WITH SPRING, GOD BRINGS NEW LIFE

I have always enjoyed spring time, as new life breaks free from the frozen ground, new born animals are in the fields, and the colors are bright and fresh all around us. You can't miss the flowers blooming and the trees starting to bud new leaves, and the moods of the people around us start to change with the warm fresh air and sunshine that comes with the changing seasons.

This year seems to have brought to me a whole new outlook on spring. Before I enjoyed the changing seasons and couldn't wait for spring because I was tired of the cold, grey winters and I desperately wanted to get outside to do new things. But this year I am looking forward to spring for a whole new reason.....Photography!!

I had so much fun learning to use my digital camera last summer, and the photos I took as a beginner in this area were amazing. I have been waiting all winter for the season to be over with so I could get back outside to play with my camera. There are so many things I want to go see and I can't wait to see where God will lead me in regards to taking new pictures. I have never had something I enjoyed so much, and just the excitement of even thinking of doing it makes it harder to wait for spring to officially be here.

I recently put together my first layouts, and once I saw how well they turned out, I want to get some more done. The hard part is there is a lot of work involved in putting just a few layouts together. Even with technology, once you do the printing and adjusting and decide on the layout, find just the right frame and decide again if the layout will work, the time involved is tremendous. It took me almost a month to put together just a couple of displays, and I found out just how expensive it can get, so I don't know how soon it will happen.

I have been going to second hand stores and picking up frames that I think are in decent condition, since right now, I just want to put some together to show, not to sell. Once I see how that part goes, then I will pursue other directions, but for now, I am starting slow.

I have a store where I live that says I can put them up for display, and just put my business cards and an advertisement with them. The store is a furniture store and I think it will work out well for both of us, I just have to find the time and materials to put them together without spending alot of money to do so.

Once I saw the first few layouts, I started thinking of all the thousands of photos I have and just how many of them I could actually use. It's almost overwhelming to think about looking through all of them and then trying to decide on just a couple of them to put together.

It has given me more insight on what I might do this coming spring and summer though, because last year was just a trial period for me. Now I want to put more emphasis on what might really make a good picture for someone else to look at. There still is alot of trial in it, because I still don't know what that may include, but I have a better idea today than I did a year ago.

God has given us such a vast display of His handy work to enjoy, and how do you choose which part of that to share with others. I know what part excites me, and that is anything having to do with the country. I love the green trees, the mountains, the animals, the flowers, I could go on and on. There is so much beauty in this world to see that I often find myself not paying attention to what I am doing or where I am driving, because I am busy looking for that "next new thing" to take a picture of.

It's very distracting, but then it also causes me to stop and look at what God created with His hands for us to enjoy. The sad part is we as a whole are destroying it piece by piece and sometimes the beauty in front of us has to be viewed through all the stuff we've added to it, or through all that we've done to destroy it. It's hard to see it through the eyes of one who wants to only see the beauty....

Aside from my photograpy, God is also allowing this year to be a new season of change for me spiritually. God has taken all the hardships of the last year to mold me and change me, and I am now starting to see the fruit of His Labor in my life. I am seeing myself open up more and I believe that as I start to open up He is going to move me in places I would have never gone before. I'm excited about the changes I am already seeing in myself, and I look forward to what God has planned for me in this "New Season of Life".