Dunn's Arena 05-27-09

Here is the link for the photos taken at Dunn's Arena on May 27, 2009 and are available for sale.

Dunn'sArena052709

Dunn's Arena

I went to Dunn's Arena tonight and had the opportunity to shoot the barrel racing. Leonard took me to speak to the gal who manages their website and we spoke about the possibility of me buying a banner to allow me to the images I shoot to the riders.

While we were speaking to her, I got another gig this Saturday to shoot another barrel racing competition. Things are looking up for me. I'm soooo excited, that if it were for the oral surgery I had earlier today and the pain meds, I'm not sure I will be able to fall asleep tonight.

Here's some samples from tonight.

Little Rider

She is most at home while riding her old friend, Sam the horse. She's even happy if it's just sitting on him while he eats his dinner. She's a horsewoman in a little girls body.

Six Day Old Miracle

How do You see me?

This post is getting back to original purpose I created this blog and that was to give voice to my thoughts. This is not about my photography, it's about life, my life and what is going on right now.

Last week I posted about how Facebook has allowed me to reconnected with about 20 people from my school days. It's been interesting to hear where life has taken us. In school we put on a front, wore masks and didn't present the real us for our peers to see. For the most part, through the years we have discovered who God has created us to be. Even so, that journey will never stop completely until we breathe our last breath.

I've reconnected with one particular friend who has turned my world on its side. He has me pondering myself, my life and my beliefs. When we talk I know he will tell me the brutal and honest truth as he sees it. He is the only one in my entire life I have ever had enough courage to ask him, "How do you see me?" He can read me like no one else I have ever met. I have told him on many occasions, "You scare me." But, I also have to admit that it's refreshing to have someone know you so well, still accept you for who you are now and is excited because he can also see who you have the potential to be.

After 27-years apart and only 3 1/2-months of being back in communication, when I asked him that question, in addition to some better qualities, he called me out in most of the areas of my life I still try not to face and confront. He was, and is, brutally honest with me and I appreciate his candor. I receive his words. I can only do this because I know he cares about me and is not saying these things to hurt me, but because he simply wants the best for me. It is a friendship I have been longing for all my life.

The more I thought about how I appreciate this relationship the more I realized I already have a relationship like that but chose to turn a deaf ear to it.

How could I have pined for something I felt I was missing when it was right there in front of me all the time?? I have wounded Christ by longing for something He has been trying to give me all my life.

Isn't my friend showing me the true character of Christ?? Christ accepts me for who I am, but doesn't want me to stay in the pain, anger, distrust and all the other things that are not of God. His heart for me is to see me live my life to the fullest. To enjoy every day for what it truly is, a gift from God. These are all things modeled in and through my friend.

Through his job, he has seen the darkest side of humanity and yet he loves with a passion that I have found in very few. Even so, at some point he will fail me. He will hurt me. His words will bite into me causing a scar. He will look at me wrong. He will not talk to me in the tone that I longed for. In other words, he is just a man; a human being who is sinful and fallen. It is through these times where I will have the privileged of modeling Christ's forgiveness back to him while I ask for forgiveness from him as I fail him and his expectations of our relationship.

I firmly believe the Lord brought him back into my life at a very crucial time. Many of you who read my blog know that I used to be a video director for a large church. Two and a half months ago I was laid off due to the downturn in the economy.

I was not heartbroken to have lost my job. For over a year, I had been getting back into my first love, photography. After the shock wore off and I had a good cry, okay a "snot-bubble-tear crying session", I was excited about where the Lord was leading me. This was a new adventure and I knew the Lord as orchestrating it.

These past 2 1/2 months have been a time of great activity in my life with old friendships being restored and new adventures to embark on.

The Lord used an old friendship to point me back to Himself. To show me His Character in a man who is not afraid to speak the hard words of truth into my life and for me to accept those words because they are spoken with love.

While I do not feel I will be serving with an organized ministry in the foreseeable future, the Lord has brought other people into my life with whom I can be a model of His son to. Speak the tough words in love and watch them grow into the people the Lord has created them to be. To let them know that at some point I will fail them, but Christ NEVER will.

I am happy with my life. Happy with where the Lord has brought me. Through all the trails and tribulations, He has stuck by my side. Happy for the friendships He has restored. Okay, I'm not so happy about Him working on my patience, but I'm dealing with that moment by moment. Happy that He still loves me and accepts me for who I am right now and also when I look for that love and acceptance in someone who will ultimately fail me. Happy that my own failures are opportunities to grow. Happy that I will be able to re-read this post and "preach to the choir" again and again because I know later tonight something will happen and I will have forgotten all that I typed here. Happy that I'm getting a little closer to not caring what you think of me, but only of what the Lord thinks of me. I haven't asked the Lord the same question I asked of my friend, "how do you see me?" See, He has told me through His Word, and let me tell ya, He thinks I'm simply the Bee's Knees!!!

3-day old miracle

How can you not look at a newborn and know that there is a loving God??

After a HOT night on the town.

Tazo had been out in the heat of the night and was cooling off under the fan.

Friends before Facebook

A friend from South Africa told me about Facebook quite sometime ago. It all started because I had not seen photos of her baby boy.

"Are you on Facebook?"

"Huh? What's Facebook?" I said.

Here we are almost two years later and Facebook has had a tremendous impact on my life. Last night was just another example of how powerful this internet phenomenon has changed my life. It has brought me back to the roots of friendships from my school days.

There are very few people who made in impact and left an impression on me when I was in school. Over the years I have wondered what happened to them and would like to reconnect with them. Facebook has allowed that to happen.

Leonard and I went to school from the 4th grade through to our high school years. I can't really put my finger on why he stayed in my mind all these years, but he was always there. Last night twenty-five years faded into nothingness as I had dinner with him, his beautiful wife and five of their seven kids.

I went to their house to grab some photos of their youngest daughter as she practiced her barrel racing.

Since Leonard and I have reconnect, both of us have found out things that neither of us knew when we were in school together. The joys of growing up and being able to openly talk about things. He didn't think I liked him in school and I didn't know some of the struggles he had. It was eye-opening to hear how we each viewed each other back then and found out how wrong our perceptions were.

So, we sat around the table and then out by the cars and talked about where this road of life has led us and funny enough, thanks to Facebook it brought us back down the same road and the great opportunity to resume friendships that would have otherwise been lost.

More from the Revelation Tour - Brandon Heath

Photos from the Revelation Tour with Third Day.

You can see more images of the entire show here: REVELATION TOUR

Ponding deep thoughts

Baby's First Portraits

Third Day Photos

I have finished editing all of Third Day. Please take a peek at them by clicking HERE.

I still have to edit the photos of Brandon Heath and Revive. I will post those as soon as I can.

Third Day

What an amazing evening!!!

Bradley, a friend of mine, helped me get a photo pass that allowed me to take my professional camera gear into the concert. Usually photo passes allow you to shoot as much as you can for the first three songs and that's it. However, I had two things going for me tonight. First is that I actually purchased a front row seat and the second is that the band actually wanted people to take all the photos they wanted. So I shot almost 26GB worth of images. That's A LOT of images to edit, but I'm looking forward go going through them all.

For now, I just went to my last card and pulled some of the images off. I had been shooting all evening at at towards the end, the band were posing for me and my camera. When they started doing that, Bradley and his wife were yelling for me and not the band. The guitarist tossed one of his picks to me and I got some great shots.

So, enjoy this sample of my images. Please remember, ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT PROTECTED AND WATERMARKED. If you want to use the images, contact me.