Tag: Devon ShanorPhotography

25 Mar

We Will Persevere! | Covid-19

admin / Business, Personal, Photographers / March 25, 2020 / 0 Comments

Okay- that was a bit dramatic- sorry! The world isn’t ending, just changing for a short time… drastically for some of us. I’ve been thinking and rethinking and brainstorming about what to do with my business. Then the governor dropped the bomb yesterday that I’m officially out of business for the time being!

So… what happens with Devon Shanor Photography right now? Well, we are closed for actual photography… no more shooting. This is in effect for the next month until April 20th. After Easter, I’ll be making a decision on the future weeks and months.

If I haven’t yet, I will be contacting all sessions scheduled between now and then to reschedule. I hate the senior portraits, birthday celebrations, military homecomings, boudoir sessions and “Fix my Crown” sessions we will be postponing but we will have more than enough time in the future to celebrate and capture these moments!!

I will be contacting those of you who have orders here ready for pickup and we can schedule that. If you have an order waiting to be placed, no worried we are finishing up your album designs and final edits and placing them. They will be dropped shipped to your home or available for pickup when they arrive.

I had plans in place for Mothers Day, Spring in the Box, Easter and Mer-May. We were excited to send out a newsletter telling you about the fun opportunities we had for the spring. Those are currently on hold… not canceled just yet, but on hold. We need to see what our area looks like in the next 30 days.

I will STILL be in the office. Many of you know there is a software program I am working on transitioning to and it’s been kicking my butt… so I’ll now have ample time to work on that! I’ve also been working on my sports packages- doing more team posters for the high schools and local sports teams like the ones below. With this extra time I can get the sports packages all ready for when sports start up again. Let me know if you have a team that would like more information!

We are also working on ways to stay connected with you. So many of us are home and isolated with our kiddos. Which is GREAT for the busy world we live in. It’s quality time to spend with them! They will look back on this pandemic and remember this time of playing games, budding forts, taking naps and cuddles, cooking meals, making messes, etc! You can do this mom’s and dads! That said, we ALL need some inspiration. So we are compiling games, ideas, activities and FUN we can have all while staying socially distant. Keep and eye out for our new blog program: Devon’s Creative Chaos!

Lastly, I have often been told that my office feels like a friends house or a therapists office. Many appointments end with us sitting and chatting and gabbing about our lives and experiences. Please know that while, my office is closed to visitors, my phone isn’t. This is a time of panic and anxiety for many of you, and so many of you are feel isolated! I am not a therapist, but I do listen well. If you are in a bad place- call me. Ask me to tell you about the funniest photography stories. Babies who have peed on me, dads who acted like toddlers on photoshoots, equipment malfunctions at the WORST times… I have enough stories to take your mind off your fears for at least a little while.

We will all get through this together. Make good choices for today but don’t worry about tomorrow. It might be a difficult month.. or two… or three… but we will come out on the other side. Let’s come out stronger together!!!

24 Mar

Socially Distant but TOGETHER we will get though this!! We GOT THIS!

admin / Business, Personal / March 24, 2020 / 0 Comments

A few weeks ago I was in Ethiopia… loving on the children there, watching God do great things and seeing his magnificent creation in the incredible Ethiopian landscape. The coronavirus was an afterthought honestly, something I knew was out there but not something I saw seriously affecting my daily life.

Fast forward to yesterday, when the Governor closed schools for the rest of the year and effectively, shut down my business for the next month at least. I had already planned to make significant changes to my business but it was still a shock to hear the Governor make such drastic decisions.

I’m a small business owner with 10 years in business. I don’t do photography as a hobby- it’s a full time job. I have part time employees and paid assistants. Our family relies on my income. Its a scary time. I have a college student living at home who no longer has a job in the restaurant business. I have three teens at home, the amount of food they can consume is astonishing!!

Things are stressful, the future is scary. At least in my household we have one solid income (the hubs is a nurse!), but I know for some of you, that isn’t the case. We are all worried and stressed and trying to figure out our new budget limitations and how long our savings will last. Its a difficult time and many are applying for unemployment, looking for ways to make money and ways to feed their children. I see your posts on Facebook and I can see the panic and sadness rising.

That said, WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS! While I can’t come hold your hand and give you a hug (and man do I miss giving hugs!) I still can help. We can ALL help each other. We can and will get through this! What are some ways you can help each other but also stay socially distant and safe?

Call each other. When you notice on social media someone has gone “silent” or see that someone is having a bad day- call them. Its never easy to ask for help but there are so many lonely people right now. Sometimes the phone ringing and someone saying “Im thinking of you! How are you?” is exactly what the doctor ordered to keep the anxiety and loneliness away.
Send/post funny memes or pictures! Post encouraging notes! The news and our social media pages are filled with the gloom and doom… don’t let yours be a part of the problem. Sure, post informative things and ask for help when you need it, but make sure you are filling the world with joy too! You never know, that silly singing dog video might be the exact thing someone needed to make it through the day!
Check in with the sick and elderly! They are cooped up and lonely and would love some interaction- even if it’s by phone. They also might need real help. Today I contacted a friend with a disability that prevents her from leaving the house at all right now. What did she need? Someone to come walk her dog once in awhile and mow her grass. Remember those teenage monsters who eat me out of house and home who aren’t in school… mom has a job for you!!!
Have your kids draw pictures and cards and take them to your local nursing home. A friend of mine posted this idea because her father can no longer have visitors but loves mail. Your kids are home and bored- what a great idea for everyone!
We all need to eat right? Buy food or gift cards from your local mom and pops. You know you’ll use them sooner rather than later! The small businesses are the ones that will suffer the most in the long run, be vigilant with your spending but, if you can, support them over large corporations.
Play games with your kids. Go for walks. Do scavenger hunts. Ask for friends to do the same and have a Skype/Facetime call that night to go over what you found.

Please share with me the other ways you are helping each other stay sane and upbeat during this time. I love the ideas I am getting off social media… we are better together. Your ideas become my families best memories!

There are also lots of ways you can get help in this crisis. This is not a full list but a place to start if you need food, supplies, support, etc.

United Way Hampton Roads https://unitedwayshr.org/coronavirus/
Food Pantries
1. Freedom Fellowship www.comegetfree.org Open Wednesdays 10-12
2. Church of the Ascension https://www.ascensionvb.org Food Pantry Mon-Fri. 10-12
3. Food Bank https://foodbankonline.org The Foodbank will distribute food at YMCA locations Tuesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. See website for location addresses.
4. Jewish Family Services Food https://jfshamptonroads.org/services/food-assistance/ Bank Open Monday and Tuesday 10-12
The place for all your questions! Call 211 http://211.org
This Facebook group is a great place for help as well! https://www.facebook.com/groups/203031367674036/

My next blog will discuss what exactly we are going to do with Devon Shanor Photography over the next 30-60 days. I won’t be photographing anyone for awhile, but that doesn’t mean my shop is closed for good. We have some ideas to help keep us in touch and keep the business moving forward.

I know who is control in this situation and I am determined not to let it bring me down. We are all in the same boat and we will ALL get through this. This song came on today and I LOVED listening to it… because YES, It will get BETTER!!!

06 Mar

Guess who’s getting Married???

admin / Engagement, event, Professional Portraits / March 6, 2020 / 0 Comments

Town Center in Virginia Beach is a beautiful spot in Hampton Roads. It’s the perfect place to relax, grab a bite, take a walk, listen to music and more. It’s also a place where a fairy tales come true.

Dwayne and Dariane had their first date there and on Tuesday, a new chapter in their love story began! He led her there with her eyes closed while their family and friends snuck up on them. He then told her to open her eyes for the best surprise of her life.

It was such a beautiful experience and I am so very honored to have been asked to photograph it. Join me in wishing them years and years of joy, happiness and blessings!

Family and friends celebrating the love!

25 Oct

Family Portraits in Laos

admin / Family, Professional Portraits, Travel Photography / October 25, 2019 / 0 Comments

I had an amazing time traveling Asia with my mom and daughter this summer to celebrate Olivia’s graduation. While we were touring Laos, we met an amazing man, Thong, who showed us all the beauty of his country. He was such a wonderful man and we loved his story! He met his wife and married her within a week!!!

They are still happily in love with three kids! He is known in his town as the man who drives with FIVE people on his little motorcycle. Many people drive with three or four but he is the only one who regularly travels with five. As we were touring the country, I mentioned that he needed a portrait of that and he agreed! So when his wife came to pick him up she brought all the kids and we did a mini photoshoot for his family.

My camera wasn’t very happy with the very humid morning after spending the night in air-conditioning (dang condensation!) but we pushed through and still captured some fun family portraits for my new friend!

16 Aug

Love began with a Slurpee | Virginia Beach Engagement

admin / Engagement, Professional Portraits / August 16, 2019 / 0 Comments

I was SO excited when Conner messaged to tell me he was getting MARRIED! It is so hard to believe since I have been photographing him since middle school and I still see him as little boy! But he has found a phenomenal woman and turned into a handsome and responsible young man. I am OVERJOYED to celebrate their engagement with them!

I met to talk with Abigail and Connor and I LOVED their story of their first date. They went to 7-11, grabbed some smoothies and went for a walk at the oceanfront. The sat and talked on the long walkway near 5th street for hours. We talked about doing their engagement pictures in the same location and decided we HAD to incorporate 7-11 into their session!

But we didn’t stop there! We weren’t going to have a “typical” engagement session so when we saw the Bird scooters, we knew they had to be a part of the session as well!

Photographing people in love is always a favorite of mine but getting to photograph young people in love, being silly, laughing and enjoying each other and the quirks of their first dates- well, lets just say this will be a session to remember!!

16 Aug

We’re Back!

admin / Business / August 16, 2019 / 0 Comments

Internet demons begone!!! If you haven’t seen us much posting lately it’s because we were under cyber attack. We fought the good fight and came out victorious though!

No idea what happened but many couldn’t see my website without an ugly warning about security issue. Then my website peeps told me my blog was history! It had been hacked and we wouldn’t be able to use it anymore. After lots of phone calls, conversations, banging my head against a wall and decisions about keeping my site or starting a whole new one from scratch (many sleepless nights as that DOES NOT sound fun to me in the busy season of photography) we found out that my site is NO LONGER in internet jail! It has been cleared and freed and we can use it again!!

I have had such a busy summer! Seriously, there has been so much that has happened in the past few months and I can’t wait to share all about my trip to Asia, celebrating with family in Ohio, traveling on a girls weekend away, getting my daughter all set and ready to start COLLEGE and so much more. It’s been a whirlwind!

But for now, I’ll just leave you with a few pictures of my family I had taken this summer. Officially this summer I became the shortest in the family. I knew it was inevitable. I sure love my tribe! <3

25 Apr

Lily Anne Turns One

admin / Baby's First Year, Business, Children, Family, Photographers / April 25, 2019 / 0 Comments

Yay one! A year full of firsts and lots of milestones to celebrate with Lily. The plan was to do family portraits outdoors and then bring the family indoors for Lily’s cake smash, well the weather didn’t get the memo. It rained for three days straight leaving the ground soaked, a chill in the air and not a single ray of sunshine in sight!

So I know what you’re thinking, just reschedule the session and the problem is solved. Well not so fast, the fabulous smash cake had already been delivered and there was no way we were going to let this sugary goodness go to waste. We ended up doing lily’s cake photos as planned and did the family photo session a few days later. Lily and her big brother Tristan were naturals in front of the camera. Tristan liked my camera so much he wanted to help me take the photos. We just might have a future photographer in the making!

Jillian_0167

14 Mar

Crowning Glory with Toby Family

admin / Children, Culture, Family, Personal, Photographers, Professional Portraits / March 14, 2019 / 0 Comments

Cheyla approached me about a unique portrait session idea and I was so excited to dive into her ideas with her. This vision took us on a journey into her faith in God and her beliefs. Giana and Naomi joined in and were each crowned as well. The studio portraits and the family portraits at 64th street showed love both in faith and in family, even a blended family. It was a beautiful representation that love isn’t defined as blood alone and that our faith gives us strength and builds us up. I am so grateful that Cheyla and Eddie trusted me with their idea and their family. This was a session I will never forget! I hope it inspires others to think of unique sessions where photography can assist in capturing an important moment in their life!

I hope you enjoy these incredible portraits as much as I did. It was difficult to pick my favorite ones to share!

07 Mar

Women are Incredible

admin / Business, Culture, Family, Maternity, Model for a Day, Personal, Professional Portraits / March 7, 2019 / 0 Comments

Woman are the backbone of this country! We are homemakers, doctors, lawyers, soldiers, business owners, role models, caregivers, and so much more. We juggle roles without even realize we are doing it. We can kiss a boo boo and put on our high heels in the same breathe. We bring forth life into world as mothers while also running empires. We are statistically more kind, loving, grateful and better at handling stress. We are super-powerful women!

This week we celebrate International Women’s Day. A day to celebrate women all over the world and how far we have come as women. I personally want to celebrate woman empowering women! I see a trend of women uniting together and empowering each other. We need to do more of this. When I first started out in business I had three AMAZING women who mentored me. Women who guided me, gave me advice and encouraged me. (Thank you Andi, Dee and Dana.) Their guidance gave me the ability to believe in myself and push forward on a dream I knew very little (at the time) on how to accomplish. Now, I mentor women doing the same thing. They aren’t my competition, it’s my way to give back and cheer on another superwoman!

We need to empower each other. Cheer each other on, give each other feedback! We need to stop judging each other and our life’s choices. I am successful business owner who chose to stay home and raise her babies for over 10 years. Your choices aren’t going to be my choices. Whatever you are doing with your life, you are a an empowered woman. Do you stay home and raise your little ones? Are you a single mom doing everything by yourself? Are you a military member who has to say goodbye to your babies for months at a time? Are you a military wife caught between being a single parent and a married one- juggling the two at a moments notice? Are you a career woman pushing to achieve your dreams and “soccer moming” it as well? Wherever you are you are a superwoman! You need to celebrate that.

I want to help you celebrate. Come see me in the month of March. Let’s celebrate your womanhood! Let’s celebrate your superpowers.

– For some that might mean professional headshots celebrating your success in your field.

– For some that might mean a boudoir session showcasing your sensuality, beauty and uniqueness.

– For some that might be a “Model for a day” session where you get to just celebrate YOU with different outfits and ideas.

– For some that might be a Cultural Heritage shoot as we celebrate all of your unique cultures that make up who you are.

Contact me for your own personalized session. 50% off all individual session fees if you mention “Empowered Women” at your consultation!

16 Jan

New Year More Love

admin / Family, Personal, Professional Portraits, Renew / January 16, 2019 / 0 Comments

Each January I “claim” a word for the new year: a word that is focused around having a single simple word or theme to guide me in what I want to embrace more of in the coming year.

This year I claim LOVE as my word because the world needs more LOVE, I need more LOVE, my family needs more LOVE and my business needs more LOVE!

LOVE is all around us in all of our relationships. We forget sometimes to focus on the love and instead focus on the bickering, the rushing to get to work or practices, the financial issues, the chores, the disappointments, etc. We get so busy in the day to day of life that we forget to actually see the love right in front of us. This year my goal is to give and share more love and in business to work hard to create opportunities for more people to capture their love in print.

I want to do better at encouraging people to capture the LOVE in their relationships. I want to photograph the beauty and love between a mother and baby, the time tested love of a couple married 40 years, the love for oneself in boudoir, the love between siblings who fight like cats and dogs but also have grown up as each others playmates. I want to photograph LOVE in all the relationships of life.

For families, I want to focus on encouraging families to CAPTURE the love they share. Too many times I have heard “It’s been 10 years since we took family portraits” or “I can’t do family portraits until I lose the weight.” Yet I have also heard after deaths in families “I don’t have any recent picture of my dad with is grandchildren, now it is too late” “I wish I had recent pictures of my parents together that weren’t taken on a cell phone.” Too often we want to wait for the right moment and forget to recognize that the right moment is RIGHT NOW!

One area I am especially going to focus on this year is capturing LOVE in marriage. I am not going to say that there are no perfect, never argue, he/she is exactly what I need and want them to be all the time, marriages out there, but in my experience almost ALL marriages have times of extreme struggle. Look at the divorce rate that keeps climbing- marriage is HARD work.

I have been married for 18 years, together for 22. We fought tooth and nail for each other even when we didn’t like each other. But the LOVE was there, just hidden beneath the hurt, pain and trauma. The photographs we have during the good times, smiling and loving each other and our children are reminders that LOVE overcomes. Our children remember the good times because those are the memories we have on our wall and in our albums. They see and remember the LOVE their parents have always had for each other.

I photograph families all the time and often take time to get portraits of mom and dad together as well. But it’s not often I get a full session dedicated to the love between a husband and wife. That will change this year as I bring back my “Renew” sessions and introduce my “Romance in the Simple Moments” session. I cannot wait to photograph love that has been TESTED. Marriages of 5, 10, 15, 30, 50 years. Marriages that, like mine, have gone through the storms and come out battered but stronger than before.

I also need to claim LOVE for myself more this year. Last year was a very trying year for me and I let self love fall away as I worked so hard to support my husband, kids, family and business. All of their busyness kept me so overwhelmed that taking care of me took a back seat. I gained weight and spending time with friends rarely happened. This year I claim SELF- LOVE for myself. I am determined to loose 40 pounds by eating better and getting back in the gym. I have already been away on a fabulous girls weekend in NYC with two of my besties. I can’t be the best Devon I need to be if I am not loving myself enough to take care of my mental and physical health. So this year, I will embrace loving myself better.

I am claiming LOVE this year for my business and for myself. My marriage still has rough patches and places where we can improve the ways we love each other. Like many of you, we get caught up in the kids and their busy lives and schedules and realize we are more roommates than anything else. We need to focus of US because without a strong US our family is not as strong as it should be.

Do you have a word for 2019 that you are claiming? Share it with me, I’d love to stand in agreement with you!

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