Dwell by Cheryl: photos

Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts

"New Headshots and New Things in Store"

Can you guys believe it's mid-September already? Whoa! I actually started pulling out some of the Fall décor this weekend. Honestly, I'm not a big Autumn decorator. I do a little, but I save my energy for Christmas. Nevertheless, I digress. I thought I'd share with you guys the result of my recent photo shoot. This time, it wasn't for a space I decorated but for me. Thanks to The Queen City Style and a recent blog giveaway, I was able to get new headshots!

Whitley ran a promotion on her blog and the winner received a free photo session with her awesome photographer Donna Jernigan. The winner was me!! You can check out Donna's work HERE.

I was super excited, since it's been nearly 3 years since I had my first photos captured for the website and social media.

It was definitely time to step it up a notch. I'm in the early stages of putting together a Dwell by Cheryl website (this is a blog site) and I needed professional photos that showcase me, the professional.

I'd say, the most difficult part was deciding where to take the photos. I knew I wanted them in an interior space and coordinating with a past client just seemed a bit much. I decided to shoot at home and in the end figured the living room was the best space. It's my favorite after all, at least for the moment.

Then, I needed to decide on an outfit. I wanted something, obviously, that worked well in the space, expressed my personal style and that wasn't too dressy or too casual.

With a little virtual assistance from stylist extraordinaire, Whitley Hamlin, we settled on this....

Working with Donna was so much fun. It really is amazing how many different looks your face can evoke. You should've heard the adjectives I used to describe some of my faces. I mean, each shot was similar but I felt I conveyed something very different in each one. Weird, huh?

After reviewing dozens of options, I landed on the top three. One that I think makes me look "nice", like someone you'd want to work with or hang out with. Another that says I'm "fun" and the money shot that says I'm competent (like, "I got this").

So, here they are....

I'd love to know what you think. Instagram has already spoken, but I won't tell you which was their favorite (or mine).

I think I'm going to hold off on using them until the website launch, but I wanted you to get a little preview of what's to come.

Happy Tuesday!

Holiday Recap and the Family Photo Shoot

I can't believe it's back to the grind today. I shouldn't complain since I had two full weeks off from the day job and Dwell by Cheryl. It was delightful. This holiday season seemed a bit more relaxing than those in the past. Not sure if it was the abbreviated season or my more simplified approach.
I vowed to focus on the important things; family and friends.

I had a great time hanging out with old friends....

and hosting a few newer ones.....

And I spent lots of time with my family.

Celebrating my parent's 45th Anniversary

In fact, we decided (my lil sis decided) this fall that we'd take new family photos over the Christmas holidays. Of course, as usual, I was tasked with coordinating the wardrobe for the shoot. Sounds simple, but dressing grown folk ain't exactly easy.

Thankfully, it worked out in the end. I'm so glad we've made taking family photos a priority over the past several years. I know it's something we'll all treasure, especially as we get older. And let's face it, it's not something that families without small children actually do very often, if at all.

Lisa of Lisa Stringer Photography (my HS classmate) did an awesome job despite the fact that neither of my parents were really feeling it. Mom had an eye infection and a bum knee and Dad, well I think he would've preferred to be watching Judge Judy. At least they didn't have to go far since we took the photos in the front yard.

Anyway, we're pretty pleased with the result.

I hope you all had a wonderful time during the holidays. Here's to a new year that exceeds your wildest imagination. Cheers!

"Instagram Exclusive"

I love Instagram! With so many social media outlets, it's often hard to keep up. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, I thought I'd share with you a little about one of my favs, Instagram.

Instagram is an online photo-sharing and social networking service that allows its users to take a picture, apply a digital filter to it, and share it on a variety of social networking services, including its own. Basically it's like a photo journal and it's photo sharing reinvented. I love it because it's ALL about the pictures. Definitely great for visual people like me.

If you're already an Instagram user be sure to follow me @dwellbycheryl. If not, you should join. I post all sorts of exclusives that Facebook fans, Twitter followers and blog subscribers don't see.

It's a great place to get first looks....