Alligators...Finally!

I grew up on the bayou...not literally, but my family had a camp on the water. I spent many weekends, summers, etc... trawling with my dad, learning to water ski, fishing, and so much more. I've seen plenty of alligators in my time, and then I met Sal.

Sal moved here back in November, and the only thing he has really had any desire to see here was alligators. I still can't figure why he wanted to see them so badly because he really thought they might eat us. His date with destiny or at least the alligators happened on Saturday. We went over to Jean Lafitte National Park pretty early in the morning to walk the trail, looking for gators and any other animals we could find. Dave insisted that we would see more gators the earlier we went, but I still don't believe that was true. I think we would have seen just as many at 9 am, rather than at 7:30 am. Thankfully, the early morning produced great light, which was perfect for me to take pictures.

The best part of the morning was when we saw the first mama gator. She made a very loud hissing sound to ward us away from her babies. I guess Sal wasn't expecting this because he ran away and told us it was, "Time to go." Here's some of what I documented on the rest of our adventure.

Trinity

Nope, I'm not talking about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirt, Trinity is a toddler with tons of personality. I see her everyday because my mom is her babysitter. She really is a great little kiddo, and I had fun taking some pictures of her.

Fresh Grounded Faith

I survived Fresh Grounded Faith, and I realize that this isn't the normal reaction. I don't do women's conferences...usually. Thankfully, I was saved by the very long list of things I was supposed to capture during those few hours.

Fresh Grounded Faith {Outtakes}

Let's just say that when Fresh Grounded Faith ended on Friday night, the real fun began for me. A couple of kids that I know were hanging around, waiting for their mom to be done helping Jennifer Rothschild. Brooks, Mary Claude, Evan, and I had recently bonded over the movie Inkheart with Brendan Fraiser. We were chatting about the fun we had watching Inkheart, when the bathroom came up.

All the men's bathrooms at the church had been converted into women's bathrooms to accommodate the 1000+ women attending this conference. I'd heard that flowers had been placed in all of the urinals to ya know, spruce up the joint. I was busy taking pictures, so I had yet to confirm the accuracy of this rumor. Mary Claude informed me that it was most definitely true. As the result, the kids and I thought it was our duty to check it out and also document the occasion. Here's our proof that the rumors were true. Look for more Fresh Grounded Faith pictures tomorrow.

Pressing On

Back in college I was on an intramural flag football team; I was a beast (in a good way). It was a BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministries) team, so of course we wanted to attempt to be good influences during our games. We had team shirts made that were royal blue with a yellow imprint; they had a big circle with a "P" in the middle. The "P" represented Philippians, and the reference verses in Philippians were 3:12-14.

It says, Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

God has continued to use this scripture in my life during some pretty difficult times. When I was serving overseas, I had a very stressful time where I was forced to moved to another area of the country by my supervisors. I was grieved for all the relationships that I had built with the locals in the area that I would not be able to see through.

During that time, a great pastor that I know, Darrell, preached a sermon with the above scripture. I really felt like I was the only person in the room, and that God was speaking directly to me. It really helped me to forget what was behind me or what was currently happening and move forward.

This reference came to my mind again this morning. I was talking to a friend yesterday about how I feel like I'm a different person than back in college, and not necessarily in a good way. I've felt like I've been a spiritual funk for the last few years, which was only aggravated by the fact that I work at a church. For the longest time, I felt like a hypocrite.

Thankfully, I can see the light at the end of the spiritual funk tunnel. I'm once again learning to hear from God on a daily basis, praying for my friends regularly, and sensing the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. It is an exciting place to be, and I want everyone I know to experience God like I am right now. "Forgetting what is behind (who I was in college) and straining toward what is ahead." God is working on me right now, and I have to stop dwelling on who I used to be and focus on the here and now.

As a result of such a serious post, I leave you with this photo:

The Neutral Ground

If you haven't been to The Neutral Ground, you're missing out. It's a coffeehouse with live music and a very distinct ambiance boasting paper lanterns, random artwork, a leg lamp, and more. More than that, it is always full of interesting people who are ready to strike up a conversation.

As I've mentioned before, Joe plays every first Friday of the month at 8 pm with his dad under the name Agent 86. I have yet to ask or discover where this name came from, but if I know Joe, it could be something completely random.

Enjoy these shots from the last performance, and maybe next time, I'll see you there. I had to include this first shot because Maria thought it said, "The Mexicans appreciate your TIPS." To her credit, we were very far from this tiny sign, and I laughed a lot... I even pulled out the Lensbaby for a few shots toward the end.

Until last weekend, I hadn't been to Audubon Park in forever; I actually can't even remember when was the last visit. I met the Oberhoff's out there for photos of their adorable children. I really enjoyed the atmosphere; there weren't any other photographers out there. Yay!

Anna was a doll and super cooperative with everything I asked her to do, and I spent the rest of the time chasing Luke down. That's the nature of photographing an almost 2 year old. Craziness but in the good crazy kind of way. My favorites include the second shot of the day pictured first, along with a photo of a four leaf clover that Scott plucked out of a million of them. Who does that? According to his wife, he's lucky.

Sal...Enough said!

The rain held off and gave us some pretty amazing light on the morning that these shots were taken. Thanks to Sal for taking the time out of a very busy schedule to model for us.

Singing in the Rain

There wasn't exactly singing in the rain, but there was definitely a rain/mist combo happening. I'm sure our decision to shoot near the water didn't help the conditions, but we went for it anyway. I'm really glad we did because there were some amazing shots as a result.

My friend McKenzie and her sister, Morgan, were such troopers through the rain and the many unstable places we asked them to climb up or sit on. They were amazing, and I know Joe will have some amazing shots on his blog this week too.

Latest Birth Announcements

Sometimes I forget to post my design stuff on this blog in addition to just my photography. Here's Elisha's birth announcements that I designed last week. I kept it simple because I wanted to feature this photo of his wonderful smile.