General – KB Digital

White Halloween in the Stateline

Posted on November 7, 2019November 7, 2019 by kbdigitalpvd in General

When’s the last time you went trick-or-treating through snow? For the Rockford region and the northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin state line, that was just last week. While the snow might have spooked some trick-or-treat goers away (see what we did there) the majority of the crowd seemed to embrace this rare occasion.

Obviously, we wouldn’t have missed the chance to capture a few images of this amazing day. The scariest thing for us would have been not to go out and shoot some pictures. We grabbed our camera gear and headed out to a few local spots. Sinnissippi Park and its lagoon are always fun to shoot and we just loved the dark blue desaturated water with the white snow all around it. Even though the shot wasn’t a long exposure, the water still looks pretty still and a bit icy.

Another favorite stop of ours is Rock Cut State Park. While we enjoyed the views of the lake and the different picnic areas, we really liked how the road swiveled through the snow-covered trees. The green pines stood out in the white snow and created such a relaxing atmosphere. It just reminded us of a commercial or movie scene. (Elsa wouldn’t have been able to ‘let it go’)

Snow on Halloween in Rockford, Illinois. — Snow on Halloween at the river dam in Belvidere, Illinois.

We also made our way out to Belvidere, Illinois and stopped at the park right by the Belvidere Dam on the Kishwaukee River. It was beautiful to see how the snow just glazed the ground while the trees remained in color. The white water coming off the dam complemented the snow surrounding the river and just created a postcard look. Once again, we didn’t have our tripod with us to do a long exposure here but we were pretty happy with the hand-held shot that we were able to get that day.

None-the-less, we’re quite excited to see what kind of beauty this winter gives us. Now, we’re definitely not looking forward to the frigid cold temperatures…. but that’s a whole other topic. Depending on road conditions, we would love to get some pretty pictures of a snowy Chicago and maybe even head up north to Lake Geneva and Milwaukee. Though, we just might have to escape somewhere warm if it get’s too cold for us and our gear. 🙂

Colorful trees at Rock Cut State Park in Rockford, Illinois.

Autumn at Rock Cut State Park

Posted on November 5, 2019November 5, 2019 by kbdigitalpvd in General

It has been a colorful season here in the stateline area. While our fall season has been quite a short one, we did manage to get a few shots of all the beauty that mother nature has to offer.

Fall in Rockford, Illinois by KB Digital — Red, green and blue colors at Rock Cut. (KB Digital)

Living in northern Illinois has its perks when it comes to nature and photography. While we usually complain about the weather (mostly the cold) we do get blessed with some beautiful views. KB Digital has spent a lot of time wandering around our local parks and forest preserves during this summer-to-winter transition and we were lucky enough to capture some amazing images. While we’re not fully ready to brace the upcoming winter season, we’re definitely making the most of the current situation.

We set out on a Sunday to get some fall pictures and we weren’t disappointed. Our first stop was Rock Cut State Park in northern Illinois, just a few miles south of the Wisconsin border. Driving through the woods we had a good feeling about the shots we were about to get. We arrived about 30 minutes before the sun set and started walking around the park. Immediately, beautiful fall colors starting to grab our attention and the camera was brought up.

One of our favorite shots is the gradient-colored trees right above, where the three trees go from red to orange to yellow. That right there just screamed “mother-nature” to us. Our journey took us through the woods and next to the lake, and we we’re pretty happy with the results. We’ve been quite a bit busy so we haven’t posted in a while (sorry about that) but we are getting back on the horse, with our camera strapped to us. We did just have a white Halloween (it was snowing for Halloween) and we managed to get some shots of that as well so stay tuned for our next article showcasing those images.

Nature photography at Rock Cut

Posted on September 16, 2019 by kbdigitalpvd in General

What’s better than beautiful weather on a Sunday? Yesterday we spent almost four hours at Rock Cut State Park in northern Illinois just walking around and enjoying all that mother nature has to offer. Of course, our cameras go wherever we go so we were able to capture some amazing shots, some which even surprised us.

Yellow bird sits on dead, colorless flower. Photo by Miralem Botic of KB Digital.

The day started out gloomy in the morning so we figured it would be perfect for a hike, with the nice breeze keeping us cool. Well that quickly changed! By mid noon, the sun was out in full force and the humidity started to kick in. While photographers usually try to avoid the sun for portrait sessions, nature looks much better with the bright colors and high contrast that the sun provides. For this reason, we stuck to capturing just nature and the environments around us – which there was plenty of. One shot that we captured and that absolutely blew us away was a bee pollinating a plant and you can actually see the yellow pollen shoot out of the flower. We tried looking up images online and even looked through National Geographic and could not find anything like this. In photography, timing is everything!

Bee pollinating a flower. Photo by Miralem Botic of KB Digital.

One thing all these photos have in common is the color palette. Green, yellow and white seems to cover mother nature during the summer days (even though it’s September, it’s still technically summer). Before we took these pictures, we did not intend for all these pictures to fit the same color blocks but that’s just how things worked out. One very ironic fact is we are terrified of bees, but managed to get not one but two extreme close-ups of them. Once again the green and the yellow colors pop so much in these photos, we love it.

Bee sits on a bright yellow flower. Photo by Miralem Botic of KB Digital.

While there was a lot of butterflies flying around, one of them caught our attention. A pure white one, almost metallic looking, landed on the grass right in front of us. Now this might not be the most interesting photo, we still decided to share it just because it makes us happy.

All white butterfly on yellow flower. Photo by Miralem Botic of KB Digital.

This summer has been a very humid and sticky one so we haven’t been out as much as we wanted to at the beginning of the season. But then again, we’ve been quite busy with projects so we haven’t had as much free time. Fall is just around the corner and we are beyond excited to start doing fall shoots including nature and portraits.

Thank you to tagging along with us for our nature outing. We hope you enjoyed these few pictures… and feel free to contact us to book you fall portrait sessions.

The Real America

Posted on August 6, 2019 by kbdigitalpvd in General

The American flag with students of all races and backgrounds singing the national anthem.

In times, such as the ones we are living in today, it is important to realize what America really is. While we do not mean for this post to be about politics, we understand many will see it that way regardless of what is said.

Going through our archives this morning, we ran across a picture that we took over a year ago. The photo shows students of all different backgrounds singing the national anthem with the American flag in the foreground. This was an event at an elementary school in Rockford, IL, where students honored military personnel and veterans. What a coincidence that we came across this photo just days after two mass shootings took place in our nation. What does this photo have to do with mass shootings? Well, it is obvious that the El Paso shooting was targeting the Latino community, maybe even more specifically Mexicans. The shooter believed that America stands for white supremacy… connecting the dots yet? This photo is what the real America looks like, people of all races coming together to make this a better nation.

As a photography service, we work with clients of many different backgrounds for private projects. We also photograph many public events where we see the so called “melting pot” that really exists here… and we love it. Think about America without all the cultural foods that these different people bring, no it doesn’t sound fun at all. Listening to the same genre of music, it all sounds alike…. boring! We won’t even get into the history of America, that is a whole different topic that could take us forever to write out.

We just hope that this picture opens your eyes! We hope you see the beauty and true meaning of what it is to be an American! United states for the united people.

KB Digital wins photo contest!

Posted on July 29, 2019 by kbdigitalpvd in General

We are beyond excited and pleased to announce that our photo has been selected as the winner of Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Best of Rockford Region photo contest! First of all, we want to thank everyone who has voted for the photo and the RACVB board for the recognition.

We love living and working in the Rockford area and as our posts/photos show, we are always out and about and active in the community. This award means a lot to us as photography is a very passionate subject. Just like a melody to a musician, so is the photo to the photographer.

Award-winning photo of downtown Rockford, IL, by Miralem Botic of KB Digital. — Copyright: KB Digital

As far as what it took to get the shot, well that’s another story. First, we had to scout a few locations we thought would make a great photo. Then the real work began. Multiple trips were made to downtown Rockford to capture just the perfect lighting and mood. We tried being there at the crack of dawn and watched the sun set over the skyline. After we had a couple dozen photos we thought were pretty decent, then we had to narrow it down to 3 photos, and that’s always the hardest part.

We would also like to congratulate all the other awesome contestants and can’t wait what other awesome images the Rockford community keeps producing!