First Photos...

her Atlas red dress....

This was a JOY.  These two are pure grace to know, to see how the Father has brought them together for His glory and their blessing. And I got to take their pre-wedding photos... Such a privilege for me!  My first time to do a "real" photo shoot.  

By this, I mean that I took 600+ photos and I edited the photos on a free Lightroom trial.  And I get it now... editing photos is actually *work* and eventually, if I ever get to to do this for others, I can see that I would have to charge folks to spend all the needed time in editing!  (Let alone, for these two I drove three hours to get us to the mountains and back again!)  I said I could never charge for the privilege of photographing people...  but maybe....  

everything sparkly

blushing bride

(my favorite photo of these two)

a kiss is coming... 

(off camera, of course.  It would be completely unacceptable culturally to capture the real deal.)

  

Love how he makes her laugh

delicate details

(He wanted the moon with him.)  

Princess

(To me, this is a bit over-edited... but I left it like this because this is kinda the style of wedding photography here.)

Oh God, please bless them with deepening, increasing love and respect all of their days.  

a new thing for a newborn

 

This little beauty.... her mama was my first tutor in this local minority language seven years ago.  (Ah! I wish I had learned it better in all these years!)  I told her I wanted to get newborn pictures of her firstborn and she gladly agreed but I think the idea seemed a bit over the top to her and her mom, especially when I showed up and snapped a sweet heap of photos of this sleeping baby.  I know they can take pics on their cell phones... but I was hoping to capture some sweetness with a bit crisper clarity.

What I didn't get was the which trendy type of newborn photos that a portfolio in the states would boast of... not with the baby blanket they loved or the wrecked English lettering on her clothes....  And that's all just fine to me now because I think there is just a bit of the majestic ,mysterious magnificence in this precious child's life captured here and that makes me whole-soul glad.  

more girlies...

This little sweetheart just turned one and needed photos from her Auntie Jill just because I'm addicted to the cuteness of her and her big sis!

It looks like I'm going to need to learn to get some better horizontal shots especially since I got a pretty new lens for that very thing, as a lavish gift for my fortieth  (Thank you, Love!)   I've got lots to learn to capture more of this sparkling beauty!  Thanks for indulging me in a little photo shoot with your girls, dear J9!

Everybody loves Anna!  Happy Birthday darling girl!!

Just the Girls...

They were so sweet to meet me at "their park" for photos because I sure long to be able to capture the loveliness of such fantastic people and I sure do need practice.  Thanks dear B. Beauties for letting me practice on you!

Mountain Mamas

It was our second annual outing to the mountains for a picnic and play day... kinda sorta a day off and definitely a day to bless the Mamas.   This is a very happy Mother's Day tradition I'd like to see go long in our lives.

We're so grateful for this group of friends to do life with and to worship together with here.