giving. and giving. oh, and giving.

i told my mom what i wanted for my birthday.
"ever heard of compassion international?"
"uh-huh..."
"well i want to support a child in a foreign country."
"okay."
...
"how much is this going to cost?"
...
"thirty-eight dollars a month."
...

let's just say my family isn't rich.  LIES.  BIG.  FAT.  LIES.  at this moment i'm drinking a glass of water.  a glass of PURIFIED water.  okay, scratch that.  i just spilled it everywhere.  ughhhh i'm so clumsy!  next time i really should watch where i put it!  now i'm getting rags to wipe up my floor with.  my CARPETED floor in my COOL (thanks to our swamp cooler) house.  i have a JOB, even if i'm not bringing in the big bucks; I LOVE IT TO DEATH.  i know i want to do it for the rest of my life.  i'm also writing this blog post on my LAPTOP.  i can READ and WRITE this post too (i swear i read posts at least 33 times before publishing).  i'm also listening to coldplay's trouble (acoustic) ONLINE.  i am LOVED by an amazing FAMILY and big heap of FRIENDS, and most importantly a Saviour named JESUS.  so.  who's rich now?

i am SO spoiled with riches.  and more riches.  and some more.  and again, more.  everyday i'm not thankful enough for all the amazing things i've been given.  i want to give back.  so bad.  this is going to be an ongoing project.  i've been praying about supporting a child and for financial stability to do so.  i added it up and supporting a child for one year is $456.  although i don't have a large income right now, i'm trying to figure out ways to cut back so i can give back.  i came up with two that i think will work:  1) no more take-out on saturday afternoons.  my mom and i will pack lunches when we grocery shop.  i figure we usually spend an average of $8 on lunch for two.  once a week and that's $32 a month.  and 2) no more starbucks.  yep, i'm taking that away.  STARBUCKS.  the thing that makes grocery shopping bearable.  and worth going.  sheesh though, i can stinkin' brew my own coffee at my house if i feel that desperate!  i wouldn't doubt that i spend $6 (or more!) on starbucks runs a month.  in total that's the $38 i need.  i'll definitely keep everyone updated on how this goes though.  you guys won't be left out.  :)



so my project starts: YOU ARE SINCERELY LOVED.

sincerely, mm
utah fine art photographer, cedar city fine art wedding photographer 

KATIE+CHRIS

remember when you were a kid and thought all the older kids were the most beautiful, cool, funny people you ever met?  it may be longer back for some and not long ago for others.  i'm trying to remember the first time i met katie and her sister becca (her fun engagement session is HERE).  i must have been at least five or six years old.  we were new to valley bible church and i went to the AWANA program, but not to church.  but i always remember looking up to both of them.  in awe.  in the i-want-to-be-just-like-them-when-i'm-a-teenager look.  katie was also my counselor at my first year of camp at Cedar Mountain Retreat.  she stayed with me in the cabin when i was homesick and looked after me like i was her little sister.  she answered my questions about salvation and works and God.  i'll forever be grateful that she decided to play card games like "war" with me while everyone else played on the volleyball court.  :)  even if i did make up my own rules.

and then a few summers ago our youth group had a new leader for the summer.  his names was chris. he was from north carolina.  he was athletic.  chris and katie went to college together at Appalachian Bible College.  chris was katie's boyfriend.  and soon to be fiancé.  :)  k+c now live in Highland ready to serve the Lord up in Northern Utah!  soon they will be a family of three.  :)



our first location was this old abandoned house that i'm always eyeing when driving through cedar city.  i knew it was perfect for chris and katie because they finally have a place they can call home in Highland.  :)  i'm so happy for them!



i laughed soooo hard when i was editing through these next two!  they are so cute and funny.  :)  i hope chris doesn't hate me for posting them.  hehehe.  :)








this photo speaks to me.  pregnancy to me is so beautiful.  so natural.  so human.  so powerful.  this location was so ethereal.  the natural landscape was divine.  i drove by it a few hours before and knew we had to shoot there.  the next image is one of those you just want to put on a huge canvas and cover your walls completely.  a photographer would understand this disorder:  wanting to cover your walls completely with photographs.  yep, i've been diagnosed.



katie's dress is so cute.  especially with her belly bump.  ;)





ohhh their smiles are infectious!  my cheeks hurt.  haha.  although that's always a good sign.  :)



katie and chris,
thank you so much for your time.  i'm so glad we could take these before the little one comes.  :)  i'm praying for you two and also for little baby Caleb!  :)  so happy for you two.  God bless.

 

Cedar City, Utah
Enoch, Utah

maternity photography couples photography engagement photography weddings portraits alfalfa fields pink dress 

ALY+JONNY: CEDAR CITY, UTAH BACKYARD WEDDING

The days leading up to Aly+Jonny's wedding were SO windy.   That's Southern Utah style.  ;)  My family quickly learned this when we first moved to Utah.  I remember one wind storm where dirt was coming into our house via the gap between our back door and the floor (which was minuscule)!  My brother and I were wimps and stayed home from school that day...hehehe.  ;)  It's wild how our weather here can be wind&60-mile-an-hour gusts and the next day be sunny and high of 75.

And Aly & Jonny's day was just that.  Sunshineee!  :)  SO glorious.  After all the wind and storms it was nice to have the clouds back off.  BUT silly old me totally didn't wear sunscreen!  Haha!  First sunburn of the year and I deserved it.  ;)  A huge thank you to Parker Grimes, who allowed me to assist and second-shoot at this wedding!  You can view his post on his blog HERE.  Great stuff.

I fell in love with this venue as soon as I saw it.  I love the rustic houses in the old parts of Cedar City.  I can't wait to "nest" a home when I'm older, and I've always wanted to in this part of Cedar.  Jonny's aunt's backyard was incredible.



Everything in bloom!  :)



Love the plants growing up her brick house.  :)  See?  Exquisite venue.



Everyone was complimenting Aly on her floral head wreath the whole day.  How could you not?  Beautiful!







The guys.  So chill:

 


 

 

 

Yes, I was in the line of fire.  :)  Makes me giggle, but it's totally worth moments like this:



And then the partayyy started!  Yeahhhh!



I have to slip in a word about the barbecue dinner from Backyard BBQ based in St. George.  SO good.  Mmhmm.  Great customer service too.  Those guys rock.







Toasts are probably my favorite part of receptions.  It's great to hear stories from friends and family of the couple.  Like a glimpse of the personal relationships the bride and groom have.  Ahh, love.  :)



:)





Cedar City, Utah 

wedding photography utah fine art photography modern weddings, backyard wedding blue

believer's baptism, blessings, & giving back

God's plans are so perfect.  They are so so SO much better than mine.  Times that by infinity.  I've been thinking about my birthday lately (in August!  Hahaha!) and I didn't have any huge plans.  Maybe buy a vintage 35mm camera I'd been eyeing at the thrift shop.  A trip to New York with my mom and aunt would be pretty amazing (and pretty expensive).  Ohhh dear though.  I had to stop my day-dreaming.  Why?  It's totally about ME.  MY wants, MY desires, MY selfishness!  It's a gift in itself to be celebrating another birthday.  A year ago I had a mole on my back that appeared cancerous, and if God wanted to, he could've taken my life.  But He didn't and that's truly a gift!  I don't appreciate these kinds of things enough.

So I've decided what I want.  What I truly, passionately want is to give back.  To do something for someone else.  Every Monday night in the summer is Ladies' Bible study at my church, Valley Bible.  This summer our study is Beth Moore's study in Daniel.  Man oh man, last week the Lord was really pounding on my heart that I don't give back enough.  I am so absolutely blessed and I do nothing about it.

& then something happened today at church that blew my mind out of the water.  I talked with a sweet lady last week about helping her with some photography for a jewelry business she wants to start and we got to talking about cameras, lenses, etc.  I told her kind of nonchalantly that I was eyeing a vintage canon 35mm at the thrift shop and I really wanted to explore film.  The service started; we parted our ways.  Today at church she comes up to be with a green sack and says, "I bought this film camera on craigslist that I thought you'd like!"  OH.  MY.  GOSH.  Is that the sweetest thing ever?!  The day before, she'd posted on my facebook wall about a film camera on craigslist.  By the time I checked it out, it was already unlisted so I politely thanked her for checking it out.  I figured another camera would find its way to me.  SHE was the one who bought the camera and gave it to me, that's why it was unlisted!  My heart melted.

Right after church I went out to our car to fiddle with the camera by myself.  I opened the green bag up to find a roll of B&W film and the manual!  Gaaaaah, my soul was exploding.  I got to my house and got my 10d dSLR to find that the lens on the film camera also fits my 10d (and vice-versa with my 50mm)!  I can't wait to start some personal projects with this new camera.  Ohhh, God's blessings.  :)  I can't believe it.

On another note with the giving, I want to give back with my projects in photography also, and the following photos were taken purely to give.  Four kids at our church got baptized in May.  It was so beautiful.  I love how all the kid's parents could be right there helping their child out of the water.  Proud parents.  :)







A quick note:  this is Sarah and on the left is her little brother David. (cuuuuute!)  Their parents are Chinese and were baptized in bathtubs when they lived in China.  Their stories are SO amazing!  It was beautiful to see their daughter get baptized in a country that allows freedom of religion.







 


Valley Bible Church
Enoch, Utah

to conquer.

that last post wasn't really like my normal style of blogging.  just a quote and a poem.  nothing else.  i usually write a lot when i blog.  i think words have an important place in my heart.  i love a book that can pull at your heartstrings because of the talent in the way the author constructs exactly what he/she puts in a sentence.  i was going to write a post, with lots of words no doubt, about how much i love the beach.  why i love the beach.  but it's quite simple: i love the beach because it brings people together.  i wrote like four paragraphs about something that simple.  pshhh.  lame, lame, lame.  so i kept it simple.  (though i promise i won't stop writing long posts that come from my heart.)

i'm going to keep this post simple too (even though i've already written a paragraph hahahah!): i'm going to run a 5k.  no, me AND my mom (in her 40's) are going to run a 5k.  that's 3.1 miles.  we're going to conquer 3.1 miles on July 5, 2010 and i'm sticking to it!  running used to be horribly painful to me.  in elementary school i remember hearing the word "running" and "mile" and feeling a little queasy.  it could be because it always seemed to be the windiest day of the year every time we ran the mile in physical ed., but nevertheless, i loathed that day.  yeah, all you pro. runners can chuckle at me thinking a 5k is something to conquer, but for me that's big.   and i'm excited.  i love goal setting.  reaching goals.  empowering others to reach goals.  i'd love to hear some of your goals in the comments if you'd be willing to share.  :)



this picture is quite dear to my heart.  i love it.  i think these cute munch-kins were on a field trip.  it was taken in barcelona, spain at Parc Güell (or Parque Güell if you will...spanish).  another one of my summer goals is to complete a spain album.  an album just for me.  i'm excited for that too!  but that's for another post....;)

thanks for listening.  xoxo, m. 

fine art photographer