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About Sabrina K. Photography:

Welcome to my blog! I'm Sabrina Koogler, and I love photography! I always have my nose in a photography book, camera to my face, working on a challenge, workshop, or contest (in between sessions and processing!) becoming the best photographer I can be! I used to teach high school Spanish, and now I'm a stay-at-home mom to two adorable, rascally boys. Sabrina K Photography is my third baby, born of the need to document all of the milestones, wild times, and quiet moments of my children and others. My style is fun and natural. I seek to document the authentic "you" in my images. I offer custom portraiture in the Houston area, and I'm based in Pearland. I enjoy working with natural light and studio lighting--it's fun having a dual-sort of personality! And it certainly keeps things interesting!

  • New blog post: Six Months Times Two


  • Archive: ‘new things can be scary but fun’



    Tri-ing to catch up

    Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

    Okay, so sorry for the bad pun. I am trying to do a better job blogging, and I just really wanted to post some different images and the play on words just sort of ties the two together. Well, sort of. And now I’m not even sure it is a pun at all. So much for that English degree!

    So to give you some insight into life in our household, let me start by saying we don’t own a tv. Sure, we subscribe to Netflix and watch movies and tv (sometimes) through the internet. But there’s no background noise. Sure, there’s plenty of noise, but the tv does not factor in. So with no tv to watch, you’re wondering: “So what do they do with their time?”

    Well, for starters, I’m chasing around two heathen wild children. Sometimes with the camera, and sometimes not. I run and train for half marathons in the hopes that some day I might truly consider myself a “runner” and not be pitifully slow.  And my husband works out. A lot. It’s pretty impressive. (He’s the disciplined one while I’m rolling up from HEB with a package of double-stuff Oreos.) This year he has really gotten into triathlon, and it’s been a lot of fun for the whole family.  The race-day atmosphere is really cool (and, well, to be honest, it gives me another outlet for photography!) and it’s a great example for our kids. He’s done several sprint-distance triathlons and is training for an Olympic and then a Half-Ironman in October. I totally am ready for him to complete the Ironman and get the tattoo–I think he should do the Kona so we get a trip to Hawaii, don’t you??

    So we planned a fun tri-themed shoot and it only took about two months to finally make it happen. But –ta-daa!–both kids finally took a nap and here are the results. I’m glad my model was as excited as I was by the images. It was a fun session!

    First you swim. Then you bike. Then you run. Easy peasy, right?

    The swim distance for a sprint triathlon varies per event but is usually somewhere around 400-500 meters. You swim, like, 16 miles in an Ironman (actually, it is 2.4 miles, I think–4 km, maybe?)

    Seriously, serious.

    And now a transition to the bike:

    More seriousness. Transition to the run:

    (And people wonder how my 4-year-old learns to say to me while I’m running (pushing a double stroller with 60 lbs of kiddos in it): “You’re not training to win, Mommy! Run faster! Run super-fast!”.  It’s encouraging. Sort of.)

    Meh, I’m trying something different for me.

    All I can think about is that after you swim 2.4 miles (it might as well be “24″ miles for me–I swim like a weighted rock), then you bike 100+ miles (more reasonable since I used to be a cyclist) THEN you run a stinkin’ marathon afterward. It’s not called “Ironman” for nothing! Training for that is going to be a serious whole-family commitment!

    Okay, and one last one:

    There is so much “gear” you “need” (or that at least makes the transitions faster) for triathlon. I think I sort of geek out about workout gear! Clearly, we don’t have all the specific shoes but we’re getting there!

    This really was a fun session to do! I really feel like you should “do what you love; love what you do” in your portraits, and this is definitely my husband’s passion!

    Paulette’s Race for Lupus Cure! Fast!

    Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

    This weekend I was honored to be able to work with the wonderful team of the PEF Foundation as the official race photographer for Paulette’s Race for Lupus Cure. It was a really great event despite some threatening weather! My wonderful husband and I were able to go out and appreciate a whole different aspect of running–usually we are in the races on the other end of the lens! I loved the experience and am hoping to work more races! I think I love photography and running even more now!

    It was a lot of fun and now a lot of work getting all of the images sorted by race number. (Sure you could look through the hundreds and hundreds of images searching for yourself, but who has the time?)

    Anyway. .. I should be done by the end of the week so check out the race images at my proofing site: http://sabrinakphotography.zenfolio.com You can order prints there. Contact me directly to order digital files at info@sabrinakphotography.com.

    So it was a dark and stormy morning (as the story goes.  . .)

    No, really, it WAS dark and stormy! The wonderful volunteers kept asking those of us with cameras what we were going to do! Fortunately, the rain held off except for just a tiny bit and we were good to go!

    Here is one of my favorite images of the day (and I really like it in black and white)! This gentleman was one of our winners. Love the concentration! The motion! The reflection of his feet on the wet pavement. The ominous sky.

    Wonderful!

    All race-day images will be printed with the PEF logo on them as such (but not with my logo–that’s just to protect people from swiping my images off the internet!)

    So please check the proofing site later in the week to view your race-day images! I love looking through all the happy faces (and the “running so hard I don’t have the energy left to smile!” faces, too!).

    “Make sure you get my good side!”

    Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

    I hear this a lot.

    And when I’m doing a head shot of someone, I’ve always had them turn both ways. I mean, I’ve got a good side. Everyone does!

    And in my workshop last week we worked with people’s “sides”–but more from a light perspective than what is truly their “good” side.

    I learned that yes, it does make a difference! It’s not really your face that is different from side to side–it’s the quality of light and how it strikes your face that makes all the difference.

    Some examples:

    and the other side:

    Side one:

    Side two (are you starting to feel like you are at the eye doctor? “Which is better? “One?” “Or two?” “One. . .?”

    And one more example:

    And the other side:

    And one just for fun:

    Finally, some dramatic lighting ratios.

    Many thanks to my wonderful models who have been putting up with me these past few weeks!

    Running around

    Monday, February 14th, 2011

    Okay, so I’ve mentioned that I will be the race photographer for Paulette’s Race for Lupus Cure coming up March 5. (Register today! Tomorrow is the last day you’ll be guaranteed a t-shirt!). I’ve never photographed a race professionally before (I’ve taken snapshots but never with “people want to make sure to remember crossing that finish line” mentality before). So we packed up the troops and headed down to a small race to do some practicing. It. was. fun.

    I LOVE a race atmosphere! I’ve always loved it as a runner–your adrenaline gets going! There’s music! Food! An mc! Lots of other people’s adrenaline. So more adrenaline!

    But it’s even better to feel all those good vibes but not have the pressure of performing (pounding the pavement, at least)! I loved being out there with the athletes and race coordinators! It was a blast! I chatted with the official race photographer and she was super fun! Even got handed a pretty nifty Leica to play around with (I took some crappy pictures–so am not used to rangefinder manual focus!). Anyway. . .thought I’d share some favorites. It’s definitely different from what I normally do but I LOVE it! Bring it on! I am even more excited about “my” race now!

    It was a fun and foggy morning when we got there. Here’s the “Top Dog” after running in the 1K event with her owners. I love this shot! What you can’t see is that she’s rooting for my favorite college! She’s a winner on so many levels!

    Cutest.finish.ever! Seriously!? Can you get any cuter? Little Miss rocked her 1K and broke through the finish line banner! How cute!

    Oh, did someone say “cute”? Here’s my race team all bundled up in the stroller (sorry this one is larger than the rest–guess I’m a little biased! (And used this image in my Joy of Love assignment today!))

    Then the 5K started:

    And pretty soon it was over:

    This guy was pretty smokin’. Was not sure of his time, but he came cruising through pretty quickly!

    And the top female was right behind him!

    (There wasn’t an official “finish line” after the winner broke through the paper banner so she just improvised!)

    Some more finishers:

    This guy really turned up the heat at the end!

    I like the yellow shirt and matching racing flats!

    Just cruisin’ on in!

    BAM! I love this singlet! It’s a tri team, I think. Super awesome! Just say it out loud and you feel good! “BAM!”

    Well, I guess that about does it! I had a blast. Learned quite a bit. Got used to a lens I haven’t used for a while. And I’m ready as ever to work with the PEF Foundation for the Race for Lupus Cure next month!

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