Mountaintops and Valleys. And Plateaus.

I've always thought that life goes through times you feel like you're on a mountaintop, and times you feel like you're in a valley. The valleys are definitely not fun, but I always know that they can't last forever, and soon there will be another mountain to climb.

It's a pretty basic life philosophy that keeps me encouraged when I'm feeling low. But lately I've discovered there are more geographical features than just mountains and valleys. There are also plateaus.

Just In Case You Care

It's been two years.

This is art. It is a legitimate sculpture. And it's fun.

Two years since what, Julia?

It was only 6 am. And 30 degrees.

Well, I'm glad you asked.

(It's my college graduation, if you couldn't tell)

Since that.

An Anxious Adventurer

It was 4 in the morning when I finally decided I might as well just get up and go. I hadn't slept much, due to anxious excitement (and the fact that an air mattress in your friend's living room just isn't the most luxurious).

So up I got and off I went to the airport. I was actually driving myself to the airport, which was a first. I am such a big girl. ;) Well it took a couple times around to find the parking lot that I wanted, and I did almost return my car to the rentals, but I managed to park the car, hop a shuttle, and reach the airport with plenty of time for my 6 am flight.

Despite the fact that I was in fact, right on time, my boarding pass placed me in the last boarding zone, and my very humble patient attitude placed me at the very end of that line. I was the last one on the plane. Except for the two women who came running in at the last minute. But for all dramatic purposes, I was the last one on the plane.

And my suitcase wouldn't fit.

A Taste of My Vacation

Because I'm a photographer and I go on vacation. And what fun is vacation without taking photos? And what fun are photos if you don't share them?

For those of you who have never been to Disney World (I pity you), here is what it looks like (from a photographer's point of view).

For those of you who have been to Disney, do you recognize anything? And can you find the 3 hidden Mickeys?

First of all, food. Because, well, look??!? Aren't they cute???

Waking Up Early Is Worth It

My absolute favorite band ever was at Houghton College this past weekend, and so was I. To see them of course! While it was quite the adventure getting there, I made it about five minutes prior to Matt Maher opening the event with some heartfelt worship before handing the stage over to...

Mawwiage Is What Bwings Us Together Today

Did I mention I got married at camp?

During elementary week, we had a pool full of bubbles and some poles with ropes on them that would make HUGE bubbles! They were so much fun; the staff spent their entire free time one night playing with bubbles. And my campers loved playing with them during the day. I casually mentioned that I wanted to have these bubbles at my wedding, so my campers, God bless their little hearts, decided to plan my wedding.

It was beautiful; we got married in the gazebo (after they kidnapped us and dragged us over there). One of my girls performed the ceremony, "Princess Bride" style of course. And in the end, they pronounced us "friends" and had us shake hands. Quite the tearjerker.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to commemorate the event. But one of my best friends from high school did get married on Friday (for real! At least I'm pretty sure, since my dad officiated it, and he's a bit more official than my 9-year-old camper). And I DO have pictures of that wedding!

This is the Part Where We All Live Happily Ever After...

I'm not freaking out.

Yet.

I'm only graduating from college in four days. But not today. For today I can still pretend to be an irresponsible college student who can live off of Pop Tarts and midnight doughnut runs. Sunday I may have to eat broccoli.

But since I finished all of my finals and portfolio presentations today, I am done with college work!!! Let me just say that one more time. I AM DONE! Yay! Obviously I'm a bit excited. I hope you can share in my joy. :)

But that being the case, I decided it was time to read the letter I wrote to God at the beginning of this semester. Since I wrote one last semester without really thinking about it, and it turned out that a lot of what I prayed for happened, I decided to try it again. Occasionally throughout the semester I would want to look at what I had written to see if any of it had happened yet. But I restrained, until tonight. Perhaps I should have looked. Because what I realized is that some of the life I had asked for I could have experienced if I had let myself.

What I mean is this: I wrote that "I would not get so overwhelmed and caught up in life that I forget my relationship with [God]."And while I worked on my senior show and got caught up in my three jobs, classes, volunteer teaching at the high school, and relationships, I let myself get overwhelmed. I let myself freak out. The thing is, I knew all along that God was going to take care of me. I knew I could trust him and that I could have peace in those situations. That was kind of the point of my senior show, finding peace in God. But I wanted to freak out. I wanted to have something to stress over, if only to earn more credit from those who seem to have more difficult paths to walk than I do. My point here is that I can't just write things and have them magically come true; I have to be active in seeking the life I want.

BUT...there was one thing I asked for that really did come true. In the most exciting way possible. At least that my small mind can imagine. And this is where fairy tales really do come true.

It's Disney World!

Yes, I went to Disney World. For a day. In the middle of finals.

Why? You ask. For a job interview! I definitely did not expect to hear back so quickly from them after I filled out the application, but the next day I completed the online interview, and right away was asked to come in for a face to face interview. And I wasn't going to do it. Because who, after all, is crazy enough to fly down to Florida for less than 24 hours for a job interview at Disney World right before taking their final exams in college?

Me apparently.

I wasn't going to do it, but everybody convinced me otherwise. Everyone convinced me that I should go for it, that I would regret it if I didn't try. And I don't want the reason I didn't do something to be because I was too afraid to try. And I am in college after all. For however short of time that may be. So what the heck, I did something crazy and bought a plane ticket to Orlando.

And then I called my aunt to see if she could meet me at the airport. She lives about an hour away and is taking care of my Grandma, so I honestly was not sure if she would be able to. But remember how I said that God is going to take care of me and I can have peace in any situation? Well I thought I was crazy, but God took care of his child. It just so happens that my aunt from NY was flying down to Florida, on the same day as me! My Floridian aunt would already be there to pick her up! AND...my BIG SISTER was going to be on spring break that week and would be in Florida too!!! I was ecstatic. No, ecstatic is too calm of a word. I was bouncing off the walls with joy. You could not contain how ridiculously excited I was about the fact that I got to go to Florida for a day and see my family, totally unexpectedly.

Aren't they cute? :)

So aside from missing one of my flights and barely sleeping in the 48 hour period, God totally worked out my trip to Florida. And hey, I wrote in my letter to him that "my fear would not hold me back from anything I want to do." It almost did, but it didn't! So don't let your fear hold you back from trying what you want to do. Don't let the reason you didn't do something be because you didn't try.

If I can do it, silly old nervous me, then you can try anything.

And they all lived happily ever after. Until the next blog post.

An American in Paris (They speak French in Canada, right?)

What'd you do for spring break? Oh, you know, nothing special, just DROVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY! That's all. Yeah. So I live about an hour and a half from Niagara Falls, and thus, CANADA! We were surprised to find the area so touristy. And the falls so icy. But that's what it looks like, as you can see from these fun photos.

The frozen American Falls

The frozen falls and river

Frozen falls lit up at night

Horseshoe Falls

Tim Horton's in Canada! What!

Yes, I ate a Canadian Maple doughnut in CANADA!

Just For Fun

 I took pictures at Rebash, IWU's annual New Year's dance on Friday night. The pictures are for The Sojourn, but as it is unlikely that they will be used, and because the colored lights and smoke make for some fun photos, here they are on display for your viewing enjoyment.

Welcome to the Show

For the past semester I've been researching and brainstorming ideas for a concept for my senior exhibit this coming April. I was trying to conceptualize a brilliant idea that would leave my audience thinking, "Whoah! Now she's brilliant!" Mmm...yeah, that's not exactly giving God the glory, which as his creation, is my goal.

I wasn't too worried, I have the next three months to work on it. But just for fun, I decided to take a mini road trip up to Niagara Falls so I could print pictures of it in Palladium. And then I thought maybe I could visit my friend in Colorado and print some mountain pictures in Palladium. They would be gorgeous! So gorgeous that people should see them. And it hit me, why not do my senior show in Palladium?

I don't know exactly how it will turn out at the end of the semester, but I do know that this is what God wants me to do. And I am quite sure of that because of how he has taken care of us on our adventures to get these pictures.

Niagara Falls

First, to go to Niagara, I didn't want to go by myself and it worked out that my friend and her fiance` who drove us, both had the same day off of work, which was also a day I was free to go and the roads were perfectly clear!

Blackwater Falls

Secondly, on the way home from visiting my sister for Christmas, I convinced my parents to drive an hour and a half off the highway to get to Blackwater Falls in WV. Unfortunately, the road that we took wasn't even the main road we were supposed to take. For an hour we drove around and around a mountain, climbing the entire time. When we finally reached the falls, we found that the boardwalk was closed! But I was not about to drive around a mountain for an hour to not get a picture, so I tuned into my inner rebellious nature and climbed under the "Do Not Cross" sign. I didn't go all the way down, though, because my mom was a little worried about me.

Letchworth State Park

My most successful venture was to Letchworth State Park, the Grand Canyon of the East, which is only a couple of hours away from me, yet I have never been there! It was gorgeous, and even though the roads were supposed to be covered in snow and the temperature was supposed to be like 7 degrees, the weather was beautiful, the sun came out for a while, and I was hot in my penguin hat and boots! God has truly got his hand on me and my adventuring after scenes of his glorious creation. I can't wait to see how these turn out when I print them as Palladiums!

Life Happens Unexpectedly

I had no idea last Saturday was going to be so exciting.

 For one thing, I was photographing the men's soccer game for The Sojourn, and it wasn't until just before the last goal that the editor in chief, who was filming the game, clued me in on the historical significance of what I was witnessing. If we won (which we did!), this would be the first time in history that the Wildcats won the Crossroads League and moved on to the NAIA tournament (which they are!). It was so much fun when all of the fans ran out onto the field to congratulate the team and celebrate the victory.

 But more excitingly, before I went to the game I ran into some friends. I ran into some friends who have been engaged for several months, but haven't been able to take engagement photos yet. I ran into them after they had decided that today was a really good day to take pictures, and had prayed to run into a photographer to take their engagement pictures. So a couple hours later, out we go to take some photos! It was so fun, and such a blessing to be an answer to their prayers! :) Sometimes God just does really cool things like that.

Janelle & me at the end of the shoot!

Answering the 'Why?' Question

Why do I work in the photo lab? It's not really a difficult question; I'm sure any educated person could come up with numerous reasons for said job. But, I would like to share one particular instance of creation that would not have happened had I not been working in the lab this year.

Palladium Platinum is an old school method of printing photographs, and pretty much produces the most amazing prints you will ever lay eyes on. Seriously.

That being said, it is no wonder that when an IWU alum came in with one of my fellow students to print some palladiums while I was working one night, I wanted to print one too! Thankfully I had just taken this super awesome picture the other day, which looks absolutely perfect as a palladium!!!

Seriously, the scan does not do it justice. A palladium is the type of picture you just have to see in person and stare at for hours until your soul has been lost somewhere inside of it. Because you literally could stare at a good palladium print for hours.

Perhaps you can stare at a scan of a palladium print for a few seconds. It is not quite the same thing. But still, it's pretty darn cool.

Life Takes Over

Week number two of the recipe of the week, and I've fallen behind. I do have some ideas, but I have not had time to actually try them. This past week has been especially busy for me. Here are some highlights:
Through a strange series of events, I ended up shooting many of the program photos for FNL, IWU's version of Saturday Night Live. While we were waiting for one of the performers to show up, I just played around in the studio with the other cast member who was there. I got out the gels and put together a rather creepy concoction of light.

I also got to shoot the 9th President of IWU's Inauguration for The Sojourn. I sat next to the Director of Communications for the Wesleyan Church, who used to be a missionary and now is an editor for their denomination's magazine. We had a rather enjoyable conversation. You can read The Sojourn's coverage of the event (and see my photo!) here:
http://www.iwusojourn.com/2013/10/04/dr-david-wright-inaugurated-as-iwus-ninth-president/
Here are a couple of my other photos from the event.

 Earlier last week I also had the opportunity to travel to Muncie to take some interior photographs. I explored the Emens Auditorium at Ball State and a neat community theater of which I do not remember the name. But it definitely looked like a good place to perform The Phantom of the Opera.

 Is that enough photos to make up for no recipe this week? I was just presented with a fabulous idea at brunch today so look forward to some good stuff soon. I hope.