Behind the Lens Series | An Interview with Kandice McDermott

This week, in our Behind the Lens series, we’re super excited to introduce you to another one of our supremely talented Creative Team members, Kandice McDermott. Kandice is a portrait photographer living in Idaho―our own back yard! Read on to see her beautiful photography!

What inspired you to pick up your first camera?

Honestly, I can’t remember the first time I picked up a camera; I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember. I remember playing with my parents’ Polaroid camera as a kid, and digging into my dad’s old 35mm SLR in high school. I loved it enough that my parents bought my very first camera as my high school graduation gift.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and you as a photographer.

Honestly? I never thought my photography would take me into the portrait photography world. My original dream was (and still is) to create and sell photographic landscape art. I remember visiting an artist’s gallery in a small tourist town and thinking how amazing it would be to open my own gallery and for people to proudly display my work in their homes.

The portrait end of my experience came by default. My family knew I was learning and growing as a photographer and started asking me to take family pictures, then began referring friends to me, and it just snowballed from there. Before I knew it, I was working full time as a portrait photographer and loving it, though I do still have grand plans to expand into the landscape market and frequently look for opportunities to learn and grow in this area as well.

Tell us a little about the subjects you love to photograph and your style as a photographer.

In my portrait photography, I love to photograph seniors. Something about that time in life, their naturally genuine personalities, and the willingness of many of them to get creative makes those sessions an absolute blast for me. I come away from those sessions feeling like I’ve made a new friend and I’m always super excited to get home and start editing those sessions.

Aside from photography, what is a favorite hobby or pastime of yours?

Reading has always been my automatic response to questions like this. I love to read and it is rare that I’m not in the middle of a good book. Lately though, my interests have taken an unexpected turn as I’ve begun to be more interested in personal development and fitness…it’s not something I’ve ever had any interest in before, but I guess the time was right and I was ready to work on becoming a better person. If you ever need a feel-good book, I can recommend a few, haha!

What do you do to learn and grow as a photographer?

I’ve never stuck with any one source of information; I just go to the great big world of Internet research to find answers to any of my questions. I have, of course, collected a few books that were super helpful to me as a beginner, but my research now is solely online. I also spend a great deal of time practicing and learning new techniques with other photographers in my area at our shoot outs, and that has helped me to grow far more than anything I could have read.

Out of all the locations you’ve photographed, is there one that stands out as being your favorite?

Ah, another two-part question for me. Last year my family traveled to Glacier National Park in northern Montana. I was completely astounded at the beauty that was all around us, and some of my favorite landscape images to date come from that trip. It was absolutely breathtaking!

My favorite location to shoot as a portrait photographer is by far downtown anywhere. I love exploring the old downtown alleys in my town and those around me. But one of the most memorable locations was our state fair. I was lucky enough to shoot a family session in the carnival area and had so much fun with all the color, texture, and movement in that environment. We even had a few carnies photo bomb our shots, after which one of them provided a toy from his booth to the little girl I was photographing. So much fun when the session becomes an event to remember!

Is there a photo/photo shoot that stands out as being your favorite?

Oh yes! One of my new passions is to put together themed, fine art portrait sessions. These are generally done with the participation of several other local photographers, as the cost and time commitment of finding makeup artists, models, costumes, props and locations can be overwhelming. One of my absolute favorite shoots was one that I put together and had wanted to do for ages; I called it my Santa – Baby Jesus shoot. Our location was a local barn, in which we created a set to look somewhat like most of us would envision for the First Christmas. We used an old wooden bassinet, a handsome 2-week old little man with tons of dark hair (our baby Jesus) and a fun and very cooperative “Santa Claus”. I was so pleased with the images I got from this session and have successfully sold prints to families all over the country to add to their Christmas collection. I love that I can use my art to present ideas that mean a great deal to me, such as the idea that Santa Clause can and should be a part of every family’s Christmas traditions, as he is the best example of selfless service I know!

Thank you so much, Kandice, for giving us a little glimpse into your life as a photographer! Be sure to visit Kandice’s blog and Facebook page for more awesome photography and let her know we sent you!