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Today is the “babies” birthday! She turns 3 and she is still such a mama’s girl!
and a photo of her last week!
some things never change ;o)
“11. Visit Europe for leisure.” “16. Go on a cruise.”
I killed two birds with one stone! This was by far the best vacation I’ve ever taken. Italy, Venice specifically, was definitely one of my top “I want to go there!” places, but I never planned to go there anytime soon. It’s impossible for me to ever plan to do anything, for all I know I could wake up a millionaire tomorrow morning, thats how things seem to happen. I think I’m doing one thing another day and the next I’m doing something else, something better!
Enjoy our video documenting all the beautiful places we got to go!
Italy, Greece, Croatia Trip Video from Shelby Martin on Vimeo.
I know this is suppose to be a painful yawn fest to have to see other peoples vacations photos and now with things like Facebook we are sometimes forced to without even being asked. So unless you’re already friends with me on facebook and saw my vacation video, I will be posting it here tomorrow! I tried to make it as painless to watch as possible.
What happened to the 25 votes I got for interest in a beginner learning workshop on my latest poll? I’ve only gotten a couple of emails about a potential workshop since yesterday for Aug 1 and I need more takers in order to make it happen. So if you’re really interested this. is. it. :o)
Lastly, I havent had a Marathon Portrait session in a while and I’ll probably be setting something up next month. Just in time for the holidays! I know you think I’m crazy, but trust me.
Tomorrow I’m on my way to my Italian/Grecian vacation. I will be gone until July 5th, I will not be checking email or calls until then, but please still send (and if my the grace of god I can get some wifi I will try to return some). Brian and I start our adventure in Venice, Italy and from there take a cruise around such spots as Mykonos, Santorini and Athens Greece as well as one stop in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Enjoy my photoshop skills as this is what I’ll be doing come Friday!
Marathon Boudoir Sessions are tentatively set for July 31st/ Aug 1st (or around those dates), I will send out an email blast, put up a blog post and open up registration soon after I return. I will also try to have something in the works for the beginner workshop I was talking about. So stay tuned!
I’ll have a wedding to blog about on Monday, but for now, if anyone has received a kicked back email can you please forward the error email you receive to shelbyleighphoto@gmail.com so I can resolve the issue! I would really appreciate it! Enjoy the weekend!!
I have a new mailing address, so if you are sending in any contracts, payments, etc. please send them to the new address below! The Edgewater address will no longer be active! Thank you!
Shelby Leigh Photography
PO Box 764
Silver Spring, MD 20901
First, since you voted for July 31st as the next Marathon Boudoir, it shall be! I will open registration up and announce details for it in a few weeks, if you’d like to be put on my mailing list for the boudoir sessions if youre not all ready, just email me at shelby@shelbyleigh.com or just keep an eye on the blog for the announcements!
And I’m pleasently surpised at those of you interested in learning. I’ve always thought about teaching photography, so I’m going to set up a little class/workshop geared towards moms with SLR’s and beginner-moderate skill level photographers this summer.
Now I want to answer some of the questions I got!
I use a D700, D200 and D90 and I have a variety of lenses. I made a big mistake when I first started getting into photography and bought lenses based on their focal length and paid no attention to their aperture range, thus I was stuck with some “slow” lenses, and was wondering why I wasnt getting those sharp, bright images with that nice depth of field. My favorite lens is my 50mm 1.4, I love this lens because it can be used in almost any situation and shooting wide open at 1.4 creates gorgeous creamy bokeh. I also love this lens because its inexpensive for what you get! And you can buy the 1.8 version for even cheaper… next to nothing if you get can snatch it used. One of my favorite tricks to use with my 50mm is making it into my makeshift macro! I posted about this trick a couple years ago on my blog, and if you want to know how to make your 50 (or I think most lenses will do this too) click here!
3. “I got one! do you have any bridezilla stories?????” - Greg
Nope. But if I did, do you think I would be posting it here for all to see.
5. “How did you get started in boudoir photography?? I think its so awesome!!! Are there any boudoir tricks?” - Lisa Young
I’ve been shooting boudoir since I started photography 5 years ago. It was something my mom told me about and I ran with. At first, I thought she was silly (and I thought the name was so cheesy), but it is so much fun! I dont have any tricks but I do like to make sure the whole experience is relaxed and fun. I pretty much have to make sure I’m this girls best friend by the time shes in front of my camera or awkward will be written all of her face in the pictures! Thankfully I find that all my clients are not hard to warm up to.
Thanks for the questions yall! They were fun to answer!
As you may know, I created my 101 in 1001 list in 2007. Naturally I was over ambitious in creating my list, but pretty confident I’d get most/all of it done in 3 years time, hence the last task where it says “101. Donate $100 to charity for every task not completed (going big, more reason to complete them all!)”.
My deadline is this October and I’m not as confident as I once was in getting it ALL done, but I’m still excited about crossing some of these tasks off my list! I’ve went through and updated the list a bit, crossing off things I’ve done, that I didnt even realize I already did! Or italicizing the tasks that are in progress right now!
Here’s an overview of what I’ve done recently
“78. Fire a gun.”
This was a big one and I love completing this task!
“67. Reduce my worldly possessions by 101 things.”
When we moved in October, we went well beyond 101 things! I took carloads of things to goodwill and you should of seen the trash pile the day I pulled away from my old house. There’s a picture around here somewhere…
“66. Adopt a pet.”
When me and Brian started living together, I inherited a scaredy cat named Baker. You may remember seeing him being tortured out in the snow in our Christmas video. Although, hopefully we’ll be adopting a family dog in the near future!
Now, some of the things that are in progress…
“53. Get into shape (i.e. when my love handles don’t hang over my jeans) :)”
I’ve been struggling with this one since I started the list! We joined a gym recently and I’m hoping to get this one scratched off soon. I just need to actually make it to the gym!
“16. Go on a cruise. & 11. Visit Europe for leisure.”
Thanks to a really sweet home buyers tax credit, this is now a very real possibility for us! We are looking at mediterranean cruises that leave this summer!
“84. Take at least one photo of all my relatives in Montana. & 85. Take at least one photo of all my relatives in Maryland.”
I’ve been compiling photographs of my family, but I’m not done with it yet. This one is really important to me, as we have 5 generations alive! I was really sad that my great grandmother passed last year before I had a chance to go back out to Montana and finish photographing my relatives.
I have a lot to get done, and I know realistically I might not, but I’m fine with that. I plan on making a new list when this ones done! Do any of you readers have an suggestions to help me finish any of my unfinished tasks?
I heard about this cause from a friend and wanted to blog about it in hopes to get more donations their way and to get others to blog about it! Whenever I have extra time, money or goods, I try my best to donate it towards something worthy. Even if you can’t donate, spreading the word is important, so post this on your blog! I just copied this text, and to make it easy, feel free to do the same!
“Lauren was abused by her nanny as a child from the age of 10 to 16 and is now an activist for child sexual rights. The abuse went on 24/7/365 without stopping and she was afraid to tell anyone because the Nanny threatened to harm her and her family. She founded the non-profit “Lauren’s Kids” in 2007 and since then has been instrumental in getting important legislation against sex offenders passed, has written a children’s book, has developed a school curriculum teaching kids that its always “Ok to tell” and her biggest and boldest effort to date is this 500 mile healing journey.
She began April 2nd, 2010 at the house where Lauren was abused and we are walking all the way to our state capital in Tallahassee, FL. Lauren walks 30 miles a day in the florida heat non-stop, if you were to drive it would take you about 9 hours, but she is going a very specific non-direct route all thru Florida stopping at sexual abuse treatment facilities and other noteworthy events down the road.”
Lauren’s Kids Website
Donate Here
