What A Sunday

Church service was good this morning. Grant, a fellow colleague whom I've known since elementary school, gave the sermon this morning. He's interning under our senior Pastor... He's grown so much since I've known him that it makes me forget he's younger than me. He gave a lesson on faith. I've always known faith to having belief in things you can't see, particularly, God... and as Grant was introducing his topic, The Kry's "Take My Hand" song came to mind: "Faith is to be sure of what you hope for in the evidence of things not seen". And though I grew up in a Christian home, I needed that lesson on faith again for the umpteenth time.

This week I've been struggling with being productive mentally. I wanted to be busy to keep my mind off things that I've been dealing with. I did A LOT of editing on my pictures and even looked up old photos to edit now that I have Apple's great editing software, Aperture (LOVE it, by the way). I did a pretty good job at keeping my mind busy for the most part to avoid issues I wanted to keep at bay. I kept thinking and day dreaming of other things I could do, and it mainly worked. But I knew I wasn't satisfied; I had the icky feeling of knowing I'm going to have to deal with this sooner or later.

Grant's message reminded me of what faith is and isn't. It was credited to us as righteousness; though we don't deserve such righteousness, we did... even in our most unrighteousness. Faith needs to be cultivated because faith is dead without actions. James 2:22 speaks of faith as a lifestyle and obeys and responds to the commandments of Him whom we faith in. Though I thought I was keeping busy, I wasn't productive with my time as much as I could have been; in a very selfish way, I still wanted to wallow in my self pity and continue to keep my issues instead of letting them go. But the driving point of his sermon? Faith isn't lazy. I have kinda big problems in this area. I'm not lazy in the way that I do nothing. I just don't put much effort into "faithing". I just kinda let it be and go with the flow of things, but I've come to believe that allowing things to flow isn't having faith that everything will be ok. I tend to worry, stress, and lower my self-esteem while I'm in the process of something.

I sat on that for a bit earlier tonight as I was folding my overdue laundry on the "to-do" list.

So my epiphany came to me: I need to put some effort into my faith and actually faith through a knowledge of redemption, love, and hope.

I know Christianity seems like such an unpopular "category" to be placed in nowdays, but I'm taking the name and going to strive to make it what it is.... not what the label entails as it has from the surface... and I can only pray to genuinely show the relevance of it from here on out, that its not another categorized religion but a lifestyle =]

Anyhow, I don't have a great transition into this next section at all because I am mainly exhausted but here's a change of pace of blogging...

Pictures! Like I said, I did A LOT of editing. Mostly couple pictures. The more I edited, the more I fell in love with them. =] And yes, they are from the previous shoots, so I hope you're not too bored with them just yet..... And hopefully I'll have newer ones up in the next week or two to come!

Here are my favs.... Enjoy!


By the way, I LOVE these heels! I actually got these for her and have a pair of my own!





Seriously, love the cuteness of this couple!










Okay, okay... last couple for the night....

Intro...duction??

So I thought maybe I'd be able to get to bed, but I just can't seem to. It's about 3:30 in the morning....... central time... and I don't know what it is, but I'm wanting to write.... whatever it is, as long as its writing. I realize that as a newbie to "blogger", I haven't necessarily written an introduction to myself or the reasoning behind this account on blogger. So here's my attempt:

I've always loved pictures; the way they're framed, the poses of the subjects, the candidness of the subjects, effects that can be made in the photograph, etc. But I just recently started taking photography more serious when I asked to do photos of my sister and her fiance just before they were engaged. I knew he was going to propose, and I really just wanted to take photos of just anyone and anything, and knew that she loved having pictures taken of herself. So when I found out her, then um... "non-titled boyfriend" was going to propose, I casually asked her if I could do pictures of them that weekend her "non-titled boyfriend" was going to be in town (from the west coast). To my surprise, the pictures turned out pretty good for a Kodak Easyshare! We ended up using one of the photos for their "save the date" cards. Yes, that was my baby! And from then on, I've had more and more desire to do photos and capture such moments and personalities....

And then I was talked into getting a blogger account from.... "Sassy Pants", I think is her name on here... haha. Yes, she IS given an actual name and not one that consisted of such a personality and breeches. So here I am partly with pictures that I hope may inspire you just as much as they inspire me, and mainly also with hope to gain better insight into photography through the many photographers and their blogs.... I've seen a few and am amazed at the differences of perspectives in each photographer's photos. Any feedback/advice would be greatly appreciated!

And on with the introduction to myself... I am about 4'11, brown eyes, black short hair, and love long walks on the beach.... ooh, whoops, not one of those sites. Hah! Lame, I know, but its about 4 in the morning... I'm 55% here!

I've always just blogged on myspace and facebook, but have since stopped writing much of anything at all really and posted for anyone to read. Its funny, this blogger account feels as if my topic should just stick to photography and nothing of the like of my life. But it already looks like I'm becoming a little more personal on here...

I love any good music and have been more into recommendations lately than my very own "tastes" (not that its a narrow one at all), which kinda says a lot about my personality; I am a pretty open minded person, for the most part. Before this reach for photography, I dreamed of being a singer/songwriter/music manager/producer--music something in the music industry, but the writing seemed more appropriate for my confidence, though there's much experience in singing in my shower and with my car radio station =] I still hope one day to be part of the music scene, but until then, I am currently an over-timed psychology student working in the dental profession with a business emphasis. Wow, I never realized how broad of a spectrum I'm on profession wise. Hmm..

Anyway, I've lost track of where I was going, if ever I was going anywhere...

However, I cannot promise my life will posted here as often as it has been in my first week using blogger, but I hope you continue checking up on me just in case.... and if ever I have anymore long posts, I hope and pray that it is way more useful and encouraging than this introductory.

Happy reading and looking!

Late Night Post...

But I had a nap earlier already, so I'm good to be up at 2:30am.......

Here are more posted up pictures of the previous shoots I've done..... including my own... hehe. I've fixed these ones up so some of them may be a repeat with a few enhancements.....



Future Bride-to-be (also of whom yours truly is the maid of honor! =] )




LOVED these colors on my nieces against the dull grass; as dead as Minnesota looks, it turned out great for the shoot!




He is sooo adorable! Got a little cranky after just a few shots due to nap time, but I've got him on the list to re-take. Can't wait!




Tais tais & Meya... "You my bes-fren for-ever"



When I first started photographing this couple (my baby brother and his gf), I had to admit, it was a bit awkward, but they are such a cute couple and it shows in pictures... Just a couple of my favs:



And last but not least, this one reminds me of that one couple merrily almost tipsy from a night of drinks downtown... BUT I assure you, they didn't have anything to drink that night; I was there.. hehe... Such a loving couple they are...

Yay For Amateurs!

Psalm 111:10

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding."


And I am learning this all over again...

It's Wednesday

It is hump day, and I'm feeling neutral about my week; not sure if I care if it feels like its dragging or flying by. I've been experiencing and learning new things just in the past 3 months of this new year. So many changes, yet so much familiarity. Its has definitely been an interesting year so far, but I'm not complaining; that's sooo '08 =]

I finally got a few pictures posted up after 2 weeks of returning from my spring break in lovely downtown Denver, Colorado. It was a nice change of piece of mindset. I went without my family; my usual travel party. I decided that instead of working like I always do during spring break, I'd book a trip and go with one other friend in place of my sisters who were unable to accompany me.

She and I ended up staying at the Westin Hotel... one of the great 4 star hotels in downtown... on the 17th floor of 19 total.









We walked into the room, pushed the dark green window curtains that kept the view of the city at bay, to the left and to the right, revealing a scenic city ready to be explored.






Breath taking when you're gazing into the distance of the city lights (as polluting as they can be).




My bed was comfortable for only the first night, and then I missed my very own. It wasn't firm enough, and the pillows, feather stuffed, seemed to suck my head too deep into their grasps. It was uncomfortable, but such an exciting feeling to be in a 4 star hotel, I didn't dare ask for different pillows.

And like any other tourist in a different city, I spent the a good part of my vacation week walking the streets, shopping in the shops along the 16th Street Mall, and visiting the art museums on certain given days (they were closed Mondays).



















My friend and I also rented a car for a day for a drive to Estes Park, which was about an hour northwest of the city.









GORGEOUS mountainous views.....































I've always loved Colorado; mainly for its mountain views and clean city streets, but I discovered something on the very last morning I spent gazing out the window of room #1721 in the Westin Hotel.







If ever I find a way of growing a money tree in my backyard.... I'm sooo going to own a home out here.