Lupus Foundation Mardis Gras Gala 2009

OK, so I finally think I've gotten this blog to the way I want it to look. Sorry if you've checked back over the past week and have seen 15 different versions. We're cool, now. :-)

The pictures below are from my first "official" shoot. I was so excited to be a part of this event. Jill, a former Bethlehem Center intern, is now the development coordinator at the Lupus Foundation and asked me to come out and shoot. I was fortunate enough to have another photographer there so I got to play around a little more than I normally would. We both had a lot of fun, and as you can tell from the pictures, so did the crowd!

Pausing

I'm in the middle of working on editing the pictures from last night, but I just wanted to pause for a second.

If you've been reading my blog or know me at all, you know that there are 3 major photographers that I stalk, I mean, er, study on a regular basis. David Johnson is a good friend of mine and one of the biggest reasons I got into photography. Cheyenne Schultz is a friend from way back when, and is also a tremendous photographer. She and David have both shot for CharlotteONE: and have worked together before in wedding photography (*cough* thanks to yours truly *cough*).

The third, though, is someone that I've never met before, but is a photographer that I've heard about through relentless stalking of Cheyenne. Her name is Scarlett Lillian, and I admire her work a lot. It might be hard to tell, but I model a lot of my style in photography after her. Or at least, make some attempts at it.

Although I've never met her, I feel oddly as if I call her a friend (yes, it's odd, but also not odd if you know me at all), so I wanted to go ahead and put this out there. Scarlett's dad passed away this past weekend after an 8-month long battle with cancer. Since we're not really friends, I feel as if I would do injustice to explain what she's been going through over the past several months, but I encourage each of you to say a prayer for her, and read about her family's journey here.

Lupus Foundation's Mardis Gras Benefit

OK, so I can't wait.  I'm super-excited to have gotten some great pictures, so here's an unedited teaser:

Transitioning...

So, I got my first "gig" on Saturday. I'm super excited, and feel like a huge nerd because of this.

This also means that I'll be fully transitioning the blog after I get done with this shoot into more of a portfolio, and less of a "this is what crap is going on today." But I'm deliberating... do I keep this one up and create a strictly photography one, or do I put it all on this one, and just watch what I say?

I'll be working on all the new blog stuff soon. Look for very exciting stuff (at least, I hope it's very exciting).

I have an opinion.

There are lots of big kid questions that came up this weekend. Lots of things on my mind that I've been wondering about.

I know of this church in Charlotte. I went once. Wasn't really my thing, but whatever. But a lot of people really love this church. Like, they're crazy about it. It's the best church ever. So, I decided to talk to one of these people who is so crazy about this church, and ask him why he was ok with certain things they do. He said he wasn't.

We went on to talk about how leadership within churches is always flawed. I don't mean this in a talk-bad-about-churches kind of way, more in a realize-your-minister-is-human kind of way. For me, that concept is pretty easy. I lived with a minister for 18 years.

But the dangerous thing about this is that, if you don't question your minister, you can easily get swept away in the noise and not be able to separate what is Truth from what is fiction.

When I first started going to Good Shepherd, it really made me uncomfortable. A lot. So much, that I called James-Michael and asked to meet with him. Talbot sat in as well. As I was firing questions at them, they answered openly and honestly. And although I still didn't agree with everything they said, I decided to stay. The things that I disagreed with weren't dealbreakers, just disagreements. And you have to respect a guy with an opinion who's open to discussing it.

It's ok to disagree with your minister. Lots of people do. It's not ok to bash them over the head with how horrible they are and how flawed they are. Trust me, they're aware. Probably a lot more than you think. But I think to not question your minister can be dangerous in a lot of ways.

The second thing that I've been thinking about lately, is can a true follower in Jesus be active in the Charlotte party scene?

A friend of ours threw this massive Super Bowl party. I didn't go, because I heard a lot of people left early on. He told me that he was disappointed that his Christian friends didn't stay. He thought it would be cool if there was a mix of Christians and non-Christians. They had left because they weren't comfortable with everything that was going on.

It poses an interesting thought, though. Christians get accused of staying in their "bubble" but the Bible also says to flee from temptation. Which thought is correct?

I went to see He's Just Not That Into You today. I actually have not read the book, but a friend gave me the book "It's Called a Breakup Because it's Broken" a few months after my last dreadful breakup, and I loved it, although I was pretty defensive about accepting it at first.

The movie was definitely not a Christian movie, but has the same lessons that Christians are currently talking about when it comes to dating. The moral: Boys pursue girls.

What I found myself laughing about were most of Maggie Gyllenhaal's lines and character traits. Most of us haven't been quite this bad, but can also relate to the whole, starting-at-the-phone-until-we-convince-ourselves-it's-ok-for-us-to-call-him ordeal. And, ok, so I've been known to wait until the last minute to pay my bills. Whatever.

But I have another theory about why girls do this. Or at least, I know this is why I do this. We want clearly defined roles in the relationship. We want to know whether we're friends, talking, dating, or in a relationship. So, our calling a guy when he isn't calling us isn't necessarily because we are that crazy about the guy, sometimes it's just because we want that definition, even if it's a rejection. We want the guy to just man up and say, "Yeah, not really interested, but thanks for asking."

I'm sitting here, with a stack of things to do (literally, I should take a picture. The stack's high). But I'm taking a 15-minute mental break, as my friends at Red Cross say.

I love being busy. Anyone who has known me for more than two seconds knows this about me. If I'm not running in 5 different directions, I get slouchy, grumpy, and lazy. But over the past 2 years, I've been looking for something to really commit to. Something where I can take a leadership role and work hard. So, back in December, I applied to serve on one of the Engage! Charlotte committees as well as one of the Club Red committees.

Here's what's funny. Both of them accepted me. The exact same week.

For anyone who doesn't know what these two organizations are, here's the nutshell. Engage! Charlotte is the young professionals arm of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. The purpose is to create activities that will grow job opportunities for young pros and retain talent to the city of Charlotte. As someone who's lived here for 15 years, now, you could say I might have a small passion for this. Plus, I'm a huge Economics geek.

Club Red is the young pros arm of the Red Cross. I have been volunteering off and on with Red Cross over the past couple of years, and have a very good working relationship with them as well, so when I heard they needed help, of course I jumped on it! You all know how attimate I am about helping good, solid nonprofits.

Both of these will suck up a lot of my time. I love this. But it will also mean backing off in other areas. And, I've found, it has led to a few more 15-minute mental breaks.

Break over.