Winter Wonderland

Over the past few days Fayetteville, Arkansas has been transformed into a winter wonderland. Easily the largest amount of fresh powder I have ever seen at one time in my life. Another photo blog first. I have read that snow is the hardest landscape to take photographs in due to the difficulty in capturing the slight contrast in a sea of white. Deciding to conquer the challenge, Aaron Ricca and I, decided to bundle ourselves from head-to-toe and head to Wilson Park. I was in high hopes of capturing people enjoying the snow and Aaron was determined to find some wonderful still-life photos. On a side note, Aaron and I, have been roommates for three years now and the previous sentence perfectly explains our relationship and the wonders hidden behind the old saying, "polar opposites attract." With my boots dug into the snow, I had selected my location right next to a man-made ski jump and proceeded to attempt to capture a few action shots. During this 15 minutes photo shoot I realized a few things. First of all, people love to be photographed. It creates a very interesting proposition for the recreational photographer. Probably due to the narcissism that is embedded deep within our evil nature, most people enjoy having their photo taken. It creates almost a perfect relationship, photographers (those who shoot people) are in need of a multitude of individuals and there are multitudes of people who are ready to be the one standing in front of the lense. Secondly, if you appear at a location that is at least slightly crowded with a camera bag slung around your shoulder and a SLR camera up to your face, you must look like you work for the paper. I was asked roughly four times by various teenage boys if I would take their photo for the newspaper. The disappointment that slowly showed on their face as I told them I was in fact not affiliated with the newspaper made me want to have lied. Lastly, once again I have stumbled upon something that the Lord is asking me to readily use to advance His kingdom.

Kingdom In The Sky

I captured this photo somewhere in between Memphis, Tennessee and Tulsa, Oklahoma. It reminded me of a cloud kingdom and found myself reverting to my childhood and then my imagination ran rampant. I daydreamed during my flight home and wished that I had the ability to live amongst the clouds and could be apart of the magnificent kingdom I saw in front of me. I do not believe that heaven is literally amongst the clouds, although I would not be disappointed if it was. But seeing the beautiful cloud formations reminded me of how small and insignificant I really am and how much detail the Lord has placed into every single aspect of our world. He is absolutely incredible.

My Sister is Beautiful.

My mom's birthday was today and last week my sister and I set out on this photo shoot in front of Old Main. We had high hopes of coming back with something we could delicately wrap and present to her. What would a mom like more than a framed picture of her children, right? We had a lot of fun and my beautiful sister is incredibly photogenic which makes my job easier. Needless to say she makes me look good as a photographer. Enjoi!

I started this on photoblog...

But I have transferred it to blogspot in hopes of being better at keeping up with those of you who post blogs as well. This past weekend I ventured to Indianapolis to interview with the Indianapolis Fellows teaching program. Indianapolis is officially the furthest north I have ever been, and I felt slightly out of place. During my downtown tour I noticed this man sitting outside the window of the restaurant I was eating in. Something about him inspired me and I proceeded to offer him 5 dollars if he would give me permission to photo him. This makes Steve my first official model in which I paid to shoot. This past weekend has been full of firsts. As I squatted in front of him and snapped my photos he told me about how being in the wrong place at the wrong time left him sitting in a Florida penitentiary for 23 years. I felt the presence of the Lord in Steve and my heart weeps for his situation.