Monthly Archives: February 2009

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Take a hike Jack Frost…

February 28, 2009 – 5:11 pm

So tomorrow is March 1st…only one more month right??

This winter has been very long for me…for us. Way too much sickness, too much ho-hum, too much dull-drum. Why does that pesky little ground hog always have to see his shadow anyways? I swear, every year, I want to ring his furry little neck. Silly ol’ holiday anyway…

The winter has always been hard for me. I don’t really mind the cold per se, because anyone who knows me, knows that I am always a sweaty mess in the summer. It is more of the lack of color, the lack of light and the hibernation of the season that robs my soul of anything creative. It is typically a season where I do back-end work…mudane things that re-vamp my business annually, cleaning out all of the nooks and crannies of our house and bringing order to everything before the explosion of the rejuvinating weather. In other words, boring to the core. I am much more the type to prefer the pretty, creative end…and not so much the fan of filing taxes, backing up files and updating software.

Tomorrow is March 1st. I am banking on only one more month of this dreariness. Ol’ man winter is not allowed to take one step past March 31st…or else. I am ready for green grass, budding trees, sprouting blooms, warm sun on my shoulders, trading in winter coats for jean jackets, softball season, playdates at the parks, riding with my windows down, teaching my girls to ride their bike without the training wheels (it is time…Erin is long overdue!) and lots and lots of spring photo sessions with my wonderful clients!

Take a hike Jack Frost…let the sunshine in!

By Shelley | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Sky…Formally known as Jonathan Robbins

February 25, 2009 – 5:15 pm


So with the birth of this blog…

 

I decided that I need to much deservedly, tip my hat to my dear Sky, or for those of you who don’t know, my other half. Because you see, without him, Storyteller Photo would not exist. Plain and simple. Though this wasn’t always the case, he has become my sugar daddy of sorts. He has finally nestled into a career that substantiates a nice living for all of us….affording me the giant luxury, of basically letting me do what I want to do. I am no longer enslaved to the full-time work world. I dread the day, if it ever happens, of going back to that. It is just so not me…I am more of a dabbler…always have been…having many little jobs instead of just one big one.

 

Anyway, back to the hubby…the reason for this post. Sky wasn’t always known as Sky. His parents named him quite a beautiful name, Jonathan McGuire, at birth and I think are in much dismay that most people at this point in his life, refer to him as his nickname and not his birth name. He was deemed “Sky” at West Chester while playing intermural basketball (he never had the grades or the discipline to make it on the school team). He rallied on the courts, all 6 foot, 5 inch, 220 pounds or so (well, I guess he was much thinner in those days) with shorter, stalkier guys. They began calling him Kenny Skywalker because of his ability to dunk the rims? (What do I know…I am SOO not an athlete). It then got shortened to Sky and stuck ever since. Only time I have ever called him Jonathan was during our wedding vowels which I had to choke out…he will always be Sky to me.
So when I met him, he was oppressive in awkward size to say the least. All limbs. I almost had to convince myself to be attracted to him. I always pictured myself being with more of a dark-haired linebacker, not a gangly basketball player. And not to mention, he had RED hair…I mean come on, a guy with red hair?? Now, girls with red hair, that is a different story. All I could think of was Ronald McDonald…
I met him when I was only 18 years old…a baby. I had other boyfriends before him, but really, how serious can boyfriends be before the age of 18? I knew very early on in our relationship, that we would get married. I am not sure how, but I did. I of course, not wanting to scare him off, did not tell him that. We have been together nearly half of my life now. I really can not imagine life without him, because he has filled it in so many ways over the years. We are so much a part of each other that it would be hard to discern a life without us as a couple. 
I would reason to say, that we are not a romantic couple at all. In fact, I am oddly not a romantic girl at all. I think greeting cards are a total waste of money (what girl says that???). We often email each other, rather than calling to hear each other’s voice. We have even been known to IM each other from different parts of the house. We generally do not exchange Valentine’s Day gifts…I would rather do something like have a room in the house painted than to do the whole dinner and flowers in the city deal. He can often be found watching sports on one TV and I am in another room completely watching some TLC show. See how pathetically unromantic we are? It works for us though…just who we are.
He is ying and I am yang. He can whiz through an excel spreadsheet quicker than it takes me just to open the excel icon. When we bought our house, I sat at the buyer’s table with completely deaf ears while he just pointed to where I needed to sign. I dreamed of paint colors in my head, mentally organizing exactly how I wanted the house decor to transform…all the while he gave me creative freedom and just sat back. He is very patient…me, not so much. All 206 bones in my body ooze creativity…he doesn’t have one. When I have managed to fender-bend our cars on more than one occasion, he calmy proclaims “It was an accident” while I loudly resonate and obsess. You can’t get me at times to shut my mouth and you often can’t get him to open his. I get us lost even with a map and he can figure his way out of a geographical maze without blinking. He is an athlete, I am what you would call “athletically-challenged”. I can read a book in a day…I have yet to see him finish a book…EVER. He is obsessed with showers, I don’t mind staying in my pajamas until it is time to go to bed again. I come from divorce and dysfunction…he is the by-product of a parental marriage that I can only hope to emulate. I am book smart, he is street smart. I like am people-pleaser, he couldn’t care less what people think.
Amongst all our polar opposites, there is alot of common ground. We are very different but we are very much the same too. This perfectly blended combination makes us who we are and it works. Besides God, Sky is the single best thing that has ever happened to me. Even more so than our girls. Because without him, they wouldn’t be.
He is my gentle giant…and I love every inch of him. All 77 of them.
By Shelley | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)

Start where you are…

February 23, 2009 – 1:11 am

Start where you are…so hard to do, isn’t it? I received these words from a dear cousin of mine, who didn’t realize what words of wisdom that she was giving me at the time.

You see, like her, I often won’t do things in my life unless I can do them completely perfect…which often leads to them not getting done at all…because who the heck has time for perfection anyway? Case in point, this blog. I started up my blog way back in late September of ‘08 and here it is late February and I am just now mustering the courage to actually maintain it now. And to warn you…it most definitely won’t be perfect.

For anyone that knows me, I think that they would say that I am a fairly confident person…one that has navigated through life pretty successfully. I have dabbled in alot of things in my life. I have a lot of fancy degrees. I am a good mom (most days) to two beautiful little darlin’s. I have the typical American dream. But what may seem to some that I have it all together, is sometimes just an illusion. Don’t we all do this? Trick everyone into thinking we know what we are doing at all times? Radiating confidence when inside, a little voice of self doubt is begging to be heard. 

I am fairly new to this photography gig. Only have two years under my belt. I am learning new things everyday which in some ways, thrills me. In other ways, it terrifies me. I kind of fell into this business. I was teaching college-level nursing at the time and was absolutely miserable. Not that I didn’t like my students or the people that I worked with, but I just felt in every cell of my body that I was not spending my life doing what God created me to be doing. I was essentially living a lie. I was a really good nurse and at the top of my game skill-wise. I could handle difficult situations. Being really good at something really feeds an ego, but not so much the soul.

So I started taking pictures for my friends…freebie deals for Christmas cards in late 2007. Word of mouth was my best friend and my little business exploded out of the starting gate. All of a sudden, I was launched into an unknown world that was completely foreign to me. It was exhilerating and completely scary at the same time. And it continues to be that same ball of wax of ying and yang. I went from a field that is very skill oriented and objective to one that is highly creative and subjective. The learning curve that lie ahead of me was oppressive to say the least. But it strangely felt good to be at the bottom again. To be learning again…to be fending off staleness that had found its’ way into my bored heart. 

But with any challenge in life, comes fear and self-doubt. That little voice that resonates inside your head….are you really good enough? Do you have what it takes? Can you handle the pressure? Do you want to start over again in a new career…knowing that you don’t have a choice because the other alternative is a dying soul. Literally. I was a really good nurse, but I was bored silly. Anyone ever been like that? A prison within your own skin?

Fast-forward two years…to a business that continues to be a one-man operation, but is growing at a rate that is comfortable for me for the place that I am at right now. Self doubt continues to be my worst critic…always comparing myself to others…should I be like them? Should I take on wedding work after many inquires? Should I invest more in my business? Take on more shoots? Hire a staff of sorts that could really take this business to the next level?

What is the answer to all of these questions? I haven’t a clue. But I am figuring out that it is okay not to know. It is okay not to be big. It is okay to be self-taught. It is okay to be learning everything from business 101 to transitioning to my new Mac. It is okay to be taking baby steps when I am used to the pace of running.

It is okay just to be where I am at. Hard lesson to learn…

By Shelley | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments (0)