Courage

Our last post before our wedding. We decided to make this one a "wild card", which meant we could choose whatever we wanted to photograph. This has been a fun and challenging journey. It has challenged us to think outside the box while photographing images. Made us think about why we are photographing these things. At times it was easy, other times it took a lot of will power to take the photo.

This week I wasn't sure what I wanted to photograph. I really wanted to photograph something with meaning, but just didn't know what that was going to be. Then, this morning laying in bed I looked to the foot of my bed and it hit me. I have a small collection of Willow Tree Angels that I have gotten from people throughout the years. And one of them is the Angel of courage. There is a long story behind this Angel, one that I don't need to go into great detail about. But I will share a bit about why it has such meaning then and still today and will continue to be a reminder to me.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

 The summer of 2006 was a monumental time in my life. I was at a pretty bad place. I had little self-worth and was relying on everything but God to give me what I was looking for. But PRAISE GOD he rescued me. It may not have been in the way that I would have liked, but it was the most perfect way and he knew that. As I look back on this time in my life, I still get upset with myself for the choices I made, but I can praise God for the miracles he brought into so many peoples lives in that time. 

Some close friends from church took me out to breakfast and gave me this angel. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw that it was titled "Angel of Courage". It was so fitting because it took courage to go through what I did. But this is not just about courage, it is about an Angel as well. God walked beside me, my family and so many others and directed our paths, showed us where to go and kept telling us in so many ways "this is MY perfect plan for your life."

Today, I can look back on that time and give God all the glory, all the praise and all my gratefulness. He brought me from a time that I was feeling pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted and struck down. But he did not allow it to crush me, to despair me, he never abandoned me, and he definitely did not destroy me.

My hope and prayer is that, while this blog was about photography, that you also found encouragement, hope and love within it. We all are going to be brought to a crossroads at some point, and we have a choice. We can choose to look at it and turn from it saying it is too big for me to cross. Or we can look at it and know that we are not alone in crossing it, but know that we can do it with God's help. With his Angel of Courage, we can cross any road, no matter how big or how small.

In a week I will be marrying my best friend. We will start our lives together. We will have good times, and hard times. But we know that through it all, we have our Angel of Courage in Christ who will walk each and every step of the way with us. 

Do you need an Angel of Courage today?

God is waiting, arms wide open for you to come running into them 

so that you and he together can go through this time. 

You are not alone. 

 Hebrews 13:5-6
For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

One last time...this one WILD

Ladies and gentlemen-more importantly fans of the You, Me and 52 Weeks blog, we have come to the end.  We have posted on this blog for over 52 weeks and now it is time to close this chapter of our lives and start a new one.  Next week Saturday I am going to marry the love of my life, my best friend, my inspiration.  I can't wait.  When we started this blog last January I never thought that we would end it with a wedding.  This blog has done wonderful things, it helped me grow as a person, as a photographer and as I look back on it, I can honestly say I think it helped us, Erica and I grow closer together.  I am very glad we did it, and I have a feeling we will be back, doing something similar in the future.  But I think we will take some time to enjoy being married.
Now for my photo, our topic was WILD, so I could photograph anything that I wanted.  As I thought about what I was going to photograph, a few things came to mind.  I thought back over the past year, I tried to think what some of my favorite post were, and I thought about the fans-and the post that I created the most buzz was the photos that I took and then expand on with my words.  So my photo this week- is of a very important pair of shoes.  These shoes will change my life.

The saying goes, You can tell a lot about a person by the shoes they wear.   

These are my wedding Jordans, these are the shoes I am wearing on our wedding day, Air Jordans are the best shoes ever, and these are the most special pair ever - These are the shoes that will carry me down the aisle to marry my bride. These are the shoes that I will be standing in infront of our friends and family as I say I do.  These are the shoes that will help me dance the night away with my wife.  These are the shoes that are going to make me the happiest man alive, next week.  These are the shoes that are going to carry me into my future-  these are special shoes.  Many people are probably reacting - he is wearing sneakers at the wedding-to you I say HELL YEAH I AM.  They are my Wedding Jordans!  They are special shoes, I am not wearing someone else's shoes/rentals on the most important day in my life.  I will be able to wear my Wedding Jordans whenever I want and hopefully when I put them on after our wedding day they will bring back that feeling, that moment that I see my bride on our wedding day.  

Now as I close out this last post, I just want to thank you all for reading.  I think I can speak for Erica on this and say we were blown away with the support we got.  From the casual 'We read your blog every week from the neighbors across the street to the aunt at Thanksgiving who told us that she felt that she know us better from reading, to the family that showed grandma every Monday night -thank you to all of you.  There were times when we got busy or didn't feel like posting, but just knowing that you were out there really inspired us.  

And with that-

A

Take Your Pick

It's hard to believe that in just 2 short weeks I'll be marrying my best friend.  The man that God has chosen especially for me.  I am one lucky girl, and am looking forward to being able to see Adam everyday as opposed to just on the weekends.  But that is really not related to our topic this week. We are over our 52 week project, but we had put a couple more topics in the hat then just 52, so we decided we would do 2 more.  This weeks topic was Toy.  I had my heart set on photographing the best gift I ever got as a child.  My Opa used to be a wonderful woods craftsman, and one year he built me my own Barbie mansion.  It was bigger then any plastic barbie house, and it looked like an actual house.  He put wallpaper on the walls, carpet in a couple of the rooms, and linoleum in the kitchen.  I LOVED that house, as did my cat at the time, I remember coming downstairs to find him curled up in the bedroom.  So when we decided to photograph "Toy" I thought, well I'll photograph this house. Tonight, I went downstairs in search of my house, and sadness it isn't down there. I need to know where it is now. But, now I was left with what else could I photograph. While this doesn't have the story behind it, the toys that we have out on a regular basis are our dogs basket of toys. They're toys consist of a kong, a ripped apart blanket and old socks. I'm always amazed that they haven't ripped apart the basket that they're in yet, but they just grab whatever toy they want to play with and get in your face so you'll play with them. 

Toys

Do you know that this is the 53rd week?  You are all in for a treat-we have gone over our said goal.

This weeks topic is a fun one-toys.  It was not a hard topic to generate an idea for, I love toys, especially legos, it was just a matter of when I am going to find time to photograph legos.  I thought about going big, set up some lights, compose a photo and spend some time really photographing my collection of legos I have here with me.  But then I thought that was not fair to all of you out there.  My photo should say more, so I will share with you a photo from my office-at work.  I have slowly collected some legos in my office.  They are toys, and also decorations.  I have a collection sitting on my window ledge-photographed here-

I have a few small vehicles, but mostly Star Wars stuff.  I was told when I took over my office I could decorate, as long as it was, well tasteful.  I have to say when people come into my office and see my legos they ask about them and sometimes play with them.

This is only one side of the office, on the other side of my monitors I have more legos- little Star Wars characters.  I find time to play with these guys.  I am a multi-taskers, so if I am waiting for a project to compress or render I typically have a minute or two to kill.  I take this time to rest my eyes, look away from the computer screens, or finding myself needing a break to brainstorm an idea;   I started to find myself playing with these little guys.  Let me just clarify here, I am not constantly playing with Legos at work, this maybe happened every few days.  But I would position the guys in a new spot on my desk or with in reach.  Currently the are sitting on top of the TV in my office, guarding the elephant.  I would grab my phone and take a photo of how I set them up, I compiled some of my favorites in this montage for you all to enjoy.  

 

Blue Sky Blessings

"Nature" was the topic of the week.  In the summer, spring or fall this would have been a fun topic.  In the winter, with no snow and everything "dead" is kind of difficult.  But today was a beautiful day!  The sun was shining, it was 40+ degrees outside and Adam and I were up for an adventure.  So we went in search of a lake in Mount Pleasant.  We found a cute little lake that had a park with a walking path.  So we parked the car, climbed a fence and walked the path.  The the sky so blue and the sun shining it made the berch trees very beautiful.  It was fun to be out on a nice day shooting photos with my fiance and enjoying God's creation.  Even in winter, when there aren't beautiful colors, we can still find and appreciate what God has created and blessed us with. Enjoy this 52nd photo of Nature :)

Natures Textures

Our topic this week was Nature.  It wasn't the best time of year to photograph nature, so we waiting for today to go on an adventure and find at least an lake or something to photograph.  God heard my prayers and blessed us with a beautiful day.  As we pulled up to the park and sun was shinning it was perfect.  We, Erica and I, wandered around and enjoyed the afternoon.  I photographed a few trees and a the lake that still had a thin layer of ice on it, but I settled on this image.  The texture of a birch tree I think is so cool, the trunks stand out with their white hue and its rough feel, I think they are just cool trees.  So I could resist sharing the texture with you.  Enjoy.