Mary Schannen Photography

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and I'm very glad you stopped by. I'll tell you a little about me and this blog.

I grew up in NYC and went to an art school, however I was a vocal major (pretty ironic for what has happened later in my life). Fast forward a few years and I am now a mom of two active boys (what boys are not?), have a wonderful, patient husband and live in Allen, Texas.

A few years ago, our little family moved into a pretty big house with a lot of walls. (Well, for Texas standards, the house is not that large, but for me, who grew up in an apartment in NYC, it's very big). I like to have beauty surround me, therefore a lot of walls meant a lot of artwork, and a lot of money!!!!

Doing research on pieces that I found to be pretty, I kind of got that 'I can do that myself' idea (as many of you do I know). I got some canvasses, some paint, and other things that I considered to be pretty and put them together and up on the walls.

Well, some friends came over and raved about these pieces (that I had no idea if they were any good or not). To make a long story short - People started buying, pieces got put in Art Galleries and some local stores and then I got an agent (quite by accident) and that's when business really took off. My dear friend Amy and I went into business together creating pieces for stores throughout Texas, Louisianna, and Oklahoma via our Agent.

As my boys got older, and I got more busy, it has occurred to me that I don't have enough documentation of their lives, and they are only getting bigger. It's going too fast! And to boot - any photo I did have of them was quite plainly, crap!

I started researching photographers, and again - got that 'I think I can do that myself' mentality, so I got a 'fancy camera'. Ok - Again - Fast Forward - Implementing that idea was soooo much more difficult and involved than starting my art business! Loads of equipment, workshop after workshop, software and more software, computers and learning more 'techie' stuff, learning about the internet, SEO, Developing your style, Learning how to use the camera correctly, studio equipment, props, learning about light, backgrounds, composition, calibration, printers, marketing, networking, processing, working with children, forums, graphics, different personality types, off camera lighting, location scouting, .....Have a headache yet? I can keep going if you want. Yep - not as easy as picking up that paintbrush and mixing paint (that's not easy either - just different).

Looking back, although I knew I was embarking onto something difficult, I don't think I was fully aware of the immensity of the learning curve, I still wouldn't have changed a thing. I did it for my kids, and I still do it for my kids, my heart, soul, and my sanity. I crave photography, I crave making art and capturing the beauty in everyday moments. A ton to learn and am still learning, forever learning, but that makes it fun.

I really wish I didn't have to do it as a business. If you actually read the paragraph with all that's necessary to create a 'decent' photo, or something that won't get thrown in the 'snapshot' pile from the masters, there is a lot more involved than just buying that fancy camera. Therefore I do need to charge what my time, effort, and cost of doing business is worth.

Well, learning so much in a relatively short amount of time, and I focused soooo much on the craft, my marketing has been lacking. I have a website. I have clients, and most importantly I have a family that takes up my time and they will ALWAYS come first. I don't have business cards yet, (they are actually in the mail) and just now I've got this thing called a 'blog' that I'm working on. You may (and certainly may not) notice that all the posts so far started in January, 2011. That's when I finally got this 'blog' that apparently I'm 'supposed' to have to be any sort of 'photographer'.

So - I'm uploading images from the last few years, while learning the craft, developing, working on my style, processing and most importantly, documenting my family. Wish I started this much earlier - but am glad that I 'started'. Will continue to treat this as a 'blog' as we move forward, uploading sessions as they happen and posting possibly blog worthy news and photos.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to leave some 'blog love' if you see fit!

Warmly,

Mary Schannen

04-19-2012

52 Week Project – ‘Expressive’

Posted in Uncategorized

‘Really Mom?’

Now please head on over to Clara to see her take on the theme -

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04-12-2012

52 Week Project – Shoes

Posted in 52 Week Project, children, lifestyle, personal, Uncategorized

So….. on the way home from school, I asked the boys ,”OK , who wants to help me with my ‘homework’ “. Mikey readily agreed so I told him to get his box of shoes (we keep the kids shoes that they wear regularly in a box in the downstairs closet ). We headed outside and I asked him what can we do with all these shoes? So he said ‘Let’s have a sale, like in a store”, So I told him to put the shoes out ‘for sale’.

So after putting all the shoes out ‘for sale’ he got a little bored, so he put on his favorite pair of boots and started acting like himself – a total goofball -

I love him so much! He literally makes me laugh everyday! Now please head on over to Clara’s post to see her pretty images!

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04-09-2012

10 on 10 April

Posted in 10 on 10 project, children, lifestyle, personal Tags: Allen, children photographer dallas texas, Dallas Family Photographer, Fairview, Frisco, Mckinney, Mckinney Family Photographer, Photographer, PLano, Plano Family Photographer

10th of the month – time for the 10 on 10 – Ten images documenting a day. A project that a group of Bloom photographers and myself are involved in.

Before photography, I used to paint. Somehow, my paintings became popular and long story short – within a couple of years after I started, quite by accident, I got an agent at the Dallas World Market and he sold my paintings (and my business partner’s) to many high end home decor stores thoughout Texas, Louisianna and Oklahoma. Mostly small stores, but a few larger retailers bought the paintings. I had a group of artists who worked for us recreating our designs on canvas to fill the orders.

Market crash, and the paintings stopped selling quite as quickly – and quite frankly, I was starting my photography interest at the time, so I had welcomed the change and put more and more effort in teaching myself photography.

Sometimes I still like to paint – and lately I’ve been experimenting with different colors, more of a modern look, different than what I was doing when before. Maybe if I get a good amount of canvasses done, then I’ll contact my agent again to see if he wants to sell them. But then, it may become a ‘production’ thing again instead of creating fun art. (He starts coming in with ‘orders’ from stores). I shouldn’t complain if it does, but I stopped doing photography as a business – so obviously it’s the ‘business’ part that doesn’t fit in my life right now.

Well – here is something I’m not quite finished with yet. I work on it when I’m watching TV or in my spare time.

I think I’m done with this one – Didn’t varnish it yet – not sure if I’m going to. If it stays in my house – I can do whatever I want with it. If I sell it – I will varnish it first.

One of my babies.

Boy play.

Ok – so I cheated a bit this month – I really was enjoying this next series – so it was hard to pick just one to document this playtime.

The twins next door just turned two, so they happened to stumble into some pretty light in their party clothes and balloons – Perfect photo op – so I grabbed the camera and shot a few.

Now please continue the circle to Pam Parisi to see her pretty images!

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04-05-2012

52 Week Project – Describe a person without showing their face -

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Ok – so I am last minute nellie and did not prepare for this week’s theme – to describe a person without showing their face. So when my two boys got home from school, I took out the camera and documented the personalities. Shoes were off in the first 10 seconds – and left in the yard of course! My older one loves to just swing and he is a bit more conventional than my younger one – who is a total goofball – loves to climb, sing, perform, you name any goofball thing – he makes me laugh every day. So this was a 30 minute playtime in our backyard today .

After looking at these – Please take a look at CLARA’s post to see what pretty images she came up with!

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03-22-2012

52 Week Project – Pastel.

Posted in 52 Week Project, children, personal Tags: Allen, children photographer dallas texas, Dallas Family Photographer, Fairview, Mckinney Family Photographer, Plano Family Photographer

This week’s theme is Pastel -There’s a lot of that in my work so this week was pretty easy! So I pulled some oldies and worked on some new ones – just for fun! After looking at these – Please head on over to see what pretty photography Clara has!