Behind the Lens: A Snowed in Portrait Session with My Musical Husband in Our Home Studio
It was “the great snow storm” (and hopefully the last) of 2024 when my husband and I decided that we would really be missing the opportunity to update his images for his website and social media. After all we were completely snowed in (still are as I type this), it’s been over 5 years since we snapped any shots together, and we just completed the studio that we both poured so much sweat equity into, so why not take advantage?
At-home studio backstory: Garage flip.
The short version of this story goes like this. We once had a 2 car garage that sat behind our house. Since we moved in this house in February of 2021, I had my eye on the garage becoming a space for me to create in. Fast forward to late July 2023, I sent Kelby a text message while he was on the road that said something along the lines of, “We need to talk about flipping the garage into a studio for me for real” 🫣. His response, “ We can do that pretty easy, but I’m gonna need a new shed for a wood working shop.” And so it began. From August-December we worked on the space whenever we could. We also had some help from a few friends. It took some work, but we love projects, and now we both have what we refer to as our own playhouses, because we are adulting…kind of.
Who is this Guy?
I asked Chat GPT to tell me who Kelby Ray is 😆. Here’s what it said: ”As of my last knowledge update in January 2023, Kelby Ray is a musician known for his association with the country band The Cadillac Three. He is the lap steel guitarist and Dobro player for the band. The Cadillac Three, often abbreviated as TC3, is a Southern rock group with a sound that incorporates elements of country, rock, and blues.”
Here’s my biography of Kelby. He’s my favorite person, my personal foot-warmer, my chef (because he makes sure I eat food other than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), he brings all of my crazy ideas to fruition (including our home renovations and my new at-home studio where we snapped all the images in this blog), he is a music teacher, a musician, a woodworker, and to many, many people, a damn good friend. He’s my perfect match. But enough with the gushy stuff. Let’s look at some images from our impromptu photo shoot…
My Favorite Black and Whites: Image overload?
I’m a little bias of course, so I have a lot of favorites and if you are looking for a cliché, here ya go; Yes, I am his biggest fan.
Social media’s favorites: The cat photobombs
Our cats stay out of the studio when people are here, but since it was just us in here Bernie needed some of the spotlight too. And did Kelby update his “about me” page on his website with the picture below? Duh, of course he did. 😼
The Best Part: This photo shoot only took about an hour.
We decided the night before to do this, we were completely snowed in. The next morning I played “wardrobe stylist” which is not hard for a man, especially a man that has “stage clothes” which consist of t-shirts, jeans and basically the color black. Also, let me add for the record, we live our lives in the unfashionable, comfort of sweats and yoga pants most days. So we hauled a few guitars out to the studio, played with light, poses inspired by Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen (for absolutely no other reason other than those are what popped up on Pinterest when I searched for inspiration images, ha!) had some good laughs, one moment of, “You’re losing the artist here.” and “I don’t care, do what I say.” a little more laughing and then we called it a wrap! If there was a chance we didn’t nail it, again, we were snowed in…for four more days.
I Know Nothing About Music: But maybe you like guitar?
I like music, but that’s about where it stops for me personally, I’ve never learned how to play a single chord. If you are reading this and are interested in music theory, guitar lessons or whatever else this guy does. Here are some places to find him:
That concludes this blog featuring my husband and my cat. 😆
The end.
Ok, Bye ✌️,
Lindsey
Lucid Linds Photography