Sarah and Eric

Sarah and Eric

I promised Sarah a while ago that I would take photos of her and Eric. When she said that he agreed to a photoshoot, I didn’t realise that he was blindly going along with it and and thought that one of her friends was bringing a point & shoot camera and taking a couple of pictures… Did I mention he hates having his picture taken? And that he had no idea what was actually going on until I showed up their doorstep with all of the equipment I own? Yes, well. In between every picture (and during most of them) was “Oh look! There’s my car… maybe I can escape,” or “I hate you, Sarah,” and, eventually, the look of terror disappeared. Despite all that we had a lot of fun (at least, Sarah & I did) and I am really happy with how these ones turned out, even though it might have been one of the fastest photoshoots I’ve ever done. Seriously, how gorgeous do they look together?

See the rest here.

Family Portraits

I was  taking some self-portraits for my new rates sheet- stay tuned for that!-  with varying degrees of success. (I’m really not a camera timer person. I’m supposed to be the one behind the camera, not in front of it!)

I did end up getting one that I really like:

Self-Portrait

And then Andy snuck over, still in lab coat and safety glasses, and I had to take pictures of him instead:

My Husband

 

And then we decided that it was time for a family portrait.

The Happy Couple

Um. I didn’t say that it was a serious family portrait.  I’m tempted to put this in our Christmas cards, though. You have to understand- when we hired our wedding photographer, we told him that if he tried to pose us seriously for any length of time, we would end up sticking our tongues out and making faces. Apparently it doesn’t even take that long, just a camera.  You understand now, though, why I don’t often attempt self-portraits. Especially not with the husband around.

My December Greeblepix Entry

Click to see it larger. Also, make sure to check out the other entries and vote here over the next few days.

Things have slowed down for a little while and I’m happy for the rest. All of my shopping is done, and now I’m just waiting for the Christmas gifts to come in the mail.  I’ve managed to mostly stay out of stores so far, and the season has been remarkably unhurried and at our own pace. About the only thing I bought at a store this year was a quick stop at Yankee Candle.  My husband and I compromised this year and put up an artificial tree, but it’s still not Christmas until the entire house smells like pine.

Sometime this week we’ll be exchanging gifts. My husband and I visit an average of four or five houses between Christmas and Christmas Eve, so we hate to be rushed; also, he’s really awful and keeping gifts from me. “…Do you want your Christmas present?” He inevitably asks several times a night.  Silly husbands.    It makes a nice tradition for us, though; and it’s hardly the traditional twelve days of feasting, but it does serve to extend the holiday a little bit longer. We’ll give it a good run while it’s here.

I hope your holiday season is enjoyable thus far and that you have the time to create your own traditions.

Black and white and red all over

The Mezmer Society

This past weekend I attended Zafira Dance’s Vaudeville Carnivale 3.  It’s really a beloved event for my friends and I- we volunteered for the first two,  and it’s such a quality show. Amazing every time. Anyhow, this time I went not as a volunteer, not as the event photographer, just as the audience- I couldn’t help snapping a few shots, though.

I’ve been really drawn to black and white lately.  That is unusual for me- vivid colours are such a strong part of my style that I’m hesitant to discard them entirely.  But I’ll admit. I’m a sucker for old grainy b&w photography, for classic movies with fedoras and birdcage veils, and for music with the scratchy sound of the records. I’m a sucker for vintage.  So sometimes, even though I love colour more than anything, I just can’t resist the pull of black and white.  And then it becomes another style entirely- one of the things that I love about the picture above (besides the Mezmer Society’s fabulousness) is the light.

So this little set is a study of lights & darks & stage lights & the beautiful cabaret. Click on the bottom image to see the rest.

Onca of the Mezmer Society

 

I’m excited! So much so that I’m not going to bother writing an introduction. May I proudly present: Shell Bailey Photography! Hooray! Now you can see my galleries & buy prints & keep up with my new work all in the same place! I will continue to post here, but that site has RSS feeds for my recently updated & the whatnot if you’d like to get the scoop on things first.

With the new website finally comes Gettysburg pictures. I mentioned how much fun I had, right? And how lovely it was?

My good friend Stephanie, bundled against the wind.

Click on the photo below to see the rest of the set.

The one-shot self-portrait. Tired, bleary-eyed, wind-seared, freezing bloody cold, and having an absurdly good time. On top of Little Round Top, Gettysburg, PA. (It’s my entry in Greeblemonkey’s November contest! Make sure to check out the other great entries.)

I know, I know- some day I’ll get used to this whole blogging-with-regularity thing.  I keep thinking, “I’ll just wait til tomorrow, so I can upload X picture to go with it!” Problem being that I am in the middle of switching my image hosting and it is taking a looong time.  Uploads are already slow with the large image sizes I use. And now, with the new image host (I love it! and will have a great reveal… soon.) uploading sucks up all of the bandwith. So now I do all of my uploading overnight/on my midweek day off so that I don’t end up with a grumpy husband who can’t access the intarwebs.

Anyway, there are things to look forward to! We went on a trip to Gettysburg this weekend (easily one of my favorite places in the world) and there are lots of awesome shots from it. Seriously, I’m impressed.  The weather was at once beautiful and awful- cold, rainy, miserable, fog everywhere; tornado warnings; then horrible gusty winds and snow. It made for a soggy, frozen, but absolutely lovely weekend.

Also coming up to post very soon are photos from my first engagement shoot! I had a session with Matt & Kim last month in the beautiful fall scenery and we couldn’t be happier with the shots.

And then, the grand reveal of the new webstore! Just in time for Christmas! I can’t wait.

One of Many Hats

IMG_5538-67-1, originally uploaded by shillelagh0.

Yes, it’s one of those kinds of days.

the end of summer

With the start of a new job, life’s been too crazy to do much shooting lately. I’m hoping to get some more portrait sessions taken care once the leaves change, but I’m also not sure if those will be something that I can post right away… Lots of secret projects right now.

I’m hoping to get some new test shots in tomorrow. In the meantime, an old shot of a very dear girl, in celebration of summer’s end.

Recently one of my very best friends and dance partner was in town. Her schedule is understandably very whirlwind whenever she’s in the area, so we were both very excited when we managed to put aside some time just to hang out and take pictures. We’ve been meaning to get some promotional shots done for our bellydance troupe’s new website, and jumped at the chance.

Chelsea was probably the first person to let me shoot her all those years ago. By now, we have a long-standing tradition of invading her parent’s farmhouse, throwing all of our clothes into a big heap on the bed, agonizing over costuming and makeup decisions for at least an hour, and then running outside and shooting hundreds of pictures. Who doesn’t like to play dress-up? Plus, she’s naturally gorgeous, and at this point is quite used to me taking pictures of every move she makes, so it’s hard not to pick up the camera while she’s around.

Can you blame me?

Click on the picture for the rest of the set.

Just one for today… a quick self-portrait under the kitchen window.