Flowers, Churches, and Corn

So today I photographed one of my dearest friends. In all the years I've known her (fifteen to be exact), she has never ceased to be a shining light. Her radiance comes through not only in her personality and love for life, but in the knowledge that she is a daughter of the King. 

I'm so grateful to have her in my life and it was a pleasure to photograph her meandering through the flowers and the corn fields. I foresee many more photo shoots in our future. 

Here's a few (maybe more than a few) of my favorites. 

 

Pickles

So here I am again, documenting. If only for the sole purpose of looking back to the time my mother pickled cucumbers...so here we are. There's something oddly suspicious about coming down the stairs to the wafting smell of vinegar...but then you go into the kitchen to see it's only pickles, and not some radioactive specimen boiling away on the stove and you feel much better.

Garden

We built a garden. Well scratch that, my mom and sister built a garden. I planted a few seeds and watered them; and I did help put the fence up. ;)

 

The Undecided Rant

Today I was laying outside in the shade with my dog. I'd brought him out to let him use the bathroom, and like usual, he simply found a stick and lay down to chew on it. Not exactly what I had in mind. Usually I let him lie there for a minute while I stare down impatiently before I pull him up against his will and make him go to the bathroom. Oh the life of a mother. But today, it was nice out; the sun had moved a bit from its point of cruelty directly above my face. So I sat down. Mate (my dog in case you haven't been stalking my Instagram page) of course came walloping over and attacked my face with his drool. I proceeded to push him off and commanded him to lie down quietly and chew his stick. Once he'd gotten comfortable, I lay down too. As he inched his way over to my side so we could be skin to fur, and lay his head on my back, I wished I had my phone to take a photo. And immediately, I thought, "why is it that every time I'm enjoying myself, the first thing that comes to my mind is, 'where's the camera'?". I have always been the one, ever since I can remember, to instigate the ritual pulling out of the camera at family events and get-togethers. I've written before about how grateful I am to those who came before me for taking pictures. And I stand by that still. If people didn't have the thought, "wait, let's take a photo of this moment", then we would miss out on so much history. But recently I've noticed how much our time consists of sharing our lives with our friends over the internet, instead of sharing moments with the people around us, in the same room as us. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy that phones can take pictures and we can share them with people from thousands of miles away. I love everything technological. I don't mean to say that we should exile our phones to a Rubbermaid during family gatherings. And I'm not firmly decided on this rant, but I saw something in myself today that makes me want to pause and question why I do and think the way I do. If this blog is for anything, I want it to be a place where people come and enjoy my photography, but also a place where they can look at themselves and the world around them from a new perspective.

Long Time/No See

I've been so busy with school, that I've COMPLETELY neglected my blog.

I knew this would happen.

I haven't had much time to schedule photo shoots because I live in Murfreesboro most of the time, and only visit my home only once or twice in a given month. But my photography classes that I'm taking are really giving me lots of new insight. 

I recently photographed my sister and her daughter on her birthday and it was the most fun I've had in a while. I had never photographed a family, so that was a new challenge, that (not gonna lie) was a little nerve racking in the beginning. But once I got in there, it was just a blast. 

The scenery was perfect for her ideas and just made it that much easier. 

Hopefully I'll be on here more often with new fall and winter photo shoots coming around the bend. I am so excited to see where I go in this line of work, and I couldn't be more happy to get to do what I love. 

Here's a few pictures from the shoot. More on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BellowPhotography