Kimberly Olker

Cr., Phot., CPP

Biography

Kimberly is a Portrait and Event Photographer in Northern California who specializes in Bar/Bat Mitzvahs.

Growing up, Kimberly always had a love for art and photography but never imagined it would be her 2nd career. Her formal education and first career were in technical fields, but she was always drawn to opportunities that allow her to express her artistic side. She loves capturing life’s special moments to preserve them for a lifetime. She is passionate about connecting with her clients and providing them with exceptional images that show their unique spirit.

Kimberly is also passionate about helping others. She thrives on volunteering for various non-profit organizations and loves donating her time and her skills. She truly enjoys teaching and mentoring others, along with helping photographers earn their CPP certification in the Professional Photographers of America (PPA).

Besides being a Professional Photographer, Kimberly is a wife, mother, caregiver, martial artist, engineer, math nerd, tutor, actress, gymnast, … and wine enthusiast.

  • Master Photographer Degree in 2023
  • PPSV Wedding & Event Photographer of the Year 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022
  • Earned PPA Craftsman Degree in January 2019
  • Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) since March 2016
  • Member: Professional Photographers of America (PPA) since 2008
  • Member: Professional Photographers of Sacramento Valley (PPSV) since 2015, Vice President 2017-2018, President 2019-2020, Treasurer 2021
  • Member: Professional Photographers of California (PPC) since 2017
  • Member: Oregon Professional Photographers Association (OPPA) since 2020

What type of classes does Kimberly teach?

Some of her current program topics include:

“Event Photography Beyond Weddings”
Adding Bar/Bat Mitzvahs to your Business
In this presentation, we will go through a variety of event photography possibilities to add to your business. Kimberly will review best practices for all event photography, as well as discussing specific events and their unique challenges. She will go into additional detail about photographing Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, which is her specialty, with both elegance and respect.

“The Art of Bar/Bat Mitzvah Photography”
Weddings can be wonderful to photograph but they can also be seasonal, leaving you with dry spells in your schedule. Expanding your event photography business to include other significant life events can keep you busy all year long! With many of these events, it’s important to know more than just your camera settings, lighting & posing skills to produce the best work for you and your clients.
Kimberly will walk you through a variety of event photography possibilities to add to your business. Then she will go into significant detail for photographing a Bar/Bat Mitzvah with both elegance and respect. She will explain terminology and symbols, religious significance, the service details and the timeline for the day. She will also explain when you should NOT be photographing during the service and how a photographer can avoid accidentally showing any disrespect.
If you’re looking to expand your event photography business into this specific genre, you need this information to be a success! It takes Chutzpah to be a great Bar/Bat Mitzvah photographer – Kimberly will first explain what this means and then explain how to get there!

“Event Photography Beyond Weddings”
Embracing Technology
Kimberly will walk you through a variety of event photography opportunities to add to your business. She will discuss how she pivoted her business during the pandemic and stayed fully booked. As she added new and unexpected events to her business, she also learned about added technology/products needed for specific jobs and she will share what she learned through this progression.

“Studio on the Go”
Using portable lighting options for great on-location portraits
Kimberly uses portable lighting and modifiers so she can easily create beautiful portraits on location… without bringing a truck load of studio equipment. She will walk you through her favorite equipment and techniques used for capturing images that naturally blend ambient and off camera lighting.

“Lightroom Classic Essentials”
Editing and Workflow
Lightroom Classic is an extremely powerful and popular photo management, enhancement and publishing program that is fully integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud. In this workshop, Kimberly invites you to learn the essentials of Lightroom Classic. Discover how to get photographs from your memory card or hard drive into Lightroom Classic, organize them into collections, and learnt eh power behind adding ratings and keywords. Then, dive into the photo editing workspace, the Develop module, where Kimberly will show you how to make both simple and complex adjustments, from cropping and exposure adjustments to image transformations. Finally, Kimberly will show you how to connect to other applications from Lightroom, when needed, and the best methods for exporting images. This workshop is great for beginners with Lightroom Classic, as well as those with some basic working knowledge who want to learn more LR features.

“Multiple 1-hour programs available on:”
PPA certification (CPP)
PPA competitions (IPC) & degrees
Affiliate Leadership training
Benefits of joining a photography organization or affiliate (for schools/students)