Kaylee Bliss
So I guess we should start at the beginning, the first spark I had for photography.
It was 2007, my 11th birthday. I invited all my friends (all two of them) and my four, somewhat evil, cousins. The party was your classic slumber party. I remember two presents from that party, one was a fake diamond ring from Claires, I'm pretty sure that's still floating around my house. The other was a red, point and shoot Nikon camera. It came with it's own tiny case and it was JUST MINE.
That night I made everyone in the house walk to the park and have a photoshoot, and then we all sat around looking at the photos I took, and edited them.
Photo credit to my mom, because I'm in this one!
Heading into middle school, seventh and
eighth grade I was in yearbook, plus I finally had a little freedom from my house I was able to take my friends on walks around the town to take pictures. When she let me, I would take my little sister on walks around our local lake. In middle school they really drill you to focus on your future, high school was around the corner and they wanted you to write down what you would be when you graduated. A teacher, who shall not be named, saw me write photographer on the page. This teacher smirked, shook their head, and walked away. The over thinker I am immediately erased my answer and wrote teacher, librarian(lol), social worker, nanny etc. All through high school I thrived in my creative classes, taking the yearbooks camera over the weekend, or stealing my moms film Minolta.
I still never thought that my dream was sustainable, and it will only be a hobby. Skip forward to one year after graduation, I was working as a preschool teacher, at a grocery store, and going to college to be a teacher. Preferably kindergarten- third grade. I felt a lack of meaning in the jobs, but at least at the daycare I got to be creative.
That same year on Black Friday me and my boyfriend (now husband) bought a kit camera. It was a canon rebel t5. How exciting! The next morning I spent the day playing with the settings, taking every opportunity to take pictures. Telling my models to fake laugh was the main prompt I would use. Constantly on YouTube watching tutorials, constantly doing shoots for strangers for free.
Reality caught up to me, the work load became too much and I put down the camera, and slowed way down on the art. I focused on my "career", and my future.
it's 2017,
life has gone by and I'm pregnant, engaged, and a homeowner. My whole pregnancy I was obsessed with maternity photos, and after I realized this wasn't something I wanted to do by myself I hired a photographer. The session really made me want to jump back into photography.
After my first son was born I was still set on finishing college, and becoming a teacher. I went back to work part time when he was about 3months old and soon realized I didn't enjoy teaching the same way I did before. I wanted to be home with my baby. I was lucky enough to stop working and start being a mom, and wife.
One year later we bought our second house, and got pregnant again. After my second baby was born, I suffered PPD and PPA. I didn't have a purpose, and started to lose myself, and on top of that- money was tight. I needed to find a way to stay home with these little love's while also bringing in some side money for gas, and food.
I started to pick up my camera again. I took pictures of my kids, of any and all friends, I made a website, instagram, and started doing a ton of research again.
I decided that because of my story, I wanted to capture families, mostly mothers, and hold them the way I needed to be held.
3 years of business later...
2022
My journey as a Spokane family, birth, and motherhood photographer has led me to documentary photography. Those raw moments, have always had my attention, and I noticed the best way to really evoke emotions was from the comfort of homes. Something about capturing the messy house, the fun dance parties in the kitchen, the silly blanket forts that have to stay up for days... That's what families are like, and that's how I want to document them.
