About Lauren

It's a funny thing about writing and taking pictures. They both tell stories. I like to tell the stories that are found in our every day moments. There's magic in those moments.

Still + Life was originally born as the Blue Rain Room back in 2007 when I was reading a lot of crafting blogs. I'm actually a pretty lousy crafter. I've always been a writer, and I'm better at writing. And taking pictures. So here we are now.

I'm a daughter, a wife, and a mother. I'm also a freelance writer, a blogger and a photographer. Still+Life is the place where all those things come together.

(Frequently) Asked Questions

Where do you live?
I grew up in East Tennessee, so in many ways, I've always been a child of the south. Now we live in The Little Gray House (which is actually a too-big-for-us gray house) in the Tidewater of Virginia. It's just me, my wonderful husband Neel (he's a scientist, for reals), our son Callum (who is actually a teenager...aack) and our three pups. Neel and I met in Indiana, got married in Pennsylvania, and had Callum in California before moving here nearly years ago. I'm surrounded by water, (bordered by the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Elizabeth River) which I thought was my life-long dream. Turns out, I miss the mountains. But we're happy here. Really happy here.

How did you and Neel meet?
Despite the fact that it's so simple, this is actually one of my favorite stories to tell. I love it because the same thing that draws so many people to Neel now is what drew me to him over twenty years ago. His laugh. He is just the best, most wonderful person, and he has the best laugh. I wish you could hear it. So many people I meet will tell me how wonderful he is (I know) and how much they love his laugh (I know). Infectious doesn't do it justice. So when I was a freshman in college and my friend Cathy was a senior she kept talking about her friend Neel who was off campus for a term due to a knee injury. If I would say that someone I'd met was nice, she'd say, "Wait until you meet Neel."

We had just come back to school after spring break, and I was in the dining hall with my friend when I heard this amazing laugh. There was really no describing it. I looked up and there was this guy in a cast from his ankle to his hip, shaking hands with someone and laughing. I thought, "That must be Cathy's friend Neel. She never told me how cute he was." That was 1989, and we've been together ever since.

So. Callum's an only child?
People are always hesitant to ask more questions about this one, but yes; this was our choice. He's actually a fourth generation only child. My maternal grandmother, my father, Callum and I are all only children. The vibe in our family is really, really good, and yet, I can't help feeling like I'm not quite done raising kids. (Of course I'm not done raising Callum, but you know what I mean.) Someday I'll write more about this, but not yet.

Do you really have three dogs?
We really do! Our firstborn, Phoebe, who was at our wedding, is no longer with us. After Phoebe came Lucy-the-Beagle. Neel grew up with a beagle, and honestly? I should have known we'd eventually have one of our own. Once Phoebe died, Lucy was so lonely that she made up games with Callum's wheelie backpack, so when the opportunity came along to rescue Thea and Violet (Thea's a Corgi and Violet is her Corgi/Jack Russell daughter), we jumped at it. Our original plan was to get one other dog as a bud for Lucy, but when we met Thea and Violet, it was clear that there was no separating them. Thea and Lucy can get into dust-ups, but generally you can find the three of them asleep all on top of each other.

Do you write for a living?
I do. I'm a freelance writer, and I work mainly in the business world. It's very different from blogging, and I love the discipline of it. I love structure, and lists, and well-constructed sentences. I used to work for a private school in communications, and for a long time I thought that was my dream job. Now I think this is. And blogging.

How long have you been taking pictures, and what kind of camera do you use?
I flirted with photography a bit in high school, but my interest really developed because of this blog and the work I did for the private school I mentioned earlier. I started with a Canon point and shoot, but now all the pictures on this blog are taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XSi and a 5DMii. I've had the Rebel since 2009. I love my Rebel, and I've learned a lot with her, but in late 2011 I was ready to upgrade. The 5DMii is an amazing camera, and half the time I don't feel worthy of it. We're still getting to know each other. I started taking photography classes in the winter of 2010, turned my knob to "manual" and haven't looked back. I still have so much to learn. The lenses I most often grab are El Cheapo (my EF 50 mm) and my 28-135 mm. Unless I tell you differently, every photo I take here was taken with one of those two lenses.

Do you have a studio?
Um...sort of. Blue Rain Room was originally named after the room in our house where my yarn and sewing machine lived. It's now my office, and a tiny corner of it serves as a photography studio. Despite the smallest of windows, there's enough natural light to keep me happy for awhile and a door that I can shut to keep distractions at bay. We still call it the Blue Rain Room. Although sometimes we call it the Blue Hound Room.

What are your favorite things to take pictures of?
Hmmmm...you're probably not going to like the answer to this one. Callum always gets mad at me when he asks, "What's your favorite color?" because I'm impossible to pin down. Sometimes I love blue, sometimes I'm feeling more yellow, sometimes gray rises to the top. It's the same with photography for me. I love taking pictures of the things that catch my eye. And I like capturing the magic in every day moments. Right now I'm really enjoying exploring still life, but I'm equally captivated by photographing the changing expressions on children's faces or the relationships between friends or husbands and wives. Portraiture is challenging and stunning, and landscapes elude me. If it's caught my attention, I want to capture it with my camera, simple enough.

Why did you decide to start a blog?
In some ways, it's hard to remember. I mostly read crafting and knitting blogs in the beginning, but from pretty early on it was clear that I wanted a place to chronicle my day-to-day life. I've always said that this blog was a gift for my family. There's no more important work to me than tending to my family and our home, and recording that work through words and pictures means the world to me. It's satisfying for me to be in this place, and I hope you find it satisfying to be here too.