1,000 Word Fridays: Week 1 | Personal

Those of you who are photographers know that sometimes we get kinda burned out with the idea of taking pictures. Why in the world do we keep on clicking that shutter button? I've gone days, even weeks at a time, without picking up my camera.

But I was rather inspired reading what Hannah Nicole wrote over at Aspire recently:

"I've been working on intentionality in all areas of my life. What I do, what I eat, how my time is spent, what I say, what I don't say, what I write, what I watch, what I read, what I listen to, and lately, what I shoot....
Instead of just snapping away, I've been purposeful with my images. Taking time to study the composition, the light, the moment. I've noticed a lack of purpose, direction, and inspiration in my work. But through being intentional, I've found my vision again and have been so inspired. I've fallen in love with photography all over again and remembered the reasons why I started shooting in the first place. To celebrate life and the beautiful, ordinary moments and things that we miss in the everyday, to be a documenter of love, and to create art that is meaningful. That has depth. That is authentic and genuinely matters. 
I've started to see the things I've missed while blindly taking photos and hoping for a good one. Details, moments...
Photography is just like any other art -- it's a craft that has to be practiced. Like painting, writing, singing, dancing, cooking, playing guitar, and so on, you have to allow yourself the freedom to make mistakes. Because the freedom to make mistakes fuels you and brings growth. Oftentimes a mistake or missed shot lends itself to the knowledge and vision of the next image you're going to make....
It's not about the camera, the lens, the editing program, the degree, or whatnot. It's about your vision and your eye, the only thing that is uniquely yours. Why do you take a picture? What do you see in an image that makes your heart sing? What about the photo speaks to you? Why do you do what you do? If you could only take one photo, what would it be? What do you want to communicate with your work? And what is your favorite thing about photography?
Ask yourself these questions -- it's so good to be refreshed. Be intentional with how you take pictures. Probe deeper and look harder and remember why you started taking photos in the first place. Then go and make photos with purpose. I guarantee you'll be inspired and fall in love with photography all over again. But don't shoot like someone else. Shoot like you. Take the picture because you like it, because you see potential in it, because you want to remember. Take the picture because it's your vision, not anyone else's."

Feeling so inspired, I grabbed my camera today. First thing I decided to take pictures of was lunch. We don't often have BLTs. Then it was the sky. It's cloudy, dreary, and chilly outside. But wait, I couldn't forget the crab apple tree- it's been blooming lately. Oh, and then! Those little red berries Sarah and I used to pick off whatever kind of tree that is! Hmm, what else? Luke rolling around in the grass and looking goofy in general...ooh, the dogwood started blooming! And of course the azaleas...spring is coming to the Coast and in not too long it will be glorious.

"Hey!" I thought to myself, running around the backyard, cold feet, camera in hand. "Maybe, just maybe...I could try to just simply take pictures of ordinary stuff. Ordinary life. And then, it might not seem so ordinary. Maybe, instead of waiting around for somebody to ask me to take pictures of them, I can just take pictures of other people! Other things!"

And then I got the idea for 1,000 Word Fridays.

Yay for new ideas!

So here you go, Week 1 of the-past-7-days-in-photos, to be posted every Friday 'cause that's my least-busy-but-I-need-to-get-something-accomplished day.

Enjoy!

Another bit of inspiration for you (because it was, for me!)...this from Jessica Shae: 

"What are some tips you would give to a new photographer?"

"Ahah—another hard question ;)

I would say two things.  The first one is something that one of my very first photography instructors told me. “Take lots of pictures.”  Seems pretty easy, and obvious, right?  But I mean reaaallly take lots of pictures.  Every day, take pictures of people, light, flowers, scenery, animals, furniture, and expressions.  Take pictures of EVERYTHING.  And then critique yourself.  Decide what you like, and what you don’t like.  Figure out what you’d do different in the picture, if you could do it all over again.  And pay attention to light above all else.  Photography is all about mastering the art of using light effectively.  So notice what it does to your subject, whether it be a person or a flower or a chair, notice where the light falls and what it draws your attention to.  Master light, and you’re more than half-way there to being a stellar photographer ;)"

Because of Jesus,
Bekah

D.I.Y. Projects for a Bridal Shower!

Back in December, right before Christmas, a dear friend of mine got engaged! You may remember her from this post- yep, she just graduated last May and she and Paul began their courtship in late August. They're getting married in March and we can't waaaaaaait!!! :-)

My mom, sister and I decided we'd like to host her bridal shower this past Saturday for the ladies in our church. I had the best time brainstorming for decorations and food ideas!! I thought I'd share them with you (and a few pictures from the fun time we had at the shower, of course!).



First of all, we bought fabric in Sarah's wedding colors: plum and teal. The main decorations I wanted to do were fabric triangle pennants- and, thankfully, they turned out to be really easy. I cut the fabric into 6" strips, then made diagonal cuts alternating every four inches. (That sounds confusing, but just look at the picture.)






The next step was feeding the triangles through the serger. I originally wanted to do royal blue thread (Sarah's main color inspiration for her wedding is peacock feathers) but couldn't find that, at least not in the big serger spools. So I got regular-sized purple, teal, and blue spools of thread and just used those.



The finished product! I left a few inches of serging on each end of the pennants, wrapped that around a thumbtack, and pressed it into the top of the door frames.




(Sorry for the blurry picture!) Another decoration we did was wrapping a pressboard letter with 1" strips of fabric. I put a small bead of glue on the back as I wrapped the fabric- the corners were tricky, yes! But the glue worked. I hung it using another strip of blue fabric- the edges were serged since cotton frays so badly.






Being a photographer, I thought it'd be fun to include pictures in Sarah's guestbook. Unfortunately I couldn't manage to find a small 4x6 photo album, so I got an 8x8 scrapbook from Hobby Lobby. I traced the outline of a 4x6 photo at varying angles on each page. The ladies shared special verses, books, and things they had learned in their own marriage- I later took a picture of Sarah with each of them, and I'll print those out and put them in the book.








We set the guestbook table up in the entryway so people could sign it when they came in (or before they left).




The last decorating project we had was pretty last-minute! I was going to put the fabric "D" on the front door, but my mom said she thought something else might look better...and thankfully, she remembered a couple of heart-shaped baskets my piano teacher had given us! They had been sitting up on a shelf in the garage for years, just waiting to be used for a fun project like this. :-)



It was pretty simple- I used some extra material to cut out a heart (it was actually two halves sewn together) and the letters. I heavily starched and ironed them, dotted them with glue to secure them to the heart, then used thread to attach the top of the heart to the basket.



The other thing we had lots of fun making was....food!! The cookies are from a box of Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mix and chocolate chip cookies. (The recipe is here - we left out the walnuts.)



Surprisingly, the only idea I got from Pinterest were these cheesecakes baked in muffin tins. Even then, it was a variation on the original recipe, which called for raspberry puree. We melted Hershey's Special Dark chocolate, drizzled it in, swirled it around, and it turned out great!



Here's the adorable bride-to-be! I had to post this particular picture because she received not one...not two...not three...but four boxes of iced tea glasses. That's right, she now has 32 of them! It became quite the joke!



Here's Sarah and her mom and sister. Aren't they beautiful? And since I know them personally I can tell you for a fact that they are just as beautiful on the inside. :-)



Here's Sarah with my mom and me. (My sister, Sarah, is with my dad helping our grandparents in SC- we missed her so much!)



Sarah was so sweet to bring us a hostess gift- these beautiful tulips!

We all had such a lovely time and I know Sarah is thrilled to have so many wonderful gifts with which to make a home for her and Paul. It has been so exciting to witness the LORD bringing them together in marriage and we know they will be blessed as they seek to glorify Him together!

Because of Jesus,
Rebekah

"Christmas, Christmas time is here...

...and Christmas songs you love to hear! Thoughts of joy and hope and cheer but mostly shopping, shopping, shopping!"

Oh, wait a minute.

I've been listening to Straight No Chaser too much.

And Christmas was twenty-five days ago.

And I'm just now posting pictures from that wonderful day!

I didn't take very many, really. You know, sometimes it's nice to just sit back and relax and enjoy making memories, instead of worrying about capturing every single second with a camera.

But I thought you might enjoy a few...here are some of my favorite ornaments out of the 357 (and counting...not that I've counted...but it's a lot!) we somehow fit on our tree every year:

{We have four of them, one for each of us}

{My grandfather made this}

{From the Ryman Auditorium}

{My grandfather made this, too. It's a real egg! Painstaking work, beautiful, but very old and fragile now.}

{From the Washington National Cathedral, made out of stone from near Bethlehem!}

{From Stanton Hall plantation in Natchez}

{My Nana wrote this letter to my parents when they were first married}

{Can you see him? A stuffed otter from the Monterey Bay Aquarium! Getting to put the otter in the middle of the tree is quite a big deal in our house.}

{There's a tiny pew, organ, and Christmas tree inside!}

{Also from the Washington National Cathedral - the Rose Window}

{Christmas tree bokeh!}

{So I tried that handy little idea on Pinterest - do you know how hard it is to cut a tiny heart out of a piece of paper?! That's why mine look a little funny.}

{Same thing with a cross. Maybe I should ask for a Photo Jojo gift card next this year for Christmas, and maybe I should get this fun kit!}

{I made this for my sister. It was said on a behind-the-scenes video for the movie Courageous that producer Stephen Kendrick often quotes this. I just had to make something with this on it for Sarah!}

{We made Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls to give away to the families at church at our Christmas Eve service. The aroma was heavenly!}

{You know what? We cut the butter and sugar in half. Or maybe even more. And they were still really rich! But oh so good. :-)}

Well, that's all for now...I did get another item on my Favorite Things Project list crossed off! I'll post it soon - having a hard time deciding which picture I should use out of the 50 different shots I took! 

Because of Jesus,
Bekah