Alright, so I have many passions.  I love to write.  I am working on several different fiction stories that never seem to get past chapter five…hmmm.   I love to sing, especially praise and worship, where I belt out my love and praise to God to the point that I am moved to my knees and to tears.  I love to dance; I suck at it, but I love to get down to some country music and some techno, esp if my husband can groove along with me.  I love to read, anything and everything, from non-fiction books on other cultures and history to fiction books about castles and dragons, elves and princesses. 

But my passion for photography, or in my case, picture taking because I have no training (and there IS a difference as any professional photographer can tell you!  ha) is one that I take with me everywhere I go.  I am always in awe of God’s creation, and while most pictures don’t capture the REAL essence of those awe inspiring sights, I still click away.

I lose hours of time going through my picture albums.  I can sometimes recall conversations, events that seemed minor at the time, but crucial in the long run, even smells, but most of all, I recall the EMOTIONS that I felt when I took that picture.  To me they are ‘living’ memories, in that when I see them, the emotions I felt when I took the picture come back as fresh as they did when I saw the view in person.  Plus, new emotions come along with it.  Sometimes I feel as though I would give anything to jump right into the picture and be apart of that landscape again.  Other times, I feel like I am looking into the snapshot of someone else’s life, and rejoice in the past that made the present the way that it is.

I don’t know how interested others may be in the journey of my life.  But I would love to share it.  So here are a few pictures with explanations and the emotions I felt/feel.  I hope you enjoy them!  and yeah, pick up your camera, snap a few shots, and next time you flip through your photo album, take a few minutes to ruminate on why you really took that picture!

This was taken on a road-trip from San Antonio to San Angelo, Texas several years ago.  My friend and I often went to San Angelo on the weekends to see friends who were still in training there, or to see civilian friends there. This particular sunset was just perfect!  The colors were so bright.  The sunrays were so well defined.  I remember leaning out the window and breathing in the country-side smells of cows and grass and dust, and looking at that sunset and KNOWING that God was happy that day!  I can’t look at this picture without longing for the next road trip, the next sunset!!!

This picture was taken on top of Kilauea, the active volcano on the island of Hawaii.  We were standing on the rim overlooking the caldera late in the evening.  Looking out across the caldera, I felt like I was viewing a glimpse of Earth as it might have appeared when He first started shaping and molding and adding things to it.  It is so desolate out in the crater.  No sign of life appears down there, but we all know that the volcano IS alive and growing and shrinking and going through its own lifecycles.  But up here on the side, where this single bush (I need to look up its name) is hanging preariously over the side, life is teeming!  There are birds flying overhead, there are bugs wizzing around our heads, and there are sounds of life in the grass on the side of the path.  The two different areas of ‘life’ vary so different, contrast so greatly… My breath was taken away.

To be continued: