June Recap / Summer Happenings

Obviously, my blog is not where I want it right now. But let's catch up! 

June has come and gone... which is crazy. We are halfway into 2017, you guys.

It's been crazy! Photography, marketing photography, animal photography, and volunteering at a couple animal rescues... Hmm studying for Summer classes, wow. I thought I did more this June.

o n e // Cathleen Slagle Photography

CSP has been slowly hopping into business. I've been doing my best to meet up with each of my Cathleen Slagle Photography senior reps to do their Summer photo session. It's been awesome so far! I've met with 2 this past month, and I've got three on my calendar for next month! I know I'm lagging behind a little bit, but remember, I live in South Carolina and Summer kind of lasts until September. Here's some of my favorite shots from the past month:

 It's been a good month... I can't wait for what I'm going to shoot next month! Oh yeah, and side plug? Seniors in the Columbia, South Carolina area: It's never too early for your senior portrait session.

t w o // Vacation Bible School

 I had the absolute pleasure of photographing my church's Vacation Bible School with the amazing Courtney Dox of Courtney Dox Photography. The kids were beautiful, their spirits and kind hearts were beautiful, and my heart was so overwhelmed with joy! Also, my sweet friend Finley's (precious little girl next to me in the picture below) mom took this picture of me with some of the second graders! So much love for all the amazing volunteers and my awesome church!

t h r e e // studying at the new library

A new library recently opened up in my area. The Richland County Public Library - Ballentine branch is beautiful! I've been there almost every day since it opened earlier this month. It's the perfect place to sit and study... oh yeah! And check out books! Among the books that I have checked out right now - Wildflower by Drew Barrymore, Kevin Hart's latest (which is HILARIOUS so far), Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg, The Elephants in My Backyard by Rajiv Surendra, and Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling. I've actually been reading y'all!! And like I mentioned earlier, I've been studying a lot too. I'm taking two Summer classes: Government and Economics so that my senior year I can take Yearbook (fun fact: I'm the editor of my school's yearbook next year!) and AP photo as well as a study hall. Although I may grumble on my instagram story, I'm actually really proud of my decision to take these classes.

f o u r // animal rescues + animal photography

If you've stuck around since last year, you may remember my photos from SQ Rescue! I'm still working with them, but I also started working with a bigger rescue in my area. Pawmetto Lifeline is an animal shelter in Columbia that brings in an insane number of animals each week from the local county pounds and then find them new homes. The work they do is absolutely amazing. This past week I was able to volunteer to help with a "camp" for kids aged 8-12 at Pawmetto. Fur Friends was such a fun time and kids enjoyed meeting and petting a bunch of dogs and cats, puppies and kittens, playing games, and learning more about how to be a good pet owner and what Pawmetto Lifeline does. Here's a couple quick pictures: Pictured below is the precious puppy, Carrie who I fell in love with on Thursday, and the amazing Miss Alexa who organized and led Fur Friends! Oh and the best part is that I'm helping with another round of Fur Friends next month! Woohoo for more puppies! 

  

 Another thing that I now do with both rescues, is photograph adoptable animals. It's really remarkable the difference a high quality pictures of a dog or cat can make in getting them adopted from a rescue. Instead of including EVEN MORE pictures in this post... you can check out this one on my photography blog for pictures of cute animals!  I also learned this month that I have a mild allergy to cats... Figures because my dad has a pretty severe allergy. Ah well, you learn something new every day!

So writing this post helped me realize how little I actually did this past month... oh well. June left me full of happiness and joy and I'm so excited for July (my birthday month)! I'm looking forward to a nice and quiet 17th birthday at home with my sweet family. Thanks for reading, friends! It was good to prove to myself that I actually can still blog and form sort of complete sentences... 

Happy July!