Thursday, March 27, 2008

The One with Easter at The Rock :: 03:22:08

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This past weekend, I had the privilege to help shoot for my church, The Rock Church, for our Easter services. This was my first event shooting for the The Rock and I have to admit that I was quite nervous beforehand. I mean, it's one thing to just shoot photos for fun and my own use. It's a whole other thing to capture images of God's presence. I honestly felt like what if I didn't know "what to see" while shooting that day? But, you know what? Like in all other cases, God always comes through and helped me to see things that I think I would have passed on had it not been for Him working through me that day.

The photo above I think captures the whole day. There was this little girl that was sitting on the floor and after a little while of watching her, I realized she was playing with a bug ON her pretty Easter dress. This poor little bug was being picked up and moved to different parts of her dress. However, despite all odds, the bug was still moving even after several location changes. How she managed to hold this little bug so delicately in her hands without killing it is beyond me.

It also reaffirmed the feeling in my heart that I would really love to do child portraits. There's something about children that make them so appealing to photograph. I would love to shoot weddings someday, but I think my true niche will be child portraits.

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This cutie, ate a sugar donut and then a banana, and just had all this stuff all over his mouth. Way too cute.

In the Bible, it says that we need to approach God from a child-like perspective. Where He is our Father leading and guiding us, like our earthly fathers do. This little girl and boy just had an innocence about them that just reminded me of our Father's love that He pours upon His children. How blessed we truly are.

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One of the most exciting things this past weekend was getting my badge on Good Friday. Sounds incredibly superficial, but I had been trying to get involved with the Photo Ministry at my church for over a year now. But, like in all other things, God's timing is always perfect. I wasn't ready to be a photographer for The Rock a year ago. For His reasons and His reasons alone, now was the right time. Needless to say, I've been waiting for this moment and finally receiving my badge and being an "official" Rock photographer super exciting for me.

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Adam also served that day in the parking ministry with the Men of the Rock. I love how my Adam has a serving heart and it's definitely his spiritual gift, the gift of service. Plus, he looks so dapper in his super bright neon parking vest.

Since the church was expecting larger than usual numbers in attendance on Easter, they had an alternate venue close by for overflow. In the alternate venue, we had the blessing of having Trevor Davis and his band perform worship for us. I'm a huge fan of his and being able to photograph him and his band was a special treat for me.

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I love this moment.

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The service from the main sanctuary was telecast live in the alternate venue.

Adam and I stayed to serve for the 8am, 10am and the beginning of the 12pm service. There were six services in all on Easter; one more than the usual five. We were pretty pooped afterwards, but definitely filled with the Spirit and His love.

I hope you all had a great Easter too!

I'm looking forward to shooting more events for The Rock and hope that God will continue to give me His clarity in what He wants me to see, not only in my work with the church, but in all that I shoot.

And one more shot of us at the end of the day... (I was squinting from the bright sun.)
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Thursday, March 13, 2008

The One where Jasmine was Tagged "It"

I've been tagged by Serena Grace. Check out her work. She is amazing! And she's getting married next month too so please send your warm well wishes and prayers her way.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

  • Wow, ten years seems like a long time. I'm almost up for my ten-year high school reunion. In 1998, I was a junior in high school... doing just about every available extracurricular activity I could fit into my schedule. Guess some things never change. Once a busybody, always a busybody.
Things On My To Do list:

to do lists
  • My to-do lists never seem to shrink or completely go away so it makes me shudder to think what I actually have to do in the next month or so. But here are some of the major things:
    • Tons of wedding stuff (invitations, find a day-of coordinator that doesn't cost a fortune, etc etc etc... and the list goes on)
    • Pack and move for the 9th time in about 9 years. Needless to say, I don't exactly have the best feelings towards moving, but I am happy that this time it's moving into our first home for Adam and I. Oh and packing means unpacking as well. bah.
    • Garage sale to sell/get rid of my useless junk before packing/moving
    • Jury duty over break. Not fun.
    • Stuff,
    • Stuff I probably am not aware of at this moment...
    • And more stuff
    • Get married in July :)
Bad Habits
  • I'm naturally a night owl. I feel most productive late afternoon-late night. :) I despise mornings the way cats despise water.
  • I have a tendency to not put a book down once I get into it, which leads to staying up til 4am finishing books because I wanted to read "one more chapter." Which is why I often don't read books, but read magazines and blogs instead. The difference being that the latter does not lead to sleep deprivation.
  • I'm a pile-r. What appears to be disarray to the outside eye is actually organized chaos for me. Ask me where something is, I can more often than not find it and know in which pile it happens to be in.
Places I have Lived
  • South Dakota (until I was 6. Random. I know)
  • Los Angeles
  • San Diego (my true home)
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Things Most People Don’t Know About Me
  • I know my roommate, Richard, really loves this one: I fall asleep on my couch sometimes more than I do on my bed. I stubbornly believe that when I curl up in the corner of my couch with my nice, soft blanket and close my eyes, that I will actually NOT fall asleep because I am just "resting my eyes." However, I'd say a majority (not EVERY) of the time, I fall asleep and then Richard and/or Adam has to wake me up to go to bed.
  • I have an eclectic taste in music, but it's definitely an integral part of my soul. Being so, I'm pretty good at remembering lyrics. It always catches me off guard when I hear a song after years and years and I can sing along to it in my head.
  • I love home-cooked Chinese food. A lot. I often crave it as comfort food.
  • Lastly, I'm pretty damn good at Wheel of Fortune (and word games). Too bad it's not something I can put on a resume.
I tag you!

On a different note...

I'm slowly trying to re-emerge from underneath the madness that has been this past month. With report cards, parent/teacher conferences, getting a pink slip because of proposed education cuts in the state of California, having a student teacher, and just life in general, I praise God that I'm still reasonably sane at this point. I'll be on Spring Break (finally) next week so I'm excited to just be able to catch up on rest, but also get some wedding stuff done. I would really love to just be able to sleep for a week and not move off the couch for a couple days.