photo challenge, which is you So you kind of have this big role within the entire community of the beginner photography podcast and you've been in the group for several years now. So before we kind of talk about the group and whatnot. Tell me how you got started in photography in the first place

Kimberly Irish:

So I have four kids and I have never really had the finances to go and have a lot of pictures taken of my children. And so, like all things, I decided I could just do it myself. I decided to get a camera and learn. About two and a half years ago, I had my fourth child and that was when I really started learning. staying awake at night to nurse a baby is And so I decided to find something to listen to in order to keep myself awake. And I decided I wanted to learn photography while I was nursing a baby in the middle of the night where I couldn't practice photography at all. Um, so I found the beginner photography podcast and I listened to every single episode because I had hours and hours of time. And I started to get involved in the group on Facebook and it was just a super welcoming community. So I kind of stuck around and probably overwhelmed everybody by posting way too much. But everybody was always just so positive and encouraging. And so I stuck around and Became pretty active there and that's kind of where I came from.

Raymond Hatfield:

So then tell me about those earliest days with the camera itself. You know, you said that you wanted to learn photography. It was strictly to what document, your kids growing up. Is that it?

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah, pretty much. I figured that if I could be good at it at some point in my life, I could turn it into something where I could make money, but at the very beginning, I just wanted good pictures of my kids. Pictures are an important part of growing up. I love looking back at pictures of myself as a child, the people that I remember and that I love very much, like my grandparents and people that I don't remember, like random friends of my parents. And they're like, Oh, that day was this, and we were doing these cool things. And so I have somewhat of a little legacy, even though I don't remember it, I see evidence. So I wanted to give my kids the same, type of an opportunity to look back on their lives and remember small things. I homeschool them. And so I'm often taking pictures of them just like in our house, what we're doing in that moment, just them coloring on the floor, setting up a store in the basement and playing. And, that kind of stuff is just really important for me to remember as I look back and think, Oh my gosh, I remember when they played that game. And I know that for them, that'll be awesome. So when I was first learning photography, I don't know if you wanted me to go into this, but I will, um, so the biggest, I mean, I just keep talking, um, the biggest struggle for me at first was not actually the exposure triangle, because I decided to read up on that prior to even getting my camera in the mail. Because I knew that I wanted to be able to be in control of everything. And I had heard like, don't shoot an auto. So I decided to learn that before I got my camera so I could just be ready. So actually, my hardest struggle at first was focusing. And we've talked about this before, even on a different podcast episode where you thought it was strange that I couldn't focus, but I don't know why I just couldn't focus and we all have our struggles.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. And this is not so much of an issue for you now, but looking back, why do you think that was a struggle? Because you're not the only person who struggled with this.

Kimberly Irish:

I think part of it was that I was shooting with a kit lens in, uh, indoors. I live in Wisconsin where it is gray seven months of the year. We don't have a lot of light, but it's not warm enough to go outside a lot, especially when I'm taking pictures of my baby on the floor. I think my ISO just had to be up very, very high, and I was confusing a lot of the noise with, fuzziness or whatever, and it kind of is. so I wasn't really happy with that. But now I've learned to accept it. And so I'm okay with, you know, a little bit greener images at this point. but yeah, I think it was just the combination of the kit lens. Plus I wasn't, as practiced as, focusing fast. And I think I wasn't using the right combination of settings to really give me a nice sharp photo.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, again, that's one of those things where, when you don't know, you just don't know what's going on. And unfortunately we've been told from the beginning that like, grain is the worst possible thing that we could have in all of our images. But, I think that not having an image is actually the worst thing that we could have because, again, I would rather have a grainy photo than a blurry photo or no photo any day of the week, so I'm glad that you stuck with it. So what do you think now? I mean, now it's not an issue for you. What have you done since then? I know that you've kind of upgraded some of your gear, so tell me about how that decision came about for you because all new photographers immediately, once they aren't getting photos that they want, they blame it on the gear and they want to get more gear. So tell me how that upgrade was for you and how you made that decision.

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah. So there was a question in the group actually just a couple days ago, saying, Hey, I'm looking for a new lens. And what do I need to get? And it was just kind of like, well, what do you want to do with it? What are your struggles? And so for me, I waited a really, really long time to upgrade because at the very beginning, you'll remember I started photography because we couldn't afford to go and just get pictures done. So I couldn't afford to just get a whole lot of new stuff right at the beginning, even buying like my first prime lens, like. Ooh, it was a big investment, you know, I chose to upgrade to a 35 millimeter because I was on a crop sensor camera and I was shooting indoors. And so I wanted to be able to open up my aperture quite a bit in order to let more light in, but I also still wanted to capture more inside the frame. so instead of going with a nifty 50, I went with a 35 and it was a really, really great decision for me. would say the whole first year, pretty much everything I shot after getting that lens was with that lens. And I really, really worked the heck out of it. and it, it did a great job. I was really happy with that. so I actually didn't really upgrade anything else until I actually started. shooting for clients and then with a little bit of money that I was making here and there, I was able to upgrade and upgrade a little bit. and I've actually, I think, only purchased one lens brand new, and that was the, Sigma 35. Because I love it so much. but before that, I had just purchased everything refurbished or things from eBay or anything like that. I was able to grow my kit to include, the telephoto lenses that I needed for shooting weddings or, macro lenses for the details, things like that. It just was kind of like a, over about a year and a half, I just kind of saved up and slowly added things as I needed them. It wasn't ever a big rush to get anything new. I did upgrade to full frame when I started shooting clients more consistently. Just because I thought that was probably a better choice as far as image quality for doing portraits and it was night and day difference. So I'm really glad I did. But that's also probably because I was using a pretty very basic entry level camera. And so the quality could just be that as well. I know a lot of people do some amazing stuff with crop sensors so I'm not going to knock it, but for me, it was a big

Raymond Hatfield:

improvement. Of course, yeah, getting that extra sensor real estate is a big improvement for sure. So When you got that first 35, millimeter lens, was that the same one as the Sigma? Is that, are you referring to the Sigma or did you get a different one? Okay. So then you got the, I'm guessing the Nikon 35 millimeter lens, and then you upgraded to the Sigma after that. Tell me why you made that decision.

Kimberly Irish:

I upgraded to the Sigma because I wanted the extra aperture. I wanted it to be down to the 1. 4 instead of 1. 8. But I waited until I had been shooting weddings for a year and a half before I even started with, you know, that's my first like really expensive lens that I purchased. I mean, I have the Nikon 70 to 200 lens, which is expensive, but I got it for half price because I went on eBay. And it works just fine. So I recommend that kind of thing used is great. So the reason I went with the Sigma 35 is because I was actually having kind of an identity crisis with my photography, where I noticed that all of the images I was taking were just really, really tight and I've always done really, really tight close up framing. And I decided I wanted to challenge myself to actually get more of the scene. And I had a wedding coming up. Where I knew that they were going to have this beautiful location. It's at this, art center and gardens, museum kind of thing. And like, I just know that the landscape there is phenomenal. So I actually rented the 35 prior to purchasing it. I rented it just for that wedding to see if it was, you know, everything everybody says. And it is. And so after that wedding, I fell in love with it and decided to purchase it for myself. And it's been really, really helpful to have. Because it does force you to include more, and that's not how I typically think, but it has really added another layer of, It's just adding a little bit more variety to people's portfolios or to their gallery when I deliver to my clients.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, for sure. I can imagine first time, getting that extra, additional larger aperture, you know, and just being able to separate that background even more than before and then upgrading to a, uh, full frame sensor. And then once again, that's like exponentially, Difference, you know, so that's very cool. want to go back to the whole, said that you decided to upgrade Or that your first prime lens was the 35 rather than going for the nifty 50, which I mean is kind of universally said should be your first lens. And then you mentioned that part of your decision making was based on the crop sensor of your camera. And that's another thing that I know that many people struggle with as far as like 35 equals a 50 and 50 equals an 85. What's going on here? Did you have any struggles when it came to understanding that or you able to pick up on that pretty quickly?

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah, I know the math part has never been a struggle for me. you know, adjusting the settings correctly, none of that's ever been a hard part. thing for me to conceptualize. I have never done anything creative before. Photography and the creativity part is the part that I struggle with. I don't struggle with the math and science part at all. So,

Raymond Hatfield:

so then, okay, let's move on to the creativity part then. If creativity is that hardest part for you, if that is what you struggle with most, how do you continue to, I guess, push yourself and try new things?

Kimberly Irish:

Well, enter the daily photo challenge.

Raymond Hatfield:

Shameless plug.

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah. Um, from the minute I had my camera, I was taking pictures literally every single day. And I would spend at least a half an hour to a couple of hours every single day, just taking pictures and seeing what I liked and practicing different things. And most of the time it was my poor little baby just laying on the floor, being cute. I would just take so many pictures of him, and so it was really fun to just be able to lay down, interact, try to get, fun pictures of him from different angles, and see which way looked the best, and which way I liked the light coming from, and, over time, as you do that so frequently, and you're, and I was uploading and editing pictures literally every single night after the kids were in bed, and so, I was able to really take it kind of real time and just be like, what did I like? What didn't I like? And so then I could just really hone in on those things. that I appreciated from day to day. And then I just took that kind of, once it got warm enough to go back outside, you know, I took it outside and started taking pictures of every flower in the neighborhood. I can tell you every single place where every kind of flower grows now and you know, all the different trees and where there's pretty moss. I know where it is. but yeah, taking pictures every single day and just evaluating those pictures for what I liked and what I didn't like really just helped me figure out how to be creative with some of the lighting and all that kind of stuff.

Raymond Hatfield:

So everything for you was more about kind of finding out for yourself. It was looking at a photo and deciding whether or not you liked it before making changes rather than looking somewhere else like Instagram or something for inspiration and then trying to replicate that. Is that right?

Kimberly Irish:

Yes, I have always avoided comparing my photos to anyone else's. I have always avoided trying to capture a similar image to someone's that I've seen. I do have photographers that I really, really like their style and I like their work. But I have never been the type to just sit on Instagram and scroll through everything and try to repeat something that I see. I just, It doesn't feel authentic to me and I have things to do with my time that I would rather I'd rather do so.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay. So then, I love that, mindset that you have there about kind of learning more of the, creative side of photography, kind of on your own and going at it. What do you think has been the toughest part for you to do that? Because I mean, arguably you could say that, you know, if you went on Instagram, you could just be flooded with inspiration. Whereas going at it at your own pace is much slower. So what has been biggest challenge there for you to be able to create more, or I guess to be able to capture more creative photos or to push yourself creatively. That was like nine questions. Sorry about that. Hopefully you can pick one of those out of there.

Kimberly Irish:

I'll just weave through. Um, I think that the biggest struggle was kind of like the frustration where I didn't feel like I was growing a whole lot at first because I was just like, okay, I just took another picture of a flower. Yeah, that's pretty. Yeah, it's close up. Okay, cool. and just trying to think of like different things that I could do to make it more creative. But I also felt very glad because I know that people use a lot of tricks or, like devices or things to kind of get those creative looking photos. But I want it to be something that I'm able to do on my own. So like, I didn't ever have like I've wanted a tilt shift lens just because I think it would be cool. But I also don't really know, like right now in my head, what I would do with it at this point. So I'm not going to get it until I know what I want to do with it. The same thing for me happened where I didn't want to get like the full frame until I was like ready for the full frame. Same thing for the 35, that kind of stuff. So I guess it was difficult to push myself to do things differently. Without a little bit of outside help. And then I was also a little bit slower to get things going creatively, but the benefit is that I do have a very, consistent style now, and I'm not doing, you know, this, that, and the other. And so like, I know what kinds of images I want to create. I know what kinds of things make me excited. And so I go and I do that. And so it's been, it's been fun. I don't use any kind of extra editing tricks or overlays or anything like that. Because if I see something and I want to do it or if I visualize it, I want to figure out how to make that happen in camera rather than doing it. elsewhere

Raymond Hatfield:

Man, sometimes I see photos with overlays, and I think to myself, I wish that I could do this. Like, I wish that I had the patience to be able to sit down and do something like this. but I think that that also comes down to, being able to visualize some Like, when you have a camera in your hand, and you can see the scene in front of you, you're like, I know what I have here, and I know what I can create with this. But when you're in front of a computer, and there's like all these different overlays and options, it's everything is literally endless and I think to me that becomes really overwhelming and while I love the look and what you can do with, being able to manipulate images in Photoshop, unfortunately, it just doesn't fit. The way that I shoot and I think that it would just cause so much stress for me. But, yeah, I think, it's really cool. And then I had a follow up question. I had something to ask you, but now I completely forgot because I was thinking about all the cool things that I wish that I could photoshop, but I can't. Oh, yes. So kind of back to the daily photo challenge, right? We're talking about one thing that you're doing, that you started off doing last year, and that we're doing again, this year is the themes weekly themes, right? So tell me, are these themes? Are they helping push you in photography? Or are these just kind of guidelines that you hope to help others with? Or what have you seen come out of these?

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah, so the themes of the Daily Photography Podcast, that's not what we're saying about. What's it called? The Daily Photo Challenge. I couldn't get there. My brain just was like, anyway, the thing with the Daily Photo Challenge themes, they came out of just kind of like a little poll that we did in the regular podcast group, at the very end of last, last year, where we were kind of talking about, okay, we're going to start this new thing, What do we want it to look like? we polled everybody and, some people said that a daily thing would be overwhelming, but weekly would be great. And so we kind of wanted to pull that in and then we also wanted to accommodate people who needed a little push. But then we also knew some people wouldn't need that push and they would just want to go and do their own thing and not have to worry about it. For me, the themes are there just, for those people who want that push, and I didn't want to come up with daily themes and you had already come up with themes or. The first half of last year, which was perfect. And so, we just kind of mishmashed all of that together and now we're keeping up with the weekly themes just because it's there for people who really need an idea. And the group is really flexible. So people can post every day. They can post each week. They can post every month. It doesn't matter as long as you want to join in and post something it's there and it's available. It's not like anybody's winning awards or anything, but. It's a lot of fun just to see a lot of that growth, especially for people who are there every single day. And Sandra was so wonderful last year and I, I've thanked her repeatedly, and I apologize to her profusely because the end of last year got so crazy for me. I couldn't keep up with that. And I just had to let it fall off of my radar. And she just kept it going every single day. New post, new post, new post. She was a rockstar getting that going. So, thank you, Sandra. and Damien has also participated, I think every single day since he began. So I hope to hear from him sometime soon too.

Raymond Hatfield:

How do you think that they have helped you in your photography? The themes? Yeah, sure. Do you think that the themes have actually helped you in your photography? Or has it been more for, the daily photo challenge?

Kimberly Irish:

I think that it's kind of put a little bit of something in the back of my brain just to kind of think about throughout the week as I go around taking pictures of everything I would normally take a picture of. The theme last week was little things. And so I just keep thinking about, okay, am I going to take this like our daily life, little things like little moments that happened between my kids, or am I going to think about like actual little things, you know, like I took pictures of a bug. Like, what is, how am I going to take that and so that was kind of. How that plays around. I think it just kind of jostles around in the back of my brain and I kind of look for things around me as I go.

Raymond Hatfield:

So on top of photographing now, kind of your everyday life daily in a daily photo challenge, what other things are you, focusing on when shooting?

Kimberly Irish:

So I started shooting clients about a year and a half ago or so. And so that's the kind of stuff that I'm doing a lot of. I haven't, thankfully, in the last few months. It's been really quiet. This fall was really crazy with lots of weddings, lots of engagements, lots of family stuff, lots of mini sessions. It was just so overwhelming. But it was a lot of fun too because a lot of the clients that I saw this fall were people from last year when I had first started. And so, I've been able to keep up with some families doing multiple shoots a year with them. And then people for weddings, I get to see them when they're first engaged and it's a lot of fun and they're anticipating this great big day and then going to their weddings with them and stuff. It's really fun to be able to celebrate those moments and like, Oh, we're here. We made it. You did it. Like, So that's what I'm shooting mostly these days.

Raymond Hatfield:

So then talk to me about that progression because in the beginning, you either started off shooting families or started off shooting newborns and then you went pretty heavy, on newborns for a while and, families are obviously big for your mini sessions and whatnot. While you were also doing weddings, you kind of had a lot of things going on. Tell me about, How that went for you as far as doing all those things and then ultimately kind of deciding where you're at right now, to focus on weddings.

Kimberly Irish:

Well, honestly, it was just a process of kind of paring things down to see what would fit with my family and our lifestyle. I'm a stay at home mom with four kids. I don't have a lot of time. To be out, I can't have a studio because I can't be there all day. And, just having people bringing their kids into me for pictures. I would love to have a studio someday. I love just using flash in order to like get nice crisp images that are like pretty reliable. I definitely prefer shooting with flash for that reason, but, I don't have time for that. And I don't have time to do, to dedicate an entire day to many sessions because an entire day of many sessions really equates to, a week to a week and a half afterward of just editing nonstop in order to get those photos out in a timely manner for, Christmas cards or whatever. I just, I don't have that time. And it's not cost effective with many sessions really to send that editing out to an outsourcer. You know, it just, it doesn't make financial sense. Same with like family sessions. I can't charge enough to really justify sending those family sessions out to be edited by somebody else. So really that's kind of why I decided weddings is really going to be the place for me. I still love newborns. I'm never going to say no to a newborn. because they're just so squishy and cute. But, for a couple of reasons, newborns are not really ideal for our family as well. it's a lot of time that I have to dedicate away from my family. And during that time, I have to have someone here to care for them. My husband's schedule, it's relatively flexible, but we like to be together when he's home and we like to see each other. So the wonderful thing about weddings is you can plan ahead of time. You talk to the couple ahead of time, you know, quite a bit, but it's never like you don't have to dedicate hours upon hours ahead of time. And then one day you go and you're there and you're fully on focus. Everybody expects not to talk to you that day. And nobody texts you, nobody calls you. You're like, I'm at a wedding. And so they ignore you for the day, which is wonderful. And then you can take those pictures and you can send them off to somebody else with a couple of pictures that you've edited and then they come back and they're magically beautiful the way that you wanted them to be and you can make the tweaks that you want and then present those to the couple and they're amazed and excited and you know, that's, it's just more rewarding for me because it is cost effective to send a wedding out to be outsourced to an editor because just is. So I like wedding because I don't have to spend a whole lot of time editing.

Raymond Hatfield:

What do you see the future of your photography being? Do you think that it's going to be focused on weddings? Because I know that we've talked, obviously you're, a premium member as well. And we talk in our group coaching calls about kind of the, the ability to, to start off with a wedding, right? That's where you kind of get them in. And then later on as their family grows, you can kind of grow into some of that as well, as far as newborns and families as well. Do you see yourself doing a lot of that in the future or primarily sticking to weddings?

Kimberly Irish:

I think the most important part of photography for me is actually the relationships that I develop with my clients and with the people that I see consistently. So I do see myself becoming like a lifetime photographer for a set of families. However, I will only advertise for weddings, because I think that's a good way to get people in the door. And then just to continue with them through life, I think is much more rewarding for me than, just having a random cake smash for some kid that I've never seen before, or, you know, I love cake smashes. There's so much fun and they're cute, but, I just, I really treasure becoming friends with the people that I work with. So that's what I. I think I will do.

Raymond Hatfield:

I like it. I like it. So I got a question for you because I went back in time through the power of searching on Facebook to look for your first post in the Beginner Photography Podcast Facebook group and you've been in the group for more than two years so you have a lot of posts to go through. Uh, when I looked, the first time that you ever posted something was actually on Keri Norris. She posted a photo and she was asking a question. She said, why does my camera suck with indoor light? Every time I shoot indoors, I have to crank my ISO to the heavens, which I hate doing because the quality is nothing compared to outdoor light. And you commented, I have the exact same issue with my Nikon D3300. Please, someone help. A lot of time has passed since then. Did you overcome this issue?

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay. Perfect. Next question. I

Kimberly Irish:

think it was more of a mental thing to overcome. I mean, obviously shooting on a crop sensor, you're going to get a lot more noise indoors, especially shooting on a high ISO. So obviously the switch to a full frame was good for that, but also mentally, like we talked about at the beginning. Accepting the fact that there's going to be some noise in photos when your ISO has to be high. I can think of a wedding that I did recently where it was a dark church with dark wood everywhere and dark orange carpet and the pastor did not want any flash, which is fine. You know, most don't, I can't imagine wanting flash at my own wedding.

Raymond Hatfield:

So, um,

Kimberly Irish:

and so those images are very grainy because I had to shoot it like ISO 5, 000 in order to get any kind of an image that I could work with. And. I had to be very far away. He told me a particular spot I had to stand in inside the church. And I actually had to pull out my crop sensor and put my 70 to 200 on it in order to get any kind of shot that was not, far away kind of

Raymond Hatfield:

because

Kimberly Irish:

of where he had me stand. So that was interesting because I was actually back on the old crop sensor in order to get that. I mean, I could have done that in. My full frame as well, but I had a different lens on so I wanted to be able to use both. But yeah, so it's more of a mindset, I think. And just knowing how to work with those images in post also helps as well.

Raymond Hatfield:

I think as time goes on, probably entry level cameras aren't going to be as poor with ISO performance as they were here currently. And then even, even a few years ago as well. So, obviously, we kind of can look back at any time in our own photography timeline and see the struggles that we were facing. And then now we're like, Oh, here's the solution. Like, of course we know that. So I'm interested to know, what is it that you are currently struggling with now?

Kimberly Irish:

As far as shooting goes, I'm not really struggling with anything. I know how to get the images that I want. I know how to like things the way I want them to be lit. I know how to compose things the way I want them to be composed. So I'm sorry, there's not a whole lot I can say there.

Raymond Hatfield:

What about going forward then? as far as creating something new, is there anything that maybe you wanted to try?

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah, yeah. So this has been something that I've been pondering for about a year now. I tend to visualize images before I take them. And I really, really want to create a really cool double exposure someday, but because I haven't visualized it yet, I don't know what it's going to be. And I haven't like, I've tried a few things, but it just doesn't make sense to me. And I want to be able to do it in camera, not in post. So I haven't really come up with the perfect double exposure idea yet. That's what I'm struggling with the most right now.

Raymond Hatfield:

There you go. Are you talking like at a wedding or just personally at home?

Kimberly Irish:

Just in general, I really want to, I want to do something cool. Like for a wedding, I have this idea of what I want to do eventually someday, where I have, I want a couple that's written their own vows and I want like the handwritten vows to be somehow used within a photo. I don't know. That's kind of where I am at that point. But, even at home, I don't really, like I've tried a couple of double exposures and different textures and things like that over pictures of my kids, but it just doesn't work. It feels inauthentic because it's just kind of like, oh, here's a trick I'm doing today. You know, it's not, like, I feel like double exposures have the capacity to really convey a lot of really minute detail within the broader context of something amazing. And so I want to create something that does all of that, you know, just a whole package in one photo is kind of what I want to be able to do someday. So.

Raymond Hatfield:

I see. So obviously, for those listening who don't know, a double exposure is literally taking two photos and kind of imprinting it into one image. So you might think of like a Photoshop of taking two photos and putting them together. But it's different when done in camera because while new digital cameras have lots of different abilities settings as far as double exposures. I know with Fuji, I don't know about Nikon or Canon, but you can choose whether to, blend the photos, through the dark portions of the image or through the light portions of the image. So if you were to blend through the dark portions of the image, everything in that first image, wow, this is really getting confusing to think about. So say that you have, like, a nighttime photo and at the bottom of the shot is just, like, a head and shoulders portrait of somebody. If you use nighttime blending or night dark blending, whatever the term would be. If you were to take another photo, anything that wasn't dark would now show up on the dark version of the dark portion of the first photo. Again, kind of hard to visualize, I guess now when I, when I'm saying these things out loud, but again, it's, you can have both those things or multiple things, depending on the camera that you have, and put it in one photo, which I could see. So like the photo that I'm imagining in my head that you just described right there would probably be something like. The first photo that you would take would be close up macro shot of just the vows right full frame writing of the vows and then that next shot would be something like the couple is close together and maybe they're just like facing each other and now it's their silhouette. But it's only in the letters of the vows, right? So you can kind of get all of that in, in one image. Yeah. So have you tried doing something like this? and if so, how did it turn out?

Kimberly Irish:

I haven't tried yet because I have been hesitant because I don't want to screw it up.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, come on. You can just not deliver the photo. Like if it goes wrong.

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah, I don't know. It's just been a thing where it's like this mental block. And I remember I, this is kind of how I've always gone through my whole photography journey is like, I have this idea of what I want to do. And until I figure out exactly what I want to do, I haven't even tried.

Raymond Hatfield:

Um,

Kimberly Irish:

and so it's been like a lot of little tiny, small steps. And then like, I get stuck for a while. And then I figured out, Oh, okay, I can do that now. Like same thing for flash. It took me probably nine months of saying that I wanted to learn flash to actually just do it. And then I was like, Oh, that wasn't that hard.

Raymond Hatfield:

So what was it that got you to that point? You said that you had to like know exactly what it was in your head before you even attempted it. What was it that you saw that made you think, okay, now is the time to take action on learning flash.

Kimberly Irish:

It was because I had a wedding coming and I needed to know flash to do my first wedding. And so I got flash and a flash from you and then I was like, this is actually really easy. So there's another plug for you flash

Raymond Hatfield:

Lots of shameless plugs today. This is awesome. Uh, that's hilarious So now that you've obviously been shooting with flash for a while and you find it. You're very competent with it. Why do you think so many? struggle in the beginning to even get started with Flash?

Kimberly Irish:

I think it's because, again, outside of, like, this group per se, a lot of other sources make it so much harder than it really is. Like, you have to know the math, and you have to know the, right angles, and you have to set it up just this way, and you have to have this umbrella, and you have to have this beauty dish, and you have to have, you know, You don't need all those things. You just do it, take a picture. And if it doesn't look good, try something different. Like, it's really not that hard. But of course I will say that with a caveat, I haven't done a whole lot with flash. It's just like, I have very, very basic setup and it works for me. And I use that. So if I wanted to add in something different in the future, I could, I mean, recently I did a shoot and I added a hair, like, Ooh, you know, that was big stuff for me. Wow. No, it was a third. I'm just saying.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's awesome. That's awesome. I'm the same way when it comes to flash. I mean, I'm very much like, I just. I don't carry much when it comes to a wedding. I bring three flashes and then I bring, just like my, diffuser on, on one of them and essentially like, that's it. Then I bring the stands to hold them and that's, that's the end of the day for me, I like what you said there were like, it doesn't have to be complicated. You don't even need expensive pieces. You don't need an expensive flash. You don't need an expensive trigger and you definitely don't need all of the. I don't know, modification gear, that's available on Amazon or wherever. So, that's awesome. I love that. Well, I know that, our time is, coming to an end. So I just got a few last questions here for you. The first one would be, you know, you kind of entered the group when you were very new to photography, What information do you wish you could tell your earliest version of yourself when just getting started in photography that would make it easier to get to where you are today?

Kimberly Irish:

I think it would be less angsty for myself if I knew that it would go a lot quicker than I thought. The time has actually, it's been two and a half years, But it feels like I've been shooting forever and the time has just gone by so quick. I learned so much so quickly because I just kept on shooting. And so I would encourage myself to continue to do that. Shoot every single day. Just keep the practice going. It doesn't matter what you're taking pictures of. Like, I shoot weddings, but I didn't always. I took a lot of pictures of flowers and icicles and berries, It's all applicable and it all builds up in slow little layers of knowledge. So, I would just say, Keep doing that but don't feel so stressed out yet. You know,

Raymond Hatfield:

don't feel stressed out yet. I love it Yeah, nice and nice and easy. So Kim before I let you go Obviously we can find you in the Facebook group, but where else can we find you and more of your images? Anywhere on the internet.

Kimberly Irish:

You can find me on instagram at we irish photography All one word. You can find me on my website at weirishphotography. com, Facebook, We Irish Photography as well. Very consistent. We is W E E like small.

Raymond Hatfield:

Perfect. And then, if anybody has any questions, would it be okay if they were to reach out and ask you? Absolutely. Awesome. Well, Kim, thank you so much for, uh, coming on and sharing your journey today. it's been a long one, but it's, it's been fun to get here and I had a great time talking with you today.

Kimberly Irish:

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's a lot of fun to see you and thank you so much for all of the help that you've given me because I definitely would not be here without you.

All right today's action item. The thing that if you implement, just this is really gonna move the needle forward in your photography, is to shoot indoors and embrace the imperfections. I know what you're thinking. Yeah, but the lighting inside is, it's not that good. Well, that's why this is a challenge that you need to implement. Take that photo inside your home with the gear that you have right now. Don't stress about grain or high ISO, or image quality or anything like that. The goal is to capture a moment. Then here's the real challenge. Once you take the shot, look for all the things that you actually like about the image, rather than all of the technical flaws that only other photographers would notice. The photo is probably much better than you think it is, and taking a photo is always gonna be better than not taking a photo. So there you go. That's it for this week. Until next time, remember, the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you'll be tomorrow.