***NOW OFFERING: MENTORING SESSIONS & PORTFOLIO CRITIQUES

*** EDIT: Updated on August 20, 2012:
--->> Due to these becoming so popular, I've decided to make these an ongoing offering, at least through year's end, though keeping them incredibly limited, per month. Please email to book:
ashleylebedev@gmail.com

Thus far, I have absolutely *loved* reviewing every image sent to me, from every corner of the globe and look forward to meeting with more of you & helping you in your endeavors!

Details below & payments preferred via paypal (though sending via post is alright as well, though not immediate)

Thanks!

ashes, x

----

Original Post: 

**PHOTOGS & Creatives!

I have a new & *limited time* offering!

**At July's end, I will be offering 1 & 2 hour ONLINE mentoring sessions, so that they may be taken from anywhere in the world. All of my offerings are always & only, one on one.
I will only be offering 12 of them, due to time constraints. They will be end of *July* only & very early August via chat or skype. I will also be offering portfolio critiques (also online).
To keep this very simple, details are as follows:

One hour session: = $60.00
Two hour session: = $100.00
Three hour session: = $170.00

Portfolio critiques: *approx. 30-40 minutes: = $40.00

(All pricing in US dollars)

I am taking deposits *now* to hold spaces. Deposit will be *half* of full session fee (though you may also choose to pay in full) The other half will be due no later than one week before scheduled session. I will be accepting payments via PAYPAL.
To break that down, deposit for one mentoring session would be $30.00, for two, $50.00 and for a full portfolio critique, $20.00.

Please EMAIL me to book, at: ashleylebedev@gmail.com
I will return all emails within 48 hours and in the order they were received, until booked for that month.

I anticipate these booking very quickly, so don't sleep on it.
Look forward to working with you & don't be shy. The format for these are very candid & in no way intimidating.

Ashes, x

Featured as one of the most inspirational photographers!

Welp,

I was nothing short of mega, super, cartwheelingly, humbled & honored that the lovely people over at Phlearn curated a list, by category, of the world's most inspirational photographers & somehow included me on it, within the fine art category. Sitting next to the likes of Sally Mann, Erik Almas, Brooke Shaden, Cindy Sherman, Alex Stoddard and Walker Evans is a good way to start any day. I was also happy that I am lucky enough to call about half of the people featured, my friends.

I really love this particular list (of the many thrown together each year) because it has such an incredible stock pile of newbies as well as veterans, chock full of inspiring imagery, without bias. If you fancy a fast heartbeat & visual symphony, head on over there.

The entire feature is here with my particular spotlight, here.

Here's a quick screengrab of a piece of my feature.
Talk soon,
Ash x

"Fable Hill" | A new collection.

Okay, crazy kids, so...here's how it started.

When i returned back from my trip from out west, i was inspired, i was creatively renewed, i was ready to shoot something and i was ready to shoot something different.

I found an old book (from 1880, to be exact) at the farm I grew up on. It was called "The Crown Jewels" and I brought it back to my apartment in Mpls, laying the book on an old cupboard of mine, where it would sit during the day. I was eyeing it. All I knew was that it was so phenomenally well preserved, 1000 pages of poetry, so many stories and every time I jumped to a new page, there was another mysterious little poem.

I stalked back & forth, fist to lips, scrunched eyebrows, in deep contemplation. Let's skip forward a few weeks. What should I do with this book? I just kept wondering. It was such a cool tome & had to be worthy of a great image. Or, rather, the image had to be worthy of that book and the amount of inspiration pulled from it.

Then, without ever coming to a conclusion, I left one afternoon, coming back into my upstairs little flat while the sun was setting through my windows.

The light, the book. Oh my.

I just knew what to do.
The sun was screaming sideways through my window, the contrast of dreams.
Photogs, I know you know what I'm talking about: that butter light, spooling across things, that you have for about 1 hour but, the best of it, only about 10 minutes.

I ran downstairs, flung the door open, ran to the side of the house to a giant group of monster sized dandelion or milkweed poofs in the garden, grabbed one & ran back upstairs. I had a hunch about the sun, that book, that poof and some amazing shadows. I laid the poof across the pages and a pattern was weaved by sunlight...

!

And that's when it happened: a collection was born, something worthy of this amazing book and the imagery I have shot since. Further, the imagery ideas I have cooking in my brain ever since.

And, with that...I want to introduce to you, "Fable Hill".

(please feel free to click image & make bigger (right click it and open link in a new tab to bypass the new preview screen) but please don't swipe)

This new collection is about an old Victorian manor house (Fable Hill) weaving portraiture & still life together. It's going to be chock-full of little visual morsels, just like an old house.
It's going to be about the things that happen there.


Think fog, think spooling fields, think old attics & rusty oddities.
Think quirky.
Think skeleton keys.
Think old world.
Think about a place like that, left vacant, left with all of its things, left to its own devices. Think of what could happen in a place like that, when no one was looking.

I am not sure how long this series will be but what I do know is that there might be more questions than answers. I want it to be one big mystery, unfolding through imagery.
The rest? My lips are zipped.

Here are the first few sneaks and thank you for the beautifully warm reception about this new series on my facebook fan page.

I get excited about presenting work that inspires you.

-me

Excited to announce that I will be a part of this new book!

Friends!

Long time no see. I know, I know...

I just returned a few weeks ago from 40 days on the road in which I re-visited the rainforests of the PNW as well as the vacant Pacific Coast Shores, hiking & camping along the empty rock beaches. I also made it into the Columbia River Gorge & down into Oregon.

Cities enveloped my imagination, especially Seattle (where I think I am moving to, in the not - too - distant future) | The whole of that trip was spent on trains, in the backs of cars, in hostels, on floors, on couches, new people, new ideas, tents, beaches, in the fog, the rain, the misting in-between. There was so much walking, so few proper nights of rest. It was all fluid, the movement of dreams. It was like a symphony, really.

Beyond that, I have been shooting, beginning a new collection & continuing my beloved: "faerieland" and "dust bowl" (will post details about new collection tomorrow) as well as writing writing, writing, even beginning a new secret blog experiment that I will post about within the year, once it's established & up and running. 

Lastly, workshops begin on July 1 for "Project Muse" w/ completely sold out enrollment, this first time around.

I have 2 openings for anyone wanting to begin Project Muse in September (1) of this year.

But, for now, I simply wanted to post that I am very excited & honored to be a part of a new retouching book, available within a few weeks at both Barnes & Noble as well as on Amazon.

I will have a two page feature covering my work, my vision and my tip for new, burgeoning photographers & aritsts.

To read about that, simply click here & click here. (the first of those covering not just my section, but the whole of the book and the intent for it. :)

Talk soon, 

ashes, x