Searching for Angela Shelton

it's late and I really should be in bed, but I just have to post. I went to UNCA tonight to see "Searching for Angela Shelton." It was truly a thought provoking, heart wrenching, empowering movie. It's a documentary where this writer/actress/filmmaker searches across the country for other women named Angela Shelton. It becomes a journey of discovery and of healing the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Check it out: www.angelashelton.com
Angela Shelton was there tonight, she's from Asheville in fact. Tomorrow she will be at the courthouse for Angela Shelton Day. It's a rally that joins www.reportitnow.com, a country wide effort to increase the rate of reporting sexual abuse.

So, it's off "the blog" topic, but it's important.

DITLOA submissions

All the submissions for judging are in on the Day in the Life of Asheville project. I listed this link in the comments section, but in case you missed it, here's the link to see all my favorite photos from the weekend:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonyastone/sets/72157604661326114/show/with/2431630661/


Last night, I had a chance to meet some of the other photographers who participated in DITLO. It was great, and if you get a chance, go to the DITLO group on Flickr to see all the submitted photos. When the finalists are in, I'll post the link to that too. So much talent in this town!

More DITLO Asheville

As requested, here are more photos from the Day in the Life of Asheville project. These are all from the Folk Life Festival held at Warren Wilson College on Saturday. The funny thing is I didn't see much happening when I first came into the festival area. I actually told a friend who called that I probably wouldn't be there more than a few minutes. But when I started paying attention...look at all the cool people I found! Ummm, and I spent 2 hrs. there & loved every minute of it.

This is Dede Styles who spins and dyes wool.
This is the mom of Festival co-Coordinator, John. She had these amazing quilts that her grandmother made. They use patterns that were signals for slaves escaping via the Underground Railroad. Can you see the passion in her story??
One of the big draws of the Festival is the bluegrass music competition. Here's a musician jamming on the street.

Day in the Life of Asheville

I spent the better part of 36 hrs. this weekend participating in the Day in the Life of Asheville project. What a great time!!! I am so inspired by my experience. It was great getting out and about meeting new people and working to capture something special. Sometimes it was a stretch, but I am humbled to be part of a group of amazing photographers who are contributing to the image (literally!) of Asheville. You can follow along at www.dilto.org.
Here are some of the my shots from Friday. I was all over town...at jazz after 5 at the Grove Arcade

at the main bus station on Coxe...

the web site lives!

great day in the morning, my web site is live!!!!!!!!!!! I am so stinking excited, I can hardly stand it! check it out...www.sonyastone.com
I have to take a moment to give thanks...I am so grateful for where my journey is leading me! I'm thankful to my family for their support and understanding, my friends and clients for their encouragement and feedback, my mentor & dear friend, cheryl muhr (www.thesecretphotographyworkshop.com) for so many things, a talented composer and musician (Bill Cushman...http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com) for sharing his gifts. Gosh, you'd think I had just won an Oscar or something! ;)

so, go visit the web site, then come back here and tell me what you think...go ahead...go now...hurry!!!!! I'm dying to hear what you think.

baby belly

For those who know me, this will come as no surprise...I think pregnant mamas are beautiful...stunning...awe inspiring! I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa Marie when she was pregnant with her second baby, and now, here she is expecting baby number three very shortly! I have never seen her look more amazing. (Thanks for letting me capture this special time in your life!) I'm crossing my fingers that I am able to get to her child's birth fast enough to get some images there! She's planning a home birth with midwives attending...I love it!

cold snap

asa
Originally uploaded by tgergrl

Is it Spring or what? The warm one day, cold the next is really crazy around here. Today it's 74, but a week ago, it was pretty chilly. Here's a picture of Asa sporting his penguin sweater to keep warm. Sunday's forecast...snow!!!!!!!!

why all this editing???

I have spent two days trying to work through some technological issues around web sites. I am spent! The thing is, I am waiting for the web site that is finished to be published. In the meantime, I have things going on that need to get out there and be seen! So here I am running like a turtle through the process of putting up a temporary site.

I thought I might shed some light on a question I hear often, "why do you have to edit the pictures?" There can be lots of things in an image that can be made better. I thought I would share an image straight out of the camera and the image after I processed it.

Remember the days of film? There was a darkroom where the negatives were processed. Now, there is a digital darkroom were I can tweak images. If you look at lots of photographers, you'll see there are varying degrees of this "post processing" that are used. Everything from cropping, to color changes, to smoothing skin textures, blurring backgrounds, removing or replacing a portion of an image, or painting edgy, artistic elements and much more.

So now you know, Photoshop is my friend and I spend more time with it and my clients images than with my real life friends! And apparently today, with the wonder of the world wide web!