Kelly and Kalina are an award-winning and highly published husband and wife photography duo. Based in the Fort Myers area of Southwest Florida they specialize in Fine Art Portrait Photography and curating beautiful luxury heirloom artwork for their clients.

Kelly Schneider has lived an incredible life, which has no doubt impacted his photography journey. Born and raised in Coronado, California, he eventually moved to Oregon where he lived until he joined the US Navy in 1980. During his 29-year Navy career, Kelly traveled to an impressive 137 countries. While doing so, he developed a passion for “capturing” the world around him through photography. Kelly met Kalina in Bahrain while they both lived there and the two hit it off instantly. After getting married in the Middle East, they moved to the US and  started working together and soon took the photography world by storm.

 Photo Credit: Kelly and Kalina of KSFINEARTS

 

Since stepping into photography, Kelly has received many accolades. He was named Portrait Photographer of the Year in 2017 and 2018 by the Maryland Professional Photographers Association. He was the recipient of the 2018 FujiFilm Masterpiece Award and was named FujiFilm Wedding Photographer of the Year. In 2019, he was the Photographer of the year for the State of Maryland. In 2020, four of his boudoir images were in the TOP 20 of Portrait Masters. He also secured first place in WPPI First Half 2019 – Boudoir and Landscape categories.

Kalina has also earned countless awards including Maryland Artists of the year for 2018 and Photographer of the year for 2018. He had one of her portraits earn a Top 10 in Professional Photographers of American International Print Competition out of over 5500 submissions and was selected for a Grand Imaging Award!  Recently, Kalina started her own fine art magazine with Issue 1 just published in early January!  Kalina’s absolute mastery of the digital arts combined with her amazing gift of storytelling in her work sets her apart from others.

 

The dynamic duo gear kit

Kelly and Kalina love photographing with their Nikon Z7II and the brand new Nikon Z9. Their lighting gear consists of a Godox AD 200, Godox AD 400, multiple Godox AD600’s, and a Godox 1200. All their gear is triggered by the Raven flash trigger.

 Photo Credit: KSFINEARTS

 

Bringing stories to life in Italy

Looking through their portfolio, Kelly and Kalina have a very distinctive style. On a recent trip to Italy, they created a number of absolutely compelling portraiture images using the Raven.

The fine art portraiture below was photographed using one of their friend’s husbands who is a lawyer in Washington DC. The duo wanted to produce an old Rembrandt look, so they styled their subject with a dress and crown, and also played with his hair. The window wasn’t lit well, so they used the Raven to trigger their Godox AD 200 (which was being held on the side) to bring in a little more light. The results speak for themselves.

 

Photo Credit: KSFINEARTS

 

“What was nice was that the Raven gave me the chance to keep my eye on the vision, concept and story, instead of the technical parts,” Kelly said.  “I’m not pulling my heart or mind away from the art to deal with the technical issues. With the Raven, I can use the sleek ring dial on the front to modify my output of light so I can still see the result in my art. I guess I'm ‘dialing in my art’, if you will!”

This next image was also taken in Italy and is an outdoor boudoir, what they call intimate portraiture.

Photo Credit: KSFINEARTS

 

This image was photographed outside a villa in Siena around sunset, where the model was lit with a beautiful warm light behind her. Kelly and Kalina used a Godox AD 600 triggered by the Raven flash trigger shot with their Nikon Z7II. 

“I love the ability to get set and go” Kelly says. “Once you learn to navigate the Raven, adding all three lights to one zone and increasing or decreasing the light intensity together (versus individually) is a big time saver for me. The Raven let’s me focus on the subject and art and not the gear.

 

Florida School of Professional Photography 

As instructors at the Florida School of Professional Photography, Kelly and Kalina photographed the below image as part of their workshop class. Kelly says that for images like these, the lighting is much more important than the landscape, because you need to aim your light and its output, position the props according to the light, consider the colors and the background light, and see how all of these things come together. Teaching this in a workshop is what really forces their students to learn how the flow of light influences images.

 

Photo Credit: KSFINEARTS

 

For this image, Kelly and Kalina used two strobes: one behind the subject aiming to the background and the other one to light his face and hands. “The Raven was firing two strobes here to produce this image in such an intricately balanced way. If you look at the shadows, all the details remain in the image, but your eyes go right to the face. It was only the Raven that was able to give us the finesse in the output of light to capture it like this.”

Another image photographed at the Florida School of Professional Photography is the fine art image below. Here Kelly and Kalina used two Godox lights: one being the 1’x 6’ strip softbox to bring the light onto the subject, and the other light being a box light to light up the background. This creates yet another beautiful balance of light and storytelling.

 

Photo Credit: KSFINEARTS

 

Of all the art they create, Kalina loves photographing fantasy-like images the most. The following image was captured in the woods. Kalina used her Nikon Z7 with just a one light setup of Godox AD 600 placed at the camera left, triggered by the Raven.

Photo Credit: KSFINEARTS

 

Alice in Wonderland

Of course, we couldn’t finish without drawing attention to Kelly and Kalina’s mesmerizing fine art photoshoot titled ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Kelly used the Raven flash control trigger to depict the famous Tea Party scene and we’re sure you’ll agree, the outcome is exquisite. He used a Nikon Z7 II with a Nikkor 85mm F/1.4 lens, while using the Raven to trigger a GODOX 1200ws strobe with a 24" beauty dish.

 

Photo Credit: KSFINEARTS

 

“I like to be able to have the Raven fire an image from the strangest positions! The signal may be blocked by a wall or other obstacle, but unlike other products, the Raven has always been able to get through.”

 

Photo Credit: KSFINEARTS

 

Both Kelly and Kalina believe that to make images which truly speak to the viewer, it is important to use equipment that helps the process. They urge photographers not to let the technical aspects take away from the art they are trying to create. 

 

Photo Credit: KS Fine Art

 

Kelly and Kalina are educated and proven educators. Teaching over 45 events already both in the USA and Europe, their passion is not only capturing beauty, but also in educating others in doing the same.  In 2022, Kelly and Kalina will be teaching in Palm Beach Fl, Tampa, Fl, and at Texas School of Professional Photography (Texas), Mid-Atlantic School of Professional Photography (Delaware), Hosting their week long Fine Art Portraiture event in Tuscany, Italy in May, Magical Ireland adventure for a week in June, and many other workshops around Florida. You can find out more about their education opportunities on their website under “For Photographers” here.



Learn more about the Raven from our Explore Raven section on the website:

RF Noise Indicator

Camera and flash compatibilities

 

Photographers: Kelly Schneider and Kalina Schneider of KSFINEARTS 

Personal portfolio: https://www.ksfinearts.com/

 

Instagram:@kellyschneider_art

Kalina Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalinaschneider_art

Facebook: Ksfinearts LLC

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