*Side note: This picture of me was taken in 2013. Beside a dozen or so phone snaps, this is the last time I was IN FRONT of the camera. As Mom’s we seem to hide behind it and find a laundry list of excuses not to be in the picture (we’re not dressed, we don’t have any makeup on, we need to lose 5 pounds first…), but your kids won’t care how you looked, they’ll just want to see that you were there too.

The short version:

Hi! I’m Shelly. I take pictures of people. In Ventura County. I like it a lot.

The real:

Hi there!  I’m Shelly!  And I enjoy the over use of exclamation points!  I have 5 brothers and 5 sisters, so in my family if you’re not yelling no one can hear you.   Family get-togethers are loud and full of love.   And that’s probably why I decided to have 4 kids, I don’t know quiet, it doesn’t feel right to me.   4 kids?!  Wow, right?!  How?  I live off of a strict diet of coffee and wine.  If one of those ceased to exist tomorrow I would probably crawl into a hole and refuse to come out until it’s fixed.

I was born in the Bay Area and have lived in California most of my life.  I love it here.  Life without the left coast is just not right to me.   The beach is my happy place, but my husband hates the sand (whaaaaat? seriously!), so I don’t go much.  Beach sunsets are my favorite thing to photograph.  And trees, I love trees.   I wish I was artistic, but my art is the equivalent of stick men, so I snap the beauty in nature as my art.

I am not obsessed with photography.  It is a part of who I am, just as much as my right arm or my leg is.  I wouldn't know what to do without it and I don't want to try.

I love to photograph chubby faced children.   Mine are incredibly over me sticking a camera in their faces, so I hope you’ll let me borrow your kids to shoot.  And you should be in the pics too!*   I also love to shoot couples and seniors.  Catching a picture of a truly real smile on a shy kid, capturing the love between 2 people, freezing that moment in time you will look back on for years to come and it will make you smile; these are the things that make my heart go aflutter.  Your family is the most important thing in the world, and I know you want portraits you can treasure and hold close to your heart for the rest of your life.  And that is what I am here for <3