Beyond that explanation, you’ll just have to visit her website, www.shantellmartin.com to get a great look at her art.

If you’re a recent reader of my blog, you know I love my intervalometer and that I now take it everywhere I go. For this shoot, I set up a camera + intervalometer to capture our portrait session one snowy Brooklyn evening.

Here is a video I put together from our shoot, and some session portraits.

Needless to say, it was an emotionally charged trip and a visually stunning one at that.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting a series of images from this trip; from portraits of folks in different countries to some of my favorite abstract and personal images from our journey. I hope you come back often and check them out.

In case you envision one of these images hanging in your home or place of business, you’re in luck!

The images below (and many more to come!) are now available as limited edition fine art prints HERE

And now, here are a few images from Berlin, beautiful Berlin!

Potsdamer Platz

The Berlin Wall

Through AC&M, a Charlotte-based Latino marketing company who handles all of American Airlines marketing programs targeting the Hispanic market in the US, Juan and I created an ad for American Airline’s “Give & Go Sweepstakes,” where you can win a trip for 2 to Rio de Janeiro and a chance to see a professional soccer match in Rio.

Juan was Art Director during the photo shoot, while I found the model, props and created the image for the ad. We shot in Coney Island back in June, had marvelous weather and a terrific model, Raj.

Well-received by both AC&M and American Airlines, here is our ad, which has been published in several soccer magazines, including the  Eurosport Magazine (in Spanish) and Kick Magazine.

I have a list of things I want to see/do/visit/photograph while I’m on this earth, some that happen in New York, and ever since I heard of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade a few summers ago, I knew I had to go and see this crazy parade with my own eyes.

Packed to the brim, I rode the Q train down to the second to last stop on the line, the NY Aquarium, and tried to figure out where in this sea of people I could catch a good view of the parade.

The streets and boardwalk were just as packed on this beautiful, sunny and cloudless Saturday as any train platform at 5:00pm on a weekday. PACKED. Like sardines in a can. Like the train I had just taken to Coney Island. Sigh.

Alas, along with several hundred (if not thousands) of people, I made my way to the boardwalk and little by little, made my way to the front row of the parade route. I went alone and I was very lucky to stand next to 2 very funny couples – we all ended up giving names to each of the mermaids that came down the route, including “goth mermaid,” “papa smurf mermaid,” “lazy mermaid,” “pissed off at BP mermaid,” and a slew of other names, each given according to the participant’s costume.

Andy Warhols, complete with cameras and wigs.

In case you’re scratching your head and trying to figure out this image, it’s a man who was wearing a shark in between his legs.

In all this, I had heard of the crazy costumes and seen some photos but I had no idea I would be seeing so many pasties and a few bare breasts here and there.

It just so happened that we were standing next to this metal structure covered in blue, silk-like material – little did we know that this was the platform for some aerial silk performers, so we had not one, but TWO shows we could see from our vantage point, so I was able to catch a few shots of these beautiful, strong women who made dancing in the air look so easy!

A few more shots from the day…..

EVIDENCE:

That is, until now. I had to recently submit an image to an upcoming conference, so I decided to create a new image by painting with light. Well, even though I didn’t submit anything from my light painting series, this image has become one of my favorite self-portraits for many reasons, a big one is that it includes my husband Juan.

The word “journey” seems so very fitting to this new chapter in our lives. We are on a journey that began with a leap of faith (with Juan quitting his job in September, moving from North Carolina to NYC to pursue work and finding work in November, then moving me & our belongings up to NYC in November), and with the passing of each day, we are meeting some incredible people, we’re experiencing new adventures and living and loving each minute of this new, be it insane, life in the Big Apple.

I love our journey.

To see my other 2 recent publications of PSFK images, click here.

When you shake his hand, you can tell he has been doing this for a long time by the feel of his rough, caloused hands.

He or she sells candy, toys, and cigarettes, and what I find most common among the carameleros I have seen in Ecuador over the years, is that they all announce their offerings by taking a box of chiclets (gum), shake it like a rattle and announce what they sell.

You will often hear “caramelos, caramelos, chupetes, chicles, juguetes…….caramelos, caramelos, chupetes, chicles, juguetes” which translates to “candy, candy, lollipops, gum, toys”

I photographed this caramelero at the bus station where Juan and I took a mini-bus from Guayaquil to Ecuador.

From the few minutes of interacting with this caramelero, I gathered that this man is calm, proud, hard-working and appreciative of his job. He seems to be the kind of person who lives and loves life and surrounds those around him with smiles, emanating only goodness.

Needless to say, it was a HUGE relief to have this part of his life behind us, and finally saying goodbye to homework-filled weekends and a lack of a social life for that long.

On the eve of Juan’s graduation, my parents treated us to a riverboat dinner, which was a total blast. Mom and I danced the entire time (except for dinner, of course), and it was a great chance to catch up with my parents in a fun setting.

As we were boarding the boat, we came across this old lifesaver and lifesaver box.

I liked capturing just the word LIFE…almost as though this is saying “welcome back to LIFE!” after a year and a half-long hiatus. Welcome back, my Juan.

Here are my favorite portraits of Charles.