Senior Portrait Freedom: Bring Your Own Creativity

I had the pleasure of taking senior portraits for Rebecca over Thanksgiving break.  Several days of rain gave way to a windy, somewhat overcast day as the storm system blew out to sea.

We began our session in historic Ellicott City.  Many of the sidewalks and other surfaces were still wet, giving an interesting color boost to the photographs.  Afterwards, we went to the Daniels Area of Patapsco State Park.  A break in the clouds and significant wind gusts brought some more dynamic shifts for more interesting portraits.  This is one of the most exciting aspects of what I do.  The time of and weather during any given portrait shoot is an incredible unpredictable variable.  Sometimes, it forces us to cancel - as does torrential rain.  Sometimes it changes the mood of a portrait series.  Low sun brings warmth; dark clouds bring a somber air.  Sometimes wind adds a sense of energy and dynamics - or just gets in the way.

What makes a portrait session truly exciting for me is when clients bring their own creativity.  I've had people show up with no idea what they wanted from their portrait session.  Rebecca, however, brought her journal and some clear juggling balls as props.  She had several ideas about backgrounds and poses for her images.

I like the idea of multiplicative creativity.  Whereas someone might come to a portrait session and expect me to do everything, it is so much more rewarding when they bring their own ideas and energy.  It doesn't add up so much as multiply.

Anyone can show up and get good photographs from any number of photographers.  But if you bring your creativity and ideas, I think you'll get something truly unique.

 

Seniors, Friends, and Vikings

The month of October has been much busier than I anticipated - so much so that I haven't really had the time to write about anything that I felt would be remotely interesting enough for this website.

Do you want to hear about shear flow and how loading a body along the shear center will cause shear and bending but no torque?  I thought not.

Anyhow, I have had the chance to do some photography this past month.  Over Fall Break, I had the chance to take senior portraits for Leanne over at the Howard County Conservancy.  Fall colors were just starting to come out fully; the warm weather and late-day sun made for some great photographs.

The next weekend, I got together with some friends of mine from InterVarsity, who all live together.  They wanted some house portraits as keepsakes.  We spent 45 minutes wandering their neighborhood on a very bright afternoon and got some great portraits (with the dog too!).

Finally, this past weekend, I ended up heading over to Jefferson National Forest with some friends who had made their own incredible How to Train Your Dragon costumes.  We spent an hour or so running around a field late Sunday afternoon, getting all sorts of great pictures.  This was, by far, the most fun I've had yet with a photoshoot.

November will bring some more senior portrait sessions - hopefully I'll have the chance for some more fun creative random ones as well!

What I Learned This Summer, Part IV: The Gospel

This is the last of a four-part series.  Part I, Part II, Part III.

I’ve written several posts over the past weeks: the first dealt with my education in business and photography through self-employment; the second, some of my thoughts on homelessness.  Last week, I discussed what I learned about a Christian idea called “guarding your heart” and nontraditional housing compared to my suburban upbringing.  This week, I’d love to tell you what I learned about the Gospel of Jesus Christ this summer.

What is the Gospel not?

Some of you who may read this have had bad experiences with the church.  So have I: twice have I watched a church disintegrate around me in sad fashion.  I’m not talking about the church here, but Jesus Christ.  I ask you, as I have tried to do, not to judge Him by people who (momentarily or consistently) represent Him poorly.

The Gospel is not guilt and shame.  It is not the word of God speaking against you and constantly reminding you of your faults.  The Gospel does not give permission for followers of Jesus Christ to heap guilt on others.

The Gospel is not a set of rules.  The Christian does not earn God’s favor through his or her morality.  A Christian is not breathlessly running around, doing everything possible to get into heaven by his or her own merit.

The Gospel is not an intellectual idea.  To believe in Jesus is not simply to acknowledge His existence, but to put complete trust in Him.

What is the Gospel?

In a word, freedom.

The truth is, we know this world is a shambles.  We read the news of civil unrest and earthquakes, of flooding and family strife, of senseless murder and senseless gossip.  All sorts of evils, large and small, surround us.  Yet there is so much good, so many things which cause us to cry inside, this is so right!  This world was created by a perfect God to be good, created so that we – His creation – could live in free relationship with Him.  Yet, for love to be real, it must be chosen.  When Satan deceived Adam and Eve into eating the fruit of the tree from which they were forbidden to eat, the perfect relationship between God and man was severed.  Mankind, by eating of this fruit, was put under the curse of sin and death.  Man and Woman had chosen to disobey God – to not trust in His love for them and therefore not love Him fully.  Sin – rebellion against God – entered the world.  Mankind exchanged a perfect, loving master for a cruel, deceptive master and became enslaved to sin.

Even a highly moral person (by whatever standard you choose) will tell you in moments of honesty that they do not live up to that standard.  Time and again, I fail the moral standards I set for myself.  I am a sinner and I cannot change that of my own accord.  Can a slave free himself?  Can a dead woman breath life back into her body?

So where does that leave us?  O wretched people that we are, who will save us from death?

About a year ago, I shared the Gospel at our InterVarsity fall retreat, as part of our series of talks on love that weekend.  I said that our sin is abhorrent to God and that we fall under his sentence of death.  We have rebelled, denied God, stated that we don’t accept His lordship.  Yet, He wants us back, and so sent His son Jesus to die in our place.  He still metes out justice and also pours out his love by taking our place on the chopping block.  Sin is punished and dealt with and we, if we choose, can reenter a relationship with him (typically understood as “going to heaven when we die”).

This is incomplete.  This is cheap grace.  The only problem solved here is that the criminal is let off the hook.  God’s wrath over his or her disobedience is shunted over to Christ on the cross, and the criminal goes free, happy that Jesus died for him, yet the reason this person is a criminal remains.

I, in sharing the gospel that night, in no way told the whole story.  This summer, in reading a blog post by my friend Bryan, listening to the sermon to which he linked, and rereading the four biographies of Jesus contained in the Bible, I realized that I had inadequately communicated the Gospel.

God is not looking to simply find a way to keep us from the death we deserve due to sin.  He wants to reconcile us to Himself.  He wants to free us, here and now, from the slavery of sin.  He wants to heal us, here and now of the disease of sin.  He wants to forgive us, here and now, that we can come before Him washed clean.  He wants to make us completely new.  In John, Chapter 5, Jesus says that he does only what he sees the Father doing.  Jesus, as God the Son, and God the Father have the very same purpose in restoring a loving relationship between God and man.  They have the same purpose in freeing, healing, and forgiving mankind.  Christ, on the cross, does not simply absorb the Father’s wrath against sin, but also bears the curse of sin so that we do not need to.  He breaks the power of the curse over us that we may be free, no longer slaves.

The Gospel is God’s great work of grace to make us free.  Freedom from sin and death.  Freedom to live as His children.  

People sometimes think Christianity is about being a good person so that you can go to heaven when you die, and Jesus fits in there somehow. 

I passionately disagree.

Christianity is living a life knowing you are loved by God Himself (what a mystery!), that He has gone to tremendous lengths to free you from sin and death and be a part of what He is doing on this earth in restoring all things. 

How to write this?  There is so much more I want to say!  If we were talking face to face, I would probably be jumping and speaking way too fast, trying to convey the wondrousness of this love of God, that He would come to earth and die a terrible death to rescue us from our sin, our rebellion, our soul disease.

This summer, I came to see God’s grace in a fuller, greater way.  I came to see that His love and sacrifice is so much more incredible than I had previously understood.

Jesus says “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Will you trust Him?  Will you stake your life on His promise of freedom?  Choose Him and know His grace.  Run to Him and know His love!  Walk with Christ and know His freedom.  Leave your life of sin, allow God to change your heart, and find yourself forgiven.  Trust in Christ.

In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. [1 John 4:9]

What I Learned This Summer, Part III: Guarding Your Heart and Nontraditional Housing

This is the third part of a four-part series.  Part I, Part II.

I’ve written two posts over the past couple weeks: the first dealt with my education in business and photography through self-employment; the second, some of my thoughts on homelessness.  This post deals with what I learned about a Christian idea called “guarding your heart” and nontraditional housing compared to my suburban upbringing.  Next week, I’ll talk about the Gospel – the depth of which I grew to understand more this summer.

Guarding Your Heart

I subscribe to several podcasts, one of which is the North Point Ministries podcast, featuring the sermons of Andy Stanley.  I listened to Andy on the radio (this makes me feel old!) many Wednesday nights in high school, and have read several of his books.  I’m incredibly grateful for his wisdom.

The current podcast series started in July, with an episode titled “The Hidden Chamber.”  It was perhaps this episode that, thus far, most resonated with and challenged me.  Andy spoke of the heart as a hidden chamber, as the place from which our thoughts and motivations come.  His text was from Proverbs 4:23-27, reproduced below:

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feed; then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

These verses come from a book of wisdom written by Solomon, King of Israel in the mid-900s BC.  Here, he speaks to his son, warning him to “keep” (or guard) his heart.  Out of the heart comes our true self – all the thoughts and intentions, desires and emotions.  They may be black with sin, pure as snow, or some gray slushy mix in between.  The primary instruction in these verses is to keep away from doing evil.  How? Guard your heart.

This was somewhat new to me.  Often, in Christian circles, “I’m guarding my heart,” can either be a fancy, tactful, way to reject a potential suitor, or to put the brakes on increasing emotional intimacy so one don’t give oneself away too quickly to a significant other before the actual marriage.  This was how I understood the phrase “guard your heart,” as do some of my peers (I once received a “not interested in a relationship” message using this phrase as part of the reasoning).  I don’t think this is wrong, but it has become clear that such an understanding displays a flagrant disregard for context, and therefore (in this instance), is unbiblical.

So, what ought it mean?  Stanley suggests that it mean we literally keep watch over our hearts; that is, our thoughts and desires.  So often, we put up behavioral and linguistic filters through self-imposed morality.  Then, when darkness springs from our heart past our filters, others say, “That’s really not like you.”  But, in fact, it is.  Our true self just burst through our façade.  Our heart was exposed.

To guard one’s heart is to relentlessly purge evil from oneself.  To catch those stray thoughts that betray unrighteousness and recognize them as evil.  To know ourselves and seek purity of heart.

However, if we are the ones who are broken, how can we fix ourselves?  I say we cannot: God must come and give us a new heart!

Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!  -Psalm 139:23-24

Guard your heart and turn your foot away from evil.  Through Christ, we have a new heart; through His Spirit within us, we have the power to be rid of the evil that springs up from within.  Guard your heart, and may Jesus lead you in the way everlasting.

Nontraditional Housing

I now switch gears to something completely different!  This summer, I read a book called Little House on a Small Planet, by Shay Salomon.  Never before have I so happily read a book, occasionally stopping to shout YES! as I read the ideas contained therein.

Some context:  I live in a regular suburban neighborhood typical, I suppose, of middle America.   Seems like everyone has two children, two sources of income, at least three cars, and various leisure items – whether boats or basketball hoops.  Nearly every home I’ve been to has a large television, several have rooms dedicated to the television. The closest places to eat are about ten minutes away (it takes four to just get out of the neighborhood).  Some of the biggest employers in the area (NASA Goddard, NSA, Northrop Grumman, etc.) have their massive campuses located at least twenty minutes away.  Most commutes, it seems, last about an hour.  We have somewhere between five and ten different supermarket chain stores located within a fifteen-minute drive.  There are three large high schools located in that same zone, as well as several small parks, many gas stations, banks, frozen yogurt places, and one library.

This is where I’ve lived my whole life.  I didn’t question it much until I started spending more time in the forest behind my house.  The Patapsco State Park is a beautiful place, with a great many trails for running and walking and thinking and discovering.  There was something much more peaceful about that world, compared to the suburban landscape.  Then, I went to college, and discovered I could live well with less stuff in a smaller space.  I learned to love walking everywhere, a love that grew even more when I lived in Galway, Ireland, for 4 months.

This summer, I did not have my own car, making travel difficult.  I could only leave the house a few hours at a time to go to the library or run errands or go take photographs somewhere.  I missed being able to walk to most of the places I needed to go.  Why design our communities by separating the commercial, residential, and working worlds the way we do?

As I cleaned out a lot of stuff in my room I thought I’d need after high school and had never touched, I wondered how much room I really need.  I’ve lived well in a 10’x15’ space here at college – do I need a whole lot more than that?  Do we need all the space our house offers?

Then I read this book that asked questions like What does a dwelling look like when it encourages companionship and intimacy?  Why do people with big houses still complain about not having space for themselves?  What does the rest of the world think of large American suburban homes?  The book features interviews with many people who built tiny houses for themselves, taking only the items they needed and used regularly.   They noted that a smaller house brought their family closer together.  They noted, somewhat counterintuitively, that when people came to visit, they loved to spend time together in the small spaces.  They noted the increased sense of freedom: a smaller or nonexistent mortgage, lower utility bills, less time eaten up by maintenance.

The book also dealt with zoning laws, alternative energy, and many other aspects of owning a smaller home.   It touched on community building as well.  What if the commercial, residential, and working worlds were more interconnected than the typical suburban experience?  Commutes would be shorter, gas usage would decrease, we’d have more time at home with family, and so much more.  What if our homes were smaller?  We’d save money not buying stuff to fill it up, heat it, maintain it, pay it off.  Families would grow closer together, or at least be better equipped to deal with each other with less of a chance to run and hide.

I’m asking many more questions now.  I don’t yet know all the answers, but I am becoming more and more aware that suburban sprawl is not the best solution.  We are a people made for community – what solutions can best foster that?  We are a people designed for freedom – what solutions will bring financial, relational, and emotional freedom?  I, for one, want to find and implement those better solutions.