July photo a day #3 &4

Playing catch up on yesterday's photos & today's photo as well.

July 3rd was a pic of the best part of your day. I had a hard time deciding so I'm putting in more than one.

Daily Devotion

The Gym = Stress Relief

My favorite part of getting off work...Riley

My paper FINISHED!!!! 

And today July 4th is a pic of fun....

Fireworks at City Beach

July days...Photos of my life this month

Boy oh boy life gets busy. Friends have returned “home”, school is back in full swing, ministries need my attention etc. A girl can’t do it all. However, I also haven’t been inspired to write. I mean I have plenty of ideas to share, but my thoughts have been so jarred and random that I haven’t fully wanted to commit to writing anything substantial. So instead I’ve decided to do a photo a day in July.

Yeah, I should have started yesterday, but that was self-portrait day & I’m just not good at those. I like taking photos with other people in them. So maybe I’ll make up for that one later, or not…it’s my challenge anyway.

However, today was busy day so here is a pic of my desk at work. I was working on writing up a vessel to keep track of in our database.

My life today

I know it took a while for me to post on my days spent in LTIA thanks for hanging in there. I also know that my stories and life has been kind of quiet up to this point for other things that have been going on. So let me see if I can play catch up.

I decided to get involved in the campaigns for this years mid term elections in my county. I pretty much support most of the conservative candidates, except for two running for local offices. In those cases the best qualified candidates really are from the opposite party. The one candidate that I'm actively involved with is Kelly Emerson, running for Island County Commissioner. Our current leadership within those offices needs to be reigned in, and Kelly's just the person to hold Island County accountable for how it spends it's money. For more information click on her link on my sidebar, or check out her blog at our news papers website. In conjunction with this endeavor I'm also working with the local women's republican group. I've stepped up to be the secretary for the club and besides promoting our political candidates we also have a program call pieces of home, which I love! Basically we get together and fill boxes of goodies to send to the troops that are stationed overseas. Naturally having served in the military this is a cause near and dear to my heart.

After the primary's on Tuesday Kelly is also ahead of the incumbent John Dean, in the polls 59% to 40%, and that was just for her district, which is a pretty Democratic one at that. Now that the primary's are over her race opens up to all of Island County. GO KELLY!!!

I'm also in the process of taking photos for some friends and their business so that they can create new brochures. If you haven't found the link yet, in my favorite tabs, check out their website here at A Knot in Thyme. This also opened up a new opportunity for me to take pictures of the Vertical Garden for Alyssa for a great opportunity that came her way to have the wall show up in book on vertical gardening! I took those pics last weekend and it was a lot of fun, even if it was HOT outside! I'll post some of them later for you to take a look.

This weekend I'll be walking with Kelly in the local Island County Fair Parade, while my friends are away on the HWY 20 camp out. It's weird not being able to go this year, but in choosing to take my vacation to DC earlier in the summer that also left me with not enough time to take off for a little while. Actually there are quite a few of the SPG's that fell into this category. I've made it a point to try and go to each one since the inception of the HWY 20 project, but if I were to leave here on Friday afternoon, by the time I got to the camp ground it would be time for me to leave again, and I don't know about all of you, but if I have to drive 4 hours to get somewhere I might as well get to stay for a spell.

I think that's about it for now, not a whole lot to say, just enough to keep the update real rather than focusing on the past.

Oh and if you're in the mood for a good sermon on what God says about changing click here "Change, but never change". This sermon comes from a previous Pastor of mine. Here is his synopsis of the message: Heb 6:1-20 God never changes because He is perfect, so to change would be to leave perfection. We are to strive for perfection. Hence, we ought always to be "changing" to be better, but NEVER "changing" in a backsliding direction. How many of God's people have surrendered precious ground to the devil? Allow this sermon to, at minimum, bring you back to where you once were in your Christian walk.

My March SPS

My March SPS (Secret Prayer Sister) was Kali:) And one of the gifts she gave me brought a lot of color to my otherwise gray afternoon after I arrived home from work.

I'm not a person that has a green thumb, but for the few weeks that my gift looked pretty these pretty ladies were nice to come home to after a long day in the office. Here are some of my favorite photos that I took, with my SLR.

As you can see the sun eventually came back out that afternoon, which made for some great photos. Kali and I have been friends for 3 years now. Part of how our friend ship started was her becoming my prayer sister within the first year of her joining the adult women for our monthly Bible studies. I have every confidence that even though she'll be moving soon that tour friendship will continue. Thanks for the flowers Kali!

New Camera

Yesterday I finally got a new camera...

I've been looking at DSLRs for a while now. The one that I REALLY wanted the Nikon D5000, was just to much for me right now, and with the Sweethearts Banquet coming up I wanted to have something that I could take some nicer photos with. This one was also on sale at Kits Camera, our local camera shop. I could have ordered it online or gone to a box store, but with the economy being as harsh as it's been to people I feel strangely compelled to keep my business local if possible. I'd been in a couple of times looking at different cameras and the owner, Philomena, had worked with me before looking at cameras and she treated me really great. That's one thing that local business has over box stores, customer service. Local shop owners are usually enthusiastic about what they do and who they want to serve because they know where their bread is buttered. If they loose a customer, they loose their business. Especially in a town as small as ours. Word gets around fast. Also because it was on sale I was able to get another lens 55mm-200mm, and some lens protectors, which I would not have been able to do if I had gotten either of the other cameras.

The reviews seem pretty solid from photo enthusiasts like me. I haven't used it yet because the battery is charging, but I look forward to it. However, simply by handling it, I do really like the fact that the screen on the back is a decent size. And being that this is my first DSLR I don't really have a lot of comparison complaining to do about features that I've read online. Of course there are always those "experts" that nit pick every little detail because they want everything from a camera, or piece of technology, without having to lay down the $1000+ for such a camera. Beyond the Sweethearts Banquet though I hope to use it to take some nice scenery photos of the island, or where ever I'm at. Photography has always been a creative release for me, I seldom had a Christmas passing by my youth without a new camera coming my way, remember these...

If you've used this camera, the Sony A230, please let me know how you like it and what you use it for. Remember no camera is perfect either, you have to know how to use it too. After all, to quote G.I. Joe "Knowing is half the battle."

I know all you want are the photos

I've mentioned a couple times that I would be taking photos for my friend Amy's wedding, well the wedding been 2 weeks gone now and I could regail you with the events that transpired during me and Kali's tenure in St. Louis, but I'll spare you the play by play, because lets face it all you want to see are the photo's anyway. If you feel so inclined to inquire about the events of the week then just ask, but the pictures of the blessed event speak for themselves. There was a lot of apprehension on my part when she first asked me, but no one ever achieved anything when fear was allowed to hold them back. I just didn't want to get ahead of myself and promise Amy something that I couldn't deliver on, or get my own ego so inflated that I start to think I'm God's gift to photography. Amy was more laid back about it than I was, and I quote "Carolyn, you're nervous enough for the both of us." But let me do advise that if you should be asked by a friend to do something like this that you first pray about it and then just do it with love. Treat each photo like it's the one that you would want to choose from, if you had your wedding day in mind. Don't let your ego get involved, it's not about what you want, it's about making special memories for the couple. If you look at it like that you can't go wrong. Regardless if I ever do this again I'll still be a bundle of nerves, just because I'm a perfectionist by nature.

After I finally worked my way through 1200+ photos, disregarding the completely unusable ones, I finally managed to cut the total down to about 700. So if it seems like there are a lot up here, trust me this is nothing. But I think it's an accurate overview of what I'm capable of, and of the day over all.

Church, Dress, Flowers & Rings . . . .

Musicians . . . .

The Ceremony. . . .

The Wedding Party. . . .

The Couple. . .

The Cake. . . .

The Reception. . . .

This was just my first experience in getting to do something like this so I wanted to show off some of my faves, and what I was able to do. Now all I need is my own D-SLR, and then maybe I could have a decent shot at a side business. It was a lot of fun and I do hope that I get another opportunity to do something like it again. I hope that you enjoyed them.

I feel very privileged to have been asked by Amy to help her with her special day and I wish both her and Andy every imaginable happiness! Please feel free to leave comments.