Personal Archive

Just wanted to give you a sneak peek of a session I will be blogging next week and wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day. No big plans at the McClure-Selenak household, but I do have an engagement shoot today with two lovebirds!

Enjoy your day!

xo, M

In January, I took a 10 day vacation to visit my parent’s home in San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico.  The point of the trip was to spend time with my family, so I didn’t pull my camera out much.  But I did make an effort to shoot a little every day.  I will spare you the photo of the scorpion that stung me though!

Below, my breakfast at a cafe one morning! Yum!

This wall is on my parent’s street.  We were walking in to town and I stopped to photograph it!  My mom claims she has lived in the house for four years and never noticed the rad wall!

I was on vacation, so each meal was accompanied by a margarita!

One of the days we went to a bull fight.  To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself in to.  We ended up leaving 20 minutes in to the “fight”  I posted two photos below this one, but they are a little graphic, just to warn you.  Not as graphic as some other shots I took, but it was really hard to shoot through all my tears!

These guys were supposed to taunt the bull, but the bull fought back and speared one of them!  They just pulled the guy off at this point!

Since we left the bull fight early, we got to see this bride and groom walk out of the church after getting married!  There was no professional photographer in sight!

My last full day in Mexico, we drove to the city of Guanajuato since I had never been there.  You take this Funicular to the top of the hill and this is the view you get!

Isn’t this light amazing? I couldn’t pass it up!  And my parents are pretty adorable (married 40 years in August!)

This is back in San Miguel, a view of the Parroquia on the way in to town

And a close up of the same taken from the Jardin!

This was my second time down there, can’t wait to go again!  Next up…learn more Spanish!

xoxo, M

Last night, Cathy, Helena and I attended the Spread the Love tour by Justin and Mary Marantz.  I laughed, I cried, I rolled my eyes (in a good way)!  It was definitely a fun night.  They only have a handful a cities left in their tour, but if there are seats, sign up!  It’s worth the money!

Spread the Love LA: February 5th
Spread the Love San Fran: February 8th
Spread the Love Seattle: February 11th
Spread the Love Salt Lake City: February 15th
Spread the Love Denver: February 17th
Spread the Love Kansas City: February 19th
Spread the Love Chicago: February 22nd
Spread the Love Maine: March 24th

The tour helped give my business a little kick in the butt and I am excited to be developing some new ideas for 2010!  One of the first things I will be doing is dedicating myself to blogging more.  Everyone in favor of this?  This means I will have a few more personal posts, but I hope you enjoy them (and leaving a comment to let me know helps too!)

I’ll leave you with two photo booth photos from past Saturdays wedding (coming to the blog soon!)

If you know me in real life, I’m pretty goofy. I love to laugh. And I love to be laughed at…I mean with.  Mandi and I always have fun on wedding days!

And here we are with the wonderful Courtney Tibetts, wedding coordinator from After the Engagement!  She likes to laugh too 🙂

Photobooth by Red Cheese

*My blog was hacked on 1/6/2010 and I lost my three latest blogs. This is a repost of the original blog. Unfortunately I lost all my comments in the process. Feel free to leave another one!*

2009 has been an amazing year in business and my personal life!  I had my most successful year business-wise. I owe it all to the support of my family, friends and clients!

I shot some amazing weddings this year as well as a large amount of other type of sessions. I feel like I continue to grow in photography and life with each day. I am so grateful to everyone in my life, you all add a little something and I am a better person knowing you!

Here’s to an even more amazing 2010!!

My fabulous 2009 brides and grooms below!!

Love you all!

xoxo, M

I still have a ton of family and engagement shoots to blog, but I wanted to get this one up quickly, it has special meaning 🙂

One of my best friends, Kirsten and her hubby Brett are expecting their first child at the end of January!   They live just outside of Peoria, IL (where I went to College) so making her baby shower would be no easy feat!  But I planned ahead with the help of her mom and was able to surprise Kirsten at the shower. She had no idea I was coming!  You can see her reaction in the video at the bottom of this post (thanks Laura for capturing it!)  Here are a few from the actual shower:

The monkey talks, hence the reason she has it to her ear!

Us 🙂

Kirsten called me soon after she found out they were expecting to see if any of my trips to IL coincided with the time maternity photos should be taken (7-8 months along).  Since I refuse to go to the Midwest in the Winter, I had no plans to be there.  She was pretty upset, there is no one local she wanted to trust with that!  I snapped a few frames at the shower, which was held at the local Zoo.  (it doesn’t look like it, but its about 30 degrees here!)

The following day, we did another short maternity shoot!  Kirsten is a yoga instructor in Peoria, IL (check out her studio – Namaste Wellness). We decided to shoot her maternity session in all yoga poses!  She was so excited 🙂  I also got to take her class – what a great experience!

Ok I snuck in one non-yoga pose!

I know this one!  Downward Facing Dog!

Fav #1 <3

They are waiting to find out the sex – I can’t wait! I am hoping for a little girl to spoil!  🙂

Fav #2 <3

We had to stay inside – there was snow on the ground outside!!!  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

xoxo, M

Can;t figure out the video thing…here is the link! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPaMRlbj4xo