I always enjoy putting these blogs together. A time to reflect, look back. People allow us into their lives. It’s beautiful. I am reminded of that every year as I sort through thousands of images. Here are some of the gems, the best of the bunch that spoke to me. Spoke to me of humanity and beauty and love and truth. Thanks for looking.
Your Narrative blog will appear here, click preview to see it live.
For any issues click here
We did just that, we walked, we snapped photos, we laughed, we talked. Andy and Leigh just moved from Wilmore, Kentucky to the next stage in their journey together as husband and wife. And just before they moved, they came up to Cincinnati for a shoot. We knew Andy and Leigh from when we lived in Kentucky, in fact, Dave worked with Andy. They are good people and good company. I like them and think they are very sweet.
.
These two people are some of my favorite people in the entire world. They are beautiful beautiful people. Many a night has been spent laughing at silly boy antics, playing games, talking about our faith over rich coffee, crying, listening, and more laughing, lots and lots of laughing. Words seem silly when describing people so close to your heart. Photos do a better job at showing who they are to you. These are two of my best friends who have been married 4 years. The decided to get back in wedding attire and traipse around the hills of Kentucky with a photographer friend and a guitar. Here are some photos. 
A sweet video of how amazing they are together (if you played the music at the top you might have to scroll back up to stop it).
MVI 9422 from Stephanie Lyell on Vimeo.
So things have finally slowed down a bit around here! I think I can finally begin to post semi-regularly! And this is a good one to start with. This girl and her husband. They are special to us. Liz has a heart of gold and cracks me up all the time, Aaron is her steady rock, such a hard worker, and a pretty funny guy himself. Also, they should probably get honorary titles at Stephanie Lyell Photography because they watched Rusty for us practically every weekend that we had weddings while we were in Wilmore. We also played a lot of games with them, and at a lot of food together (usually Liz’s food:)) I just love them a lot. And they love each other a lot. Love all around, it works out well! Press play to listen to tunes while viewing photos. [soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/101560173″ params=”color=92b85e&auto_play=false&player_type=tiny” width=” 100%” height=”18″ iframe=”false” /]
I have been a little absent from blogging for the last several weeks. I have an excuse I promise! Just head over to our personal blog to hear more about that. For a shortened version, basically we just moved and Dave had a case of appendicitis which resulted in a night in the hospital and a little hiatus from blogging. I still did lots of work, but something had to give, so I decided to not blog all of the images. So instead of trying to play catch up and do lots of little posts, I am just going to do a post of some of my favorites from this last month. I actually think this is a fun way to do it for a change, because it is really showing off a lot of the favorite images and made me go back and pick those lasting images, kind of like when I do my year “best of’s”. I had fun with it, I hope you enjoy looking at some of the creative endeavors of my last couple months.
Rhonda and Ben. Two beautiful souls. Sitting here thinking about Rhonda just makes my heart well up with warmth. I met Rhonda my first year here in Wilmore when both of our husbands were just starting off at the Seminary. We went on breakfast dates and talked about the future and one specific memory I have is randomly happening upon bluegrass music at the Kentucky Fudge Company in Harrodsburg. She was a part of the infamous book club and is just a good friend of mine. There is so much that I love about her. She is one of the most genuine people you will meet and has so much empathy and love for other people…she feels with people. Getting to know her and live life with her over the past 4 years has showed me that. And her husband Ben, he is also an amazing, and gentle, and kind person. Now these two are are in Alaska (they just got there a few days ago after a 2 week long journey) where they will be ministering and a part of a church up there and Dave and I are moving to Cincinnati. Life is changing for both of us, but I am so blessed to have had our paths cross with theirs for the last 4 years. 
Photographing other photographers is fun but a little nerve-wracking…but it definitely takes a little bit of the edge off when those photographers are your friends and are awesome. Mary and Gabe have been friends of mine really since I started my business three and a half years ago. Mary has always been such a kind and generous person and photographer. I really really like her a lot-and Gabe too! He’s a real stand-up guy and has a keen sense of style (<—–I wanted to sound funny just then, but it is actually true! He’s great!) I really could go on and on and on about how wonderful and amazing and sweet and kind and funny and awesome these two are and all of it would be so true, but I kind of just feel like showing you these photos of them and their sweet pup and letting you see how sweet they are together!!
Also today I am starting something new on the blog. I honestly have been getting a little tired of the way I have been blogging. I’ve always really enjoyed other photographers who just put the images up and let them speak for themselves. It kind of gives the post a more emotional feel with out words in the way breaking up the photos. But doing it that way, I was starting to feel a disconnect from myself and the photos and in a way it felt less like art. Not sure if that makes any sense but I am going to make a few changes. First of all, I might be doing a little more commentary through out the post. Second of all, I am going to start highlighting a favorite shot in the beginning of the post with a little blurb about why I like the image that I chose. In a way I think it will make me think a little bit more about the images and the art that I am trying to create which I think will be a win win for myself and my clients! So here it goes 🙂
These two are a hoot-we were seriously laughing almost the whole time. 
Wally is their dog. He’s a stud. 
These two photos were a close second for my favorite images. I love looking for photos in different places. 
I really like these a lot too-Mary just looks so beautiful and happy! 
Right around here is when we were in stitches laughing at something Mary did-it was one of those really good belly laughs! 
I also really love this one-there is something very nostalgic about it. 
Well this post is a little overdue. I have actually already taken and posted photos of this sweet family and new little baby boy Cade. So it’s a little out of order here. But I actually kind of think it’s fun that way. It was kind of neat to look through and edit these photos of Leah and Trevor right before Cade came, after seeing him growing and learning and just being his cute little self. It’s like looking back. And as I mentioned before, Leah and Trevor are amazing people and parents. We get to see them every week at small group at their house and just seeing them always lights up my day. Also, I think Leah is one of the beautiful people that I know. Thanks you two for being you and being friends with us. 
Lisa and Jason are good friends of ours who recently celebrated their 5 year wedding anniversary!! I love anniversaries 🙂 Weddings usually get all the glory, as well they should because they are beautiful, amazing events. But sometimes anniversaries are overlooked. Maybe a card, maybe some flowers, but for the most part life is going on and sometimes you forget to reflect on just how amazing this thing you are a part of is. Everyday you get to wake up to the person that you love, you know they are there for you, you trust them, you’ve seen the good and the bad, you are married. It’s the result of that beautiful wedding ceremony that you took part in years ago. What an amazing gift! So when Lisa and Jason contacted me about doing some anniversary photos, I was so excited at the chance to celebrate these two and their love for one another. And Lisa wanted to get back in her dress-which I was 110% okay with! I loved getting to photograph a couple in wedding attire with out all the stress of the wedding day. It was also kind of neat because I met Lisa when she and Jason were already married, so I never got see my beautiful friend in her wedding dress-so that was a fun experience for me! And to top it all off-Lisa is full of amazing, positive energy, so my camera was pretty much clicking the whole time. So, to sum it all up, this was an amazing shoot and I am beyond thrilled that these two wonderful people had me document this time in their lives.
