Sweet Little Boys

These are the cutest, sweetest little boys. Jacob and Dylan Strickland. I haven't done kid shots in a while...and this was hilarious. It was so hot and we were laughing so hard. If you could just imagine the sounds that were coming out of their mouths for some of these. They are the most beautiful children. I loved every second!

It's time.

Ok, here it goes. I'm doing this photography thing. I have wanted to persue it for a long time, but I've always been scared of what people would think. That sounds really stupid, but it's the truth. Do people look at my pictures and think, "she thinks she is way better than she really is"? Thankfully, I've had some great support along the way. My husband has been incredible. (It's still weird to say husband. I feel like I just graduated high school yesterday). He has helped with the building of the website and has been awesome about all the new equipment purchases. My best friends have been awesome, too. Meredith and Caleb acted like they had just seen Angelina Jolie when they saw the site for the first time. So, thanks for that. Random side note: I recently had a dream that Angelina Jolie became a Christian right after I found out that I had an inoperable brain tumor. Anyway, thanks to Kristen and Laura J. Two of my best friends who don't hand out major compliments often so I know that since they were excited and complimentary, I was on the right track. It means a lot. Sometimes I think that we as human beings realize what it means to others by simply telling them, "Great job." I know, I know, enough of the acceptance speech. P.S. The site isn't up yet. I'm still doing some tweeking, but it should be up and running by the end of the week:)

I guess the next acknowledgement should go out to the most important part of my life, Christ. Where to start? For some reason, I don't have a job. I have interviewed and even gotten offered a job in Georgia, but to make a long story short, it didn't work out. I have been given the one thing that most people need more of, and that's time. I don't like free time on my hands. It makes me crazy. I like having a million things to do, but for right now, I have tons of free time. I've had time to develop my photography "business" and that's all because of Him. He's been closing doors in my face left and right and here is the one door that has been opened. I'm still trying to figure out this next year, and honestly, I still feel very uneasy about it all, but I'm learning to trust. I had my whole life after college planned out...it involved getting a job pretty easily right out of school. Go with me here... I had made my shoes, designed the style, color, fit, height of heel...everything. And now, I'm having to watch those shoes sit in the closet while I put some other ones on. That was a complicated way of saying that this is not what I planned, but I'm learning to trust exactly where I am because I know that HE is in total control of my life. And guess what, all of these photography opportunities are an unexpected blessing. So in short, Praise God! I'm starting to like these shoes better than the others:)

The face of Mary Smith Photography: Ellen and Justin Spencer. Ellen is stunningly beautiful and I adore the picture at the top. For now, it will be the picture that I put my name on. I'm proud of it.

TANNER AND MASON:

I have known Tanner for forever. We went to school together, she was a year older and we were in show choir together. Her and I have steadily become great friends. I have some great yearbook signatures from her:) That was a wierd comment. Anyway, Tanner and Mason got engaged early in the summer. I asked her if I could take some shots of them for practice. Of course she agreed because she is awesome. She was nervous before, but I don't know why. It was so fun. We went downtown to Morris Avenue and sure, the first few minutes were...hmmm, awkward? They always are. But we laughed and everybody calmed down. Mason, her fiance is super funny and they have a great chemistry together. I feel like we got some pictures that were very "them". I am using quotations a lot. Like Joey. Well, here are some of my favorites...Enjoy!

(This is Meredith and Caleb...we made pizzas one night at our house. Just thought it important to put a face with a name.)

flowers.

It all started when I turned to Eron and said..."Let's get a backyard patio set." Well, if anyone knows me, they know that I tend to go overboard, especially with decorating. That very thing happened when we bought our patio set. It turned into a huge backyard project. These are some pics I took of the fresh flowers that we put by our newly painted BLUE rocking chairs. The colors are beautiful.

Ellen and Justin's Wedding.

It's been a while since I have updated! Here a few shots that I took from Ellen and Justin's wedding. I didn't take many...I was bridesmaid and there was a real photographer there, but I managed to get a few.

These were two of my favorites.

Wait, I really like this one, too.

Headshots.

I just recently added Brad Baker's head shots to our photo library on the new computer. Brad is a professional singer and he has done all kinds of different shows. He has traveled with several different cruise lines as one of the male leads and now I think he is doing a show in Branson, Missouri. I might be wrong about that, but either way, he's an incredible singer and has had steady work for the past three years in the entertainment business, which is no easy thing to do. 

These shots were taken last summer for his head shots. He definitely wanted something different and fun. I think we did a good job of achieving that! 

This looks like Brad's hand is cut off, but it's still a good shot.

A picture I've always wanted to capture.

So I've always seen those landscape pictures that are beautiful. The pictures that are all framed and beautiful and EXPENSIVE. The pictures that I've always wanted to buy, but could never bring myself to do it because of the money, and because I always knew that I could take a picture like that if given the opportunity. It's not the taking the picture that's the hard part. It's nature creating the opportunity that hasn't quite cooperated. 

Well, good news. This past weekend of one of my very best friends had a shower out in the middle of no man's land here in East Alabama. There was a log cabin and a lake involved. There was also a beautiful sunset that created one of the most beautiful pictures that I can now blow up to a huge size and hang on my wall. Thank you, God. I surely enjoyed experiencing the beauty of that moment in person, and not through somebody else's insanely expensive photo.

Random side note: I always feel that anytime 'and' is used in the middle of a sentence, a comma should come before it. I know that's offending a rule of language, but I don't care.

If you ever come to my house, expect to see these framed.

We had the most awesome church service today. The praise team was praying before the service and I could tell from the time that prayer started, it was going to be an awesome day. The praise time at the beginning had my adrenaline going so strong that I wanted to hug every neck in the room. For those who know me, I am not affectionate, so that was a big deal. We got to the worship time and we sung a song called "Grace Flows Down". The words are:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

Amazing love, now flowing down,

From hands and feet, that were nailed to a tree,

As grace flows down and covers me.

It covers me, It covers me, It covers me, It covers me.

This song struck me to the core today. There is never anything that I do or don't do that can separate me from the love of Christ. More than that, He doesn't even remember my sin. Every time I sin it's like the first time I ever have. And the grace comes flowing down, and it covers me.

It is an awesome thing to sing a part of a song over and over again. Some people complain that worship songs are "7-11" songs, 7 words sung 11 times, but the bible calls us to meditate on scripture and on truth. Meditate means to repeat over and over. Only then do the words really penetrate into the heart. It is always an amazing thing to be refreshed by worship. It is the one thing that always gives me hope and peace when nothing else can. There are times while in worship that I could just sit totally still for hours in the presence of Christ, soaking up every second that I get to experience Him. 

Ben, our pastor, said something that really stuck with me. He said that we, as humans, are spiritual beings. He said that when we choose to "fill" ourselves with purely physical things we become unsatisfied. Physical things can only fill us temporarily, leaving us empty and onto the next physical thing. If we choose to fill ourselves with spiritual things, our satisfaction will be eternal. This embodies the idea that serving Christ is satisfying because I know that I am spending time and energy investing into something that is eternal, not something that is going to last only an hour, or a lifetime. 

What a blessing to go to a church where there is truth and life.

Ellen and Justin's Engagement Pictures

Ellen is one of my very best friends. She is one of the most Godly people I know and it's been incredible having a friend that shares my same passion for Christ. She is incredibly talented and is very funny:) Her and Justin have been dating for 6ish years I think? Anyway, they got engaged this past Fall so we took some pictures shortly after. They are both photogenic so all of these pictures happened so naturally. Sometimes taking pictures of people is really hard, but not with these two. It was great fun.

I think this is my favorite.

My dogs...

It is known to the world that I am obsessed with my dogs. I don't care that they shed. I don't care that they make me sneeze. And I don't care that sometimes they throw up after drinking too much water. I love to take pictures of them when I'm bored. They are quite photogenic.

I like this picture. I don't know why.

Kayde.

Salem.