Stephanie Clark Photography

I’ll admit it, I wasn’t entirely pumped about going to the Air Supply concert last night.  Sure, I was a kid of the 80’s… it would have been nearly impossible to not have memorized every word of some of their big hits (see set list below); but, I’d had a long session earlier in the day and quite frankly would’ve loved spending the evening on the couch watching Grey’s and ER.  I’m so glad I decided to rally.  The concert was at the Paramount Arts Center.  We had a table front and center… one of the perks of living in a small city. 

It’s official, sign me up as a certified, card-carrying Air Head.  Hannah who?!? 

Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock, aka Air Supply!

Here, you can see Graham was actually singing Every Woman in the World directly to me.

As much as I bonded with Graham, Katy and I both clearly had our sights on the little hottie bass player, Jonni Lightfoot.  Afterall, we were all three born in the same decade. 

Here’s Jonni getting in on some sister love.  You know we’re the original Gilmore Girls, right?

Off to jam to Ultimate Air Supply.  Good times.

Friday was "Pretty Day" at Stephanie Clark Photography.  My day started with Stephen Salyers.  This is the fourth or fifth year I’ve photographed him for his annual Christmas concert promo.  It’s become an annual event not to be missed!  Proceeds from the silent auction go to the Billy Ray Cyrus Charities Foundation.  The concert is November 24th at the Bellefonte Country Club.  Be there with bells on! 

Oh, and for the record… the scarf belongs to him.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha!  Love you, Stephen.

Angy got a new point ‘n shoot camera.  Stephen and I became her guinea pigs.  Please disregard the fact that I’m wearing pajamas.

My second session was with Ali.  Truly, I’ve never seen such flawless offspring as the Layman children.  They’re genetic mutants, I tell you!  This is an image I took of the four kids last Summer.  Yep, after several years they decided to try for that boy.  Fourth time’s a charm. ;)  Ali’s the brunette in the middle.  She’s a senior this year.  In my next life, I want to be a Layman.

Here are two from Ali’s senior session on Friday.  I didn’t think it was possible to be prettier than Stephen, but Ali gets the prize!

Check out my new favorite prop… a turquoise vinyl couch from eBay.  Isn’t it delicious?!

Have I mentioned how much I adore my job lately?

I’ve been remiss.  I thought I had shared this ad with my blog readers before now.  I apologize.  How dare I keep this slice of Heaven from you.

Each year I place a full-page ad in Ashland’s football program.  This year, it took me two seconds to decide who to use for the ad… Matt Thomas, quarterback for the Ashland Tomcats.

At the first game, I think there were more people looking at the football program than watching the game.

Congratulations to the Tomcats for their big win over Greenup County last Friday.  Good luck this Friday!

Typepad recently introduced blogging with the iPhone. I’m trying it
out with a pic I took of Brent, Carlyle, and Annabelle today in the
plane. If this works, I’ll be pumped!

We made it home safely from our weekend at Lake Cumberland. Seconds
after this picture was taken, the girls were pulling each other’s
hair. How cute is Annabelle’s toothless grin? I could eat her up.

Props to Brent for a perfect landing. That boy’s smoooooth.

Have I mentioned how much I love my iPhone?

For the third time in two months I’ve been featured in a national magazine!  This month I have a feature story in Professional Photographer, the official magazine of Professional Photographers of America.  Special thanks to Jeff Kent, Editor at Large, for a super job of making me sound like "kind of a big deal".   You can read the entire story here.  High fives to my rockstar friend, Heather Kallhoff, for her feature story too.  I’m thrilled to be in the same magazine with you!

I’m not sure what I’m more excited about… the announcement that there will be a second season of Rock of Love or this feature!  It’s been a good week. 

So there’s this little "You’ve been tagged!" game going around the blogging community.  When you get tagged, you’re supposed to blog about 8 things that people may not know about you.  Then you’re supposed to tag 8 other people.  So far, I’ve been tagged by three of my super cool photography friends.  Check out their sites:  Kimberly Hill, Carletta Watkins, and Kevin Jairaj.  Those of you who know me well, know that I’m not tagging anybody.  Chain letters always end with me.  Sorry.

So, here are 8 things you may not know about me:

1. Both my parents are educators.  My Dad was the assistant superintindent for the Ashland school system.  He’s now Ashland’s Mayor.  Might I add, he was recently voted the "Sexiest Mayor in the Tri-State" on Magic 97.9.  My Mom didn’t go to college until my sister and I were in school.  She became a school teacher, and then a principal.  She now has her doctorate and is an administrator with the Ashland school system.  My parents make me very proud!
2. My sister and I are two years apart and are mistaken for twins all the time.  My parents can’t tell us apart on the phone.  She got the good genes.  I got the tragic nose and knock knees.
3. The first boy I ever kissed was Kevin Richardson, a Backstreet Boy.  His parents were the caretakers at The Cathedral Domain, the Episcopal church camp I attended.  He was my summer boyfriend from 1985-1989.
4. I love to sew.  I hand smocked Carlyle’s first Easter dress.  I had it framed in a shadow box.
5. I have a freaky keen sense of smell and can identify the notes in all fragrances (have you seen my nose?).  I have over two hundred bottles in my perfume collection.  Heaven on earth for me is a little perfumery in Greenwich Village, Aedes de Venustas.
6. I’m a bleeding heart liberal.  I came out of the womb this way.  I’m sure of it.
7. I was the only child in my kindergarten class that didn’t know how to skip.  My gym teacher called my parents and asked them to work with me.  I’m still the most uncoordinated person I know.  I’m not convinced of the benefit of learning to skip.
8. I have mad crushes on Dave Navarro, Travis Tritt, Eminem, Gary Sinise, and Kat Von D.  No pigeonholing me.

Each month, Professional Photographer, the official magazine of Professional Photographers of America, has a section called What I Think.  I’m featured in this month’s article!  How cool is that?  I think it’s super cool!

I’m a huge advocate of the PPA.  My business wouldn’t be where it is today without it!  So if you’re a photographer and haven’t joined yet… what are you waiting for?  Get your rear in gear!

I had no idea which image they’d be using for this article.  I sent them a plethora to choose from.  They dug Living the Dream with Arliss Beach.  Me too!

Yay!!!  Ashland’s very own, Arliss Beach, just signed with the Dallas Cowboys!  Last year he was on the injured reserve list for the Green Bay Packers.  He’s all better now and settling into his new home-away-from-home in the Lonestar state.

Thanks in large part to this image (Living the Dream), I was awarded Kentucky Photographer of the Year at the KPPA convention in January.  He truly is living the dream.

Congratulations Arliss!  We’re so proud of you!!!  Don’t forget to come see me when you come home.  I want to see how the dreadlocks are coming along.  I sense a new session coming up. 

Hey friends! I hope you’ve all had a fun and safe 4th! I’ve had a great day hanging with my family. Ashland has a festival every summer than spans the 4th, called Summer Motion. We’re here right now and I’m posting from my brand spankin’ new iPhone (my obsession with it deserves its own post; but that’ll have to wait for another day).

We just watched the spectacular fireworks and are getting ready for Diamond Rio to take the stage. My Dad is the Mayor of Ashland and just said a few words to the crowd. So far, I’ve taken 101 pictures with my new iPhone. Did I mention I got an iPhone?

Pics of the festivities coming later… Diamond Rio’s up!

Brent took this picture of me taking pictures of the fireworks (with his iPhone).  Not too shabby composition, huh?  He’s learning. 

Here in these parts, forget Himalayan cats or Golden Retrievers.  We much prefer our pets to be predisposed to rabies.  We like to live on the wild side.  OK, I’m sort of kidding.  In my house, we have Lily (a 14-year-old Maltese who’s on her last leg) and Dolce & Gabbana (Mommy/Daughter stray cats that showed up on my back porch last Fall… they’re no fools, huh?).  Oh, and we also go through our fair share of frogs, fish, turtles, hermit crabs, sea monkeys, etc.

<soap box> When I was growing up, we valued everything living.  We never killed bugs.  We’d scoop them up in a cup and take them outside.  My Dad didn’t hunt.  We learned that a mammal’s central nervous system is as developed as ours… they feel pain the same way we do.  We grew up loving animals and valuing their lives.  Brent grew up in a hunting family.  When we started dating, he stopped hunting. </soap box>

A friend of ours found three baby raccoons living under the hood of his car.  Our good friends, Mark and Carra, adopted one of the babies.  Mark brought it over to my Dad’s house the other night.  It’s the cutest thing ever!  We all took turns holding it.  What’s even more amusing than having a raccoon as a pet… Carra had a pet opossum when she was growing up for many years!  It lived in the house and wasn’t caged.  It roamed around just like a cat or dog would.  They’ve had many wild animals as pets.  We’re convinced her Dad is Dr. Doolittle… or Jed Clampett.

This is my Dad and Annabelle with the little critter.  He’s in hog heaven with this thing!  What you don’t see in this picture is the menagerie of animals my Dad and Step-Mom have (including, but not limited to, two parrots, three dogs, and a cat).

I’ve got lots of new session images to share.  There’s just not enough time in the day (or bandwith) to share it all.  Stay tuned.  For now… I’m off to the lake with the kiddos!