ro and iago

we don't like to leave out the pet birds at dinner time, so we like to give them a bowl of soup and let them sit on the table while we eat.

then while we're cleaning up, iago plays on ro's shouldersweeties.

its ro's birthday today!
shan

my dishes.

I am a dish collector*/////////

I love eating on eclectic platters

matching my plate with my mood

getting takeout and eating it with a
real fork on a real plate

drinking with cutely unique glasses

and having a different mug
for every cup of coffee i drink during the week

no special occasions are necessary
to be able to use the,,,, GOOD dishes
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

these rainbow little guys are some of my favorite.

they're perfect for eating a cookie fresh out of the oven
which we have here at my apartment almost nightly.
hot cookies on a real plate with a real spoon
and usually with caramel and cool whip on top.
here's our whole collection.

on a mission to make eating fun!,
shannon



*i am only a dish collector thanks to my mom, who is a gem and gives me amazing thrift-store dishes for my birthday, christmas, everything! and my friends blythe and denise have contributed to the collection. thank you thank you thank you.

just found these photos in my attic of me in 1940,

a huge thank you to the lovely blythe hill for taking them 68 years ago. what a gal, eh?

lots of cutting and pasting

i scanned everything i could find on my desk,
printed out all the images,
photocopied some of it
cut and cut and cut
arranged
& glued

try it!
do it!
scan!
photocopy!
print!
glue!

i like to get away from photos sometimes, and see what i can make with real scissors and real paper and real glue.

love to all,
enjoy today!
shannon

another drawing, this one's of my family

its kind of creepy, because i couldn't do the faces of jason, me, or carson, and then heather's face makes her look 30.

i AM proud though of how it looks like we're actually standing, not floating. and how i got the joints and bone structures down (for me, at least); ie: heather's hips, carson's low shoulders, ryans stance... etc.
i tried!
shannon

CRASHHHHHHHHHHH (a drawing from when i crashed into a car with my bike)

things keep happening to me.
i've finally had enough time to recouperate from this one to be able to post it in peace.

enjoy this little entry from my journal.




{mom and dad, be sure to read the part on the left side so that you don't think i now have ANOTHER car to fix.}

my oh my,
shannon

my family, part 1

One word I like to use to describe my photography is exploratory. I use photos as one of the ways I explore the world... especially the nuances and uniqueness of the people who are in my life.

For my photography class this semester I'm working on a series on my family, because I had a realization that I've never really used my family-members as subjects for any of my art projects. Of course I've taken photos of them at family events or outings, but I've never done a planned portrait session with anyone in my family. Why search high and low for models when you can use the people who are right in front of you (and who all happen to... look like models)?

So, this is the first post of many to come about greg, shelley, ryan, jason, carson and heather leith. it will include self portraits too, since i'm part of the bunch.

Here's my mom, Shelley

she, is, beautiful

and i love this one. this is Ryan,

adorable as always

with a little attitude,and we've decided that jason is
officially the funniest one out of all of us,

and he's also sly

and here's a self portrait.
a hold-the-camera out self portrait
i was alone in my house,

so, there they are.
4 of the 7 of us.
more to come. :)
shannon

another get together at our teal oasis

this sums up our feelings about our party.

my roommates and i had a Welcome Back Celebration, and these were the invitations >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

we also meshed it with a Valentine's theme, since it was February

Meet the new roommates!!

this is the lovely, Kerry.Rosanna, with her dear pet Iago,

and the myth, the mystery, Lauren Angel.and me, holding a jar of buttons. (the best housewarming gift ever!)

one of my favorite parts about our party was our measuring wall. anyone who comes into our apartment immediately is required to take off their shoes to be measured. a room 207 tradition.

we had cupcakes hidden everywhere so that if you needed a snack, it was available

i think my favorite part about parties is making real invitations (no facebook messages. they go against my values.) and dressing up.

donny! and me!blythe was sick, but was a dear and came anyway-

blythe, me and lindsey doing our surprised face. we've done it at every get-together for the past SEVEN YEARS!

{okay, i didn't take any pictures of our guests this time. i think i got distracted by, our guests, so please excuse the abnormal amount of pictures of only myself, and not of the rest of the world...}

here's another group photo, with our fun wall decor

el and i!

abrupt ending,
shannon

xoxo (what everyone will call their blog posts today.)

i took these at the CalArts valentine's day show,
an art exhibit at a local school. CalArts. redundancy.

so, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

to you you you and you.
shannon

my most embarrassing moment(s) –

this has happened to me three times.

Someone goes to brush a little hair off of my neck and realizes:
OH. oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S CONNECTED
then I proceed to turn bright red.
and i mean... bright. red.

i get little black chin hairs. often.

i feel lucky to have good friends like Rosanna who will 1) tell me when i have them, and 2) pluck them for me.

Does anyone else have this problem?

my solution is as follows.
I'm going to start keeping tweezers in three places. my purse, my car and my bathroom. i hate when i'm out and i find one... and then i have to try and yank it out with my fingernails, like i did this afternoon in my car right before class.

it would be highly encouraging if you could share an embarrassing moment with us all via the comments... so we can relax and breathe a sigh of relief that we're not alone.


whew,
shannon

my athletic sister

my little sister, the youngest of the 5 kids in my family, is the only one of us who plays a sport. the rest of us sit indoors when it's sunny, making music and art. but Heather? she plays water polo.

this past Friday was her last game, so I went to cheer her on

i'm one of the most uncompetitive people alive. team sports dont really get me riled up. when they lost 10-2, i was okay with it, because DANG did they ever try.

...and my sister was still bright and spunky as ever,

i hope today was shining for you,
shannon

donny and bo

my boyfriend and his cat Bo have a special connection that is really unfathomable to me since i am allergic to cats and sneeze when i get within ten feet of them.

they have breakfast together every morning, which i think is absolutely preciousand look! this special piece of yarn magically did this,

ohh cats.
- shannon

ashley and joa's We're In Love! session

Ashley and Joa are the first to hire me without being engaged.

They wanted photos just for fun,
because they're in love.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

which i, of course, thought was amazing and wonderful and i was totally up for it.

So to all of you who have commented and emailed that you can't wait to get engaged so you can get some rad photographs, let this free you up: you can have photos of your life as it is right now!

To add excitement to our day, it rained on us! Rain is always a photo enhancer. In my mind, it's never a reason to cancel a session. Rain adds texture and drama and beauty. AND-- Ashley and Joa are both from Chicago, so it gave them a taste of home. It was perfect.

Now onto what you're really here to see,

ta-da!

We went to downtown Fullerton and hung out under a lot of awnings. I was more than glad that Ashley completely rocked a dress AND boots in the rain. This, my friends, is my kind of girl.

Joa lives in Chicago, and Ashley is finishing up school here at Biola. Another reason for the photos was to help ease the long-distanceness....iiiiiiiii like this one.

Ashley and I got pretty cold, so we came back to Tropicana to warm up a bit and then did a few more in my all-teal wonderland---------

i think we had more fun in the alleyway of Trop than anything else!

i think i've had a vision to do a photo session here from day one of moving in.

////////////////////////// we took a few of these too

hurray hurray hurray

to the interested public,

if you want a We're In LOVE! session, they're $350 and include a $50 print credit and the CD of your edited photos. email me to book a time-- my Saturdays are filling up fast though! shannon@shannonleith.com.


Ashley and Joa, my courageous friends,
our time in the rain was lovely.
thanks for embracing it. :)

love to all during the month of love,
shannon leith

so many paper cubes

shoot. i'm realizing that this photo doesnt really show the hours upon hours of work that this sculpture took. I made 35 paper cubes for my 3D design class.

it took me days.

my worst moment was when my x-acto knife broke in half. actually, it was some off-brand. that's why it broke. sometimes i despise off-brands. they never seem to work out. for instance: off-brand waffles? sick.

it was actually really cleansing for me to cut lots and lots and lots of paper and fold millions of edges and tabs and precariously hot-glue the miniature tabs to each other, and hate my life when I was trying to put the last tab in.

and then making the sculpture itself. that was intense. i had visions of creating an alien or something, but then realized that i would need hundreds.

so i stuck with a boring stack.

anyway,
this post is more for my own life-archives,
but perhaps you got something from it...
if not, i'm okay with that

goodnight all,
shannon

Annie and Jeff in Old Town Orange

Clearly Old Town Orange and I have a deep connection: this was my third time there for photographs in two weeks!

This time was for Annie and Jeff's engagement session. They are such lovely people; so genuine, and so right for each other. We ate lunch at Rutabegorz before we ventured out for our photos-- and I've decided that lunch at Rutabegorz must be magical because I love the photos that we got!

here they are. jeff and annie the wonderful.

i am speechless about this one.
lets just say i seriously seriously like it.

this was them, about 99% of the time. it was really really really really precious to watch. they have been together for over four years! ...and they are so/in/love. they just shine when they're together.i fulfilled a vision i've had for a long time now: shooting engagement photos inside of a vintage shop! Old Town Orange has so many to choose from, and I feel like Jeff and Annie were the perfect candidates for this little exploration:

this is a favorite of mine, because Jeff is showing Annie Hong Kong on the globe, the place where he grew up.

next stop: the record shop.

!next we walked around outside for while, stopping at random places along the way. engagement sessions are basically an hour or two of walking around, laughing, and having fun-- totally relaxed.

i love this one.

and i LOVE how much fun they have together!

i think i was testing my exposure on this one, and i think their in-between expressions are great

and last but not least, one of their polaroids. a must have.