24 hours - 2 weddings.

Well, made it through the wedding weekend. It actually went much smoother than I was expecting and many parts of it were quite fun. The dresses were beautiful, the parents and couples were very smiley, the food was great, the music was good, flowers were pretty. Yep, good stuff. I have MANY weeks of editing in front of me but here are two pictures to hold you over. :0) Even though they went well, I think I am still going to hang up my camera and not do any more friends weddings. But we'll see.

Dylan

Today is May 24th. Dylans 66th birthday. I have always known of Dylan, didn't listen to much of his stuff growing up. I blame that mainly on my parents. :0) It's ok. So in college I started paying more attention to him mainly b/c of my friends Ellen and Fred. And then later Renee. I never cared much for his voice but started appreciating his skill as a songwriter. man, "skill" is probably not a good enough word. That man can write! Whoa. Then a few years ago I started getting more into Dylan and recognizing more quotes by him b/c of Thomas and Rudy. Then at ACL this year Dylan is headlining. whoa - pretty cool. Sure, he can't sing but it will be too cool seeing him. Last week one of my friends was commenting on his song "everybody must get stoned" and talking like it was a song about drugs. I thought of correcting them but just figured I'd let it go. Dylans way he uses words is just so creative. The lryics of that song have nothing to do with drugs although the double meaning is there. Interesting. Its amazing how much music/songs can affect how you feel, what you think, and sometimes even what you believe.

Some lryics I like/relate too... there are a million but here are just a few. :0)

"What good am I if I'm like all the rest, If I just turned away, when I see how you're dressed, If I shut myself off so I can't hear you cry, What good am I? What good am I if I know and don't do, If I see and don't say, if I look right through you, If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin' sky, What good am I? What good am I while you softly weep And I hear in my head what you say in your sleep, And I freeze in the moment like the rest who don't try, What good am I? What good am I then to others and me If I've had every chance and yet still fail to see. If my hands tied must I not wonder within Who tied them and why and where must I have been What good am I if I say foolish things And I laugh in the face of what sorrow brings And I just turn my back while you silently die,What good am I?" (ok, whoa!)

"So if you find someone that gives you all of her love, Take it to your heart, don't let it stray, For one thing that's certain, You will surely be a-hurtin', If you throw it all away." (this song reminds me of Jon.)

"How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?"

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody."

humm...

I think I am overthinking most everything lately. And I am not seeing things very logically - which that in itself drives me crazy. I've been contemplating my friendships lately. A lot have moved away the last couple years. And of those that have moved Renee is about the only one that I feel the friendship has remained as close as when she was here. I still care for deeply the rest but feel I need a 2way street on this friendship road and I am holding on too tightly and it might be time to loosen that grip. Same goes for my friends intown. I feel like many of my friendships have become unbalanced. Like I still regard them as my closest friends but they don't seem to value me in a similar way (to be fair, many of these people don't think a whole lot about friendships and friendships look different to them b/c they are boys). And why is "everyone" so busy. I have friends right here in austin who have been MIA for months. I'd send out a search party but I fear it would do no good. Maybe they don't want to be found.

And today I feel like a need really good friend to share with, but that's just not going to happen. I think I am internally lonely and walls are quickly being fortified around my tender heart.

A Kobes mini-shoot

Took a few pictures of the Kobes kids last Saturday. They are a wild bunch now that there are 4 under 6 years old. But they are all precious and full of character.
I loved this picture b/c it does really show this stage of life. Avery is 2 and a little fireball - I did quite a bit of editing around her eye to take away the results of a face plant she did on the sidewalk earlier. Evan is just chilled out sleeping in the middle of it all. Cal is licking Evans head. I have no clue why - maybe grooming him? :0) Cal doesn't like pictures so getting him to sit still was interesting. Emily seems to like pictures and was pretty as always in her pink party dress.
Emily and Evan. She seems to like him.
Evan not sure what to think of the camera.
Evan chilled out in his bouncy seat.

Evan again (I was mainly there to take Evan pictures). I think he looks a lot like Emily when she was a baby.
Avery. What a sweet little face. This has a bunch of photoshop done to it. First to get rid of her black eye and then some extra just for fun. I discovered a new little fun filter called "diffuse glow" or something like that.
Avery posing.
Cal rolling around on the bed. I got maybe 3 pictures of him by himself and then he was done.
Emily. Love those dark eyes. She is growing up so fast it seems. Did some photoshop to this too, softening it, a little shading and adding the glow.

Smoke a ...

"I think the whole discussion on smoking is foolish. If your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit isn't incense appropriate sometimes.

One of C.S. Lewis' contemporaries once said that "Mr. Lewis would be a great Christian if he didn't smoke a pipe and drink whiskey".

So I raise my glass and light my pipe for Clive."

GuitarTown

Someone recently asked if I was doing any personal photography lately. I hadn't done that much and realized I really needed to. So a couple weeks ago I was reading more about all the guitars set up around town and thought - hey - just for fun, I want to go photograph them. So Sunday afternoon Blanca and I headed downtown to shoot a few of them. There are about 30 all together all over austin and Sunday we shoot about 1/2 of them. We got drizzled on, then it was muggy, the sun came out a while, and for the most part there was a breeze that was nice. And I somehow ordered a $2 bottle of coke. humm.

This was my favorite one I think. I like the blue colors and the downtown scene at the bottom is coolio. Its a bunch of layers of cut out paper and logos.

Here is Sammy in front of it. (isn't she adorable!)

this is in front of The Elephant Room and signed by Marcia Ball. This one was very jazzy and groovy.

This was a cool guitar covered with computer circuit boards or something but what I like even better maybe is the rest of the stuff happening in the picture. On the left side is a police car coming down the street, to the right is a couple walking and then a guy sitting on a bench watching me. I took the picture not looking through the view finder, I had the camera resting on my foot and clicked the shutter from there so I didn't really know what I would get. I took a bunch of the pictures like that. (click on the picture to get a larger view)

A colorful guitar outside the state theater I think. I like the low angle.

Outside of City Hall, oh yea. Love the architecture of the building and this guitar fits well there with its earthtone colors. Nice. The artwork is really cool too.

Outside of Gueros. Groovy. I like all the mosaic work. Must have taken forever to do.

And here's Sammy after downing an iced coffee drink that made her throw up later. Can you tell the caffeine was getting to her. :0)~ It was a fun day and I hope to go shoot some more soon. Isn't Austin GREAT! (more about guitartown at http://www.gibson.com/AustinGuitarTownWebsite/)

me

I am still in my introspective semi-mellow mood. I think part of it is I am working on my self-evaluation at work. That can definitely put you in a “think about myself and figure out what’s wrong with me” mood. So yep, been thinking about me, my vision, my life direction, who am I, and the normal – “am I single b/c I have a brain tumor and going to die next week” concern. Ok, so the brain tumor is not a “normal” concern, but a concern none the less and I really need to get my will in order and make sure someone knows who my mortgage is with – Monument Mortgage in case you want to know.

So, back to vision. I read a good article this morning on Relevant (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life_article.php?id=7416) about Working While you Wait. Its main points were that many of us are working at jobs we don’t love and that we don’t feel we have “arrived” life-wise. I can sure relate to that. I like my job but its not in photography or design, I am not a mom yet, I am not even married. I am not doing exactly what I want with my life. Yes, I know this sounds like I am just talking about me, my desires, and wants and I haven’t mentioned God yet – well, sorry to disappoint you but I don’t think I’ll mention Him here expect to say, God has a plan for my life, I desire to serve and glorify him, and I think that my life as He has it planned includes my wants, desires, and job. So, yes, the article. It talks about living now. Get involved in stuff you like, take a class, live in your evenings, make want you want to do actually happen and become your identity, minister with your passions. And don’t forget to pray. Yep, you should read the article. Good stuff.

I was talking to Rudy and Renee last week (at two different times about two different subjects) and they both started talking about how I needed to find my vision, purpose, make some life goals, and get on with it. They were gentler than all that but that was the gist. I really do need those two to kick me sometimes. So, what am I going to do about it? Well, I don’t know yet but a plan is forming. And yep, God needs to be involved in this “plan forming” as I am going to have to stop believing some of the lies I believe about Him and me. Yep.