once upon a time a {lovely} artist… marta schmidt

ups, it is so late and i haven’t blogged yet a thing! shame on me! well, can i have one really good excuse? yes? i have been re-organizing my time and priorities as i told you, and it is incredible as you can start feeling good as soon as you acknowledge that need! well, i have established a few rules for myself and work, and i think that those rules will work perfectly for my own balance. today i was away most of the day because i had one very good reason… asides from the fact that my neighbours are having a street wedding, music has been loud all day, chairs are on both sidewalks and to leave the building with mr kobe is something hard to do, because the bride’s car is parked right in front of the door. i feel like screaming… very, very loud.

well, moving on, i left the house after lunch for a meeting, because i had an invitation to display my work on a very nice place. i will tell all the details later! now, the fabulous, talented and such a good friend… marta schmidt! as sponsor i am talking about her today, but i would talk about her anyway, because i love her work and she is a doll… and the author of the sweet baby above and all of the above as well. i asked marta a few questions… so that you could get to know her a little better!

hello there! How are you feeling today? tell me something about you… hola claudia! i am doing great today, and it has been like that almost everyday for the past year. my name is marta and i am a photographer from madrid who feels extremely lucky to spend her time working with children and babies. i am also a blogger, a crafter, and a dreamer.

hum… now i have a few questions that might be different… and the first one is… hard!   what are you proud of? i am proud of overcoming my fear of failure and starting my photography business. proud of believing in myself and accepting the photographer in me. and proud of having reached a point in my life where i do what i enjoy and live my life the way i want, without thinking what others around me may think.

do you know something… i will meet your best friend in a while… what could he/she say to me about you? i asked her and this is what she said and please, bear in mind when you read this that this is my best friend writing, so she may be biased:  “marta is different from everyone else. i can’t say why, but she is simply different in everything. she goes from the ipad to her knitting, or from her comfy couch to a trip to a far away place with her backpack without a blink. she may think for weeks what camera to buy to carry on her purse, but she decides in a couple of days that she is going to open a dance school, that she is going to move to australia or that she leaves everything behind to make her dream true and become a photographer.  she is always there when you need her, and never just to say what you want to hear. she listens, is good at giving advice and is capable of asking it too. she is one of the few people i know that can spend a whole evening talking nonsense, or in depth about the human and divine. she is the best friend anyone could have”. ok, claudia, i cried a little when i read this… (well, marta i feel like huging you now too because you sound like the kind of person i would get along so well!)

imagine that it is 1985… what are you doing? i was 9 then, so i was probably playing with my dolls or with my nephews. i became an aunt at 7, and to me it was a responsibility i had to take seriously. i was playing with them all the time because we spent weekends together at the family’s farmhouse. so you could also find me chasing some animal or insect…

in three words… can you describe to me your photography style? this is the hardest question claudia! i don’t even know if i have a style yet, but i guess light, simple and tenderness are the words that come to my mind…

let’s say i love photography (that is not hard at all to imagine!) and i just had a baby… what do you think will make me choose you to take pictures of my baby? i think the main reason would be the attention to detail, but i asked a client i had two months ago and this is what she said: “i chose you because i fell in love with your work. and then, after meeting you i knew i had been right. the way you treat babies is incredibly tender and sweet. the result, those images, speak for themselves. they are spectacular. and i will be forever grateful. the props, the hats, bows, blankets, and every detail that makes your work something that very few people achieve, that you can look at them several times and never get tired. instead, every time you like them more.” and translating this was very, very embarrassing… (awwee, sweeet!)

what would be your next step as a photographer? i am not sure because there are many things i want to do and there are many steps to climb… but mainly i would love to be able to rent a bigger studio. next year will probably be in the one in which i start mentoring and offering online workshops. but my biggest challenge is to take risks and try new things, let my imagination fly so i can offer unique  images to my clients. there are several more things that are just dreams at this point…

who are your favorite photographers? lately i enjoy more than anything positive images and i can hardly look at the darker ones. so in my line of work, i love the work of  elizabeth messina, barb uil, ashley skjaveland, kristen cook and amy wenzel… but i could go on and on!

i honestly feel like flying to madrid to meet this girl! she sounds really sweet and a fabulous person to hand out with and talk for hours… asides from that, i love her images, the way she works with her baby clients… they all look so peaceful and sweet. marta has her {website}, where if you live in spain can explore her work better and perhaps hire her for a shoot, her {professional blog}, her {personal blog}… designed by me, and you can also find her on {facebook}!

images: courtesy of marta schmidt