Ashley by Olivia Siegel

Ashley is an Asheville-based photographer and last week we met up for a quick photography field trip in the River Arts District. The RAD is an evolving part of the community with a vibrant "main street" featuring galleries and studios but also a lot of undeveloped and abandoned spaces. We explored with our cameras enjoying the many textures of this creative neighborhood. I was in a "portrait" mood so had a great time getting Ashley in front of the camera. I especially like the contrast of the first portrait, taken through a dried shrub, with the crisper and more colorful portraits from the graffiti yard.

Stalker Blues by Olivia Siegel

I'm lucky to be dating a super creative, oddball man. He's a musician, a songwriter, an artist, and a whole lot more. I love when our forms of expression cross over and we get to collaborate, especially on spontaneous and casual video shoots like this one. All the audio was from my DSLR and, as you can see, the apartment was in its natural state of disarray. Enjoy Jackson Emmer's original song "Well Intentioned Stalker Blues."

Jackson Emmer: Songwriting, vocals, guitar
Mike Facey: guitar

Hugo by Olivia Siegel

As a new transplant to Asheville, I've reached out to a handful of photographers in an effort to network with other local creatives. I found Hugo, a passionate photographer who specializes in landscape images (check him out here), on the West Asheville Exchange and we meet periodically with another photographer to talk shop and brainstorm. Last week we went on a photography field trip and these are a few portraits I snapped of him that day.