Saturday, January 28, 2012

"Too Many"

For the past 7+ years I have worked as an optician.  For those who may not know what an optician is here is an explanation: An optician is the person you would see at your eye doctors office who would help you with anything to do with glasses.  From helping you pick out your new frames to adjusting or fixing your glasses.  There are definitely some perks to my job, one of which is the ability to get glasses for super inexpensive.  When I started in this "career" I never thought I would become boarder line obsessed with glasses, but over the past couple of years I must admit, I have.  At my current place of employment I have more responsibilities then just glasses, but the glasses are arguably the funnest part of my job.  When Adam informed me our topic was "Job" I really had no idea what to photograph.  But then one day it hit me.  I have A LOT of glasses, and we have displays at work that I could use to display my glasses.  So Thursday night before my last wedding shower before the wedding (WOW), I carried all of my glasses (it did take multiple trips) and set up a little display on the table.  I will be honest, I was amazed at how many glasses I have!  Kind of ridiculous.  When patients ask me how many I have, while I could give them an accurate answer I will stick with my "too many" response :)

(this photo doesn't display all of my glasses)

Friday, January 27, 2012

Work or something like that...

I can't remember what the hat gave us this week, it was either work or my work, but it had the word work in it.  I will have to admit as we get close to wrapping up this 52 week project, it is becoming difficult to get excited to try to find something new to photograph.  I think it is safe to say that I have a fun job, I get to venture all over campus, the city and the state with my video camera, shooting video, interviewing people. I could have shot a photo of one of those adventures, but seemed a little to easy.  So I thought I would share my work with you, I have one of those jobs that I can do that.  Here is a photo of my laptop, and on the screen is the CMU's youtube channel.  Visit the site and you can be entertained by my work.  Please note that not all the videos on there have been but by me, anything over 11months old was done before my time.  Click here to learn about what is happening at CMU.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

An Exciting Time

I found this topic to be a difficult topic to photograph.  There are a lot of things that are exciting in life, but a lot of those things are spur of the moment type things that you just need to be ready for.  All week this topic kept bugging me.  What can I photograph that will show excitement? And this one thing kept popping into my head.  Our wedding.  A wedding has to be one of the most exciting (stressful and enjoyable) milestones in a couples life.  It is the mark of a new life together.  A commitment to always be there for the other person, to love and cherish them and support them.  I will admit, I haven't been one of those brides that all I can think about is wedding wedding wedding.  And this scared me a little bit being that it seemed everyone I talked to just kept saying "Oh this is SUCH an exciting time in your life!" It has been exciting.  It has been fun. But, now...we're 35 days away from our wedding!  35 days...5 days over a month!  To me, that is exciting!  It's a little scary, but mostly exciting.  I can't wait to see how everything comes together.  Most of all, I am excited to walk down the aisle, look into Adams eyes and public declare my love and commitment to him.  And then, HONEYMOON BABY! :) hehe  This is an exciting time.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Excited was this weeks topic...

With the topic being Excited ideally I wanted to photograph little kids on Christmas, but it's January.  So I gave myself another challenge, in the course of the week I had to gauge my own excitement about what was going on.  Now I have to say that yesterday was a great day, I got to see Erica for dinner.  Dinner together in the middle of the week isn't something we get to do often.  That was really an exciting opportunity, but what I had photographed was the events of Tuesday evening.  The story begins on Monday, after a long busy day at work I had no energy to go to the store, so I just headed home, when I got there I ate what I could find, I had some microwave dinner type thing.  I wasn't good.  So Tuesday it was grocery day, and then my fridge got food, so I could get fed.  I have to say I was very excited to be able to open the fridge and see food and not have to stare at empty shelfs when you are hungry.
It is the little things that excite me some times and having more then just apple sauce and O.J, do that when you're hungry.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Gorgeous and Peaceful

Sunday morning, I still had not taken my favorite place photo.  I walked out of Marcus and Lynell's house and was greeted with a brilliant picture.  This sunrise.  And in addition to that we had gotten quite a bit of snow.  So the combination of the two was breathtaking.  There is something about God's creation that leaves me speechless at times.  I stand in awe of his artistic hand.  How he can paint the skies with these brilliant colors.  How he covers the ground with white snow.  How the waves from the lake roll and create such a majesticness that is breath taking.  So when I think of my favorite place, I think of God's creation.  So when I walked out of that door and saw this site I knew I needed to photograph it.  It brought happiness, peace and awe to me that morning.  Thank you Father for sharing your beauty with us in the way of your creation.

Friday, January 13, 2012

January 11, 2012

My favorite place was the topic, and I struggled.  It seems like an easy topic, but I struggled.  I struggled with the fact that I don't know if I have a favorite place.  I thought for almost a week on this.  My apartment, my bed, my couch, I have already photographed those.  I thought about taking a photo of myself with my feet up watching a movie, but I am not sure if that is my favorite place.  I thought about taking a photo of Erica, but I have already done that too.  I couldn't and can't say ____________is my favorite place, which frustrated me to a certain extent.  So then I went to the other spectrum, what is my least favorite place, I couldn't decided that either.
I dare you to think of your favorite place, really think-be true to yourself, don't say something that just sounds good like church.  I tried, and thought about this all week.  Here it is Friday afternoon and all I know is that I may not know where or what my favorite place is, but I have come to the realization that I haven't found my favorite place yet.  That kind of excites me- I look forward to the adventure of finding my favorite place.  It happens alot in movies where people say things like-'I come here to think' and they are on top of building in downtown NYC or sitting in a tree branch in Alabama-maybe I will end up with a cool favorite place someday, maybe I won't but at this point I am okay with still wondering.
Now as for my photo, this is a photo I took with my iphone leaving earlier this week.  It's January, it was warm enough to make the sky this beautiful color and also warm enough for me to have my sunroof open...Maybe my favorite place is Michigan? cause I love surprises like this-50 degrees in January with 6-8inches of snow a few days later.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

The Bridge of Love

   This past month has been full of trials, struggles, questions, wondering, but at the core of it there is growth.  Growth in faith.  Both of our families have had to and continue to deal with many things in our lives that make us rely on the promises our Heavenly Father has given us through His Son.  
   My Opa is fighting a loosing battle against cancer.  I have never experienced this with anyone this close to me.  It has been a journey with many ups and downs.  A journey in which at one minute Opa is good.  He is strong, he is joking and I sincerely believe he will make it to February to see his oldest favorite granddaughter walk down the aisle to start a life with the man she loves.  And then there are days, much like a Tuesday about 3 weeks ago, when you wonder if he will have the strength to make it through the night.  But, God is faithful through it all.  With many promises and Opa is a true testament of those promises.  Even in the midst of pain and struggle he finds it within him to give our Heavenly Father all the praise.
   When Adam told me our topic was "Bridge" this week I knew what I wanted to do.  I wanted to take a picture of a cross.  There is a song that Point of Grace sings that is one of my favorite songs.  I've included the Lyrics under the photo this week.  As you will see it talk about how there is a cross that bridges "The Great Divide".  It talks about how our Heavenly Father sent his son to die on that cross to bridge the divide of sin that has entered this world.  The cross bridges a divide between us sinful humans and our perfect father so that we could know His love for us.  The cross allowed a bridge for us to talk with God and know that through his son our sins have been forgotten.  But I believe that cross is also what is laid down for us to walk across when our time on earth is finished. We will be able to walk across the great divide to spend eternity with a Heavenly Father whom has loved us unconditionally our whole earthly lives.   The cross is a symbol of life, of love and of promise.  There is a promise that God created a bridge across the great divide in the form of the cross on which His only Son died for us.  What an amazing promise that is.  
   So while my photo is not literally a bridge, it is the symbol of a Bridge of Love.  A bridge that I am so thankful is there for my Opa when the time comes for him to go to his Heavenly home.  I am thankful that Bridge is there as a promise to me, my family and my friends that one day, when our Father calls us home, we will be able to walk across that cross and welcomed in Love, Singing and Joy.  And I am thankful that Jesus died on that wooden cross to bridge the great divide of sin to love.  Praise God that he promised so much in that one wooden cross.


The Great Divde
Point of Grace
   
Silence
Trying to fathom the distance
Looking out 'cross the canyon carved
By my hands
God is gracious
Sin would still separate us
Were it not for the bridge His grace
Has made us
His love will carry me

There's a bridge to cross the great divide
A way was made to reach the other side
The mercy of the Father, cost His son
His life
His love is deep, His love is wide
There's a cross to bridge the great divide

God is faithful
On my own I'm unable
He found me hopeless, alone and
Sent a Savior
He's provided a path a promised
To guide us
Safely past all the sin that would divide us
His love delivers me

The cross that cost my Lord His life
Has given me mine

A bridge

The hat said BRIDGE, so I found a bridge.  I waited til today to take my photo, I was really hoping for a bit of snow, still waiting.  With this topic I was wanted to find a fun bridge and shoot some photos from some different angles.  Luckily we came across this railroad bridge that crossed the Chippewa River.  I was willing to hop a fence to get under the bridge but was able to just causally walk up to and under the bridge. I was glad to not hear a train in the distance as we were by the bridge, cause I wasn't sure how that was going to work, but we were good.  I am sure I will be back in future to photograph this bridge again.