Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Blog

  • Changing Focus

    Hello friends! And a very Happy New Year to you! My 2013 started off with one of the worst colds I’ve had in a long time, but I am on the mend thankfully. I feel like I got that out of the way, and now the rest of the year is going to be amazing!

    And with that, I have some news! In addition to the new blogsite layout, things are changing a bit here at SSP, and I want to share my thoughts with you.

    Chris and I have been doing wedding photography for five years now. In some ways, I can’t believe it has gone by so quickly! And other times I think, five years – wow, it seems like a lot longer. We have met so many incredibly wonderful couples and have had some amazing adventures that could have only been experienced through our photography business. That time we photographed a wedding right in the middle of a huge blizzard. That time it rained (okay, this happened more than once). That time it was over 100 degrees (this definitely happened more than once). That time we photographed a beautiful wedding on New Year’s Eve and counted down to the new year with our wonderful couple’s friends and family. That time the officiant didn’t show up and the amazing wedding coordinator stepped in to perform the ceremony. That time we ate dinner in a tiny broom closet (a closet!). That time the venue was crawling with spiders everywhere I turned, but I stayed brave. That time we photographed a wedding in super cute and tiny Decorah, Iowa. That time we photographed a wedding in Hawaii!

    So many clicks of the shutter, so many miles on the car. Checklist-checking, prepping the gear, packing the gear, carrying the gear. Driving, standing, walking, running. Directing, posing, staging, observing. Early mornings, late nights. Importing, exporting, backing up. Editing, editing, editing. Album designing, email answering, social media posting.

    Oh and did I mention that we both have other full-time jobs? At one point I realized: I’m spending nearly all of my free time capturing other people’s memories instead of making more of my own. Yes, Chris and I were fortunate enough to have had some wonderful adventures here-and-there over the last five years – mainly our trips to Alaska, St. John, and Colorado. But when I look back at the amount of time that I was working vs. the amount of time I wasn’t working, it’s quite an imbalance. The typical workweek for most people  is designed with two days off (exception: parents!), but with two jobs and a never-ending-to-do list, I have been working seven days a week most weeks. The time commitment with weddings plus our other jobs leaves us with little to no free time and we miss our weekends, so…

    We’ve decided to take a pause on offering full-scale weddings for a while.

    Never say never, so I won’t say that we aren’t doing them at all, but we’re taking a much needed pause in order to simplify our lives a bit. I truly do LOVE weddings. Yes, it’s a lot (a lot a lot) of work, but there is something so special about The Big Day that always draws me back in. I’m truly honored when we’re chosen to share that day with someone and when we’re trusted to capture those important moments. So I personally will still be available for a few smaller weddings, and to second-shoot for fellow wedding photographers, and of course for portraits here and there, which I also love! Chris, however, is hanging up his BlackRapid double camera strap for the time being. He will still have a hand in the business though – he is my brilliant technical support.

    Thank you to all of our fantastic couples from 2008-2012! We feel so very blessed to have crossed paths with you in such a special way.

  • The Hall Family 2011

    The Hall Family 2011

    Last year was my fourth time photographing this amazing family! I know how growing up works, but every time I see them I can’t believe how big the kids are getting. They have been one of my favorite families to photograph!

  • Shredding the Gnar

    Shredding the Gnar

    It was (almost) around this time last year that I started to learn how to snowboard! It’s something Chris had tried a few times before and he wanted to get back into it, so I thought I’d give it a try so it could be something we could enjoy together. Though I admit I was pretty scared to try it – having both of your feet stuck to one board that you can’t easily detach (like skis) while barreling down a slope seemed like a bad idea to me.

    The first time I went was in Colorado where we signed up for a private lesson with one of the instructors at Eldora Mountain Resort. I was warned ahead of time that the learning curve is quite steep, and that’s an understatement! But I was immediately* in love with it, despite also being so frustrated with how HARD it is. I think it took me about five snowboarding trips and many many bruises before I really “got it.”

    *Edited to add: Chris just reminded me that I wasn’t quite immediately in love with it. I was pretty flustered with the first few hours of the lesson. Our instructor had us practicing on a small hill, where we’d ride down and then climb back up with the heavy board strapped to one foot. It’s probably the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done! So actually, I think I said, “I hate this,” when we were on break.

    Our instructor, Amir, was awesome. He was patient and really focused on the basics and a good foundation. He pushed me to challenge myself, but not too far past what I was comfortable with, alhough I did take a hard fall at the end of the day when he let me go down the bottom of the trail by myself. I’ll never forget laying on the ground looking up at the sky when Amir rushed over and said, “That was AWESOME!” Apparently I had linked turns a few times at the end of the run (by accident) right before I fell. Okay, awesome, but painful! My tailbone still isn’t quite the same.

    I left with a few skills under my belt (and a very bruised tailbone), and once we were back home I immediately went out and purchased my own board, bindings, boots, helmet (critical!), and goggles.

    We went nearly every weekend to Whitetail Resort in Pennsylvania to practice, practice, practice. Thank goodness for the small hills and gentle slopes of a PA mountain, unlike the “real” mountains of Colorado. Much better for a beginner! Though we don’t have much in the way of real snow here – it’s mostly man-made snow over a hard layer of ice, so there are pros and cons. (Falling on ice is a major con.)

    Here I am taking a short break on the side of the beginner trail. In addition to the learning curve, snowboarding as a beginner is exhausting! Thankfully all those waterproof layers allow me to sit in the snow off to the side and rest every once in a while.

    I finally learned to connect everything together once I actually got OFF of the bunny trail, and went to a more difficult but less populated green trail. Look how crowded that bunny hill is! So many people to run into. Once I had a little more room, everything just clicked, and I started linking turns – this time on purpose. Yay!

    And with that, I crossed off #49 on my old 101 in 1001 list for prosperity and to you know, keep it official. I’m really looking forward to our second season, hopefully with fewer bruises! P.S. We don’t really say, “shredding the gnar” except to joke around, but snowboard slang is pretty fun. “Sweet cherry cherry pow-pow” means fresh, untouched snow (powder). And there were a few occasions where I “scorpioned,” meaning I fell face-first downhill with my board overhead. There are no pictures of that, thankfully.

    So what about you? Are there any new hobbies you want to try? Want to give snowboarding a try?! It’s (apparently) one of those things that you have to push through no matter how hard it is at first, and if you’re patient (and stubborn) enough, everything will just click and it gets really fun! Let me know if you decide to try it! And if you need any advice on protective crash gear, I’ve done TONS of research on pads, helmets, wrist guards, etc. And I’ve done lots of crashing, so I can vouch for what works. 🙂

  • St. John 2012

    St. John 2012

    So here are a few images from our trip to St. John, as promised! Chris and I actually had a great time despite the fact that Tropical Storm/Hurricane Issac showed up to the party. The first few days at the villa were am-a-zing. The weather was incredible – bright blue skies, puffy white clouds, tons of sun, and visibility for miles. We spent our days hanging out at the house, relaxing in the pool or on the huge deck in the super comfy chairs (so many options!), and we spent our evenings trying out bars and restaurants, and then unwinding in the hot tub. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were just absolutely travel-magazine perfect. We were looking forward to spending time at the beaches later in the week, and going on a tour excursion of the British Virgin Islands on Friday.

    But then the storm showed up on Wednesday, bringing with it a mixture of emotions – disappointment, excitement and fear. Living on the east coast, we are fairly used to hurricanes and we experience them regularly, but we’ve never encountered one on a tiny (tiny!) island before. It’s an entirely different experience. After speaking with some locals, we learned that it’s common for St. John to lose power because they manually shut it off to avoid any electrical dangers. We also learned that after one storm, the power didn’t return for six months. Can you imagine?! So as the storm approached and gained intensity, Chris and I briefly thought about flying home to salvage the remaining days of our time off from work, but unfortunately getting off of an island with an impending storm isn’t easy. The ferry wasn’t running over to the main island – they shut it down, so there’s pretty much no way to get off St. John unless you want to swim during 70+ mph gusts of wind.

    The property manager for the villa came over and put all of the patio furniture inside the house (see iPhone photos below). And our trip to the BVIs on Friday was definitely canceled. So, what did we do with the rest of our time? We stocked up on batteries and drinks, hung out in the pool and hot tub on the rainy days, and on the really bad stormy days we just stayed inside relaxing, watching TV and doing a 1000-piece puzzle. The last day of our visit was clear enough to make our flight. It still turned out to be a fun trip, even with the storm, so I’m calling it a success!

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  • The New Blogsite

    Ta da! What do you think of the new blog + website (a.k.a., blogsite)? I’ve been wanting to change things up for a long time and I knew what I wanted to do, but just hadn’t found the time to do it until now. My main requirements were twofold: I wanted one consolidated place for people to see my work (which means only having to update one site!) and I also wanted to be able to blog more about other stuff besides my work without having something super random right on the front page.

    So now, if you’re here to see my work, great! You can find it in the Weddings and Portraits menus. If you’re here to read my blog, that’s up there in its own menu, too! And now it’s easier to go straight to various sections of the blog, like if you’re specifically here to watch me learn how to cook, for instance. There are still a few tweaks I need to make here and there, but for the most part this is the new look. I hope you like it!

    And just to add an image to this post, here’s a photo I took in St. John this past August (and have yet to blog the images!), just as Tropical Storm Issac had left the island: