Let's Get Started.
Hello Friends!Welcome to the start of my journey. My name is Katie Bellini. I’m 29 and newly married to the love of my life, Dan. I work full time as a School Counselor in a public New Jersey high school.
Photography with Mr. D in high school sparked my passion for all things creative through a camera lens. This love was deepened through travel and documenting my adventures. Taking portraits for family and friends has always been second nature but through planning my own wedding I had a bit of a lightbulb moment. I LOVE LOVE wedding photography. When I got engaged, I followed all of my favorites - Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes and finally connected with Brianna Wilbur who we snagged for our November wedding. Brianna is pure magic and inspired me to revisit my love for photography. When I looked at our wedding photos I remembered why hiring a special photographer was my #1 - it wasn’t just a picture. These images were a way to put yourself right back into those beautiful, raw, vulnerable, unexplainable moments that are ever so fleeting and too special for words. See below for Brianna Wilbur magic.
Less than a year after our wedding, I kept thinking “I want to learn/do all things wedding photography.” That sentence was usually followed with a defeated huff. I already had my career, right? I had already gone to school...graduated...went back to school for a masters...graduated. And landed a great job in a great district. So I’m done, right?
Maybeee not.
I worked up enough courage to reach out to New Jersey wedding and family photographers that I admired. The curiosity call was answered by the absolutely wonderful Alex of Idalia Photography. Alex is a former teacher turned wedding photography extraordinaire. Although she slays in the wedding and family photography business, she is still a teacher at heart. She invited me to her home for a mentoring session and gave me a technical refresher and a welcome into the world of editing. I gushed when I saw her beautiful office - walls covered with beautiful black and whites from her wedding in Rome and travels with her husband, Jay.
Like the best of teachers, Alex sent me home with a few homework assignments which I was eager to get a head start on. For the next week, month, year - who knows - I will be practicing.
Practicing in the form of still lifes.
Practicing in the form of this blog.
[Insert photo of me with a glass of wine eating sausage and peppers here]
Practicing in the form of shooting anyone and everyone that will get in front of the camera for me like these cutie pies (thank you Kafkas for always being my #1 cutest models).
I have no idea where this will take me but like all of the best journeys, the destination really isn’t the point.
Let’s get started.