Thursday, September 30, 2010

Grace and the girls...and some detail images

So, in all frankness, I have to say...getting-ready shots with the girls can be kind of tricky...they don't want photos taken before they have their hair and makeup done, because they don't think they look their best, and often they have a gazillion things on their minds as everything winds up to The Ceremony!  ;)  But I think these girls were one of the calmest, happiest group of friends I've seen getting ready.  They were already glowing with happiness for their friend/sister and the hair and makeup only added to it!

Love the happy smiles.

Um, and slippers.  Those made us all smile too!

Grace's beautiful dress

The beautiful Elizabeth :D

I love shoes...and these were great...thanks for the fun, Grace!  :)

Steven and Grace's rings with Grace's veil (notice the size difference? so adorable!)

And we all love Maricruz and her playful smile!  :D

Grace's mother


Parting shot...the shoes again.  :)


I'll be away for a conference this weekend, but I have many more photos to post when I get back!  Till then God bless you all!

- Kelsey Schweickert

Discovering beauty...

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The latest Yosemite star trails...

Here are a few more images from my trip with Leah...including the promised favorite star trails shot of the night.  :)

First, here's the cabin where we stayed.  (It was supposed to be a canvas tent cabin, but we got a surprise free upgrade to this!  A gift from the Lord!)




And here is my favorite star-trail shot of the evening, with El Capitan in the foreground (can you see the climbers here and there? I was glad I'm not them...).  :)  This was a 25-minute exposure.


I'll leave you with a great Bebo Norman song that I think about when I look at mountains and stars and think of my Creator...hope you enjoy it now.

I will lift my eyes to the Maker
Of the mountains I can't climb
I will lift my eyes to the Calmer
Of the oceans raging wild
I will lift my eyes to the Healer
Of the hurt I hold inside
I will lift my eyes, lift my eyes to You

God, my God, let Mercy sing
Her melody over me
God, right here all I bring
Is all of me
'Cause You are and You were and You will be forever
The Lover I need to save me
'Cause You fashioned the earth and You hold it together, God
So hold me now

- Kelsey Schweickert
 
Discovering beauty...
 
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Friday, September 24, 2010

I love weddings with personality...

And this one certainly had plenty of that!  Dan and Julie are big-hearted people with a great sense of humor, and their wedding reflected that, for sure.  At the beginning of the ceremony, once the wedding party and bride and groom had reached the front, the best man stopped to make an announcement...and suddenly there appeared a shotgun for each groomsman!  Shotgun wedding??? ;)



As usual, we had lots of fun with the group shots...


Of course, any wedding where I get to photograph my cousin's adorable little kids is a treat.  I kid you not, they make such a model ring bearer/flower girl, you'd think people would hire them as professionals.  ;)


And we love clowning around together.  I never lack good times when kids are around. :D  (Thanks to my assistant Rob for this shot!)


And Julie and Dan lived happily ever after... :)


Can't wait to show you more of the fun images from this wedding...later!

- Kelsey Schweickert

Discovering beauty...

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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Dan and Julie's wedding

Hey everyone!  I'll be posting more images soon from Dan and Julie's gorgeous outdoor wedding yesterday...they are such fun people and I have tons of great photos to show you!  Meanwhile here's a sneak peek...




Julie's vows.  So sweet.  I always get a little teary-eyed when I'm photographing weddings...it's so beautiful to see this kind of love, when two people commit their lives to each other.  Dan and Julie, may your life together be as happy and beautiful as the promises you made this day!


Till next time...

- Kelsey Schweickert

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Friday, September 17, 2010

Yosemite with Leah

Wow, this poor blog has been neglected lately...this week has been VERY full and I've barely had time to breathe!  My friend Leah came to California for a workshop by Dane Sanders, and she and I took a quick overnight trip to Yosemite.  It was beautiful there, as always...we came away with great photos, good memories, and hearts more grateful than ever for God's goodness to us.

We got there Sunday just in time to catch a lovely rainbow in Bridalveil Falls before the sun went down.  Such a sweet reminder of God's promises.


That night we did star trails...my "official" star trail shot of the evening is coming later, but for now, you can enjoy this one.  :)  It was one of a few 30-second shots before a couple longer exposures of 30 minutes.


One more long-ish exposure of Bridalveil, from just after sunset...love the way the water streams down so gently over the hard cliff face.  It's so soft and creamy.


It was great hanging out with you, Leah!  :D  Thanks for being an awesome friend!!


I'm heading out to pick up my friend Rob at the airport, then we're going to the rehearsal for Julie and Dan's wedding tomorrow...can't wait to photograph these fun people!  :D

- Kelsey Schweickert

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Trust His Heart

"All things work for our good
though sometimes we can't see how they could.
Struggles that break our hearts in two
sometimes blind us to the truth.
Our Father knows what's best for us;
His ways are not our own.
So, when your pathway grows dim,
and you just can't see Him,
Remember He's still on the throne.

God is too wise to be mistaken.
God is too good to be unkind.
So when you don't understand,
when you don't see His plan,
when you can't trace His hand, trust His heart.

He sees the Master plan.
He holds the future in His hands.
So don't live as those who have no hope;
all our hope is found in Him.
We see the present clearly,
but He sees the first and the last.
And like a tapestry, He's weaving you and me
to someday be just like Him.

God is too wise to be mistaken.
God is too good to be unkind.
So when you don't understand,
when you don't see His plan,
when you can't trace His hand, trust His heart."

(Lyrics by B. Mason. There's a good recording of this song on iTunes, if you're interested.)

- Kelsey
 
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Thursday, September 9, 2010

"When I look at the heavens..."

Last month, while we were backpacking in Yosemite, I braved the dark and cold and mountain lions to shoot some star trails (well, okay, I didn't see any mountain lions, but you never know, right??!).  That's where you leave your camera's shutter open for a long time (I've done anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour and a half), and in the finished image, you can see how the stars make streaks across the sky as the earth slowly turns.  Here's the view from our campsite by Ten Lakes...


"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor." (from Psalm 8)

The stars are just incredible in the Yosemite high country. When I'm up at elevations of 9 or 10 or 11,000 feet, there's just a lot less air in the way! I look up in awe every time we go and I never cease to be amazed at how many pretty twinkling lights there are up there. And each of them is a massive ball of heat that would fry you if you got very close at all (the Sun, for instance, is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit). What a magnificent display of power and beauty!


"He tells the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names." (Psalm 147)

Have you ever thought about that? There are somewhere around 300 billion stars in the Milky Way. 300,000,000,000 stars. And He has names for them all?  Sometimes I have trouble calling my two sisters the right names! He knows billions of stars' names? Not to mention that he MADE them all?!?

When I look at the myriad sparkling lights in the dark sky, they seem to say, "It's okay...He made us...he knows each of our names...and you are far more important to Him." Not only is He powerful enough to make all that, He is good. And with all that goodness, He is watching over you and me.

So, here's something to think about...just a few verses earlier, that same psalm says,

"He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds."

Each of us has "broken" places in our hearts.  Places that need healing.  Sometimes we don't realize just where each of those places are, till something painful happens.  We fail, or people hurt us, or hard times come.  Sometimes something little, like a harsh word or a speeding ticket.  Sometimes something big like a business failure or losing a child.  But that's where we have an opportunity to invite Jesus into the situation. He can heal that broken place in our heart.  All you have to do, to know that he's capable of that, is to look up into the night sky and see his power lavishly displayed.  (Maybe that's why he made it so we could see the stars just about every night?)

 
May you know his power in your heart today.

- Kelsey Schweickert

Discovering beauty...

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Monday, September 6, 2010

Steven's guys

Groomsmen shots are always so funny...the guys always have so much personality, sometimes a little too much!  ;)  Steven had a great group of guys at his wedding, and we definitely had plenty of "goofy" shots among our more serious and posed ones.  So here is a collection of both kinds!

Steven


Getting ready...








Yikes.




(I'm not sure what John was about to say here. And I'm not sure it had anything to do with Jonathan and the lint roller.)


Steven has a full-blown rose in his boutonniere, and David is bemoaning the fact that all he has is a teeny green bud...and all the symbolism therewith. Haha.


(Possibly planning an assault on the playground behind them!?)


Before we left for wedding party photos, Steven gathered all the guys and prayed about the weather.  It was cloudy and threatening rain, and we were all hoping the Lord would keep the rain back.  He came through for us!  It had rained for a week, but he sent blue sky during the ceremony -- and the sun even broke out, just in time! More photos of that, later. :)


Till next time, folks...God bless each of you!

- Kelsey Schweickert


Saturday, September 4, 2010

The vineyard in sepia

I stylized a few of the images from the vineyard shoot (see these two posts below) and ended up really liking the look sepia toning gave them.  There's something wonderfully timeless about it.  And classy.  So here's a few for your viewing pleasure. :)






 





I'm working on Steven and Grace's images, so look for those in Monday's post!  :D  Can't wait to share more!

- Kelsey Schweickert

Discovering beauty...

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