by Shelly | Jun 17, 2014 | senior gals, senior portraits |
Pretty Fun, that’s how I’d describe Cayla’s senior portrait session.
There’s no doubt that Cayla is drop-dead gorgeous, but she was also so much fun to work with as we laughed and played our way through a recent afternoon.
How I wish I could be all chit-chatty about this lovely girl, but I’m so far behind on my blogging right now that I’m just proud to be sharing her photographs.
A picture really is worth a thousand words, so I’ll just let them speak for themselves.
Scroll right down …
slowly because you won’t want to miss a thing.
In only a few short weeks Cayla will head out of town to start her college experience at Texas State…
but in the meantime, I know that she will be creating smiles and memories for her family at home and on vacation … wherever she goes!
CONGRATULATIONS on your graduation from Taylor High School, Cayla. I know that college will bring you a great experience.
Enjoy — and soak up every joyful moment and every new opportunity. You’ve got this!
by Shelly | Apr 16, 2014 | musician, senior guys, senior portraits |
Ahhhh Travis, even though he was the very first senior from the class of 2014 to walk through my doors, for some reason I am just now getting around to blogging his portrait session.
Mea Culpa! What can I say?
This is one of the most fantastic guys I know. Not only is he smart, talented, creative, and very handsome, he gets extra points in my book for hanging out in the kitchen and visiting with us one day when his mom had me and a few other women over for coffee. That’s one of the bravest things a guy can do, and I’ve gotta hand it to him.
APPLAUSE APPLAUSE APPLAUSE
Musical talent?
He’s got it. Not only did I get a nice guitar serenade during our session, Travis also plays violin in the top orchestra at Katy High School — a group that performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City earlier this year. Take all that musical talent and tie it in with his love of steampunk and a little time to play around in the studio, and we came up with some mighty fun images for him, don’t you think?
I also LOVE LOVE LOVE his sense of style. With his suspenders and bow tie, Travis joins a long list of notable leaders, celebrities, and commentators who could probably run the world if they chose to.
He’s in good company!
He also volunteers with an EMS team and in a clinical setting at one of our local hospitals.
I’m beyond impressed with Travis and so excited to see what life after graduation has in store for him. THRILLED that I got to be the one who created his senior portraits.
Congratulations, Travis!
by Shelly | Mar 21, 2014 | personal, special project |
NOTE: My blog has traditionally been all business, but for at least a little while it is going to become intensely personal. During Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, I am participating in a photo challenge. The way it works is that the organizers have given us a list of words, and every day we are supposed to take and share a picture based upon that word. Because I hardly ever do things the easy way, I am also attempting to write a devotional that goes with these pictures. I have not been very consistent, due to some craziness that we call LIFE , but with God’s help I will continue to write a few as I can. Last year I participated in a similar challenge. This link will take you to my 2013 Lenten challenge. This years challenge is entirely blog-based. This year the challenge is sponsored by Catholic Sistas.
Please pray for me and/ or bear with me, and if this isn’t your cup of tea, just keep on checking for portrait posts in between these challenges — or check back in after Easter.
SOLITUDE
I’ve started three or four times to write a devotional for the topic of SOLITUDE, and every time I just rehash all the same old things about being still and quiet and waiting for God to speak.
BLEAH….
I want a new and exciting solitude experience to share with the half dozen or so people who actually read these Lenten challenges –WHEN I even manage to get them written.
The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that there is nothing new under the sun, and I’m starting to think that my efforts in this challenge are all in vain. Maybe I am the one who should take a little time to be alone with God rather than to try and write about it.
God hasn’t given me anything new or particularly inspiring to write. But then, I haven’t TAKEN THE TIME to be still and listen to what He has to say. No wonder my brain is mushy.
Jesus often went off to a quiet place to pray, and I think that’s just one of many ways that he set a good example for us to follow.
He didn’t have the constant dinging, beeping, and vibrating vying for His attention that we’ve all become accustomed to with our smart phones and other techie devices, but he had crowds constantly pushing up against him clamoring just to touch His robe so that they could be healed. And he was so consumed with COMPASSION that he wanted to be available for every single one of them. It must have been exhausting for him. Still, he would step away from the crowds into a quiet cove of a garden or He would climb into a fishing boat and pushout onto the water for some peace and quiet.
For us, finding a quiet place to open our hearts and pray can be as simple – or as gut-wrenching—as turning off the smart phone.
Try it. It’s harder than it sounds … at first. Then we realize that texts, e-mails, phone calls can wait.
I’ve had a very busy chaotic past couple of weeks and the coming week doesn’t look much calmer, but I think that Sunday after we get home from church I will actually be able to go out into my backyard – just me and my little shovel, with a few tomato plants, and maybe a couple of flats of annuals.
That’s where God and I have our best conversations. He meets me where I am, but I have to clear the garbage out of my own head in order to keep from running right past Him.
So today, I pray that each of us has a few moments of quiet peaceful SOLITUDE so that we can hear and experience the very specific and personal blessings that he is holding in his hand to pour out onto our heads.
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. – Psalm 46:10
by Shelly | Mar 11, 2014 | personal, special project |
NOTE: My blog has traditionally been all business, but for at least a little while it is going to become intensely personal. During Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, I am participating in a photo challenge. The way it works is that the organizers have given us a list of words, and every day we are supposed to take and share a picture based upon that word. Because I hardly ever do things the easy way, I am also attempting to write a devotional that goes with these pictures. I will probably take the weekends off and will also quite likely miss a few days. Hopefully not too many. Last year I participated in a similar challenge. This link will take you to my 2013 Lenten challenge. This years challenge is entirely blog-based. This year the challenge is sponsored by Catholic Sistas.
Please pray for me and/ or bear with me, and if this isn’t your cup of tea, just keep on checking for portrait posts in between these challenges — or check back in after Easter.
REFLECTION
Maybe I’m weird, but I think it’s fun to look at reflections in warped shiny things. Things like spoons and bathtub faucets and magnifying mirrors. Well…. The older I get, maybe not so much the magnifying mirrors (SCARY), but you get the idea.
On one side of a spoon, your cheeks and nose get all huge and round while your chin and forehead disappear, and on the other side of the spoon your whole face puckers and turns upside down.
Go ahead
get a spoon.
I’ll be here all week.
What if we didn’t have decent mirrors, but all we had was spoons? We wouldn’t have a clue what we really looked like. Hmmmph. We wouldn’t even be too sure which end was up.
Back in the days that the books of our Bible were being written, they didn’t have good mirrors, just polished pieces of whatever metal was common in those days. Perhaps the best reflection a person would ever see of himself/herself was in very still clear water – until a fish swam by and messed up the whole thing.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he tries to explain that we have no clue how great God’s glory really is and what He has in store for us when we draw near to Him because we are looking at God through a spotty and warped piece of glass.
—
When I was a baby girl, my daddy who also happened to be my first photography instructor, took beautiful photographs of me. ZILLIONS of them. He would shoot a whole roll of film and run down the hill to my grandparents’ house where he had a darkroom, and he would develop them all. You should SEE my baby book! It’s embarrassing . . . but not in a bad way. Oh my it’s amazing!
Before too long, though, I entered my rebellious years where I thought everything that was connected with my parents was stupid. It got harder and harder for Dad to get decent photographs of me – and when he did, I didn’t even want to see them or believe that they were any good.
That’s a shame because nobody else cared enough to portray me like he did.
Over time, the only images I ever saw of myself were those taken by people who either lacked the skills or who didn’t care about the end result. Some of these people, I think, even got a charge out of embarrassing me. It wasn’t long before I started to see myself as an UGLY… scraggly . . .zit-faced . . . snaggletoothed . . . frizzy-haired . . . bow-legged . . . UNDESIREABLE — oh, and did I say UGLY girl. Math-skills and music talent eluded me too, do I felt fairly worthless.
YUK … who could EVER love a girl like THAT?
When we turn our back on God, our Father, we also turn our back on the beauty and blessings that He has in store for us.
Not too long ago I had a chance to swap headshots with a talented local photographer who is also a friend. Jayna Balcer took the time to really see ME. And yes . . . I still have big teeth, no chin,bow-legs, and frizzy hair — but she STILL made me look pretty dang good. And that picture, the little one in the middle DOES look like ME!
WHOAH!
What a shame that I only saw myself through a distorted lens of sinful rebellion for so long.
Slowly . . . oh so slowly, I am learning to feel comfortable in my own skin and to see God’s glory everywhere I look.
and because I am beginning to see Him, I am beginning — only just beginning to shine — spiritually. Forget the physical, it’s all getting wrinkled and droopy by now anyway.
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV
Dear Lord, please help me TAKE THE TIME to REFLECT your love and glory through my warped soul so that eveyone I touch in a day can see a glimmer of YOU. If I must be warped, at least let me shine brightly. Amen.
by Shelly | Mar 7, 2014 | personal, special project |
NOTE: My blog has traditionally been all business, but for at least a little while it is going to become intensely personal. During Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, I am participating in a photo challenge. The way it works is that the organizers have given us a list of words, and every day we are supposed to take and share a picture based upon that word. Because I hardly ever do things the easy way, I am also attempting to write a devotional that goes with these pictures. I will probably take the weekends off and will also quite likely miss a few days. Hopefully not too many. Last year I participated in a similar challenge. This link will take you to my 2013 Lenten challenge. This years challenge is entirely blog-based. This year the challenge is sponsored by Catholic Sistas.
Please pray for me and/ or bear with me, and if this isn’t your cup of tea, just keep on checking for portrait posts in between these challenges — or check back in after Easter.
TEST
Testing my willpower today….. There’s a box of Girl Scout Cookies sitting on my desk right now, and chances are slim that it will still be unopened at the end of the day. I know better than to even have them in here because once I pull on that strip that says “OPEN HERE,” all bets are off.
These are the best-selling classic thin mints — Yummmm-O, but HEAVEN HELP US if I had a box of those chewy chocolaty coconutty morsels of palatal bliss called Caramel Delights. Then, all bets would be off!
This morning I did my time at the gym. Do I really want to throw that sweating and lifting out the window for a COOKIE (or five or more)? I know how yummy they will taste, but I’d rather not wear them as Bingo Wings when sleeveless weather gets here in a few weeks.
The advertising writer who came up with the phrase, “Betcha can’t eat just one,” was a GENIUS. Once I rip open the box to nibble on just one cookie, we might as well write off the entire sleeve. That’s just how I roll. I know it up front.
Fortunately, one box of cookies alone will not throw me or anyone over into another level on the obesity charts, but it could be a start in that direction. In any case, it is not a wise decision.
We as humans face countless tests every day. From whether or not to cut someone off in traffic or run a yellow-pink-was-that-really-red light to how we handle a financial situation or deal with a difficult co-worker or ex-spouse. (Yep… believers have those too.) Can we stay calm and patient when a toddler is pitching a temper tantrum in the grocery cart? Do we offer help to the homeless man begging on the street corner, or do we pretend not to see him? Do we walk back into the store when we realize that the checker gave us too much change? Do we offer kind and uplifting words when someone needs encouragement, and then turn around remark to another friend how “needy” that person was (bless her heart) in the first place?
Each of these little tests in and of themselves may not establish our overall character. We’re all sinners who deserve every punishment hell can throw at us. Thankfully though, as a redeemed sinner I want to make the right choices allowing the joy of My Salvation to shine through me into the darkness so that everyone can see why I treasure my faith. But every time I fail one of these little tests, it’s like another layer of dust building up on the window of my soul.
Create in me a CLEAN HEART on God, and renew a right spirit within me.—Psalm 51:10
By the way, I’m lying through my crumb-covered lips about the cookies. The box was open before I had finished typing the first line.
Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” – Mark 14:38
Sweet Heavenly Jesus, please blind me to the short-term pleasure that comes with all of the big and little temptations around me. Fix my eyes on the true and everlasting prize of knowing and responding to every good and perfect gift that comes from you. AMEN.
