Laurel McConnell Photography » Announcements, Products, & Chat

When an artist throws a party, you KNOW it’s gonna be good.

Tarot cards. Espresso. Burlesque. Food. Music. A night full of art, in honor of the artists.

The art of her guests adorned the walls of her historic Tiffany blue home. Rooms and rooms and rooms of art. Scary art, whimsical art, beautiful art, thoughtful art, funny art. Even a nude picture of OJ bearing all, hanging in, of all places, the guest bath. It was like visiting a real, life Alice In Wonderland home. Not the “Sugary Silly Disney” version, but the real, “Alice Is On Acid” version. Pure eye candy, and we were lovin it. And then I got lost in the twisting maze of staircases and rooms. Maybe if I was real quiet, they’d never know it if I moved in ;)

Donna, our lovely hostess, is the designer behind Elsie Katz Couture and has recently been spending time working on costumes for AMC’s Mad Men (OH to own an Elsie Katz Original. Mark my words, blog readers, I will! Oh yes, I will!). Bean, her camera shy main squeeze, is of LA’s world famous KROQ’s Kevin & The Bean.

The fantabulous Ms. Shannon Lassen was hired to design all things visual for this “Party Just Because,” to keep up with Donna’s colorful, eclectic style, and boy did she NAIL it.

DANG these ladies were hot. I WISH I had as much talent! Each act had a little story and a lotta humor. The costumes were all made by them (one of the gals came out with panties made of live roses!), and the dancing was quite entertaining (i.e. what GOOD burlesque is).

Meet my future husband (sorry Jonny!). This is Nathan Gaunt, a soulful singer/songwriter from Australia. Check out his music here. You can even catch him at SXSW this year! Congrats dude (and please don’t tell anyone about my turtle fall, mmm kay? It’s supposed to be our little {{embarassing}} secret).

Chef Kaspar’s creations. DANG that salad rocked my socks off.

The night ended with a play along jam session with everyone singing along to The Rainbow Connection performed by Nathan and one of the guests (on a ukulele!!!). This party will go down in history as one of the most creative ones, no doubt! Thanks everyone!

Event Planning and Design: Sublime Events

Decor: Aria Style, AA Party Rentals, Pedersen’s Rentals, Choice Linens, Totally Tabletops

Lighting: Hardcastle Entertainment

Catering: Chef Kaspar Donier for Kaspar’s, Espresso Elegance

Valet: Butler Valet

Tarot card reader: Cynthia Sees

Entertainment: Atomic Bombshells, Nathan Gaunt

“Sharlane is a mother, a photographer, and our friend.  This year began like a fairy tale, complete with a magical proposal from the man she loves.  Like so many fairy tales, this one turned dark as Sharlane was diagnosed with cancer even before the wedding planning could begin.  The diagnosis itself is scary enough, but so are the crushing costs associated.  This is our attempt to help our friend, who has helped so many herself.”

Shar is one of our own. Not only is she a celebrated artist and a beloved photographer in many social circles across at LEAST two countries, but she has brought together some of the industry’s top vendors for groundbreaking wedding planning sites and exquisite wedding planning events. We just can’t help but to be drawn in by her compassion, generosity, spirit, humor, and endless wit. Cancer has reared it’s ugly head, but there’s hope. Unfortunately in the US hope costs A LOT of money.

http://weheartsharlane.showitsite.com

If you’re in the wedding industry here in Seattle, you’ve brushed elbows with this phenomenal woman. Even if you don’t know her but are planning your wedding, you HAVE crossed her path even if you didn’t know it.

Here are the details:

• WHAT: fundraising event for Sharlane
• WHERE: Herban Feast at Sodo Park (thanks SoDo for your generosity and support!!!)
• WHEN: Feb 4th at 7pm
• HOW: a silent auction of arts and services, along with an ongoing donation collection
• WHY: because cancer sucks and we heart Sharlane.

This is me, pleading you because this time it’s personal, as Shar is a close friend and business partner of sorts. Donate a couple of bucks via the Paypal link on the website below, or better yet, come to the fundraiser. I’d really, truly, love to see you there.

More info: http://weheartsharlane.showitsite.com

Thank you, Me Ra Koh, for such a gorgeous image of Shar and her Bean :)

I sure do. Especially after using a (very wonderful in it’s own right!) template website that was over 2 years old. The internet has come a long way in those last two years, not to mention that I’ve honed by eye and style quite a bit, and I felt like it was time for a change.

So here it is. A lil’ screenshot for your viewing pleasure. Check it out at www.mcconnellphoto.com in real life. I hope you like it, find it functional and informative, and mostly, that you like my pretty pictures (hyuck, hyuck!). If you’re a client, you just might see yourself somewhere in there ;) I love to include a little bit of everybody if I can!

Now, a little note specifically for the photographers: I did a whole lotta research, comparing different popular photography website companies, and none seemed to offer EXACTLY what I wanted. And in this business, the name of the game is INDIVIDUALITY AND CREATIVITY, yet I couldn’t afford the 7 g’s for a really swanky site.

So I made my own. That’s right boys and girls. With the tools that Showit offers, I was able to build an uber custom website that had every feature I wanted, including some great SEO techniques all within an interface that makes it  easy to update. Now I have no more excuses to not keep this site current and up to date! (ruh roh, Shaggy!). Only catch was that it DID take me 4 months to write the copy, choose the images, design the look & feel, create the graphics, and really test it out to make sure it speaks to they types of clients I love to work with. I totally get why the great designers have set their creative fees like they do! 4 months, and I didn’t even write the code! Good grief.

Check Showit out and give them a whirl if you’re in the mood to work on your own site. True, I tend to make things more complicated than they need to be, so yours probably won’t take 4 months to design and fill, but the possibilities are endless!

Now, a little note specifically to my “Subscription Blog Readers:” if you get these articles delivered in your RSS feed reader or in your email inbox, stay tuned. I’ll be moving this blog back to my main website URL, and will post one final notice so you’ll know to click through and re-add mcconnellphoto.com/blog to your RSS feed or re-subscribe in the box at the top right. I’m so sorry to be such a bother…. but it’s all part of my grand plan to clean up my website presence and make it all easy to find!!

The all-new, totally custom, completely updated website and branding revamp!  I’m so excited to finally launch this puppy- I have spilled the beans, and y’all already know it’s coming, so here’s a little sneaky peaky. I just can’t keep it to myself anymore!

It’s been so long since the last update, in fact… I never actually finished my last site (like you couldn’t tell, ha! it’s blaringly obvious I lost interest by the time I got to certain sections. it’s okay. that’s why I try to keep this blog-a-rollin’)!

I promise you’ll like it… if only I could just finish it! (she says, as she’s working on it at 1 am….again….)