Wednesday, April 30, 2008

my first *official* senior picture shoot!

... i promised it in a post about a month and a half ago, and here it is: my first official senior picture shoot!
my victim was a lovely young lady named candy, plus her boyfriend ryan.

she has beautiful eyes...



this tree is on ryan's family property. they own a nursery.





they were so cute together...





this barn is the most awesomely cool thing, like, ever!



yes, those are bushes growing out of the gutters. :)
and not only was the barn awesome, but ryan found the "handy nursery co." sign...







i mean seriously, how cool is that?!

oh... and then there was the tractor...




we had fun. :)

Monday, April 28, 2008

another vestal...

last week i took some photos of tabitha ... yay, another vestal!
of course, i have some of sammi too. :)

playing dress up with her mother's furs and pearls...



flowers... :)



this is a lucky shot - when they laughed, they tilted their heads the same way!



sammi - trying on her prom dress... and curtains



doesn't she have the cutest glasses???





click on any photo to see larger (or to see more).

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

a strange weekend...

this has been a weekend of bizarre experiences - with a common thread of music.

friday morning
-i played piano for the funeral of a man i didn't know. he was great with kids, and he died of a heroine overdose. the two songs they had sung during the service were "amazing grace" and "i did it my way". as i improvised exit music after the service, i found myself subconsciously combining the themes of the two songs in harmony.
a life and death of juxtaposition...

friday evening
-grace's hispanic sister church, comunidad cristiana, is hosting a cinco de mayo celebration (on may 4th, of course) and i am playing flute with their worship team. i had my first practice with the group on friday night. i am the only non-spanish speaker, and one of the two fluent english speakers in a group of about 12. needless to say, practice was entirely in spanish, with very occasional rough translation for the clueless blonde flute player.
but we all speak music.
and more importantly, we all speak worship.
stereotypes and language barriers dissipate when believers from different nationalities, cultures, backgrounds, and even languages come together to worship our lord ... a foretaste of things to come.

saturday morning
i had the pleasure of providing piano accompaniment for my young friend daniel vestal's trumpet performance debut. we played "no. 3 ballad of the yellow sun".
after we finished i decided to listen to the performance of several other middle schoolers.

and that was when it happened - the strangest thing of all.

i ran into my wonderful piano teacher, who taught me from age 6-14. she is probably 85ish, and i have not seen her in at least 3 years. she was accompanying one student that day ... the daughter of the lady who stopped to help me when i was hit by a car.
i have always wondered about this woman - she stopped, held me as i lay gasping on the asphalt (providing the perfect motherly presence right when i needed it), and disappeared into anonymity - until saturday.
so on saturday, i reconnected with my wonderful teacher, and my anonymous lifesaver.

i'm still recovering from my weekend.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

waxing



at 17 years old one is waxing, growing, learning…
the sad fallacy of an "adoles-centric" society such as ours is the notion that 17, 21, or 25 is arrival, the fullness of glory from which the rest of life is a slow and painful wane.

youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. the end of every episode is the end of the world. but the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged.
-g. k. chesterton

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

opinion, please!

ok, i need help.
there are two pictures posted below. (actually two edits of the same picture.)
joel and i can't agree on which is better, so he challenged me to post them both to my various pic-posting sites, not specify which i like and which he likes, and see what y'all think.

i'm trusting in the artistic sensibilities of the internet, here - please let me know which one you like better - and please like the correct one!






click on either photo to view it larger

Monday, April 14, 2008

this is not a photoblog

and i'm kind of dismayed that it's turning into one.
i'm trying to keep this an "update blog with photos" instead of a "photo blog" ... but i'm so busy taking photos that i never have time to blog!

so ... here are some photos that i took of heidi thomas yesterday. she's having a daughter in august - their first baby and this was the first chance i've had to take mommy shots of her! (or anybody, for that matter...)







Monday, April 7, 2008

fun stuff

not having much time to blog lately, so here's another "random catch-up blog."
good thing i'm starting to like them. (hope y'all are too...)

~discovered a group called the lee boys. dude - these guys rock. seriously.

~had friends from california staying at our house over the weekend. david and briana just got married in november and they may be moving up here in a couple months for school and work. we hope so!

~joel's back in school. he's gone mon-thurs nights and saturday mornings. he's taking classes that he enjoys a lot more than last term, which is so nice: more biology (animal systems and ecology) and precalc2: geometry. i sure was getting used to having him home in the evenings...

~we're entering jungle season, and our lawnmower (which we bought last year) is broken! the grass is getting quite photogenic, though i have no idea what potential buyers must think. (there haven't been any recently ... maybe they're scared away by our yard.)

~i'm thinking of taking a class, or something ... the only problem is that i can't decide what to do. there are so many options.

~more ants ... need i even say it. :P

in the light

i'm totally on a light kick with my photos.
and a retro/vintage kick.

70s hair

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i didn't start out liking that photo ... but now i do.

light music

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this picture of daniel makes me think of music every time i look at it. it really makes me happy.

in the light

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i keep trying to find a life
on my own, apart from you
i am the king of excuses
i’ve got one for every selfish thing i do

what’s going on inside of me?
i despise my own behavior
this only serves to confirm my suspicions
that i’m still a man in need of a savior

i wanna be in the light
as you are in the light
i wanna shine like the stars in the heavens
oh, lord be my light and be my salvation
cause all i want is to be in the light
all i want is to be in the light

yeah … i know dc talk is outdated, stereotyped 90’s pop-ccm, but i will always love this song.
romans 7:21-25

Thursday, April 3, 2008

the tale of the mean horse

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so gather round, ye merrye bande
hark, to hear this tale
of a boy, a horse,
a saddle, (of course)
and a woman o'er whom fate would prevail

"to grandparents' house" the woman cried
and set off, her family in tow
o'er hill and plain
'til at last yonder lane
to grandparents', up did they go!

'twas a farm, with land, fields, and beasts
yon hills stretched far and wide
and there were horses
beautiful horses
(the woman's weakness, though she vainly would hide)

animal magnetism drew the son
the woman not far behind
down to the horse pen
and then, they went in
and then, they wanted to ride

the boy hopped aboard his sturdy steed
with a nervous whinny (from which, who knows?)
the mother however,
a more complicated endeaver,
required a boost, a lift, a push, finally she rose

into a shaky seat, and with a nervous laugh
(which sounded much like aformentioned whinny)
they cantored off as one
the mother and her son

and then(ny)...

the mother bounced once, twice, thrice, and flew
off the equine, and awkwardly into
the hill (or plain) either way, 'twas plain
the mother was due for no small pain

sitting on ice, later that day
she remarked, "the saddle wasn't on all the way"
to which grandfather replied, perceptively
"yeah, well, y'ain't as young as you used to be."

and so, thus ends my merrye story
of the woman's fall from former glory
i hope you've laughed until you're hoarse
at the tale, neigh, the tail, of the nasty, mean horse!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

sammi and stephanie

admidst the snow, sleet, hail, slush, bitter wind, and plain old rain last week ... i did manage to get in one photo shoot with a couple friends.

sammi and stephanie have been best friends since middle school or before - they're seniors now. we had so much fun tromping around in the mud and sleet, i in a light sweatshirt, the girls in short sleeved shirts and dresses.
we got totally numb, then came inside to some of kim's (sammi's mom) sweet-and-sour chicken.

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sammi's camp name is "flutterby" - can you see why???

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stephanie's camp name is "loverly" - she loves audrey hepburn.

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her myspace says that she's "living in the wrong era"

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sammi has the cutest freckles - even on her lips!

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by this time it was hailing fiercely - so we sought refuge under a tree.

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but that got boring fast, so we ditched the tree and played in the hail!

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:)