Genesis 1-50, 10/22-10/25

the beginning of this book may have some of the most beautiful language in the entire bible. its so imaginative and mysterious... phrases like "darkness was over the face of the deep" and "the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." however genesis 19 is by far my favorite chapter in the book. i love abraham's persistence and boldness in asking God to spare people out of Sodom, from 50 down to 10. Gods kindness here is incredible...the conversation is left with God saying he will spare the whole city if 10 are found. and yet there are not even ten found in the city who are righteous, there are only lot his wife and two daughters. and what does God do? he didn't promise abraham that he would spare any in the city if less than 10 are found, and yet even though only four are found he doesn't destroy them with sulfur and fire from heaven with the city. lot and his family even stall in the city and the God is patient with them and bring them out of the mob still. and when lot asks the angels to spare the little city of zoar that they might go there, and angels respond telling them to hurry because they "can do nothing till [they} arrive there." its interesting because in the past when i've looked at this passage my focus has been on lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt because of her disobedience towards god...this time though the gods gentleness, kindness, and patience with humanity was so evident. actually its evident all throughout genesis...how many times did abraham sort of kind of lie about sarah being his sister (even though she was his half-sister) and yet, god's favor is still upon him?

through the bible in 90 days

wow i havent been on here in forever. i was reading back over all the years that i have semi-documented...and its kind of crazy how so many things have changed from then until now. i still have my camera, but i am not using it...unfortunately. however i have decided to document life a little bit differently for the next few months, by way of the bible. yesterday while driving back from roseburg, oregon (yes i'm on the west coast now, weird...) i was thinking about my life, about how its completely based around this one book, the bible, and the man for whom, by whom and through whom all things exist...

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." 1 John

and I was realizing that if this book is my life as I claim it to be, then darn it i should have it read by now! (yes i have never read through the entire bible). so today is day one...13-20 chapters a day for 90 days. and then when i'm finished i'm going to read it again, and again, and again, and again, and again until i know it. if i position my heart to receive in this way, and i concentrate my mind to mediate upon the word day in and day out, how can i not be forever changed? and man, i need a transformation...

tom & joy

i was able to shoot tom & joy's engagement photos the other day in wilmore/lexington. it was super-fun and i got a lot of fantastic photos of this gorgeous couple! this is one of my favorites.

some more from cheri & chad wedding

the lyrics to a song i listened to recently that really resonated with my spirit: (and a cool picture i found)

"beautiful man
beautiful god
youre more than worth my time
youre more than worth these longings of my heart
left unfulfilled, for a time

i know you dont come as
easy as some, but i will watch and pray

take it all
just give me jesus

i dont want any other lovers
for all my devotion belongs to this man"

some random stuff

sheri and chad wedding

a little boy at the wedding i shot recently with such a fascination for bubbles.

"i rely fully on your faithfulness, oh God."

today i learned:

1. it is entirely possible to be content while doing nothing
2. i like reggae music
3. never drink more than 6 shots of espresso in a 2 hour period
4. i want to and will spend the rest of my life traveling
5. coconut rum does not have pieces of coconut in it
7. children are beautiful
8. i pretty much am in need of nothing
9. god is jealous and sometimes does things to make us jealous after him

thats all.

my dear beautiful friend, Bethanys wedding (and her wonderful man Brian).

Leah

oh the pain in my heart it whispers can you hear?
run away run away hide
there's just to much pain in the world
i want to retreat i want to be numb
it hurts to much to feel.

broken places
blank faces
pain bleeds from their pores
its not to late, don't run away
Leah, just come home.

ma'am please don't wear that

today: saturday the 23rd 2009 the mystery woman was slightly more put together than other days, wearing a slightly mid-rift bearing outfit the skirt was surprisingly at least 2 inches longer than most days. and i'll give it to her the blue was a nice touch. way to not go crazy with the eyeliner you didn't look entirely like an egyptian today but you still turned the heads of every 12-80 year old man around.

ma'am please don't wear that

i saw her again. the mystery woman has really added to my quality of life, i have actually begun to look forward to see what her fashion choice is next - or uhhh should i say, how little one can wear possible. today: saturday the 16th, mystery woman wears black see-through shirt suctioned to body with brilliant magenta highlight strategically placed throughout as accent choice. ma'am, please don't wear that.

sometimes life just sucks

it just occurred to me how sucky this whole god thing is. the fact that good and evil does exist that there is a god who requires of us to accept the person of his son in place of our sins and if we don't we're going to hell. well thats all well and good for you and me maybe if we're christians but what about all my friends who are living in sin, and don't give a hoot about a god. i love them, i love some of them more than i love the majority of christian people. (thats not okay- i realize that i need to love christians as much as non-christians) but for the atheists at work that i would give my life for if i had the opportunity, what about them? i hate this. i hate all this talk about revelation and how jesus is coming soon. and i know he is but that doesn't help the current situation the very grave situation that still the majority of the inhabitants of the earth are going to burn in an eternal fire....people that i love. i hate this sometimes i wish i were never born so that i would never love anyone.

ma'am please don't wear that

recently i saw the most interesting woman whom i have consistently seen once a week for the following three saturdays. the first saturday her outfit consisted of fishnet stockings with lace-up black shoes with heals that looked as thin as a pencil. a top of sorts which revealed the majority of her bra, elbow length gloves, and a skirt which really wasn't a skirt ... more like a flaired piece of circular paper with a hole in the center to fit her body through. her eye makeup made her face look like a cat or a racoon with dark black paint masking the entire eye socket area then curving around to the sides of her head in an upward stroke. i am not by any means criticizing this woman, just suggesting to the general public that such an outfit never be worn -in or outside of the home. thank you.

steph photoshoot II

steph and i went on photoshoot II today we found a pretty cool field and then ended up downtown wilmore. we had tons of fun as always. here are a few of the shots, most of them are in the rain, which softened and diffused the light perfectly and gave everything a lovely tint of green-gray. of course that meant we got drenched but no worries im about 350+ more photographs and only down one starbucks apron that we left in an alley somewhere. they're all on flickr guys!!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyelizabethphotography/

spinning

sometimes i feel like everything is spinning life doesnt slow down for a second even if i want it to i dont know where my time is going i think sometimes im in a time warp of this endless nothing with nothing happening going no where yet unable to stop i forget where i am a lot and sometimes i forget the names of people ive known for years and so i greet everyone with a "heeeeeeyyy!" hoping the extra excitement will block out the noise from my thought "oh god i forget your name!" taking photographs a lot makes me forget everything though i get lost in it and i start seeing snapshots everywhere whether i have my camera or not im finding i especially like when people stand in a doorway or in front of an open window it reminds me that life can always get better

steph photoshoot II

today steph and i went on a photoshoot. we took with us some stuff we found on the side of a road, and a few of my paintings. sorry sr. for using your field but it was oh so enticing, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for a day filled with sunburns, photographs and fun.

please check out all the other photographs from this shoot on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyelizabethphotography/

weddings: heidi and rob & lauren and carlos

i photographed two weddings with ruth these past weekends. they were days that were filled with tons of photo-taking, and fun! i felt like i was crashing someones party half the time and witnessing an event of a lifetime. check out her photography at rebeccaruthphotography.com i'll have my photos up soon on my flickr so stay posted! :)

design :: create :: play

i was bored today.

Ryan and Bridgette

recently i was invited to photograph the engagement of 

two very dear friends Bridgette Myers and Ryan Kocak. It was a beautiful experience! 

Bridgette & Ryan got engaged!

(other photos on flickr)

a wilmore wedding

recently i second shot a wedding with matt renaud (a friend and wedding photographer in the lexington area) and here are a few of my favorite shots. congrats katy & andrew mckeown!

i just need to get free

monday

the jersey golden light of evening.

sandstorms, surfboards, and beach boys

so i guess no matter how much i deny it, jersey's in my blood. its said that you know you live by the shore when you cant ever seem to get the sand out from between your toes and you leave your hair looking windblown, because it starts to naturally fall that way. i never really believed that, because although i grew up 5 minutes from the bay to the west of us, and 5 to the ocean in the east, i rarely ventured to the ocean except late in the season when all the tourists went home. and that being said, i prefer not to leave my hair looking windblown. but today i couldnt get the thought of "sand between my toes" from my mind. maybe it was the lazy leona naess tunes playing on my ipod, or the frigid temperatures that made me long for summer...either way i started to miss the beach, windblown hair and all. theres nothing quite like the ocean crashing behind you, bare feet burning on scorched sand, riding a wave on a surfboard that you dont know how to navigate, lifeguards blowing their whistles, wildwood boardwalks famous "watch the tramcar please" and the taste of salt in the air to make you feel at home. at least in a jersey girls mind. maybe one day ill go back, maybe one day ill again call it home... but until then ill just dream about the ocean and try and be satisfied with frigid landlocked wilmore.

leesburg, nj

a car my dad and i found when we were rummaging around the old abandoned

whipco factory in leesburg, nj.

it is for freedom that christ has set us free

i take life way to seriously, but im finding freedom in the letting go

609

i went home (home is such a relative term) to south jersey for christmas and got into a bunch of abandoned homes/old factories etc. to photograph them. here's the old cranberry factory in belleplain nj. the walls were all covered in graffiti ... south jersey is often refered to "the 609" after our area code so this one was appropriate.

im gonna be putting up tons from the photoshoot with jordan/the abandoned house in wilmore as well as the ones i took from sj on my flickr, so check it out.

a conversation

Person I: Do you still like to photograph?
Person II: Yes. I love photography, but I don't really do it anymore.
Person I: Why?
Person II: Don't know. Maybe I got burnt out, maybe I'm just waiting, maybe its not what I'm supposed to do.
Person I: Well maybe you're in a season of waiting, maybe you're in the valley, maybe you don't have any idea what you're going to do for the rest of your life, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't photograph. Take advantage, take more photos than you can handle, what could it hurt if its what you love...like what else are you going to do.

maybe one day ill actually make money off this stuff,

but until then im just gonna shoot what i love.

jordan photo shoot