Greetings, all!

This year, I was not in SC for the annual fireworks on the bay and the beach, but I did get to spend some time with great friends here in MN for the holiday. We kept it low key [my personal favorite] and climbed on the roof and sat and watched all the neighbors and the local high school shoot off their lot. Fun times fun times!

Here is some documentation of the night's lights.

Enjoy!


The neighbors were very cooperative in being my silhouette models :)


I found The Southern Cross in the Northern Hemisphere sky!!!
...Actually it was the aftermath of a firework, but it DID look like The Cross, which I though was pretty cool.


A star? A plane? no, it's!---... a firework as it's bursting :) (that was corny I know)

-- ok I think the rest can explain themselves...

















-- and what would The 4th be without... Watermelon! yum yum yum.



Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!!!

lovelove.

I'm missing my coast today. Missing the beach and it's helpful beauty. So just thought of sharing some of my favorite shots. I've posted some of these photos before - forgive the repetition. enjoy :)


dawn patrol is one of my favorite times


I think this was post-Haley's Commit meteor shower last year. one of the better sunrises I've had the pleasure of shooting.


post meteor shower #2


winter - beginning of '10.


I love the worn look of piers. such a great subject


this little guy was my company one morning...wanted my scone. it was so funny.


4th of July '09 - nothing like fireworks on the beach. love it.


surfer watching - a favorite type of people watching of mine.


I've had this photo for about 5 years, but it never gets old. I love the gulls.


a rainy evening earlier this year. taken with my phone and the quality is horrible, but it's one of my favorite shots. I love the serenity it carries. plus, I just happened to have this nifty little black and white umbrella with me and I put enough effort into trying to take a picture around it blowing away every second!!!
haha it was fun. I laughed with myself a lot that afternoon.

I liked sifting through all these and re-finding different ones - they brought a smile to my face.

hope they make you smile as well. Go visit a beach somewhere for me!!!


lovelove.

These are from a progressive shoot of the post-Haley's Comment Meteor Shower sunrise last year in October. Didn't remember I had them till I found them on my external. They brought a definition of beauty back to mind and reminded me to slow down this morning and 'smell the roses', if you will. Hope you enjoy!








Shot: Canon Rebel xti, ISO 200, F/5.6, 1/800, 20-90mm lens [w/ tripod]
[focal length approx. 57mm]. slight contrast adjustments.

I may have said this already, but at the end of last year, I asked God how He was going to top last year for me, because last year was just so great, and I fell like He looked at me, chuckled, and said "Poof... your life just got hard and complicated and awesome. now go!". The challenges I'm currently facing are completely God given and completely beyond my previous experiences or previous comfort zones.

At the end of last year, I felt like God was telling me to go to Photography school in Montana. I had been contemplating starting Tech before I went to Africa, but I could never acquire a peace about it. Mom always told me to follow my peace, so I didn't do it (right move, I believe). I resolved, once the new year rang in, to call the financial aid company and apply for a $13,000 loan to put me through photography school that was less than 6 months away. In the same day, I got denied the loan, just like that, and things began falling apart in my head.
God had begun, at the end of last year, to impress upon me that, in this year, I was now going to have to take what I'd learned throughout my short little life experiences and begin applying it to life situations. I began noticing more and more examples of faith and the power it holds and the need for it. Through all this, and through many other conversations, God brought to my attention the need for me to strengthen my faith. He told me I would need it for the life He has for me and it would begin with this year.

And so, here I am, I've just gotten denied the means of getting to school and I have no idea what to do, because I feel very strongly that it's what God told me to do and now I have no way to go! And then the light bulb comes on, and here I am, realizing that I'm relying on the works of man to fulfill a calling God
has spoken.

SO.. all this to say, ever since my dad told me I shouldn't send in the $50 registration fee or the $500 tuition deposit until I knew I could get the money and then I got denied that loan, I've realized this isn't going to come about by my own doing. I sent in the application, got accepted, and last Monday sent in my $500 non refundable deposit. I feel that, if I don't do this, I'm robbing God of a chance to glorify Himself. It doesn't send much glory his way to say, "yes, He told me to do it, but I didn't have the money, so I got scared and backed out, but I'm sure He would've provided had I done it...".
I don't know where this money is coming from, but I cannot describe this peace, which leads me to the conclusion it's from Him. I shouldn't have it, I'm broke, but I do, and so I'm acting. I want to cry sometimes when I think of the patience and perseverance I'll have to exercise in the next few months, it's never been my strong point, but I feel like, if I don't do it, I'll always stay in this comfort zone.
All that to say, I have to have $3,500 by April 1st and only God knows where it's coming from. I have to have another $3,500 by May 1st and again, no idea how I'll get it. And, once again, I'll have to have an approximate addition of $5,000 for living, and for travel up there, back, and while I'm there. This all is beyond my finite self and I'm a bit nervous.
So this is my life right now. At some point soon, I'm hoping to be back in Africa for a while. One of my major arguments when He told me to go to school was that I didn't want to be in debt afterwards because I wanted to go back to Africa and maybe other places. This is when that foreign concept of God supplying all my needs according to His riches popped into my head and heart. So this is what I'm banking on (pun intended :]).

God is good, I cannot forget that. He also has a plan and if I'm walking in love with Him, He will guide me down this path, however littered and bumpy it may be, and He will provide the means of achieving all that He's meant for me to be. His word says "FAITH comes by HEARING and HEARING by the WORD.". I have to delve into His Word in order to keep this mindset. This, I shall do.

"Against all hope, Abraham HOPED... WITHOUT WEAKENING his faith, HE FACED...being FULLY persuaded that God had THE POWER" - Romans 4:17-21

Word.

I found this picture in my external earlier. It's from a trip I took to DC last year. Every once in a while, I'll run across a picture that makes me do a double take, because (tooting no horns) it's a good picture. And then an 8th of a second later, I remember "oh yeah, I took that" and it makes me feel good.

My mom is a photographer. She did more before us kids were born and when we were little, but she still likes to fiddle with it and take weddings here and there. She still loves it. I've had people tell me that my desire to pursue photography wasn't my own dream, that I was pulling off of my mother's dreams because I was afraid of my own. Those people didn't realize the passion that I have inside of me for it. I've never thought I was good, just okay I suppose, but people really love my work.
For years now, every time I would look at one of my pictures, I would get this little ache at the point of my ribcage right in front. Not a happy ache (if those exist), but a sort of longing, and I didn't know where it was coming from. I've prayed a lot about it and I know now that it's because I feel like I don't have the talent or means of pursuing this passion. Like that ache that a person gets in their old age while thinking about what could have been, except I'm on this side, thinking of what I want to do, and not knowing if I would ever be good enough...

Good enough. a statement that has always plagued me. Satan knows my weak points and he uses them to the max. I love photography and I love that I have a God-given eye for it, and he constantly tries to take that away from me. I've decided that I'm going to photography school at RMSP out west this summer. I can't express to you just how terrified I am. Tuition like you wouldn't believe, and it all coming out of my pocket, moving 2,500 miles away from home for 3 months. No turning back. God knows I can't do this on my own. And, when this summer is through, everyone will know it wasn't me who made me succeed. I think He wants it that way. He gets the glory. And I'm fine with that. I'm just scared. The devil is trying to get into my head and make me back out and I can't let him. It's a hard battle to fight. But God is good, all the time.

Jim Brandenburg is one of the lead photographers for National Geographic. He's my inspiration. He's also a believer, and I love that God has placed him in such an amazing position as he has. He has the job I've always-ALWAYS-wanted. Maybe I'll be there someday.

Look at his stuff and be amazed - http://www.jimbrandenburg.com
Read his stuff too, it's just as good - http://jimbrandenburg.blogspot.com/

..maybe I'll be there one day.