I’d like to take a quick moment to thank you for visiting our blog and also to share a few things about myself and my husband and partner, Tom. If you are here to see our portfolio, please visit our main site, where you can see our complete portfolio. This blog is maintained as a fun way to keep in touch with current and past clients, as well as family and friends, so the main site is where you want to look if you aren’t familiar with our work.
A bit about us:
I’m Shellie and my husband is Tom. We met in the spring of 1993, in a college class, and quickly became best friends. We recently celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and have four children we adore; ages 3, 5, 11 and 15. We spent the first 11 years of our marriage in the Sacramento-area and eventually moved to Arizona in 2005.
About our photography:
We are often asked what cameras, lenses, computers and software we use. We own several Canon camera bodies and our favorite lenses are the 24-70 f/2.8L, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS and 50mm f/1.4. We are well-versed in natural light, strobe lighting and off-camera flash. We also shoot in Canon’s RAW format, which means that no in-camera processing is applied to our photographs; we do this manually in post-processing, which means every image you see must be processed by me–even proofs and previews. We are also members of PPA, WPPI and NAPP – organizations for photographers and digital artists.
The studio:
We have a fully-equipped, clean and air-conditioned dedicated home studio–it is important to us to provide our clients with a clean, safe and comfortable location that can be used year-round.
Twenty-Five Random Facts About Us
1. Our favorite guilty pleasure is Waffle House.
2. We met during our sophomore year of college when we were assigned to the same study group in our Intro. to Logic class.
3. in 2001, I briefly ran a home business making tie dye and selling it online. It was super-successful until issues with carpal tunnel syndrome ended my brief tie dye career.
4. Tom has an older brother and younger sister and I have three older half-sisters.
5. I learned photography on a Pentax K-1000 camera and shot, developed and printed black & white film.
6. I used to really be into sewing and machine embroidery and had a sewing workshop for years, complete with several machines as well as hundreds of spools of thread and hundreds of yards of fabric.
7. Then I realized that sewing often frustrated me, so I down-sized. I still enjoy sewing when I’m in the mood.
8. We avoid high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fat, preservatives, MSG, artificial colors, flavors and other yucky stuff. This came about as a way of trying to better manage our daughter’s illness.
9. I have dark green eyes and Tom has brown. Two of our children have bright blue eyes, one has pale blue-green eyes and one has brown eyes.
10. Our youngest daughter is a stroke survivor (at age 2) and has Ulcerative Colitis (or Crohn’s Colitis…the jury is still somewhat out since she’s so young).
11. Our oldest daughter has blue hair right now.
12. We’re cool with it. It’s just hair.
13. I attended H&R Block’s Tax Preparation courses in 2001, completed the program in the top of my class and was offered a job for the 2001 tax season. I worked part-time that season.
14. I keep an organic garden. And I love to cook and bake organic, natural food.
15. I love to purge and de-clutter (or more accurately, I love the feeling I get after it’s finished!).
16. Living a simpler, less-complicated life is something that makes me happy.
17. Tom and I are both quite allergic to most living creatures with fur.
18. It hasn’t stopped us from having dogs, cats, birds and rodents over the years.
19. We currently have a dog and a hamster.
20. Tom claims not to think they’re cute, but I can tell he does!
21. We’re both Disney fans and our favorite vacation spot is Disneyland.
22. I am incredibly clumsy and I’m terrible with names, so if I trip and/or drop something and call you the wrong name, please don’t get offended.
23. I love American Girl dolls.
24. I have naturally wavy hair.
25. We secretly eloped when we got married and were married by the same judge Tom appeared before to fight a speeding ticket.