Some Days


Some days you feel rather at the end of your rope. 
Tired and very nearly like you don't want to get out of bed. 
I think we need days like this on occassion though. To remind us how good our other days are. To not take them for granted. These days help us grow. Help us learn. Teach us not to be so hard on ourselves,  that we can't do it all and that's okay. 
And that it will all look better come morning.

Morgan | Portraits

Meet Morgan.

These portraits of this lovely lady were taken quite a number of weeks ago and in the hustle and bustle of weddings and keeping up with shop orders I haven't had a chance to post them!
But I finally have a chance to share a few favorites today.
Love the fall leaves and colors in this session.
Oh how happy I am that Virginia has four actual seasons. Not two or three pretending to be four, but four seasons with different temperatures, varied required attire and different colors to dress nature in.


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See more here.
Interested in getting some portraits of your own done?
Email me for more info: by.leney@gmail.com


A Christmas Happy List

Shot with 35mm film/ Minolta x-700

A CHRISTMAS HAPPY LIST//
this film photo I took of my dad with our christmas tree a few years ago. listening to this song over and over and over. christmas lights everywhere (especially if they're colored ones). listening to she and him's christmas album on a gloomy rainy day. searching for the biggest trees in the windows on monument avenue. santa collections. christmas tree farms (not that i've ever been to one...). bottle brush trees. listening to christmas music since september. christmas movies. fires. christmas lists. mailboxes in macy's for santa letters. christmas being two weeks away.

My RVA: Around Monument

These were taken a month or two ago when there were still some pretty fall leaves on the trees.

Fall goes by way too fast here in Richmond if you ask me.

Although it is definitely the most beautiful of anyone else's fall when it is here.

Not that I'm biased or anything. 

That is one of my favorite things about this city though. 

That we have four seasons. Actual four seasons. Not two or three pretending to be four. 

Sometimes we even have all four seasons in one week. Like this week's 70 degree weather and then freezing rain and snow flurries.... 

Good old RVA. 

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Places Pictured

Black Hand Coffee Co.

Date a Girl Who Reads


Shot with 35mm film/ Minolta x-700

This.
I don't remember where I found it, but it's one of those things I saved because it was just a little bit perfect. 
And because I miss reading an awful lot. 
I haven't made much time for it lately what with my work load being as it has been as of late, but hopefully I will again soon because that "must read" pile of pretty books on my desk I keep picking up in second hand shops isn't getting any smaller.
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Date a Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico 

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or if she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

A Very Small Rudder

Shot with 35mm film/ Minolta x-700

   Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
//James 3:4-5

This verse made an impression on me a few weeks ago and I just came across it again today.
How often I forget how important my words are. How they affect me, my circumstances and others around me. They steer me in whichever direction I let them, like the rudder of a ship. Seemingly small in insignificant but in reality far more vastly important and influential than I recognize most of the time.
I think analogies involving ships and water always stick out to me because of my love of the sea and having grown up sailing. 
God knows just how to get my attention when He most needs to it seems. 

Photography



I love taking pictures.

I have ever since I got my first digital camera for Christmas at age 14. I've always been a documenter, and I most often document with a camera, so I love getting the opportunity to help others document things in their lives as well. Big or small, I love capturing those little moments that only happen once. 

I have done a variety of things from senior portraits, family portraits, prom photos, engagements, bridal showers, fashion shows, concerts and studio recordings, weddings and various parties and events. I am open to anything new and I love a challenge! 
And if you want me to travel for your photo session (whether it's a wedding or other event) you might just be my new best friend.

You can find my work here on my blog, (all the photos here are taken by me unless credited otherwise) or on my Facebook page under photos. Feel free to email me for rates and to discuss possible projects and ideas: by.leney@gmail.com 

I would love to work with you!

The Windy City

Photo taken with vscocam

I had so much fun in Chicago this past weekend!
Shot one of the most beautiful weddings, at a venue that's basically a photographers dream.
I mean I want to live there, shop there and get married there all at once.
I also saw The Bean, had some super yummy food, saw some Christmas lights at the Lincoln Park zoo, visited several yarn shops, knit in some really weird places (videos forth coming), almost mastered the 'L', popped into a few book shops, took heaps of photos (obviously) and met a few new friends.
All in all a very successful weekend.
I look forward to going back in the future.

A more in depth post full of photos will be forthcoming after the holiday craziness.
Now back to knitting and photo editing!