I’m so excited to announce the launch of my new website, branding & blog design!  I’ve been working on this for months and I’m so glad to finally share it with everyone.  It was a long process that not only included a full website redesign and blog update, but rebranding as well.  Here’s a little insight into the process and what to expect from the new site - enjoy! 

Let’s start at the beginning.  When I first decided that it was time for a website update, I thought long and hard about who I was and what I wanted my site to be.  The bad part was, my current branding didn’t really match who I was and the clients I wanted to attract.  So, I enlisted the expertise of Emily Ley with Emily Ley Creative.  Emily created a new brand & logo for my company and did a fabulous job matching the graphic look to who I am and the style of my photographs.  We went through many design iterations before finally settling on this beauty of a logo:

Emily also worked on updating my colors and creating a new pattern for my blog background.  One of my favorite elements is the nature-themed graphic element in my logo.  She designed it so it could be broken into little bits & pieces of the bigger logo.  For example, a part of the stem & leaf is broken off and used as the little graphic next to each of my blogpost titles (see above).  I not only love Emily’s graphic elements, but the words she used to describe my brand, so beautiful:

“Melissa Schollaert Photography is fresh, clean and breathable.  Like her images, Melissa is full of light and embodies the natural style upon which MSP is based.”  -Emily Ley Creative

Now, for the website!  I wanted something very simple & clean that really showed off my images - nothing fussy.  Just like my old website, I created this website myself using ShowitSites.  I am truly a fan of Showit and the ability to create a great looking site myself.  I also love that I can update it at a moment’s notice anytime I want.  It was fairly simple to create a template - it was deciding which images to include that was the hard part!

In addition to the redesign, there are many new features.  Here’s a peek into a few:

1.  LOTS OF IMAGE GALLERIES - I’ve included many more wedding galleries including Featured Weddings & Destination Weddings.

2.  DESTINATION GALLERIES - Since destination weddings are such a huge part of my business, I decided to dedicate a large portion of the galleries to destination weddings.  You’ll also find something BRAND NEW from MSP under this menu as well - Destination Engagements!  I’m so excited to start offering these destination engagement sessions to my clients.  So many clients may be getting married in their hometown, but also have a special place afar that they want to incorporate into their wedding & engagement.  I’ve had many clients request destination engagement sessions, so I’m really excited to officially start offering them to everyone!

3.  INFORMATION - I’ve incorporated much more information into the site under the Information menu of the site.  There is everything from Pricing info, what to expect from your Wedding Experience or Portrait Experience, Destination Wedding information, links to purchase my Fine Art Prints and much more.  There is also a special About section that includes my bio & more information about my style.

4.  STYLED SHOOTS - I’ve done so many styled shoots in the last year that I thought I’d show some of these great shoots to inspire my clients and potential clients.  They are a great source of inspiration and range in feel from the beaches of California, to the snowy lakefront of Chicago to the warm marshes of Charleston, South Carolina.  {To any vendors out there, MSP is also available to photograph your inspiration shoot - please inquire for more information!}

5.  NEW OFFERINGS - MSP is also pleased to offer new services to my clients!  I’ve already mentioned the Destination Engagement sessions & Styled Shoots - I’m also offering a new shoot called the “Love Shoot”.  This session is for anyone, whether you’ve been married for 5 days, 5 years or 50 years, it is a great way to commemorate anniversaries and other special occasions.  The clients shown in the Love Shoots gallery decided that on their 1 year anniversary, they would have a picnic celebration & dress up in their wedding attire again to celebrate.  I love the idea of this shoot because it can be for anyone, any age, there are no limits.  You can wear your wedding dress, your everyday clothes, or even go swimming in your two-piece with your love.  It is completely up to you to have fun and be creative with it.

With the rebranding & new design came a little update to the blog - check it out!

Again, I’m so happy to launch this site and I hope you enjoy peeking around and having a look - don’t forget to GO SEE THE NEW WEBSITE HERE!!!

Enjoy!

As I believe I’ve mentioned before…I’m obsessed with Italy.  I know, you’re probably sick of me talking about Italy, posting photos of Italy and talking about The Italy Girls.  But I just can’t help it!  It is my favorite place in the world and, after The Italy Workshop last year with Jose Villa, Italy holds an even more special place in my heart than it did before.  Most of that is due to the wondeful people I met there and the friendships and business relationships that it created.  One of the amazingly talented photographers that I met there, Molly, recently started a new business venture - Blank My Walls with her husband Ken.  Molly & Ken have been dreaming up this idea for ages and it has finally come to fruition.

Molly is a true visual artist and has a great eye for art.  Blank My Walls is a great vehicle for getting real art by talented artists out into the world.  They have selected 20 images, “The Original 20″ to launch the release of Blank My Walls.  I am so excited that two of my Italy prints were chosen to be in the original 20!  So, as a fabulous continuation of Italy Week, and a way for YOU to have one of my Italy prints…I give you BLANK MY WALLS!  Click on the image below to go to their site, explore their editions & see my two featured images! 

Here are the two limited-edition prints available exclusively on Blank My Walls!

The great thing about Blank My Walls is that the prints are limited-editions, so they only sell a certain amount and that is it - everyone in the world is not going to have the same, mass-produced print as everyone else. Also, every Tuesday & Thursday, Blank My Walls will release a new print - so new images are coming out all the time. Stop by their site and check out the beautiful photographs available.

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Thanks for everyone who submitted their favorite destination in the world!  It was so fun to see what places people selected.  I had a few selections for Bora Bora (which is my personal favorite for a honeymoon destination) and lots of other far-off places.  The great thing about talking to people about their favorite place is that you always find out about new places that you’ve never heard of. 

That is definitely the case for our randomly-chosen winner Betsy who said this was her favorite destination:

“Aberystwyth, Wales…spent a week for a youth soccer tournament. Beautiful landscape and salt of the earth people to engage with. So peaceful and humble.”

Congrats Betsy!  Email me your address at melissa{at}melissaschollaertphotography.com for your print!

So, admittedly, I had to Google Aberysywyth, Wales to see just what it was all about.  (And, of course add it to my list of must-see places in my lifetime!)  It definitely looks like a quaint & charming little town by the sea.  Check out the images below courtesy of Google Images.

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Florence & Tuscany are next on our stops - two beautiful regions of Italy.  Florence is a very charming town and everywhere you go, you see the dome or The Duomo.  It appears from every vista, at the end of many streets and from the surrounding hills.  It looms over the city as almost a guardian.  And, it is beautiful.  You will see many shots of the dome in this post and some everyday scenes around Florence. 

I am in love with this image. You may have seen it before in another post, but I had to share it again. This probably my favorite shot from Florence and maybe all of Italy. It was taken on my Holga with the now discontinued Fuji B/W film. I had just a second to capture it and I love the composition of the couple below the arch and the activity of the carousel beyond. The fur coat on the old woman, her cane and the little dog are just my favorite.

Tuscany, oh Tuscany! Talk about beauty. This region of Italy is so beautiful and so different from all of the other places I visited. It is so quaint and charming and paints a picture of living in the countryside. From the rolling hills to the olive groves, vineyards, farms & villas, this area is definitely one of my favorites (but not THE favorite). On my first trip to Italy, I spent a few days in this region, but on my second trip, I had more time to explore it and see many hidden jewels. I could definitely live in Tuscany. It’s laid-back atmosphere and nice residents make you feel like you are at home. A holiday in the Tuscan hills is definitely on my list of vacations to take. An entire week or two laying at the pool in the summertime and driving around in a convertible enjoying local wine sounds great to me!

Many of these images in Tuscany were taken at the Fontebussi Resort and La Selva Villa. The Fontebussi is built around an old, abandoned Tuscan village. The accomodations were great and the rooms were very spacious and had views of the surrounding hills & farmland. The resort had a small conference center that looked out onto a terraced herb garden & the fields beyond. The owners also own all the land around the resort and farm olives & other crops from the hills. The olive groves were unbelieveable as you may have seen from THIS POST of the shoot we did in the grove at The Italy Workshop.

So, as you can see, we’re at the end of the week BUT…I still have a few more places to take you on this trip around Italy.  We’re going to keep the Italy posts going into next week so you can see it all!  Stay tuned & I hope you’ll be dreaming of Tuscany all weekend while you wait to see where we go next.  I know I will be dreaming of Tuscany.  Ciao e buon fine settimana a tutti!

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Exactly one year ago today, I was at Day 2 of The Italy Workshop with Jose Villa & Gene Higa.  One year.  So much has happened in that one year - all because of this workshop and this trip.  Really, there are no words to describe the experience properly and how it has affected my photography, my business and me as a person.  {You may want to see my friend Molly Michel’s post HERE who more eloquently describes the experience.  Molly also attended the workshop and has become a great friend.}

I can’t imagine having not attended this workshop.  When I think back, I was struggling when making the decision whether to go to Italy or not.  But now, I could not imagine my life without this experience.  So many wonderful things have happened and I am humbled by them all.  Not only was the learning experience great, but I also met so many great colleagues who are now some of my good friends.  In true fashion, the Italy peeps LOVE to travel and we’ve been everywhere.  In this short year because of The Italy crew I’ve traveled to so many new and fun places.  It is so nice to be able to share my passion and love of photography with people who equally are in love with the medium.  Give us a new city (or country), a camera and we’ll be entertained for days - or until the film runs out.

Here’s a recap of the workshop:

We all met at the Florence airport and made our way to Tuscany.  We stayed at the Fontebussi Resort and it was absolutely breathtaking.  Immediately, we got out our gear and started shooting the landscape all around us.  It was gorgeous and we were totally in love.  Check out my post from last year for a recap of Fontebussi & my experience HERE.

Day 1 of the workshop was filled with talks by Jose & Gene and ended with an Engagement Session with models.  Oooo…this is when I fell in love with the light in Italy.  Bellissima!  Also, meet my friend Gio who is a fabulous Italian model.  He is coming to WPPI/Vegas in February so if you need a model, you should definitely hire him!

I could have never prepared myself for Day 2 of the workshop.  Again, more fabulous sessions with Jose & Gene as well as a fabulous model shoot.  Well, fabulous does not begin to describe it.  Picture this…an abandoned village in Tuscany with a resort/villa built around it, nestled in the hills and surrounded by olive groves and vineyards, the sun setting, the crisp fall air, the smell of firewood coming from the surrounding hillsides & villas who were preparing their nightly meals.  Oh, and did I mention, the olive groves?  They were divine.  Check out the two model shoots at Fontebussi & in the olive groves HERE and HERE to see more, or click on the photos below for my original posts with tons of images.

Giordano & Valentina in the old, abandoned Tuscan village:

And Georgia & Omar’s shoot in the olive groves!

The third day of the workshop, Jose & Gene surprised us with a trip to Florence!  One of the biggest things that we learned at the workshop was shooting for yourself and shooting to shoot, to learn to practice and get better.  The trip to Florence was just the thing we needed to put this lesson into motion.  The only caviat…we could only bring one camera!!!  So, I am a digital shooter and always have shot digital since I started shooting weddings.  But, there was a time when I was young and until after college that I shot all film.  So, since I had brought my toy Holga camera, I decided to take one roll of film to Florence and shoot.  And it was a great experience.  Not only did I get to hang out with the gang in Florence, walk around, eat pizza & gelato, I came back with some wonderful shots of the city.  And in the end, I probably had more spectacular shots in 16 frames than I probably would have with 100 shots from my digital.  And it all had to do with using my eye to look at the entire frame and really think about the shot before releasing the trigger.

Here are just a few from that fateful roll of film from that day:

My favorite, and most profound memory of the workshop was the last night, after returning from Florence.  We all sat down for one last family-style dinner cooked by Maria and you knew that something big had happened.  Everyone was talking and hanging out like we were old friends.  Once Alicia started telling how this experience had changed her to the group, the waterworks started flowing and everyone was truly touched by the experience.  Everyone exchanged hugs and thank-yous, but who knew that was just the beginning. 

I will never forget this experience for the rest of my life.

Stay tuned for some of the results that came out of the workshop as well as several more posts on more Italian cities and regions as well as a post on my favorite part of Italy - can you guess what it is?

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