A Glimpse Into our Trip to Europe.

Looking forward to sharing all about our trip to Europe visiting all of these AMAZING places:

Vella, Switzerland.
Paris, France.
Vienna, Austria.
Tuscany, Italy.Venice, Italy

Just a bit of fun Gandalf

I just spent the past 5 minutes sinking deep into despair over the thought of not having access to someone like my sister during our budding career. I'd say that those of you who have followed us on our journey will know that Sara has been subjected to shoot after shoot after shoot... after shoot. For expermiental purposes of course... and perhaps for the relief of being able to express ourselves freely without having to worry about our performance or even being the best we can be. With her, we can just be. As a token of our appreciation... we've left a special surprise at the end of this post... you may want to get that one printed for your portfolio sis. 

A Good Summer

This post is full of lots of insignificant images of my summer! If you aren't interested in my personal life and are just looking for the photography goods, skip on past and whatever you do, don't click "SEE MORE IMAGES"! :)

P.S. This post has a lot of pictures and my blog is a little stressed out by it. The links are all working so if they didn't load, try refreshing the page.

A tribute to the love of my life.

Well, its that time of the year again: our anniversary. Jonathan and I made it to six years on August 3rd, which truly is a miracle. We have quite a crazy story... and looking back at myself as an 18 year old girl who rushed into marriage, I am so thankful that are stupidity actually worked in our favor! We normally don't tell our story, because everyone freaks out and.... it is just plain weird.... but here goes.

Jonathan and I met in Lanai, an island populated by 3,000 people. I can guarantee you, neither of us even considered the possibility of finding our "soulmate" on that island. It was decidedly the farthest thing from both of our minds. In fact, both of our hearts were elsewhere and in other relationships on the mainland. We met in January, and truly disliked each other right off the bat. I thought he was completely arrogant (and racist), and he thought I was a spoiled rich girl (I was completely broke, to clarify). Needless to say, we were both more than happy to go our separate ways. The only problem was that he was the youth minister at the church, and I was a youth. So, our contact was inevitable, but we remained cordial in our differences, he was my leader after all. Eventually, on an island that small, you run out of not only things to do, but people to hang out with. One night in April we actually allowed ourselves to have a conversation, and I realized, he's not SO bad. We hung out in groups every day for the next two weeks... then one night we did the unthinkable: we held hands.

Now you must understand, I am in the care of the 22 year old youth minister as one of his "youth" at age 17. This was not a good situation, especially on a small island where news travels faster than the speed of sound. So Jonathan did the "right" thing and shared our budding relationship with our Pastor whom suggested we take the next several days and pray about our new direction.

Jonathan showed up on my doorstep avoiding eye contact at all costs. He shoved his hands deep down into his pockets and kicked the rocks by his feet. I just stared. He finally started mumbling about something or other, but he couldn't quite get it out. Finally he came out with it and said "they think we should pray about it...." Completely confused, I asked him what we were praying about and he continued, "you know about Mmm..m..m" All of the sudden it dawned on me what he was trying to say. This guy is officially a lunatic. We held hands once, have been semi-friends for a whopping two weeks and he wants to talk about the "M" word? I asked him if he was talking about Marriage, got the nod I was expecting, and just started laughing. At this point Jonathan started nervously laughing with me, not knowing what to do. After a few seconds of debating if I should leave the island to get away from these apparently crazy people, I then get this evil thought that this could actually be fun. As they say in Pride and Prejudice "a girl likes to be crossed in love a little every now and again". I decided to humor the boy and have a little excitement in my life. Why not dedicate the next three days to such a preposterous idea?

I'll spare you the details of the next three days because there are far too many to list, but I will tell you that by the third day I was completely FREAKED out by all of the signs that encouraged the thought that we were destined to be. Trying to interpret if any of this could actually be genuine, I asked God for one final sign that this was to be my husband. I really thought I had God there. I mean how often does God jump when you say 'jump'? There was no way God would listen to my demands and that would leave me no choice but to flee from this terrifying prospect of actually getting married to someone I hardly know. It was Sunday morning, I was standing in church, and in the middle of worship (not five minutes before I demanded a sign), this respectable woman comes up to me and says "that thing that you have been asking God... he says YES" (P.S. no one has ever approached me like that prior or since). At this point, I just laughed again. This was so completely physchotic, but never had anything been so clear. This really was the man that I was destined to be with. Sure, he wasn't bad to look at... but defintely not my bleach blonde, green eyed surfer boy that I had always dreamed of, and I definitely wasn't in love. Jonathan and I snuck to the side of church and had the most ackward converstaion of my life. I told him I guess we were supposed to get married. From that moment on our lives were flooded with the most incredible love for one another. We started planning our wedding, Jonathan proposed in May and we got married 3 months later on August 3rd. I find him incredibly handsome :)

I guess that's where the restrospect comes in. We were SO excited to have found our purpose in one another, that we said why wait? We knew we were in love, we knew we were getting married... what is the point of waiting??? The answer didn't come until the first year of marriage when we finally *began* to get to know eachother. Two people with two different ways of life and two completely different backgrounds. In hindsight, wow, thank God our stupidity of "Fools Rush In" actually survived the deathly hollows of marriage.

Jonathan and I are so completly in love. He is my perfect fit and knows me better than I know myself. I didn't know if I believed in soulmates....  until I found him. We have had some trying times, but God has been so faithful and has always brought us back to the fact that he brought us together... we are so glad he did.

Jonathan, my life would be so incomplete without you. You are the joy in my life and my reason to love. I am so proud of the man that you have become. There is no one else in the world I'd rather spend every beat of the rest of my life with. Thank you for loving me more than I've ever dreamed or deserved. Happy Anniversary... we made it six years!!! CACCCHUUUGA!

Our wedding was about as traditional as they come. Poor girl, I had no idea what I even liked I was so young.

Mothers Day

I have to pay tribute to the most amazing mother in the world. If you know her, I know you would agree, because of this reason: we are all blessed to know her. Not only is she an amazing mom, but she is one of those people that you find yourself truly blessed to even know. Certainly the one who can lift anyone's spirits with her one of a kind laugh, and the the one you feel comforted in confiding in. Her life is a story, yes of battles. Battles fought, but battles won. And here we have the opportunity, to hold one day above the rest, and give honor where honor is due. Thanks mom for being the model of Christ in my life, I love you more than you know!

Here is my mom as a little girl, I wish I knew her then :)

And here is one of the two of us last mothers day. This will have to do since we are ocean's apart this year.

A Merry Christmas after all...

My sister and her beautiful children just joined us PERMANENTLY on the island of Maui. You may recognize these beautiful children from my Missouri days and I am sure you will see there faces in abundance these coming months. I am so thrilled we can be apart of there lives and am especially grateful we were able to spend Christmas with them. Here is a quick session in my driveway just before we took off for the Christmas Eve service. Mom and Dad... do you notice anything missing in these pictures??? hint. hint.

And for those of you wondering, poor Jonathan had to work :( :( :( but he joined us later on in the evening. YAYYY.

P.S. See if you can tell which one loooooooooooves getting their picture taken... this is a tough one.

P.P.S Every time I upload images it takes away a significant amount of the vibrance and color in the original images. This post is trying a different method that may or may not epically fail. Feel free to help a gal out and leave feedback if the images look better or worse this way on your computer! Thanks friend.

It has been some time since I've done a self portrait. I have seen various one-a-week self portrait projects that I find fascinating... though I can't quite say I'm disciplined enough to do so. Yet, I still enjoy the challenge and the uniqueness of photographing oneself. It's quite odd you know being on the other side of the lens. Every once in a while the artist has to become the canvas.. it reveals just a glimpse of one's soul. I decided to display my silliness for all of you to see. Until, we meet again in another round of self portraits.

Cape Cod

So far we've only made it to Cape Cod... but the best is yet to come. Sure is nice to have photography and family time.

Meet my new best friend...

So, I have been searching for a camera bag for... too long. I could not justify myself to buy the famous photography bags that rule the market (I won't mention any names), because they seemed (a) scary looking and (b) extremely over priced. I have spent the last year and half make-shifting my bags by buying my own velcro and attempting to make something semi functional. Well that got old fast. I am happy to say that I have made my first wise decision in regards to photography. I have purchased a camera bag. And not just any camera bag, but the best one on the market (did I mention they are totally underpriced?). I discovered Porteen Gear through the artist network Etsy. The best thing about these bags is they are all handmade (though you would never know it). So without further ado, I present to you, my new best friend...

Isn't she wonderful?? She's a bohemian goddess... I'm pretty sure. I love the personalized pockets in the front...

and the fact that the ugly, yet essential clip is strategically placed on the inside of the bag flap... no one will even know its a camera bag folks...

Comfortably fits two lenses in addition to the center space which would be holding my camera and another lens. There is also room for an Ipad so I guess that means I need to get one??


Another great body shot...

Close up on the wonderful paisley-ish pattern...

And it comes with a wonderful little pouch perfect for backup batteries or other misc loose items...

So if you can't tell yet, I'm pretty stoked about my new bag. Don't be jealous though, you can buy one too :)

To blog or not to blog?

That is the real question. This blog has been used strictly as a photoblog, and those of you who follow, will know that I rarely write more than a line or two. Typically I write as little as I can get away with, while attempting to give the viewer enough information to appreciate the photos. But how much information is too much and how little is not enough?? Believe it or not, I actually quite enjoy to write. At least I did. I can't say I do it much anymore; more than likely because I am so consumed with the unspoken language that photographs continuously communicate with my soul. I mean who needs words when these still frames of life can capture so eloquently what words could never dare to capture? On the other hand, who needs the photograph when the writer has so positively defined every touch, every breath, every last drop of unspoken glory. When measured against one another, writing and photography both have equal power to entice, to excite, to imagine, to breathe... to know. They both can enrapture you in a world of their own, and make you long desperately to know more. I may, perhaps, use this blog to experiment a variety of writing styles. Or perhaps, I will continue to take the easy way out, holding dear to what I know and fleeing from those opportunities that expose my inner soul... those opportunities such as writing. And not just writing, but writing to an unknown audience. Whom shall my thoughts be revealed to today? Is it the accidental web surfer, the faithful encourager, the silent admirer, or is it simply myself? Perhaps the greater fear is not of openly revealing an intimacy through writing, but the fear that the revealing may go unnoticed. That words may fall on deaf ears, with no one to care of their fortune. Either way, today I felt the desire to write. Today I desire to capture more than a still frame, but a breath of my soul. Right or wrong, take it or leave it, I suppose this is me.

Boston: Day 1

Ok... so maybe we are a little camera happy. Know, however, that we were quite justified because it was a photo-date.

Us in the elevator...

Look at the little bug in the drop of water...so sad.

This is his "don't steal my camera" look. I have one too but his is way better.




Jonathan's views...

Is this not the cutest picture ever? I've never met such well socialized squirrels.