New Website! (finally)

I am proud to announce that we have officially updated the website!! (insert a chorus of hallelujah!)

The old website was very sad and I do not think was true to the quality of the pictures and it was extremely hard to navigate. If you remember it I apologize. But we are very excited to bring this new one to you.

Thank you all who were apart of our lives and a part of this vision in 2009. Thank you to all the beautiful couples we had the opportunity to shoot for. I give you The Artistic Vision 2010:

Chad and Angela Engagement

Thank you Chad and Angela for such a fun engagement photoshoot! I can't wait until August! Blessings!

New Wedding Website

A long since needed wedding website has been made! It is separate from the main site and has its own navigation bar. This way it's easier to view the wedding portion of the Artistic Vision and you can see the packages and prices available for weddings. Check out the new wedding site!

Quarters of Beauty

I love the whispers of Autumn. They bring me back to memories of my childhood. There is a certain feeling; it is the smell in the air--that cool crisp smell which freezes your nose--and the colors on the trees--those rustic oranges and ruddy splashes of the drapery--that remind me of when I was young. I am always inspired to recreate that feeling in photos, I suppose artists always do. However, photos or paintings fall short of replication only achieving a mere appropriation of the beauty; only borrowing from the text instead of scribal rewrites, for the text is too hard. Perhaps it's like the little boys who make a snowball to store in the freezer to remember come summertime. But yes, the sublimation laws of physics always seem to destroy our fun.

We try anyway. We try because we love to hold on to that which dies or that which is temporary. So much so that when the first snow falls and we get out the snow shovels and Mother's Christmas pudding, we furtively look at the pictures on the wall. Pictures of colors that we stored away to remember that which once was. And we secretly wonder if we were cheated this year from a shortened autumn, why didn't you stay like you promised you would? Why did you leave so soon?

Though I never lose hope, for maybe this wasn't the year the Promise was fulfilled, yet I know that someday that year will come. The year when I wake up and it is always Autumn.

A long needed post

It's been a while since I've posted something, you can tell school is in session. But I haven't forsaken the camera. I'm actually taking a photography class this quarter so I can keep in practice. I've done a little bit of everything recently, a lot of portraits and engagement pictures.

I have a show with the International Justice Mission this Saturday at 8:00 pm at Taza. All proceeds will go to support IJM.

Enjoy:

Back in the US of A

I'm back in Ohio. Getting adjusted to life as normal. I can't say that I've had reverse culture shock, yet, but I did have my Panera bread fix and I am not getting sick from the food (except maybe that McDonald's I had...yuck).

I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot an engagement session for my long time friend Amy and her fiancée Michael who will be getting married in December. It was so much fun getting to capture their personalities on camera and had some fun doing beach shots. Enjoy!

Final thoughts of Mexico

My time in Mexico is coming to a close. I will have been here a total of 183 days. I have taken over 6000 pictures. I have been to well over 30 cities. I have met so many people. I have learned so much Spanish. I'm sure I have written over 50 journal entries about my trip here as well as to Colombia. I have tasted some of the finest food Latin America has to offer. I have gotten sick more than 4 times from the finest food Latin America has to offer. And now...it's time to come home.

Mexico challenges me more than anything. This year and last year might be one of the hardest experiences of my life, but it molds me into who I am more than anything previously. I can't even tell you what it is exactly. I just come back thankful I'm alive (from the times I swear I almost die from bizarre sicknesses), I come back longing to be around the people I love (for the times I swear I almost die from being alone). I come back craving really weird foods (this time it is an incredibly delicious salad topped with every type of natural organic vegetable Kroger can offer dressed in some fine creamy Italian dressing. weird.).

So as I look back at all those pictures, reread all those journal entries, remember all those "pinche fiestas" I went to in all those exotic towns ;-) I have to ask myself, what will it matter? What will change in my habits in Cincinnati that will say I changed for the better. For I do believe I have been changed for the better (all you Wicked fans out there)

Without running the risk of being too dramatic or corny (as I have a tendency to do) here is a list of things I have learned looking back through my pictures.

1) They say you are a total sum of everyone you meet. I say if this is true, invest in the lives of those around you with everything you have so at the end of your life you can say you lived.



2) Give all of yourself with love and sacrifice until you can give no more. It's about the little things

3) Make friends with people who are completely different from you. You might learn something new, or if anything you'll at least have a new friend.


4) Learn to party. Responsibly of course. But humans were created to celebrate and you'll bond with a person faster under the banner of merriment.



5) Hold fast to the things you love but also be quick to let go to share with joy.



6) Fight for peace you believe in. Die for something that is worth living for. Cry for a future of joy.


7) Let music be your vision you when you cannot see.



8) Feed those who cannot feed themselves even when you are hungry.


9) Laugh for no reason. Run until you tire. Sing until your hoarse. For the kingdom of God is such as these...


10) "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight."