Puckett Boys

 I had the privilege of living with these precious boys for almost two months this summer due to an unfortunate issue with our house. Although it was a crazy time, getting to know these boys and this family was truly a blessing.

I hope you enjoy their corky, fun, and absolutely hilarious personalities.

Abide

Just a glimpse into my thought process yesterday....

Abide. It crossed my mind, so I decided to sit down and ponder it for awhile. When I think of this word I can't help but flip right to John 15, where Jesus talks about abiding in the vine. As I read through I was again reminded of the importance of abiding. But this time it went deeper, more then just reading a good passage and going on with your day. It resinated in my heart, and questions began to arise. What is abiding? What does it look like to abide? What happens when we abide? 

So of course I looked it up....

a·bide

 [uh-bahyd] verb, a·bode or a·bid·ed, a·bid·ing.
verb

1.

to remain; continue; stay.

2.

to have one's abode; dwell; reside. 

3.

to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship,etc.;last.

After reading the definition I went back and began to read the same verses but substituted some of these words. I was delighted by the new light it shed. 

 4 "[Stay] in Me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it [stays] in the vine, so neither can you unless you [stay] in me." 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who [resides] in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.".... 7 "If you [dwell] in Me, and My words [dwell] in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

and my personal favorite:

9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; [last] in My love."

Its simply just an invitation from Jesus to come and chill with Him. Stay with Him. Remain with Him. And reside with Him. And when we do this things begin to change within us. Our hearts are no longer weighed down by the worries and fears of life. As we remain in the presence of the Holy One, mysteries begin to unfold and life starts to make sense again. Our vision which was once fogged begins to clear, and as we learn who He is, we find ourselves. As the light radiates from Him it invades the corners of our hearts and lies are exposed. And when we find truth, we arrive at who were created to be.

Simply by abiding.

Spring Semester

My spring semester was spent producing the work your about to look at....along with many other papers and projects! This semester was challenging as I returned to shooting film, something I haven't done in a year. And this time with a view camera, using 4x5 inch film. After I did my first shoot, I thought that if I ever mastered the view camera it would be nothing less then a miracle. Thankfully as I continued to shoot and get my processed film back I was super surprised to find that I was actually doing something right (contrary to my belief). 

The process of shooting film is complicated and slow. I found myself carefully setting up each shot, not wanting to waste a piece of film or the money needed to process it.  The thought process of shooting like this is something I hope to transfer as I shoot digital. Instead of just clicking away with my digital camera and ending up with hundreds of pictures, that I then have to go through and delete till I have the 30 best. I want to carefully frame each shot, putting more thought into each click and making each shot count. Definitely a new goal, and way of thinking. 

This is a triple exposure, three different shots all taken on the same negative. Fun experiment. 

This was two different shots, with the negatives digitally scanned and layered on top of each other. Love the emotion and character it gives to the image. 

Reflection

As the first week of the spring semester ends I've finally accomplished something I've wanted to do all break, blog. It continues to amaze me how fast the days go, causing me to cling to the moments I love and hopeful to see the hard ones pass. While preparing for the next semester, I've found myself reflecting on the fall semester. Mostly on my photography course, because Lord knows I don't want to be reminded how much time I spent studying things I'll probably never use. I was challenged this semester by my photography teacher. I've never met someone who could one week leave me walking out of class completely inspired, and the next week totally annoyed. Its definitely a gift he had. But he pushed me, and he saw things and felt things from my photographs that no ones ever described to me before. I've always wanted my photographs to have an influence on my audience. Finding someone that after looking at one of my images could put into words almost exactly what was going through my head when I made it, was extremely new to me. It was scary, and encouraging at the same time. The emotion in a photograph is one of the most important things to me. I want people to feel, whatever it might be, what I was feeling when I pushed my shutter and captured a moment in time. A lot of this semester was experimenting with color, and how color works to portray emotion. I know I'm no where close to fully understanding it or mastering it, but its a journey I'm on of looking at color in a whole new way.

Out of all the assignments that I did these ended up being my best images. They don't all work together as a body, because each assignment was so different. Its hard making a portfolio that flows well out of three months of work. Im happy with my end result, while being provoked and inspired to continue on the journey of becoming a better artist.