Ashley and Chris - a lovely couple

It gets harder and harder to write these intros to the interviews without sounding repetitive.  Let me just say that Ashley at Clever Blog Name Here has a very entertaining blog, with funny stories about herself, her husband Chris, and their two dogs Chloe and Burrito.  Every post also comes with fabulous bonus photographs that help tell the story.  Did I mention Ashley is a professional photographer?  Check out her photography website and her photography blog.  The girl’s got talent, right?  Also, did I mention that she’s going to be doing a FREE photoshoot with The Babito?  I haven’t even mentioned that to HER yet!

Here’s my interview with Ashley, the fabulous, soon to be famous photographer.  You can all say someday that you “knew her when”:

DD: Tell me a little about yourself.

Ashley: Sure! Let’s see… I’m Ashley. I live in San Francisco, married to a hot sexy nerd, Chris, have 2 adorable puppy-dawgs, Mr. Burrito and Miss Chloe. I’m a photographer, totally obsessed with my iphone… I like cheeze-its and swimming in the ocean… but not at the same time or anything.

DD: How long have you been blogging?

Ashley: I started blogging December 3, 2007

DD: What got you started?

Ashley: I was pretty much in love with this girl and her blog.

She’s my bloggy-inspiration.

DD: Why do you continue blogging?

Ashley: I’ve met the most amazing people and formed wonderful friendships through blogging. I love the support and encouragement, I love not feeling alone… and I love looking back at my old posts to remember where I was and/or how far I’ve come. Chris always jokes with me when he sees me with my computer laughing… “What are you doing? Reading your own blog again?” It’s sad, I’m retarded. Whatever.

DD: How long do you think you’ll continue?

Ashley: As long as it is still fun.

DD: Tell me a little about your blog.

Ashley: It is a blog about my life… all aspects of it. There’s a lot of post about my dogs and hubby, a lot of my professional work as a photographer, and a lot of “this is what I did today… errr err. doobie-do, blah.” type of thing. I also love a good recipe now and then. I’m fairly sarcastic, I do drop the F-bomb from time to time, and I never, NEVER, post without at least one photo, it’s a rule, I’m a visual person, people!

DD: Why should people read your blog?

Ashley: People should read my blog because….. dang. That’s a hard one. I dunno, because I have cute dogs?

DD: What types of blogs do you enjoy reading?

Ashley: I love reading blogs that make me laugh or where the author is totally candid and real. I also love if they include photos of their life.. I feel more of an emotional connection to them or something if I can see a picture of what they look like, or what their house looks like.. or maybe I’m just a creepy stalker, mmmmmmmmmwwwwhahahha… I also enjoy a good photo blog for inspiration.

DD: Can you provide a list of your five favorite blogs?

Ashley: Oh Daddy Dan, How about: Can I provide a list of 5 blogs I love and think other people should read?

Why Yes, Daddy Dan. I can!

If I were to stalk someone, like REALLY stalk them, it would be her… but don’t worry I wont. But I will read her blog, and look at her flickr, A LOT: Wishcake

I am her possum: Fabulously out there

She is so much fun, I want a mini version of her to carry around in my pocket and talk to when no one is looking: Steph

She wins the award for the world’s biggest heart, and she has a killer fashion style.. and I want her bangs: Sarah Marie P

Her love inspires me and her puppies make me giggle: Things I Carry

He interviews people, and I like that shit. And he’s funny: Daddy Dan

DD: Finally! A brown-noser!

DD: What are your favorite “non-blogging” activities?

Ashley: Photography, cooking, being with my hunny buns and our furry childrens. Hiking, attempting to learn how to play piano. Oh, and I also love to travel and eat ice cream.

DD: How did you get into photography?

Ashley: It is always something I have been interested in. My father was a photographer, and I think secretly I’ve always wanted to be like him. I didn’t get serious about it until I won my first digital SLR in an online give-a-way. heck yeah!

DD: Where did you learn to take such amazing photos?

Ashley: Well, hey, first of all, thanks! A lot of trial and error, a few online tutorials, and constantly being inspired by my photography heroes.

DD: Any tips for a newbie like me? Any simple tricks you could share?

Ashley: Get an SLR and learn your camera. So many people have really nice cameras but only shoot on the auto settings. Learn about your shutter speed and aperture, and play around with your ISO. Now that we don’t HAVE to pay for film and developing there isn’t any reason why not to play around and figure things out. The worst that can happen is you’ll trash 10,000 digital files of crap photos.. I think we can handle that. As for simple tricks, I love shooting with the sun behind my subject rather than directly on them.

DD: You just started doing photography full-time. What gave you the confidence to take this big step?

Ashley: My husband. He is amazing and my biggest fan offering unlimited mounds of support….. aaaand when I realized I was making more money doing photography than I was at my regular full time job…. that was sort of the kick I needed to say, “ok, you can do this, miss crazy. So do it!”

DD: How has it gone so far?

Ashley: It has been incredible so far! I’ve been really busy. I can only hope it stays this way. I’ve been so lucky to have really great referrals and it’s kept the momentum going. Great, now I’ve probably jinxed it. Thanks a lot Daddy Dan ;)

DD: Where do you get most of your customers from?

Ashley: I continue to post ads on craigslist.org. I’ve had really great luck with that website. People in San Francisco really love and use craigslist a lot. I post an ad every week or so. Most of my business comes from referrals though, so I’ll get a job off craigslist and that one job will turn into 3 referrals.

DD: When are you available for a photo shoot with The Babito?

Ashley: Now! I would love, LOVE, to do a Babito photoshoot. Ok, maybe not right now.. but I am coming down to LA to work for a week late October early November because I have a few sessions set up down there, so, serious, we should do it, and hook me up with your other IE friends that need some photos, yo!

DD: I’ll have to check the Babito’s calendar, but it sounds great!

DD: How did you come up with the name Burrito for your English bulldog?

Ashley: Ohhhhhhhh Burrito! He is famous. Really, people twitter about him and stuff! Like people that don’t know him in real life! It’s adorable. I don’t exactly remember the Burrito naming story.. it was 4 or 5 years ago and Chris and I decided that we really wanted an English Bulldog. It was neck and neck between Burrito or Sausage because English Bulldogs sort of look like those two food items. Somehow we decided on Burrito and he was our imaginary dream dog for years. We would talk about him as if he already existed and stuff, really creepy. When we were financially ready to get one we knew we found the right dog when we saw the little “bean” marking on the top of his head. Bean….. Burrito… Get it? Yeeeeeeaaaaaah, we crack ourselves up!

Burrito!

Burrito!

DD: What is the secret to happiness?

Ashley: Not taking yourself too seriously, but just seriously enough.

DD: What is your favorite quote?

Ashley: “When someone hands you a flyer, it’s like they’re saying here you throw this away.” Mitch Hedberg

DD: What, so far, has been the happiness moment of your life?

Ashley: I think marrying my best friend tops the charts… and the night and 2 weeks in Tahiti and Hawaii that followed…

DD: What has been your biggest regret?

Ashley: I don’t believe in regret.. only in opportunities to learn from our mistakes.

DD: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Ashley: Hopefully happy… with Chris, a kid, a thriving business, and a killer house with a bad ass kitchen.

A Nicer Picture of Chris and Ashley

A Nicer Picture of Chris and Ashley

DD: Do you monitor your blog stats?

Ashley: I do. Google analytics, baby. I get on average 180-200 visitors per day to my personal blog and 50 to the photo blog.

DD: What are your five favorite places in the world?

Ashley: So far…

1.) Ko Samui, Thailand
2.) Florence, Italy
3.) Oahu, Hawaii
4.) Paris, France
5.) My bed, Home

DD: What are five things you want to do before you die?

Ashley:

1.) Travel to all of the places on my “must travel to before I die” list
2.) Have a photo I’ve taken published on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine
3.) Celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary
4.) Volunteer in a foreign country
5.) Live in and own a house on the beach

DD: Tell us something most people don’t know about you.

Ashley: I’m self-conscious of my nonexistent top lip and I’m a bacon vegetarian, which means I don’t eat any meat, except for bacon.. why you ask? Because it is bacon and it is freakin’ good. ‘nuf said.

DD: The desert island question: If you could only have one of each of the following with you, what would you have:

Ashley:

Book: A really long one.
Movie: Office Space
TV show: Survivor Man.. not that I like that show or anything, but I think it may come in handy on a desert island, no?
Album: Right now it’d be Kings of Leon, but if I only had one album for the rest of my life I might get sick of that… hmmm. Better play it safe and say something Tom Petty or Queen. Yeah! Something Tom Petty.

DD: Were you absolutely stumped when you were trying to think of a blog title or did you purposely chose “Clever Blog Name Here”?

Ashley: I was really truly stumped! It’s so hard to try to name a blog… especially one that is about such random things. I put Clever Blog Name Here in there as a “working title” with every intention of changing it once I thought of something, well, clever, but now I think it kind of fits… or maybe I just still haven’t thought of anything clever enough…

Ashley: Now Daddy Dan, I have a question for you to include in my interview! What’s with you and the interviews? I love them, keep ‘em coming! I think they are fun and I adore being introduced to new bloggers, but I’m curious as to what got you started.

A few weeks ago after you interviewed my cool friend, Sarah from Sensibly Sassy, I browsed your archives to see if I could find the missing link between you and your mysterious interviews…. Maybe a secret confession of a long lost dream to be a reporter or some kind of journalist… but no, nothing!

So Daddy Dan, enlighten us.. why interview? As my friend Sara Marie P from Sarah Said says, “We MUST know!”

DD:  You ARE a stalker!!!  ;-)

To be completely honest, I went through a period where I was completely stumped for something to write about, and I thought it’d be something fun to do.  I needed material!!!  I didn’t plan on making it such a long-term series, and it may be running its course.  I’ll continue them going forward, probably on a less regular basis.  As some of you know, I have a new series that will be debuting in the next few weeks that I’m pretty excited about.

ALSO:  Don’t miss all of the other great interviews, including:

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