Life has changed so much in the past week, but I only have a 5-minute blog-time window.

I have a lot of news that I'm busting to tell, but most I know I can't tell publicly. At least not yet.

This weekend, we are the beneficiaries of the Guys with Ties Halloween party. This means that Jason, the president, and I have been non-stop on the phone with each other. He is very calm, cool, and collected... I, as a control freak, am trying to put all of my trust in a man I met a month ago. It's been very difficult, and I'm hoping he hasn't caught on to it. But on top of it all, I'm trying to plan a walk in 5 weeks. Normally these things are planned in 9 months, with a full committee, and lots of PR. And even then, first year events typically break even or lose money.

Then my personal life seems to be merging with my professional life more than usual. I used to do that all the time, and so I swore I never would again. But out of pure coincidence, I have found everything kind of coming together.

More to come later. Sit back. Grab some popcorn. Watch it all unfold.

Shawn McDonald at CharlotteONE:

I heart Shawn McDonald. I do hope that when I do get married, my husband can sing and play the guitar like that. For realz.

I was "introduced" to Shawn a year ago when he was supposed to be coming to CharlotteONE: and immediately fell in love (with his music, that is). It's perfectly my style... mellow and acoustic, with a great mix of sounds. Plus, dude can skat like nobody's business... and for a girl who always saw herself singing jazz professionally, that's definitely something that impresses me.

So, after a year of waiting, I finally got to see Shawn in concert last night at CharlotteONE:, a Christian young adult and singles ministry that I have been involved in over the past couple of years.

Since I am always one to take any excuse to practice my photography more, I had camera in tow. I started out on the balcony so that I wouldn't disturb anyone (other than Tiffany and Jason, of course, who I sat beside... I'm sure they loved that!). When I saw that Andrew, one of the official CharlotteONE: photographers was not there, I decided to move around some more and try and get some better shots. Turns out, mine from the back of the room with my crappy 70-300mm lens came out the best. But yes, Dave, I still lust over your L lenses.

Here are the shots from the night. I struggled with how much to edit these, so I really didn't very much. Adjusted wb on a couple, cropped out a couple, but that's pretty much it. I think I would make Andrew proud for that one. ;-)

Weekend o' rainy fun

One of the perks of being a pk is that every once in a while, people gift their leftover "stuff" to us. This, in the past, has meant free Clemson/Carolina tickets, a buffet of food waiting on us when we got back from trips to Ohio to visit the grandparents, and most recently, a free beach house.

The unfortunate thing is that I often bring rain with me when I visit Wilmington, and this weekend was no different. This meant lots of shopping, lots of puzzle-doing (we finished 1 per day), and lots of playing with the new "toy"... my 16-month-old nephew Owen. I will definitely miss being greeted by, "MAMEEE" when I come out to the kitchen for breakfast.

Here are a couple of shots I got from the weekend. I was hoping for fun beach shots, but since we were stuck in the rain, the weekend didn't provide for very many exciting picture times.

It's Megan's 21st birthday in a couple of weeks, so we had a pre-emptive celebration. Fun stuff!

Don't you love how I was able to get this cool lens flare across her face? Really? OK, seriously, no clue how that happened and too frustrated with Photoshop to fix it...

My nephew has a puppy...

OK, so not as hyper as Molly, but still cute! Working on editing out pictures right now, so this is straight from the camera, but will post the others soon!

I am skipping town...

Leaving the bills behind, the stress, the... everything.

I'm leaving to town, heading to Wilmington to be with my family.

My hopes are...

...Cuddling Owen instead of the dog (though I will miss the dog)
...Clearing my mind
...Spending time with God
...Spending time with the rest of the family
...Getting some great portfolio shots, using family as models. :-)

Talk atcha later. :-)

Want to feel like a model?

In my escapades yesterday, I scouted a lot of cool locations for photoshoots (some stolen from Cheyenne, I won't lie!) I had a blast, but shots without people=way boring.

If you want to feel like a model and help me out at the same time, let me know. We'll go have fun uptown playing model and photographer.

I know, I know, here is where I get cussed out by all the "real" photographers for doing this for free...

I heart Charlotte (and vacation)

As one of the few people that can really say I'm from "round here" I am one of the ones that usually buzzes by uptown. The only time I'm up there is for CharlotteONE:, or possibly some random meeting, so my ability to explore the city is pretty limited.

But this week, I'm on vacation. So, of course I took the opportunity to break out my camera and practice. The light was reeealy harsh, and I'm still not very skilled in shooting in it, but I was luckily able to fix most of the photos (yay Photoshop!)

Social Economic Reform

I had been trying to find my passion. I had been searching for what I wanted to do in Atlanta.



And then I went to Africa.



The third night in Africa, I started talking to a woman. She was from Australia, currently residing in London, and had just come back from living in the slums of Kenya for 2 weeks. I felt a little guilty complaining about our goat at that point.



She and I stopped to talk politics. Now, whether you are into politics or not, but particularly if you are, I strongly suggest you talk politics with someone not from the US. It gets interesting.


But we didn't talk about the election. We talked about economics. Specifically, the different welfare systems.

In Kenya, I was amazed by the fact that Kenyans will walk miles just for the chance at a job. They walk to a possible job site every morning, the "hiring manager" picks who they want for the day (according to our driver, approximately half), and if they don't get picked, they walk home. And start it again in the morning.

In the United Kingdom, health care is provided for all, and their welfare system accounts for 50% of government spending.

In the United States, housing, food, and healthcare are provided by those under the poverty line. In Charlotte, a woman living in government subsidized housing without a job pays $25/month in rent. Once that woman finds a job, rent in the same house goes up to $500/month.

I heard once that you should only write about things you know. I want to say that shifting government spending towards education versus welfare would be much more economically beneficial, but first I want to know that for sure based on numbers and facts. So, for the next several months, maybe years, I will be researching the welfare systems of foreign countries, as well as our own.

Am I a nerd to find this interesting?

I went to the library Tuesday to crunch and recrunch my budget. It was hair-pulling, frustrating, and about gave me a heart attack.

Then I realized I left my roommate's rent out of it, and I was really relieved.

Until she e-mailed me letting me know she is moving out at the end of the year. Crap.

I guess I must've known it was coming. I really don't want to get another one. I don't live with other people well, and I figured that one out the hard way (or the easy way?) But, it left me with a lot of decisions to make, which has stressed me out to the max.

Do I want to get a second job? Yeah, that's a negatory. Other than the fact that I would love (let's reemphasize the "love" in this) to start second shooting at weddings ASAP, there really isn't much else that I'm remotely interested in doing. I mean, for me to have a second job, it'll need to be something that I enjoy on top of helping supplement the bills. I enjoy bartending, I really do, but the past couple of weddings that I've worked at, I spent more time in awe over the 40D's on the dance floor than the guy trying to get a vodka/tonic.

OK, so let's just make a little side note. My goal in life is not to be an award winning, awe inspiring photographer. At least not right now. But with my experience in wedding planning, how can you not want to capture all of those details that the wedding planner worked hard to put together? Seriously.

So, anyway, I have a few decisions to make about my finances. It's a matter of knowing what's best for me. I know what a financial planner will tell me, but knowing myself, I'm trying to make the best decisions based on what I can actually execute. And the thing is, I feel so guilty because I know I should leave it fully up to God. But panic attacks still ensue...