The past month has been inordinately busy...filled with good things, happy times, work I enjoy...but very, very full.  So this past weekend I put a lid on all the busyness and went down to Manresa State Beach with a bunch of church friends.

It was just the thing -- lots of good laughs with friends, quiet moments to reflect, time in God's beautiful creation, and a trip to my favorite Half Moon Bay nursery on the way back!  (Hey, I got out of there with only $40 damage to the checkbook, not bad for an incurable gardener!)

The camera came along, of course.  I was "off duty" and didn't take a whole lot of photos, but I think you'll enjoy these few... :)

 

 

Koob on the beach!

 

 

The winning team

 

Kurt and Jonah bodysurfing 

 

Jordan's awesome pirate kite

 

Annalisa!

 

Fisheye moment.  Hehe.

 

It was a gorgeous sunset...

 

And a beautiful moonrise too...the moon was almost full and incredibly bright that night.

 

Good times around the campfire

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

- Matthew 11:28-30

Till next time, friends!  :)

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Merry Christmas to you!

Hey everybody!  I'm having a very merry Christmas, and I hope you are too!  :D

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going with my family to the late-night Christmas Eve service at First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley.  On the way into the church, everyone gets a candle.  At the end of the service, the lights go dim, as we all sing "Silent Night"...and beginning in the front with the Christmas Candle in the advent wreath, the candles are gradually lit.  Once your candle is burning, you turn to the people behind you and pass the light on.  At first the church is dark, but gradually grows brighter and brighter as the light spreads through the crowd.

I love the symbolism.  Christ came to bring light into the world.  As Isaiah said, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light."  We do walk in darkness, wherever we walk without Him.  He is our life.  Our one true source of joy.  He loved us to the death...and in his death we receive life.  He gave everything for us...all because he loved us so dearly that he was willing to do whatever it took to win us back to himself.

And he continues to do whatever it takes to win us to him...to heal our hearts, piece by piece, and restore them so we can live our lives in the fullness that he wants for us.  He comes every day, every week, in the experiences we walk through, to rescue us from those broken places, and call us to come closer to himself.

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor,

All for love's sake becamest man.

Throne for a manger didst surrender,

Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor;

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor,

All for love's sake becamest man.

Merry Christmas to all of you -- and may you know HIS love for you today, this season, in deeper ways than ever before.


- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Random acts of...gingerbread. Or maybe not so random!

We bring you this brief time-out from wedding photos for a glimpse of the wondrous architectural nonsense that took place recently at a Christmas party in Berkeley.  Five teams of gingerbread-house-making geniuses were pitted against each other in fierce competition.  Candy, icing, and creativity were everywhere...

Forget the houses, can we just eat the candy?  ;)

  

Looks intense...

 

Eeeew.  Hazards of the job, I guess.

 

 

Molly's team came up with this awesome bridge.  I hope you appreciate the blue candies underneath, representative of water.  ;)

 

Evans: "Thirty seconds left!!!"  (Or was it "Time for dessert"?  I don't remember...)

 

Gingerbreadhenge... ;)

 

  

The evening also included a food drive for the Bay Area Rescue Mission, a ministry in Richmond.

 

This hot chocolate was what you call intense.

 

The winning team!

 

And happy about it!  ;)

 

The prize: free meal tickets to the Bistro!  (OK, true confessions, I've never eaten there -- but judging from these happy faces, it must be good!)

Crazy busy week here, but I'll be posting more wedding photos in the next day or two.  :)  God bless you all!

- Kelsey Schweickert


Discovering beauty...

Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook
 

Big Basin Redwoods with my FPC Berkeley friends

It seems that I'm proving the truth of that saying, "The faster I go, the behinder I get"!!  ;)  I love my job -- lots and lots -- but sometimes I schedule my life as if days were 48 hours long.  ;)  I hate to sound like a broken record (some of you are too young to know what that is anyway) but I'm working hard catching up on stuff.  And trying not to kill myself in the process.  And aforesaid stuff is getting done, slowly but surely (uh, with emphasis on the "slowly"!).  :P

So.  Speaking of trying not to kill oneself.  In the midst of such busy-ness and over-zealous scheduling, I think we have to be even more careful than ever to feed our souls with beauty, rest, and time with Jesus.  So, I went to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park recently for a couple days of camping with some friends from First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley.  It was a blast!  My camera (i.e. my right hand) came along, and had some fun right there with me...and I leave you to judge the results.  :)

Moonlight and stars above the meadow

We ate well.  Like, the kind of food a lot of people don't even normally get at home, and here we were, camping!  Brett, you're an amazing camp chef!

Saturday's breakfast: crepes.

Fresh orange juice

Brett coaching Rachel on crepe-flipping.  She took to it like a natural.  (After some rather interesting landings, of course...hehe...)

Two at once?  No problem.

 

Rachel, you did a great job!

Koob on the beach.  I've never played Koob before.  Neither had most of us, I think.  Never knew it was so much fun to try and knock down little 3x3" blocks of wood! 

Our opposition, planning their next move... (Buuuut...guess who won...??)

Jessica, an expert marksman

WE won.  Somehow I neglected to get a team photo, but here's our MVP!

Lisa, roasting bacon over the fire...it turned out great, btw...

Evans and his guitar

Ahi!  Yummm!

I love huge campfires that big groups can gather around like this.  Good times, friends!

Had to do a quick star-trail shot, of course.  I think it came out pretty well...just in time, because the moon was about to appear over the horizon.

Some slightly goofy light-painting followed.  ;)  Here's Rachel:

And some of us girls trying to put on our band faces (epic fail, but we had fun trying)

Tim's very cool YMCA

Sunday breakfast was omelettes.  Here Rachel and Jess are preparing to attack an omelette of Biblical proportions.

Friends :)

Brett and Erica, I really enjoyed getting to know you!

Evans led some wonderfully thought-provoking discussion on desire.  (Hey Evans, I still want those notes!)  The last Bible passage he left us to ponder was from Psalm 37.

I've always loved Psalm 37, and the following verses have been very meaningful lately too.  Here are verses 4-6:

Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

May you delight yourself in him today...and may he give you the desires of your heart.

- Kelsey Schweickert

Discovering beauty...

Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook