Boudoir Photographs

I am in the process of starting a boudoir photography business. Here are some images from my most recent shoot.

If you are interested in a private shoot or a fun, Boudoir party with four of your friends, please contact me for prices and availability.

Africa Plate Auction to send Dominique to Kenya

Okay folks, here is what the finished plate looks like.

Currently, the bidding is at $75.

This is the only place where "official" bids are being accepted. That is so we can keep track of what everyone has bid.

The final winning bids purchase price will be tax-deductible as the check will be made out directly to her church. That is a great bonus. With that being said, the plate is yours if you wish to donate $500.00 towards her trip. Please remember, being a part of a sending team is AS IMPORTANT as the person going to serve.

Here is a bit more information regarding Dominique Petermann and where she is going to be serving on this short-term missions trip.

She will be serving at The Belwop Rescue Center in Nyeri, Kenya East Africa. She will be a member of a team from her church and they will be constructing a new building for the rescue center.

You can find out more about the center by clicking HERE

Dominique is very motivated to succeed at raising funds for her trip. She is picking up baby-sitting jobs and any other paying jobs to help her raise the needed funds.

Thank you so much for your bid and your desire to see Dominique succeed in answering the call, "Whom shall I send?"

Auction for Dominique's Africa Adventure

I thought I would place this "auction" in one location so everyone who placed a bid can see what the current bid is.

The proceeds from this plate will all go to assist Dominique Petermann to go serve orphans in Africa. This will be her first experience in Africa and I know, from experience, that she will fall in love with the children, peoples and landscape of this amazing continent.

The current bid is at $50. If you would like to place your own bid, please comment on this post. This is the ONLY location where bids will be received. If you cannot post a comment, please contact myself or Renee' Petermann and we will post it for you. Kind of like a call in bid. If you choose to have us post the bid for you in the comments, please verify that we have done so. We cannot guarentee that your bid will be the current leader.

Thank you so very much for assisting Dominique in this mission to help the children of Africa and to show them the love of Christ and that their Heavenly Father has NOT forsaken them.

A Published Photographer!!!

This past Sunday I received notification from Photographers Forum Magazine publishing company that a photo I entered in their recent competition was selected as one of the finalists.

So, what does this mean??

Being a finalist means that I will now have that photo published in the book published by the company entitled, "Best Photographs of 2011".

WOW!!

There were 14,000 entries and the top 11% were selected as finalists. Out of the finalists there will be four top photos and 100 honorable mentions. If my photo is selected in this next round it will be published in the magazines November issue.

I would love to make the final cut, but I'm please to be able to say I'm a published photographer now.

Click HERE to view the photo.

Ron Howard!!!

I know, I know, it's been like forever since I've written anything. I have been laying low for a bit.

I have been thinking of jotting down my thoughts again for quite sometime and what a great way to do it by announcing that one of my photos have made the first cut for Ron Howard's Imagination Challenge.

I just received the news tonight and I'm almost jumping out of my skin.

Not sure how many of my followers are actually still following me, but I'm making a plea similar to a plea I made almost three-years ago when my lightening photo was in a competition. I'm seeking votes for my image.

If you click this link: Imagination Challenge, it will take you directly to my photo where you can vote.

ONLY ONE VOTE COUNTS, PERIOD.

Thank you in advance. I promise I won't be gone so long.

Some tech crew photos...

With a thankful heart...

I have arrived in Canada to a "home coming" of sorts. I have been able to reconnect with an amazing family who are very near and dear to my heart.

I worked with John and his two sons, Matthew and Taylor, in Sweden and in Scotland on the Impact World Tour. Donna has such an amazing heart for people that I cannot be around her without being changed.

Everyone is running around like a chicken with their heads cut off trying to build stages and get tech rooms set up for God TV to come in and cover the Pursuit Conference. I feel right at home again.

That most amazing thing is how excited I am for this conference. John's main concern is that all of his tech crew remember that it is not our skills that will bless the Lord, but the fact that we are able to worship the Lord with our skills. Such an amazing man with an amazing heart. I have appreciated our friendship over the years and his heart remains steadfast. Not only in his love for the Lord, but his love for me and faith he has in me when it comes to using my skills to bless the Lord and worship Him. I cannot begin to tell you what a tremendous blessing that is to me. He is truly one man who has never given up on me, and trust me, John and I have had some knock down, drag out arguments but through all those times our friendship comes out the other side stronger than before. I REALLY NEEDED THIS TIME WITH THE ROSS FAMILY!!!

The following video is the video John created for this weekends conference. Hope you get a taste of how amazing this weekend is going to be, not only for all the people sitting in the chairs, but for those of us whom the Lord called together as part of an AWESOME tech crew!!

Enjoy!!!

ThePURSUIT 09 Video from John Ross on Vimeo.

In Pursuit...

I feel like I've been pursuing something for the past 9-months and at every turn, every one of the doors seems to close. I'm confused, hurt, and unsure of where the Lord is leading me.

I have had one interview for a position that I very, very, very much would enjoy and would be doing a job that would utilize so many of my gifts and passion of serving others. I'm currently waiting to hear if I am going to be called back for a second interview.

To say these past couple of months have been a "desert" time is an understatement. It's been one of the most difficult years of my life.

I have some friends with whom I worked with in Sweden and Scotland as part of their live production team. John and Donna have such a special place in my heart. I relish every time I get to "chat" with them online.

In one such chat, John asked me what I was doing at the end of this month and proceeded to ask me if I would be able to come up to Canada and do some stills photography of a conference he and his team were working on.

It seems God TV decided they wanted to cover the conference and Johns' son, Matthew, has been snagged to be a video camera operator. Matthew was scheduled to be the conference stills photographer and when John lost him as the stills photographer, he said I was the first person he thought of.

Now, I cannot begin to tell you how much this meant to me.

My passport expired on my birthday back in August. At the time, I never really thought there was a need to renew it. "When in the world am I going to be going any time soon?"

The position I'm waiting to hear about a second interview is an oversees position. I renewed my passport shortly after applying for the job and only got my new passport back 2 weeks ago. Had I not done that, I would not have been able to say yes to John when he asked me if I could come up and have a great time doing one of my passions and spending some quality time with some amazing people.

The Lord has not left me, even though I leave Him every chance I get.

Oh, this is not the end of this story.

I was on Facebook a day later and I get a chat message from Anne. She was one of my staff members when I was in the School of Video Production down in South Africa.

Annie is from Nigeria and has pioneered the school there. She asked me if I was available within the first three months of next year to come and teach on the school.

WOW!!!

I'm still frustrated, but my upcoming trip to see some very dear friends and take some great photos of some wonderful worship and teaching has lifted my mood. And although I don't know if I will be able to go to Nigeria to teach a topic on video production, it was a great boost to be asked.

I only want to be in pursuit of the Lord's plans for my life and the past 9-months I've been in pursuit of my own future. And as all of you who know me knows, I'm a high control person. I don't like not knowing where I'm going or where I stand and this is what makes patience so hard for me.

So, next week I'll be doing more posting than I have been since school started. Take a peek.

On one last note, I would also appreciate prayer with regards to the second job interview. As I said, this is a position I would very much like to do and serve a group of some of the most amazing people from our country.

Kitties

I've been so busy with school that I haven't really had much time to go out shooting. I really wanted to shoot so I used models that are always around.

Third times a charm, right?

Once again I get to spend Friday having eye surgery. This is the third time in 5-weeks.

I have appreciated everyone's prayers during the previous two and thank you in advance for the prayers this week.

I have not been scared prior to any of the other eye surgeries, including the initial Lasik procedure over a year and a half ago. This is different though.

I was told by the eye doc that every time they need to go in and remove cells from under the cornea they have to get more aggressive. That did not comfort me in the least. Last time I almost asked them to stop and give me more Valium and to try to numb my eye more. I could feel them scrape my eye and it was not a pleasant feeling, to put it mildly.

I am scheduled to arrive at 12:40. It takes them about 30 minutes to get me signed in and drugged before the procedure actually starts, so if I come to your thoughts around 1:10 or so, could you please lift me up in prayer?

I'm also going to tack on another prayer request here. I feel doors on every front are being slammed in my face. I'm getting very discouraged in a lot of areas in my life; from friendships that weren't what they seemed to a job I really wanted being stalled to my financial situation. I really need some clarity right now.

Thank you in advance.