The Traumatic T Party {I'M BACK!)

well hello hello! :)
I am back, I am well-reseted, rejuvenated, and excited to get back to sharing photos and thoughts with you.

I must say, it was hard to not blog for a week. Because I LOVE IT!!! :) Man alive. There are so many things in each day that are amazing, and I love recording them here.

Apparently it was hard for you guys too, because I got a few emails saying things like: are you done being overwhelmed yet shannon?? and: i hope your day is going great and that you are RESTED because I miss your blog a LOT! (from my Grandma!)

So, here I am, alive and well, and to keep with the overarching theme of art in everyday life, I will tell you about today.

My roommates and I invited our downstairs
neighbors to a T Party at our place.
TMonday at Tnine o'clock.

The boys came looking absolutely perfect.

a glimpse of our bounty,
which included T-shaped butter

our brilliant neighbors brought a tambourine, a tiger striped hat, a trombone, ties, and they even talked in T-words all night.

Jeff won the tictactoe contest and
received a tomato as his prize,

and while celebrating his big win, ellen said-- hey I wonder how Jack Buchanan {her goldfish} is doing! I hope he's not dead. We looked into the fishbowl, and... he was. He WAS.
Immediately, the T Party transitioned into a fueneral for the beloved Jack-- who had been el's pet for 4 years. The boys quickly ran downstairs to get thier instruments of mourning:

Hollie was a wailer

and Rachel helped dig a hole.the whole evening was both exciting and traumatic. i contemplated taking another week off to grieve, but I'll push through this time.

lets all let out a collective sigh.

healthy life choices: a small blogging break

i need to detox, process, breathe...
and so I'm going to do that instead of blogging this week.

i'm grateful for perceptive people.
today two people asked how i was doing within the span of 5 minutes (the, how ARE you kind of how are you.)
...and i realized I'm pretty overwhelmed.

so i know you will understand,
and i will be back in a week.

i was about to come up with some brilliant action plan for you while my blogging hiatus is happening, but let's be real: you have a life, and you have a brain, and you probably have friends, and there is a beautiful world around you to experience and explore. :)

so-- later,
shannon

an LA find: Ethiopian food.

My friend Laura is brilliant, and introduced me to Ethiopian food tonight. I'm in LA almost every week editing photos for Jules Bianchi {an amazing wedding photographer!}-- which is a great excuse to meet friends for dinner!

Laura's my coffee mentor. She knows everything about everything when it comes to coffee. Now-- when our waiter ROASTED OUR BEANS IN FRONT OF US {steaming hot pan, at our table...} I knew this coffee was going to be absolutely legitimate.

and when the brewed coffee came in this amazing pot, I was sold.

I could blog about my coffee experiences every day, because every single day my coffee choices impact my mood, my ideas, my love for life.... all that. But today of all days I'm glad I'm sharing the experience with you, because Ethiopian coffee is life changing.

Laura, amazing. You are amazing.

(our dinner was good too.)

oh, and-- sad side note. I opened my cupboard the other day and my french press fell out and shattered on the floor. That was a really really sad morning for me.

Luckily Blythe works at Peets and is going to get me a new one.


thanks for reading,
shannon i love ethiopian coffee leith

oooh! addition to the categories: Exploring LA.
Check it out.
Nova Express
Grand Central Market
thrift stores,
everything.

Kate and Chuck's Wedding at Castle Green ::: LA wedding photography

I shot Kate and Chuck's wedding 2 MONTHS ago with Kurt Hilmerson and forgot to blog about it. I love second shooting--I get freed up to chill out and shoot whatever I want which is fun. So, we were at Castle Green in Pasadena, which was essentially my dream location. Vintage flair eVERYwhere.

Their house was also amazing-- look at the little garden!
Chuck, looking sharP.Kate's dress was my dream dress.
it's perfect in so many ways.
One of them, the lace, another, its not huge.
flowers, with bathroom tile for some spice

in the bathroom looking up,and in the getting ready room were these!

here is the bridesman.

and here's Kate, looking absolutely gorgeous

you've got to make sure everythings perfect, you know?this one makes me cry, the dad with his daughter.
aww, i love my dad.
and how AMAZING does Kate look...!
glow, ing

oh man, one of my all time favorites.

small children dressed in suits, rule
--lace and light and people make the world so much better.

the ceiling,

the dancing!

can we all melt right now? so sweet.

mmm.and, saying goodbye to all the guests//

hurray hurray.
what a fun find, eh?

A new way of navigating.

If you're here to see weddings,
click * Weddings to the right.
For portraits, click, ** Portraits.

I thought I'd make it simpler,
so you dont have to sift through billions of posts.

Anything else that would make your life easier? Do let me know.

San Francisco with Blythe

After the wedding this weekend Blythe and I took a day off to hang out in San Francisco.

She explains the whole trip really REALLY well on her blog.
She's an english major.
I'm an art major.
So, I'm going to let her strengths shine and send you to her blog to read the commentary: go right here!

My explanation is simple and sweet.
We explored San Francisco!
We ran around, ate great food, and took some fun photos.

Blythe is one of the most unique, lovely people I know.
Who else could pull off a map shirt AND a map purse???
who else could be as musically savvy as the girl who goes into Aomeba and comes out 5 minutes later with a Beirut CD (ie: amazing ACCORDIAN MUSIC!)?
Two women on the bus were intrigued by her map purse and shirt and showed her every country they'd been to. It was one of the sweetest moments I've ever seen.
Meanwhile, I was being thrown around like a ping pong ball in the midst of a million bus-riders. Clearly I don't have good balance.

Talking on the phone WHILE riding the bus WHILE drinking iced coffee WHILE standing up didn't help. I fell into this guy about 10 times. He stayed cool though. He stayed cool.this reminded me of my fruit project!

these lamas were for sale:every time I go to San Francisco I love visiting Haight Ashbury. Hippie town extaordinairre. Its wonderful. Allll the organic Mediterranean food and fair-trade espresso you could ever want. Blythe and I had fun in front of this nice orange wall.

yess for the vest.

have you been to Haight?
have you been to the used bookstore there?
its PACKED, and the old woman who owns it is so funny.

BLXEY! :)

now if you didn't read all about our trip on her blog, here's your last chance. go right here!

Blx I loved hanging out with you!
thanks for being a wonderful second shooter, assistant, travel buddy, Peets-getter, organizer, navigator, etc.

:)

my email's broken

:(
sad.

if you need me, email shannon.leith@biola.edu
or if you just want to say hi.

plan? plan.

Katie and Ryan's Wedding at the Villa Chanticleer in Healdsburg

I traveled to the San Francisco area for my first wedding out of southern California. Talk about INCREDIBLE!! This trip was amazing, and to make it even better, I had my friend Blythe along to second shoot with me.

Another piece of news: I got a new camera~~, a Canon 30D--which made my life so much easier. Riley had posted an ad online and I jumped on it! My Nikon D50 didn't like to focus which was a big problem for a photographer :) So I bought it! Thankfully I had almost zero out of focus shots this time. yesssssss!

fall weddings are my cup of tea.
crisp, fresh, and they have the BEST COLORS!

i took this photo right after Katie's mom ironed the ribbons to the shoes. their family irons everything!

the pro ironer extraordinairre!
the rain made the day beautiful. the water stopped before the ceremony and left us with some awesome light!

pincurls + plate

Katie DOVE into her dress, literallywe had to wait a while to get let into the garden for some photos, but Katie was an amazing sport, despite the rain, and the cold, and the waiting.

we had fun standing there ;)Katie and Ryan decided to see each other before the ceremony, making for a stress-free day :) The first look is always a priceless moment and is amazing to watch. Look at how happy they are :) I am happy right now :)

these guys all ruled!these was one of the most fun bridal parties, ever

!!!

mmmmmm dancin.this one came straight out of the camera like this-- no filters, textures, tricks, levels, or color balances! its one of my favorites, because it reminds me of the dance ryan and katie like to do. you can see it here:! http://shannonleith.com/dancing

love

i love the movement in this one! It took me many tries to get, and i LOVE IT! a moment i caught through the window

Katie and Ryan, my Petaluma/Healdsburg experience was wonderful. Thank you for inviting me to share your wedding adventures with you! It was awesome!!

{a slideshow is in the works for later this week! check back!}