The First Snaps

    My good friend and mentor from South Africa, Auntie Megan, first got me into photography.  She taught me to use the camera to express the emotions I was feeling.  I find it so therapeutic to relate my abstract feelings to something concrete.  Pictures also help me show others, visually, what's going on inside my head and heart.  In addition to this, ever since I began practicing photography, I've been amazed at how much it makes me stop and live in the moment.  I'm now constantly looking for subjects, angles and lighting that scream beauty; things I would have whizzed past before.  It's amazing and sad how much we rush over secondary stories going on in our lives, stories- at times- so very small compared to the dominant thing happening to us.  Photography, however, has helped me to articulate my dominant struggles and joys as well as dwell in thanksgiving for the small beauties around me.

    I challenge you, reader, to ask yourself: in what way can you reflect on both struggles and blessings in your life in a meaningful way?

"Precious"

"Presence"

"Alive"

"Wonderfully tangled"

"Juntos" (Spanish for together)

"Vulnerable"

"Dry Season"

"Growth"

This one makes me think of steps so many people are taking.  Steps that a lot of the world consider small, yet in reality they are huge acts of bravery!  Everything needs to be seen in per portion: maybe something you consider trivial is a big challenge for another person.  Growth is growth, no matter how tiny it seems.

"Step of Courage"

"Alone"

"Someone reaching out to you"

"Beautiful as a weed"

"Ragged"

"Prickly"

"Shadows"

"Remember"

"Visitor"

"Innocence in a jagged place"

"Darkness"

"Our story"