a bit of nostalgia

Every summer as a child I would eagerly look forward to our vacations to the beach to visit my grandparents off the coast of Charleston, SC.  Once we arrived my hair would turn white from the sun, our bellies would be full of delicious crab cakes and we would gather around the piano every night to sing and play together.  My grandma would kiss us good night with a "Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite."  (That bed bugs part seems terrifying to me now.)  It was pretty idyllic and I am so thankful for these memories that my grandparents gave us.  

My grandma raised a family of storytellers and she, herself, was the greatest of them all.  We would often gawk at a story and declare "Can't be true!" but she would get even more wide eyed and exclaim that it surely was.  The taller the tale, the more eagerly we would listen.  I'm still not sure to this day what was fact of fiction.  Along with storytelling my grandma loved her photo albums and would give me the task of putting photos into albums at 5 cents a page.  I loved this job and would always happily do it.  Looking back I wonder now if she wasn't instilling a love of photography, family history, and storytelling more than filling my piggy bank.  

In my "off season" I've been scanning these albums that I so diligently worked on as a child so that they can be preserved for future generations.  I love turning a photo over and seeing my grandma's familiar handwriting Taken and developed by Hank or  Lake Herrington with Buzz at the helm. During these hours of carefully extracting photos from the sticky pages and scanning them I've been thinking about my work quite a bit.  I think it's been just what I needed.  A rejuvenation for the upcoming year, in a way.  I really love what I do - capturing specials days, years, moments - so, thank you.  All of you who have trusted me with your stories.  Who have read this blog over the years, have let me take your picture and have recommended me to your family and friends.  It's something that I feel honored to be able to do. 

And now, in case you'd like to see a few of the memories I've enjoyed working on… 

Bayne, Hank and Beka June 1959 // Johnnie, Roswell, NM 1937 (My grandpa)  // As a wedding photographer, this might be one of my favorites.  My grandparents on my parent's wedding day with my aunt and uncle in the foreground, which my grandma labeled PROUD PARENTS. 

Out of Office // Paris

Bonjour de Paris!

I wanted to stop in to say a quick hello so that my blog does not go abandoned.  I'm currently in Paris until the end of the month, but am still very available by email if anyone needs to contact me!  If you would like to keep up with my trip, feel free to follow along on my Instagram.  There will be less cat photos than normal, so enjoy that while it lasts!

I also had the great pleasure of meeting up with Ali + Dave who's wedding I shot in July and who are celebrating their honeymoon in Paris!  I'll be sure to share more images when I return.

Cheers!

Lazy Weekends

Taking a little detour from weddings to share a little of what my weekend looked like.  We had a family reunion for my grandparent's 65th anniversary on a lake in Kentucky and it was just what we all needed.  Family time for us means swimming all day and singing all night!

It looked a little like this...

and this...

and mostly this...

Hope you had a good one!

Paris in August

Bonjour!  A little break from wedding and engagement posts to let you know that I will be in Paris for the month of August.  Business will go on as normal and emails will be answered, albums will be sent out - I'll just be doing it remotely!

That being said if you happen to be in France this August I would love to hear from you.  I'll be offering portrait sessions during the weekdays and practicing my very bad French... and, of course, indulging in lots of baguettes and cheese.

If you would like to keep up with my travels you can follow along on Facebook! 

Year in Review

2012 has been very good to me.  It's been a year full of wonderful couples, new friends, cute dogs at weddings, hurricane interruptions, mason jars full of gorgeous flowers, lovers exchanging rings, sparkly nail polish (thank you brides!), and focusing on special moments... which is really what it's all about, right?

I want to thank each and every one of you who has trusted me with photographing your special day, reading my infrequent blog posts, liking photos on Facebook or just meeting up for a cup of coffee.   You've truly inspired me this year and I'm looking forward to an amazing 2013 with a full and happy heart. See you next year in New Orleans, France, Charleston and one of my favorite places... New York City!

Part 2 coming soon...

 Cheers!

Paris

This isn't quite wedding related, but Paris is a romantic city so I'm going to share these anyway.  If there is a tall building in sight I love running to the top of it to see the view of all the rooftops and the tiny cars and people. I have to say, it's hard to find a place with better rooftops than Paris...  

I also have to recommend that you try a croissant from Angelina. C'est magnifique!

...

...

from the top of the Notre Dame.

New Year

As you can probably tell, I am slightly behind on my posting.  However, with a new year I am back with a new promise to keep you all updated on everything Isabelle Selby Photography related.  Be it weddings, engagement session, portraits or personal projects I will be updating much more regularly. 

With that aside I hope that you are all off to a good start for 2012.  I'm excited for all that this year has to offer, especially for some wonderful couples who will be getting hitched this year.  I had a great year last year and it is thanks to you who read + comment on the blog and hire + recommend me to wonderful people.  Thank you! 

Cheers to all of you!  

xo

Isabelle