Nov
13
2013There’s so much weight in that word.
Calling.
The weight of everything we are made to be.
It’s something I think everyone wrestles with at some point (or multiple points, or daily).
I think I’m more in the daily crowd.
Who am I? What am I meant to be? What should I be doing with my life? My hands? My gifts?
And that whispered fear {am I failing?}.
Oh, but with a God sovereign over all how can I fail? He knows what he created me to be. I’m here to discover His plan and to give Him glory. And that brings comfort. No matter what role I dip my toes in.
Yet, still there are so many roles I step into daily.
Wife.
Mother.
Daughter.
Sister.
Photographer.
Writer.
Encourager.
Small-group(s) Leader.
Quilter.
Garment maker.
Painter (at least of walls… very regularly)
It’s those roles that weaken my contentment with my calling to be His.
Those roles that cause the tears to fall when they become more important than savoring the fact that He is Worthy.
Of all the roles. All the callings.
Nov
11
2013Progress reports sounds kind of threatening, huh? Well, I didn’t mean for it to be that way. After all I was supposed to write this post on Wednesday. 😉
This humble photography class has whittled down to just two lovely participants. Amber and Teddy. However, I’m so thankful that Amber and Teddy have stayed the course and encouraged me to keep at it.
If you’re still following along, I’d love to see how your work has changed so drop some images in the Flickr Group. I’m also considering a private Facebook group: would it be quicker and easier for you to share imagery and critique on Facebook? Comment and let me know.
Teddy and Amber are currently turning in a mixture of manual mode, lighting, and final project images. So I’m going to keep this simple and showcase a brief spattering of their best images with a few comments on my favorite parts of their images.
Amber
I love the narrow depth of field that lets us focus right on this little gift of childhood.
Beautiful lighting. A wonderful expression. Love the skin tones. Love that this is straight out of camera.
Love this! Love that you were looking for the light and the catchlights. The lens distortion (where her body is tiny and her head huge) makes me smile and really captures her well from the perspective an an adult looking down on her. I think this one needs to go on the wall.
I had to put this up here because I can’t believe how much he’s grown already! I love the contrast of the bright jacket on the drab background colors and the beautiful expression. The weird crop is my only critique… but when I’m shooting fast moving children… I get lots of weird crops… so well done!
This might be your capstone image. I can see how much thought went into it. The colors, the moment, the leading line of the fishing pole connecting the two image parts and creating interest. It’s breath taking. It elevates this normal moment of childhood to true beauty.
Teddy
When I saw this my first thought was that there’s almost complete lack of distortion in this photo. Teddy chose his crop/focal length/shot location/angles so well! He loves this sort of high contrast night work and I love watching him do it. My only wish: I want to see it in black and white because I love high contrast night work in black and white. Ha!
Again: I covet the black and white. 🙂 But for me this feels hopeful: it’s dark and yet still the greenery is growing.
I just love this. The playfulness. The forty stories I could tell about this one image (the people pleaser, the abused, the unnoticed, the grown up child). The light and the shadow of the pole. I just like this.
I’ve been reading and writing and going to a conference about how our ever day life is art. And here is this man working this low wage job and creating art right where he is. Powerful.
Nov
11
2013I’ll be showcasing the 4 family sessions I’ve had the pleasure of capturing in the upcoming weeks.
I don’t do a lot of family sessions because I can’t always find clients with the same vision for their family portraits. And also because I have three children under 4 and limited weekend/night availability. 😉
Yet I love authentic documentary family photography. I love being drawn into your world and quietly snapping away in the background while giving my family clients the minimum of direction.
I want to capture real families authentically loving one another right in the midst of the daily.
This style of photography isn’t for everyone and I’ve already mentioned that I don’t have a lot of availability, so how can you tell if we’re a good fit?
Authentic Documentary Family Photography with Quiet Graces
Family Mini-Session
For my mini sessions in an outside location, I start with a posed image or two while the kiddos (and the husband) are still ready to follow instructions. This is portrait that you’d see featured on a Christmas card or grandma’s wall. Then, I encourage play. I’ve already talked to you prior to the session and you have brought an assortment of toys or maybe bubbles or even your husband’s guitar for all of you to enjoy. I will place you in some great light and photograph the fun for the duration of the mini session.
I’ll capture your family as they really are.
Your goofy husband hanging the baby upside-down to blow on a dandelion.
Your toddler squishing the baby.
Sibling rivalry.
Old Love.
Commissioned Family Sessions
While I love these fun and quick mini-session, my favorite type of family session is just a little different. If you’ve hung around Quiet Graces for any length of time you know that I love finding the beautiful in the messy. As a photographer, I’m no different.
My dream client calls and asks if I would like to come over and photograph their Saturday morning ritual of playing under the covers and eating cereal with their kiddos in bed. They’ll treasure an image of dad chasing a toddler who escaped, mostly naked from the changing pad while dad grabbed their socks from a drawer. They’ll treasure an image of their daughter sitting on the counter watching mom do her hair for the day. They’ll be super excited to see images of the sibling playing trains on a messy floor and even more excited that I somehow captured them sneaking kisses while the kids played. After our slow morning, we headed out to a park, or the lake, or even the library my client loves to spend time at for a few more formal images.
I want to capture the real life my clients love to live.
I only periodically offer mini-sessions (in the spring and fall) and only limited numbers of these sessions. However, if the family session at home is your dream session, don’t hesitate to contact me about my availability.
Nov
08
2013I know Quiet Graces is a little schizophrenic. One moment I’m posting sessions, the next I’m championing children in poverty, then I’m writing a series on seeing beauty in your everyday mess, and then I’m wishing my kiddos a happy birthday. Sometimes I feel like my readers have whiplash.
Here’s the truth: I used to have two blogs- a personal one and a business blog. They have been merged in this one space for a year now. I merged the two in obedience because I heard this clear call to live a one piece life. For me, storytelling with a pen or a camera serve the same purpose: capturing the glory of God.
There are days where I struggle with this schizophrenic feel to my space:
“Lord,” I whisper in the dark, “Why one space? Aren’t the business and the writing mixed hindering me?”
And He always says clearly, “It is not about you.”
Leave it to my Father to silence me in just 5 words.
So I keep writing. The messy real of my everyday life mingles with the business of creating art for clients.
I am becoming transparent so that He can be seen.
Because when I boil my God-sized dream down to the core it is this: To assure those who feel like that they are an utter mess that their beauty is in their weakness. To whisper loud that God only uses broken people.
And whether I do that with type set on a screen or through an image of a worn and broken new mom who emptied herself for the tiny being in her hands really doesn’t matter to me. The vehicle doesn’t matter. It’s all under the umbrella of the dream.
My dream isn’t about me anyway: it’s about others seeing Him big in the work He’s called me to complete.
Nov
04
2013I’m helping her stuff copies of her latest book into her already stuffed suitcase. I thank her quietly for preaching herself the gospel during an elevator ride where I was ready to walk out.
“I have to preach the gospel to myself or the nerves will defeat me.”
“I stayed here and heard what He had for me because you preached the gospel to yourself unashamed in an elevator. Thank you.”
She asks if my near panic of the crowds has been alleviated. I smile weakly and say no; I’m still scared. And the tears come fresh to my eyes.
“I keep looking for that one person who needs someone to talk to, who needs me to be Jesus to them. And every time I look for that person I’m standing in the middle of the room alone while everyone else talks to somebody. I am that person I’m looking for.”
My hands are in hers and her eyes are welling up just like mine. And as I tell her this little bit of my heart I’m swept into a hug.
“It’s okay though.” I whisper. “Really the Lord had so much for me here. So many things that I needed to hear. I needed Jennie Allen’s message so much.”
“What is he asking you to do?”
“Speak.” The words tumble out before I can stop them, terrifying me as I say them. This introvert is worn out thinking about telling her story in front of people. “I can’t believe I just said that aloud.” She laughs with a knowing smile.
“And what is your heart message?”
“It’s like Lisa-Jo’s heart. It’s to tell that mom who feels alone that all of this is normal. The messy house, the anger, the fear, and all the mess of little sinful hearts purging sin from yours. I used to be in this group of ladies who seemed to have it all together. Perfect playdates, perfect houses, perfect lives worn as masks to protect. And I would leave these gatherings in tears. I mean, didn’t their toddlers poop all over their floors, too?” And this time she tips her head back to laugh hard, brought back to those days in her own motherhood journey.
We talk for a little while longer before someone else takes her attention and I quietly slip away.
And this woman who I’ve found in a quiet moment, alone after so many days of people waiting in line to talk to her, makes me feel like I’m the only one in the room who matters. Like my soul and my journey and my heart for this 10 minute intersection were her sole purpose for living that moment.
That conversation with Ann, full of grace, is the one that fills this Melissa Ann with grace. I walk away encouraged, having received words that only made my soul stronger.
I walk away changed. And this quiet yet loud girl with the fear of never measuring up walks out of Allume as one small star breaking herself to shed His light. Breaking herself to share for His glory. Breaking herself for the God-man who loved me enough to take on my sin, my death, and still give me life. And I only care what my audience of One thinks of this journey He has set me on.
A star is born when it breaks itself and gives itself away. A star is born every single time you break your mask of having it together. A star is born when you break other people’s images of you. A star is born when you point out your own sins and be a sign pointing to Jesus. ~Ann Voskamp
