Reflection of Light

I’ve heard great photographers say that “photography is all about light”. The very origin of the word means “drawing with light”. The amount of, quality of and behavior of light, all affect how a scene is viewed by our eyes and by a camera lens.

While sitting at Chipotle the other week, I noticed how light was bouncing off the aluminum table top, lighting my wife’s face from below. I liked what the light was doing in the scene, so I decided to make an image with it.

“Photography is all about light”.

Sharing this Life

The woman I’m living the dream with. I’m so thankful I have her.

Whatever good things I become in the rest of this life are going to be because of how God has used this woman to encourage me, challenge me and support me as my wife, best friend and life companion.

My Angel In The Night

“The Love of My Life” by Jim Brickman

"I am amazed / when I look at you / I see you smiling back at me / It's like all my dreams come true / I am afraid / If I lost you girl / I'd fall through the cracks and lose my track / in this crazy lonely world / / Sometimes it's so hard to believe / when the nights can be so long / but faith gave me the strength and kept me holding on / / Chorus: You are the love of my life / and I'm so glad you found me / You are the love of my life / Baby put your arms around me / I guess this is how it feels / when you finally find something real / my angel in the night / You are my love / the love of my life

/ / Now here you are / with midnight closing in / you take my hand as our shadows dance / with moonlight on your skin / / I look in your eyes / I'm lost inside your kiss / I think if I'd never met you / about all the things I'd missed / / Sometimes it's so hard to believe / when a love can be so strong / and faith gave me the strength / and kept me holding on / / Chorus: You are the love of my life / and I'm so glad you found me / You are the love of my life / Baby put your arms around me / / I guess this is how it feels / when you finally find something real / My angel in the night / You are my love / the love of my life"

I'm so glad that God brought us together, Sandy. You are the love of my life.

Hats Off

On Saturday night, I had the pleasure of helping Sandy’s Dad, Julian, who’s also a photographer, do a shoot with some of his other kids and their significant others.

Pictured above, is Sandy’s brother, Jesse, and his girlfriend, Chrissy. We had these cool hats that were being used as props. At one point, Jesse had thrown his hat back to his Dad. When I saw this, I got the idea to have them throw the hats at me. This ended up being my favorite image of the night.

An Engagement Story part 3

By that Thursday, I had decided that I wanted to propose on Friday morning (July 4th) and get the weekend started with a real Bang! So, on Thursday afternoon, I emailed Sandy and suggested that we have breakfast out on the boat dock behind her Aunt and Uncle’s house who live across the street from her. She replied and said that she thought it was a good idea.

Later Thursday night, while on the phone with Sandy, I suggested that we bring her iPod player with us to the dock on Friday morning. My secret idea was that I would play a set list of “our songs” and for the last one, I would have her stand up with me and once the song was over, I’d go down on one knee! The tune I picked for that is a song by Mark Schultz that talks about going the distance for her. (Click here to hear it.)

When I arrived at Sandy’s on Friday morning, I could feel myself shaking a little. This was the day that I was going to ask my future wife to marry me. It was a huge deal what I was about to do, but it felt right and I was ready.

As Sandy and I headed across the street and down to her Aunt and Uncle’s boat dock, she asked, “So, what about breakfast?” Since neither of us had mentioned anything about “what” we were going to eat for breakfast while at the dock, both of us had assumed that the other was taking care of it. I replied, “Well, I guess we’re not having breakfast, but can we still go down there and just sit and listen to some music for a little bit?” Sandy, being very gracious, agreed to my request.

Once we got down there, I said, “I’m going to take you through a musical journey of ‘Chad & Sandy’.” I then sat beside her on a bench swing while the tunes began to play. About half way through the set, I heard someone whistle behind us. I looked up to the house and saw a man who appeared to be Sandy’s Dad waving his arms at me. After I acknowledged him and waved back, he turned around and disappeared. Sandy, not having looked back to see who it was, asked me if I knew. I said, “I think it was your Dad?”

A few songs later, I looked back to see Sandy’s Dad and step Mom walking towards the dock. Her Dad, who has a passion for photography as well, had his camera around his neck. To keep things from being blown, I told Sandy that I was going to go talk to her Dad real quick and would be right back.

As I approached them out of hearing range from Sandy, Mr. Vasquez asked me, “Chad, how are you doing?” and proceeded to greet me with a hug. I said, “I’m doing wonderful, but I haven’t ‘done it’ yet.” I then explained my plan about standing up for the last song and then proposing at the end of it. He said that he was going to pretend to be photographing nature and would capture “the moment” when it happened. They then headed back up to the house as I returned to Sandy. “What did my Dad want?” she asked. “Oh, he’s just going to be photographing nature.” I cleverly replied.

When the last song was getting ready to begin, I stood up and asked Sandy to stand with me for this one. I held her close as we took in the lyrics together. When the last set of verses came, her head was resting against my chest and I could tell that she was crying. At this point, I was crying too.

Once the song ended and all was silent, I pulled back and proceeded to go down on one knee. As I knelt before her, Sandy’s crying turned to sobbing as she covered her mouth with her hand. I then dug in my right pocket for the ring box and pulled it out. I looked up at the woman I love and with tear filled eyes, said, “Will you marry me Sandy?” She said, “Yes”.

I got back up and embraced her. We then heard a collective cheer and clapping in the background. It was her Dad, step Mom, Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, and both her sisters all coming down the dock to congratulate us. Turns out that word had spread quickly through the house while we were out there and a lot of people just happened to be in the right place at the right time. They all had watched from a distance and got to share in our very special moment.

Sandy and I have been flying ever since.

An Engagement Story part 1

For a while now, I had known that Sandy was the woman that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. With each passing week, our love grew only stronger and the commitment in my heart grew only deeper.

Originally, my idea was to propose to Sandy on Christmas day later this year. As we talked about the prospect of marrying each other and what the future would look like, I dropped hints that a proposal was still a little ways off, although my love and commitment to her was already very strong. I just thought that Christmas would be such a special time, especially since it’s my favorite holiday. That and the fact that it’s three days after our first year anniversary of meeting each other (December 22).

It was a great idea, but I soon began to realize that Sandy and I were already engaged in our hearts. I even told her that’s how I felt. All we needed to know, we already knew.
So, two weeks ago, I had decided that I was going to make our engagement official within the next two months. All I needed was to find the type of ring that she would want.

Two Sundays ago, Sandy and I went to the Mall after church to look at engagement rings. It was in the understanding that she would tell me what she liked, then I would surprise her “some day”.

That morning in church, my pastor spoke about the Christian life and how what we’ve experienced in our hearts by the work of Christ, we live out of. When I heard that, I related it to my relationship with Sandy as well.

As we walked through the parking lot up to the entrance of Macy’s, I told Sandy about how I related what my pastor said to our relationship.

“Out of what we’ve experienced in our hearts, we live out of. That’s why we’re getting ready to look at engagement rings right now, because we’ve experienced this in our hearts.”

My Girl

I captured this image of my girlfriend, Sandy, this past Saturday at Hollis Garden, here in Lakeland. We were on our way to my church’s Valentine’s Couples Banquet, and stopped off at the gardens to grab a few shots beforehand. This was the first shoot that I’d done with Sandy.

I didn’t have enough time to really get warmed up behind the camera and she didn’t have enough time to get completely relaxed in front of the camera…but, we both agreed that there would be many more shoots to come.

Sandy came into my life in December and from that came Spring.

She is a beautiful, lovely woman who loves God with all her heart. I thank Him everyday for bringing her into my life. She is a rare gem, a treasure that is hard to find.

Mirrors and Jewels

Here’s another image from my shoot with Punam and Dal. I was photographing Punam around this butterfly statue that was decorated with fake jewels and mirrors. As Punam checked her make-up, I captured a few images of her reflection, ending with one that pays a slight tribute to her Indian heritage.

Stefanie

Today I had lunch with my old friend, Stefanie. Stef is the one who got me in contact with Punam and Dal for their photo sessions. While letting her know recently how the shoot with them went, I mentioned that we needed to get together and catch up on how each of us have been. So, we met for lunch down town at Crispers which was followed by a quick photo shoot. Stef had been evading my camera for any real shoot for quite some time, but today was the day she surrendered to the lens.

As we looked for good backdrops and locations down town, I started noticing cool “worn” looking paint jobs on doors and such. I mentioned to Stefanie how it’s amazing what you see when you really look. The weathered materials we found lining the walls down an ally way, provided interesting backdrops for portraiture.

For the image above, we used a side door to some shop that was painted a deep blue. I told Stef this would be a great “profile pic” if she had a Blog. She agreed, but said she was too busy to have one.

Urban Cowgirl

As the wind began blowing my subjects hair early in the shoot, I asked the family if they had brought any hats. One of the girls spoke up about a cowboy hat they had in their van, it would do. So, each of the two girls took turns wearing it, keeping the disheveled hair issue down to a minimum.

This image was taken towards the end of the shoot as the 11:00am sun began to shine brightly. I used fill flash to lighten up where the hat shaded her eyes. We had overcast skies for half of the shoot that morning, which I liked because of not having to deal with harsh shadows. I always prefer shooting in early morning or early evening for this reason.

The Magician

That’s what I’ve always called this shot. Ebenezer looks like a magician who’s reaching out to turn you into a rabbit. I could see the poster headline now. “Come be Dazzled and Amazed at Sites You Have Never Beheld!”

Eb has become one of my good friends over the past year and a half. He’s a fellow Bachelor, so often times we’ll grab a bite to eat together, sometimes taco bell, sometimes Pizza, sometimes who knows what else. Yes, we are definitely Bachelors as you can tell by our wonderful cuisine. We also usually take in a cool DVD. Of course this is all when he’s not spending time with his girl, Alexis.


...On a side note, check out a fun interview I did for "Luce" of the "HomeSchoolNerd" Blog.

Petrie

I took this photo of my friend Patricia about three years ago. A lot has changed for her since then. She is now a wife to my friend Jonathan and a Mom to a very cute little baby boy named Josiah.

Patricia’s nick name from college was “Petrie” (pronounced peetrie). Named after the little pterodactyl from “The Land Before Time” animated movie series. Patricia played basketball for Southeastern University and because of her petite size, she acquired the nick name.

For this photo, I was standing on a bench and had Patricia sit in the grass behind it.

Man of Mystery

From age 15 to 19, my best friend was Todd. We shared a lot of the growing pains of becoming men. We mainly shared laughter, which I often thought of as the foundation of our friendship, that and God. Me and Todd were always laughing at inside jokes or creating new ones.

I’m glad I had a friend like that to help get me through those, sometimes tough and awkward, teen years. Since then, life has taken us in different directions. I was blessed though to be the Best Man in his wedding in November of 2004. I got the call and flew up to Pennsylvania to be a part of his historical day. He now has two children, a boy and a girl.

One thing about it, Since our teens, Todd has become difficult to get in touch with. That’s why the title of this post is not only appropriate for the image, but also for him.

I captured this image in the middle of 1998. We were at my parents house. Back then, they had not built a deck yet, it was just one big drop off the back of their house. I seen Todd sitting down there with that hat on and saw “an image”. This is one of the early glimpses of my “eye” for photography.

A photo that I took a few years later reminds me of this image. It’s one of my friend Patricia that I took during a game of chess. Because of the positioning of her head, you can not see her face. I link the two images because they are both of people who have been good friends to me in my life. The image does not completely reveal their identity, but I know who they are.

I could tell you so many stories involving Todd. I’m glad he’s been a part of my history.

A Man and His Steed

Mark is one of the friends in my “inner circle”. I have a lot of people that I know and consider friends, but I have a smaller group of friends that really know who I am. These are the people that I can share my heart with. People that encourage me and are concerned about me. People that know were I’ve come from and can see where I’m headed.

This is off on a slight tangent, but still on my inner circle. I’ve been walking through life with most of this group for almost six years, but towards the end of last year, I came to know how good of friends I have. One week I was going through something that really had me distraught. That Wednesday night we had Bible study at David and Michele’s house. They could tell I wasn’t myself as I didn‘t want anything to munch on and more so than that, I‘m sure they could see it on my face. I did have some of the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had that night though! I mentioned that fact and Michele said she made it from scratch. When I was getting ready to leave, Michele asked me if I was ok and if I needed to talk. At first I nonchalantly said, “oh, I don’t even know if I want to talk about it”, trying to hide how I was really feeling and the fact that I really did need to talk about it. She said, “You can, we’re family”. So, I bared my soul with my close family of friends and they gave me Godly counsel that encouraged me and lifted my spirit.

That’s what I mean in my profile when I say “I've especially realized over the last year that they really are there for me when I need it.” And there has been a few more times this year when they have been there for me again and again. God has truly blessed me to have these people to walk through life with. Everything I believe deep down, they share with me. The things I’m hoping for, they hope with me. When I celebrate, they celebrate with me.

The image above is from a photo session I did with Mark and his horse Banner a few years ago. Mark was prepping Banner for some obedience training as I focused on them. I saw Mark give an interesting look over his shades at something and “click”, I had captured one of my favorite images of Mark and Banner together.

Pondering

This is another one of my favorite images from a shoot that I did with my friends David and Michele in 2002. Listing their names together like that reminds me of a thought I’ve been having recently of how married couples are usually referred to together. You know, like “Bob and Mary are such cool people” or “wouldn’t Joe and Kendra like that movie too?” It’s just something that I’ve thought about recently, how united a married couple really is that each person is forever referred to with the other. I guess it’s yet another way that the two really do become one.

The image above was taken with a 35mm Yashica camera from the early 1980’s. The camera belongs to my grandfather, but has served as a learning tool for me in the past before I went digital. Around the time of this shoot the old camera was beginning to show signs of needing repair. One of those signs was a black streak that would show up on random prints. I had it repaired and found that the steaks were coming from rubber seals inside the camera that were deteriorating from age and turning to goop.

One of the those annoying streaks originally showed up on this picture. I was able to remove it though in Photoshop and restore the image! Among other edits, I added color to Michele’s sweater.

The idea behind the shot was to show two different moods. David is blurred in the background with a crazy expression on his face, while Michele is in deep thought in the foreground with her cup of coffee.

Bradley

Bradley is the oldest of my “younger” cousins, he is now 16! Brad is an artist with a very creative imagination. Right now, one of the biggest passions in his life is video games, he’s quite the “gamer”. But, the cool thing is, it’s not the games about auto theft and prostitutes, but rather “Super Mario” and “Sonic the Hedge Hog” that he loves.

One thing I’ve noticed about Brad lately is how much of a “good heart” he has. A few months ago our family had gathered for a Sunday dinner. I was talking about DVD renting with my Aunt and Uncle when Bradley picked up on the fact that I go to Block Buster. He said that since he and his family went to a different store, I could have the gift card to Block Buster that he was carrying around in his wallet. So, he pulled it out and gave it to me. I was very impressed with his generosity.

I Believe God is going to continue to use Brad and his kindness in the future.

Above is another example of how I like using shadows. Brad usually gives me a goofy smile when I try to photograph him, that time I was able to make him look like a model.

Brianna

This is probably one of my favorite photographs that I've taken. Brianna is the youngest of my three younger cousins. All three of them are almost like younger siblings to me since I never had any. I’ve held them all when they were babies, It’s been amazing seeing them all grow.

I captured this image of my cousin Brianna about 2 years ago. I just asked her to look out the window and there was an image. She was kind of in a solemn calm mood at the time, which is rare, because she is usually full of energy and sound! While her older siblings Bradley and Brittany look similar, Brianna has a slightly different look about her. I’ve seen pictures of my Grandma as a little girl and I definitely see resemblances to Brianna. I’ve told my Gram that Brianna is kind of her “Mini-Me”.

One time me and Brianna were using the computer together when she said, “your like my Dad”. I was a little perplexed at this, seeing that she already has a loving father. So, I asked her why and she said because I love and care for her and help her. Comparing me to her Dad is probably the nicest thing a child has ever said to me thus far in my life.

Decisions

I learned how to play Chess in 7th grade. The private school I was attending at the time was starting up some “clubs” that would be held at a certain time on Wednesdays. The person in charge of the “Chess Club” was one of my classmates fathers. I can remember him showing a group of us who didn’t already know how to play the game, what the movements where for each piece. I was surprised that it wasn’t that difficult to “learn” how to at least “play” the game. Winning of course, is where the challenge came.

Anyway, me and one of my classmates would go each Wednesday and play. I can’t remember if I went in 8th grade or not. A few years down the road though, I taught my younger cousins, Bradley and Brittany how to play when they were both under 10 years old. I was always amazed and proud that they learned so easily at such a young age.

In 2002, I found out that one of my friends, Patricia, knew how to play Chess. So, we would play once in a while and Patricia would usually beat me! I think I got her at least three times but can only really remember two of those victories in which I went “Back to Back”! I was proud of myself that I could actually do that since she won about 80 percent of the time:(

I captured the above image during one of me and Patricia’s battles on a Sunday afternoon near the end of 2002. The Chess board that you see, I had gotten for Christmas at least 12 year ago. I like how every time I look at this image, Patricia is still contemplating her next move. Her pony tail sticking up in the air is what inspired me to take the shot. I just saw a “photograph”.

The Window

Aside from “groomsmen” duties at my cousin Holly’s wedding, she had asked me to use my photographic skills as well. The front doors of the old church that the ceremony was held in, had these great stained glass panes with one clear glass piece in the middle. I loved using the clear piece to photograph people through, usually from the inside, I thought it created an interesting image.

At one point, I had stepped outside to see if there were any photographic opportunities when one of the little girls peeked out through the glass. I had actually missed the shot the first time, but since she was wanting to ham it up for the camera, she reenacted her pose for me with great authenticity, and I got it! I love how you can see her nose pressed up against the window and how much energy there is in her eyes.

That day I shot a lot of “photojournalistic” images. Holly later told me in a “Thank You” note, that I captured things no one else thought of. I enjoy taking photos of things that are sometimes overlooked, but have image value in the long run.

A Beginning

I took this self portrait when I was 8. This was from one of the first “photo shoots” I can remember going on. I had just gotten a “micro 110” camera at Burger King. I don't see the Creepy King serving those up on his commercials these days. The camera was only about two and half inches long. The end of the 110 film cartridge actually stuck out the side of the camera! It had a little red shutter button that I thought was cool. The view finder was a pop-up square piece of plastic, well, the whole camera was pretty much plastic.

Anyway, I remember taking this camera outside that evening and wandering around my grandparents Big yard. I was amazed that I “had the power” to capture whatever image I wanted to. I was shooting shrubs, trees, etc. Then I turned the camera on myself and pressed that cool little red shutter button. I love having this picture, because it shows an interest in photography that I had even at 8 years old. This was taken long before I would know anything about shutter speeds, aperture or film speeds, I was just capturing images.

I found the image of this Micro 110 on the internet. It’s almost identical to the one I took this self portrait with. If you look closely at the diagram on the box, you can see the film cartridge sticking out of the end of the camera.