Today marks a bittersweet day.  Years ago I bought this domain with hopes and dreams of being able to do what I love to do and lots of fear.  Although I am far from perfect and nowhere near where I hope to be, I feel like I can say I accomplished that.  Mostly through the help of this blog.  This blog was a place for me to share pictures, my passions, blog invasions, put way too personal ramblings that I just needed to get out, share my hopes and my hurts, and best of all, to share my little amazing family with you.  I plan on continuing to do all of it, now just on a different platform, with a little different look:)

and thank you.

Thank you for reading this little blog, for caring enough to ask me about Lena when you meet me in person, for loving me for who I am, for reading my ramblings.

So today is a new chapter of which I am back to the basics of hopes and dreams of the future and trying to feel the fear and do it anyways. To be able to do what I was meant for, my purpose.  I pray that this next chapter is even half as good as the last one.  And here is hoping that you’ll follow me over to it.

www.shannon-kelley.com/blog ( we have some details to do but its about 95% done and I couldn’t help but share:) )

On April 15th I’ll be here doing a super fun photo booth for Atanie’s Hope,

which is an organization that works with the orphanage I went to a couple months ago,

named after a little girl that died in the earthquake in Haiti last year.

they change lives in Haiti

come join me for an amazing cause!

Interested in tickets??

Comment below with your email address or email me directly and we’ll get you taken care of:)

I rang in the new year at a wedding.

where 200+ people celebrated life and love

watching life unfold before my eyes for my bride and groom

surrounded by their family and friends

with the big screen showing the countdown

and that darn new years eve song

and I was a goner.

my eyes watered up while I was capturing these moments

completely aware that this, this is what life is about

celebrating life and love.

and its so what I need to do more of this year.

****

so today wrapped up the Picture of the Year CONTEST!

And once again, it was a close, awesome race to the finish!

I seriously wish everyone could have won because you guys are all awesome!

buuuuutttt, drum roll please,

Jenna and Jay, nominee #9, won the contest with TONS of votes!

****

a close second was #3, Sara and Cody,

who because they were so close to winning will get a second place prize!

A GIANT CONGRATS to everyone!!

**I’ll be in touch in the next couple of days to the winners;) **

It’s that time of year! We are voting on our fave pictures!

Click on the picture you want to nominate below…to see the pictures click on the camera icon on the right or scroll on down to all the nominee posts:) Reminder: only the voting counts, not any comments!

Winner gets over $500 worth of amazing prizes, pictures, and product!

Good luck! Contest will end on January 1st at noon!

(click on the like button below or the facebook icon to share with your friends and get them to vote too!)

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED! WE’LL BE ANNOUNCING THE WINNER SOON!

my friend once told me I was earthy.

and in that moment I realized that that was the word that I had been looking for that described me best.

I used “weird” to describe me before that, but now,

I’m earthy:)

my dream life is to live in a hut overseas as a missionary, i love flip flops in an entirely unhealthy way, and have hippie tendencies on most ways of thinking.

earthy.

it wasnt until my desire to change up my homepage and the LONG process of figuring out why I like what I like and what makes me tick began that I realized that I needn’t run from it anymore.

I needed my brand, my business, to reflect who I was.

I love that my brides feel comfortable enough to text me random questions, to chat about family and life, to stay friends even after the wedding.

I want them to see me and my brand as being comfortable and enjoying the world for what it is

and hopefully capturing it beautifully.

because real life if beautiful.

***

hope you enjoy the new look around here…brand new website soon to follow:)

So, its Friday!!! We’ve had an amazing week of giving away stuff on the Freebie Week (sign up to get all the daily updates here) and we are working hard here at the studio so I thought we’d do something a little different today….just because:)

First, a disclaimer…I am not perfect or some amazingly know everything photographer but I’m a firm believer that everyone has something to give the world. So this is a way I can give back…

SOOOOO…I’m giving away 3 free 1/2 hour consultations/mentoring spots where you and I can chat all things photography, business, branding, blogging, SEO, how to anything! It’s open to anything! (Depending on your location we can do coffee, or skype, or talk on the phone…whichever is easier for you!)

To get in on this freebie leave a comment here on this post! Here are several ways to get more entries in…

1. Leave a comment here.
2. Share with your friends on facebook and come back here to leave a comment that you did.
3. Share with twitter (@alohashannon if you want to mention me) and come back here to leave me a comment with your twitter name:)

I’ll draw for the 3 winners tonight after 9pm!

a little something different that we’ve never done around here but thought it’d be fun:) Its FREEBIE WEEK! Each day from today until the 30th we’ll be handing out freebies and deals! There is a little something for everyone, even photographers, so sign up for the newsletter and we’ll be emailing you daily about the freebie of the day!

Newsletter | Facebook | Twitter