Karen ReVelle

I am mainly a portrait and wedding photographer, capturing the best in life's unscripted moments in a candid, photojournalistic style. I also excel at event photography. My extensive past in retouching, graphic design, summers of art school, as well as extensive professional training in makeup artistry helps me to have an incredibly well-rounded and naturally-trained eye. My passion for working with people and capturing one-of-a-kind moments is where my heart lives and l love every moment of it. I love to *really* connect with all of my clients and find out what makes you unique, what makes you tick, what reflects the real you... and yes, you all become friends that I am personally invested in. Photography is about showing connections in life and that's where I excel. I invite you to look at my work and see the emotion captured, the things that really help define people and their relationships to the other special people in their lives. I'm not a "newbie" to this industry, and I didn't just pick it up because of the newly improved accessibility to affordable dSLRs. I got my first SLR at 13 and also took "old-school" photography classes in college in the early/mid 1990s, where I learned to process my own black-and-white film and use 35mm film SLRs; I learned conceptual and well as practical shooting. I became a professional photographer in 2006, starting with maternity and small weddings. I'm happiest as a "people-person", and love everything from the big picture to small details. My new website is almost finished, but until then, see some of my client portfolio work at http://karenrevellephotography.smugmug.com I was also a featured photographer recently at the RAW Artists Showcase at the Yost Theatre in Santa Ana, CA, on February 6th, 2015; I did not "buy my way in" to this event, the Director of the Orange County Chapter found ME! Link with pictures to come soon! I hope you enjoy what you see and please don't hesitate to get in touch!

Created hundreds of email blasts for our main client, Motorola, for the US as well as international regions in multiple languages for the release, announcement and software update emails for devices such as all newly-released phones, tablets (Xyboard) and fitness devices (MotoACTV). Also created registration pages for each new device as necessary, and select webpages ("Customer Care 360") & emails for the eDM division of Motorola (eventually which became the AHM/America's Home Marketing division). As digital management and being a self-starter is a great strength of mine, I also instituted a Master Digital Library, containing all of the branding elements as necessary for creating/executing email blasts as well as an extensively organized device digital library. I created a branding visual center document which was thus shared with fellow Motorola-related clients, to create a sense of unity in the look & feel/branding across different media and items produced from other sources. During my time here, I also helped create proposals to new clients as necessary and collateral items for the BrandUp team, for internal and external use.

I formed this company to provide freelance professional graphic design and production services; digital photography & hi-res retouching for print work; and, professional makeup artistry services. Eventually, I realized where my passion and strengths were best suited, and decided to create my Karen ReVelle Photography business officially in 2009 as my main vocation (while still working full-time as an art director as well).

As needed, I went to different companies as a graphic artist/production artist; including a 1-year full-time on-site position at Rauxa (direct mail firm with their main client being Verizon Wireless; I moved up over time from production artist to a team member graphic artist – see more info immediately below); I also spent extended weeks at Behr Paint HQ, and many others. In my earlier years with the company, I also was placed at pharmaceutical/medical advertising agencies, such as KPA.

Worked on a team creating and editing direct mail for Verizon Wireless (national), both English and Latino divisions, as well as occasionally editing on pieces for DirectTV. Included everything from concept/creation to execution, production art, extensive mockups, versioning out mass letters for both English and Latino divisions. I also did photography for Rauxa... you may see some of my images on their site at http://rauxa.com/ (images from another shoot were used for a presentation proposal to Verizon Wireless).

I worked here on and off for about 6 years; at times, I would work consistently on-site for months or even over a year at a time as an independent contractor. I did everything from production art to design for in-store campaigns and window display graphics to hi-res retouching of photoshoots for campaigns for use within the Wet Seal, Arden B and Zutopia divisions. I worked on collateral ranging from POP displays, oversize hanging banners, easel signs, clothing tags and rack toppers for deployment to the hundreds of retail stores on a weekly basis. I also helped develop their short-lived makeup line from concept to execution, including all production for art to be printed onto various makeup pieces (lip glosses, eyeshadows, cases, etc). In addition, I was also in charge of layout and production of the Wet Seal mail-order catalog (2 issues in all), including refining the Creative Director's vision into a consistent template, from rough layout to hi-res final placement of files, style sheets for use throughout the magazine, pull-out/self-mailing order forms and stuffers/inserts. The apparel industry is so much fun, so diverse, and my time here was a wonderful environment and I enjoyed it immensely!

In tandem with my photographer business partner at the time, we helped facilitate the image acquisition, creation and processing for the eCommerce stores for Guess.com, GuessFactory.com and Marciano.com (clothing and jewelry items). Whereas my business partner and his associates would prep and take the pictures of the clothing on mannequin, my employees and I would then process them, version out color changes as necessary (with masking and gradient mapping); I would oversee my employees' work, make minor fixes as necessary and finally, use actions I created to make multiple sizes for use on different portions of the websites along with thumbnail options. When we first started this process with Guess?, we were on a very loose schedule and organization was inconsistent. I excel at digital asset management and organization; so besides working with the Guess? team to get on a regular production schedule, I also eventually took over invoicing and billing. I often also would prep, retouch and digitally deliver clothing item requests for publishing in magazines in conjunction with press releases and promotions.

I spent about 6 months at Carlson Marketing Group as a freelance production and graphic artist, mainly helping with their big client, Hyundai. I took the graphic artists' newsletters and would streamline them into versioned-out multi-page files (back then, I used layers in Quark Xpress) for each particular car make/model, ready for print. I also helped with extensive proposal creation, production and mock-ups for the vacation packages that they created in tandem with their other division at Carlson.

I worked at many companies as necessary, mainly fulfilling a role as a production artist, but with long-term stays at national agencies such as Y&R/WCJ/impiric, and eventually moving up to graphic artist jobs as well. (see more about Y&R below)

I took a multi-course class to learn about motion graphics and interactive design, including Macromedia Director, SoundEdit16, Adobe Premiere and a 3D program to learn the use of lathing, lighting and multi-camera object creation. I passed all classes and received the certificate for the program.