Kristy Steeves, M.Photog, M.Artist, Cr, CPP
Embrace the Light & A look at Posing Your Clients
It’s been said that skilled photographers are artists who light with a paintbrush. They are writers who narrate their own visual story. They define their personal style. They are in control of the way their images look and feel. They do this by knowing how to see the light, manipulate it, and use it to their advantage. Lighting is a crucial part of photography. Sculpting with it is an art form. Join Kristy Steeves, M.Photog, M.Artist, Cr, CPP, as she shares her unique approach on embracing light (and shadows) to create shape, form, shadows, texture, and mood. The placement of light, shaping of light, and ratios can all work in your favor. Kristy will demonstrate certain techniques, such as broad, short, split, profile, Rembrandt, and cross lighting, along with proper posing, to get beautifully sculpted images. Light is your greatest tool. Come and create. Find your voice. Write your story. Define your style. Paint your masterpiece. Learning how to light is one of the greatest discoveries you can make as a photographer. We will have live models available so bring your cameras for this all- day, interactive, hands-on experience! Let’s have some embracing the light!
Posing people for powerful portraits can be tricky. Some people lock up when a camera is pointed at them. They become stiff, their expressions change or they are not sure where to look. It’s up to us to make sure our clients look great and feel at ease. Posing is an art form. It’s critical to the success of any portrait. Join Kristy Steeves, M.Photog, Cr, CPP, as she shares her unique approach to posing people of all ages and body sizes. She will demonstrate correct and incorrect posing starting with the head and going all the way down to the toes. It’s all in the details when it comes to making our clients look their best from top to bottom!
Kristy graduated from Indiana University with two Bachelor of Arts degrees: one in journalism and one in political science. She worked as a television news reporter for 25 years before switching careers to become a professional photographer. She specializes in children, pets, high school senior portraits and corporate head shots. Kristy is actively involved in the photography industry serving as an approved PPA juror and elected council member. She is currently on the ASP Board of Governors as well as previously holding positions as president and vice president of Professional Photographers of Northeast Ohio. She also served as an elected member of the PPA Nominating Committee.
Kristy has won various awards including four television Emmy awards, PPA Diamond Photographer of the Year and has received the Imaging Excellence medallion. She currently holds the title of Ohio Photographer of the Year and PPNEO Photographer of the Year. Kristy received the Northeast District Grand Imaging Award for the Children Portrait Category and is a two-time finalist for the IPC Grand Imaging Award with 2nd place in the Non-Event Album Photographic Open category. Her storytelling album was titled “Trading Places,” a project that took more than two years to complete. 40 photographers from 11 states participated in the project with each of them donning costumes to portray characters of themselves.
Kristy worked as a photojournalist in El Salvador, which has the highest murder rate in the world, to document the country ’s extreme poverty, gang violence, and its endangered children who, if lucky, end up in orphanages. It was so dangerous that Kristy was assigned a body guard and lived in a walled compound surrounded by barbed wire. The former journalist is no stranger to gang violence after having covered it in Cleveland, Ohio for two decades. On one occasion she and a videographer were repeatedly shot at when they got caught in the middle of gang warfare. Kristy later won a television Emmy award for an in-depth story – titled “Ghetto Memorial” – on a particular group of drug dealers/gang members who, because of their dangerous lifestyles, faced the possibility of being murdered every day.
Kristy grew up as an Air Force military brat. As a result she experienced a nomadic lifestyle during her childhood and teenage years. She has called many states home, including Arkansas (where she was born), Alabama, California, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Virginia, New York, and Indiana. She eventually ended up in Cleveland after landing her dream job as a television news reporter. She loves traveling, writing magazine articles (and a novel she ’s working on); aquatic sports like scuba diving and snorkeling, being the class clown, and most of all, meeting people and making lasting friendships. She is also the photographer (not the author) of a newly published children ’s book, “Oreo and Milo,” about a unique friendship between a dog and a horse.
