Playlists

I think music is one of my favorite expressions of self. It's one of those things that can take you to a different place, take emotions away, or even create emotions that you need to feel.

The type of music you listen to reflects a lot of you. I'm always really interested to see what kind of music my friends listen to. It gives me a little bit of an insight to their hearts, it's pretty cool.

I finally broke down and downloaded spotify from facebook. If you don't know this about me yet, I kick and scream into new technology. I can't help it. I'm a mule, sue me.

Now that I know the ropes it's a lot of fun to play around with and make playlists. I even showed my Dad how to do it - score! One of my favorite things to do is see what everyone else is listening to. I found one blogger who I really admire and enjoy on spotify. So naturally I checked out his playlists. From Freelance Whales to Bon Iver to Iron & Wine to Radical Free to Edward Sharpe to.... I'm pretty sure we could be best friends. I think he'd love Andrew's beard and the coffee I make and we would go out and take photos together and listen to great music and drink Gentleman Jack.

Sometimes it's neat that the interwebs bring the world from one huge existence to a pin head.

xo Shannon

You Are Ever Welcome Here

I haven't been to this space in a l-o-n-g time. I needed some time to breathe! To stretch my legs and rest my fingers and my mind from "blogging". Holy, I think the word blogging is like the word vintage. Get over it already.  Let's retire it and move on. I allowed myself to get to a point of needing to fill these pages just to fill them. The pressure to write about ...something. Who cares about something?

I don't.

I care about sharing  things that are worth sharing. Life and real things. I was partly doing that, sharing things that gave me a laugh or a smile and parts of my life. But I let it get to a point where I was like......what am I going to talk about today? And not in a good way.

Let's get back to the good.

You can come too. It should be a real good time.

In the spirit of getting back to the good, I'm going to share some photos from my work life. Something I'm really freaking excited about. Something that is part of my soul. Welcome to a glimpse from behind my lens.

Photography has been moving my spirit lately. The stories shared with us and moments in these photos are dear to me. Really. I was born to be a photographer, it's a truth that I've been learning for a long time now. A truth that scared the dickens out of me. A box! Eeek! I'm not box material; I rebel against boxes. I've never fit in one. It's scary to define yourself sometimes. But, like in so many lives, my work defines me.

And then, I realized... I'm not in a box. My photography doesn't put me in a box, it gives me freedom.  Storyteller is another really great term I like to think of when people ask me what I do.

"Oh, I tell stories." I might say. And enjoy their faces when I get to explain that I tell stories with my camera. That silly smile that spreads across their face when they realize I'm not just a photographer, but a storyteller. A storyteller who is passionate about it and wants to get to the core of what the story is and celebrate it through images.

Memories fade, the smells, tastes, feelings. Photos last for always and remind us or better, take us back to those memories. Rejuvenating them and bringing a smile to your face or a tear to your eye.

That's why I do what I do. I love it.

I'll be back here again soon. Until then, know, You are ever welcome here. 

xo Shannon

Inspiration {Double Exposures}

Lately I've been playing around with double exposures, light leaks, anything vintage I can get my hands on. I did a post on our photography blog showing a few of my more personal doubles. It's worth looking at, promise.

I've been a fan of Dan Mountford's for a while now. His work is fantastic and he's not a cop out like me, all of his work is done in camera. IN CAMERA!  Man, there is a standard if I've seen one. Check out his stuff, it's pretty great!

I wanted to try my hand at a double exposure silhouette also. I used some of my woods, I chose to keep the scenic photo in color while the silhouette was in black and white.

I really love how they turned out. It's amazing when you're creating them, you see what they will look like in your head but when the final product comes out it has an emotion all its own. I think they're haunting and I wonder how much my random photo choices really reflect the sweet lady they're overlaid on. I can't wait to create more of these!

What have you been working on lately?

xo S

Something Hanging on the Wind

I don't think you know this about me but, I love the wind. I think it's one of the most magical things in the world. It brings in life giving rain, provides a cooling breath, holds up kites, makes the trees dance, brings change, gives the clouds shape, carries run-away balloons, messes up your hair, and it carries warnings, voices, and messages. Sometimes in the afternoon when I'm alone I like to go up in our back yard and listen to it. Feel it on my skin. It's like a gorgeous reminder of life and that things are bigger than me. I don't know about you but, I get too wrapped up in what's going on in my life sometimes. The wind helps me get over myself.

So, somehow... I honestly can't remember how, I found a wind map. Click the photo to go to the site. It basically shows you the wind pattern and speeds over the US.

I had to find my mountains on the map, of course, and it was so neat to watch the swirls around us. It's a digital reminder of the protection our Blue Ridge provides. It's incredibly odd to say "digital reminder" in relation to the mountains. I sincerely hope that someone out there gets what I'm saying here about the oddity.

When was the last time you took a moment to feel the wind around you? If it's been a minute you should go try it, promise :]

 

xo S