Monthly Archives: July 2011

July 15, 2011 · 6:41 am

Say Cheese!

I always have my boys’ photos done in the summer. It’s just easier on our schedules, and since I only have their official portrait made once a year, summer just works out best.

But this year I decided to deviate from the norm. I wanted a family photo, too. We haven’t had a professional family photo taken since before my youngest was born. (I know– I’m horrible). So, I enlisted the services of my very talented and amazing friend, Marion, from Marion’s Photography.

Not only was she going to do a family session, she was going to do some head shots for me so that I’d have some professional photos for my blog, etc. And since my normal go-to photography place is Walmart (don’t judge– I have cute portraits of my boys!), actually scheduling a session with a professional photographer who happens to be a friend was like graduating up to the big time!

The day of our session came and the only thing I prayed for was low humidity.

We started early to try to beat the heat, but even at 8:45am, Georgia thermometers were registering in the 80s, and the humidity was at 8000%. Seriously. We might as well have been in the rainforest. With each minute we were out there, the heat went up one degree.

But my amazing, acrobatic photographer friend worked like a camera wizard, snapping shots as quickly as possible in order to give my hair a fighting chance against the poof that was threatening to take over. And she brought her adorable pre-teen daughter as her assistant who helped keep me smiling.

When my husband and boys showed up for their portion, my eldest son cooperated very well. He smiled for the camera. But for some reason, he takes saying “cheese” literally and his smile for a camera, any camera, is bigger than his face. Hey, it might not be a natural smile, but it’s a smile, so I’ll take it.

But my two year old was another story. He smiled, all right, but he would not look at the camera for anything. Isn’t that they way it always goes?

After several minutes of wrangling them and trying to dance and sing and basically make myself look like an idiot so that my little one would look at the camera, we decided to do the family shot.

By that point my oldest was obsessed with the train tracks nearby and just wanted to play on them.

“Look at the camera,” I’d say through clenched teeth as I held my smile.

“I am, Mom!” my 5 year old would respond as he looked up to my face. *camera click*

“No!!!!” the two year old would squeal as he looked everywhere but at the camera. *camera click*

By this point I was sweating even more, thinking there’s no way there’s gonna be a good family shot in all this. My husband was standing there, staring at the camera, waiting for someone to tell him what to do while I was working my best poses. I learned everything I know from America’s Next Top Model. Marion sweetly directed us into our proper positions. Apparently the “flopped over like a willow tree” pose that I learned from Tyra Banks wasn’t really going to work for a family photo.

Marion was so sweet with my boys, and very, very patient with all of us. Besides her daughter, she has three young boys of her own, so her mommy-skills were definitely helpful. And she understood my vanity in wanting to get a shot in which I didn’t look like I had a poodle on my head, so we worked against the elements. (There would have been less humidity if it had actually been raining.)

And since we were outside, of course the mosquitoes were attacking me. I asked Marion to please Photoshop out the red streaks on my arms from where I was scratching.

Marion then suggested we do some shots on the tracks. Since my boys are train-obsessed, this was a cool idea.

“Now this is the life,” my oldest said when he reached the tracks. I pulled out some toys and they began playing with them while Marion’s camera clicked away.

“Do you think they’ll walk?” Marion asked.

“Sure.” So we told them to walk on the tracks.

But first we had to convince the oldest one that the tracks were not currently being used, and no, a train is not going to “come around the bend” and squish them.

All was well until my 5yo tried to hold the 2yo’s hand. Then the 2yo proceeded to scream and yell, “NO!” He was done. He ran. He fell. He hates dirt on his hands, so now he was obsessed with getting the dirt off, so he wiped them all over his perfectly clean shirt. He looked at me, sweat pouring down his little face, his hair matted to his head and said, “Time to go home.”

My husband, although sweating buckets in the heat, stayed very calm and cool through it all.

At this point, I look like I’ve been swimming, the humidity has turned my hair into its own swamp creature, and I’m begging the kids to stand still for one more shot. And I’m laughing, because I should have known better than to believe that we’d get the boys to sit or stand still and look at the camera.

One shot, I was thinking. All I need is one shot to hang on our wall and show that we really are a happy family.

My two year old threw his hands in the air and screamed, “It’s time to go home!” (As if we didn’t hear him the first time.) Marion did get a shot of that.

What an amazing and talented photographer friend I have. Somehow she used her magical talent and managed to capture memories that I’ll cherish forever. See below! She’s so good that she knew how to make and anticipate the accidents that would look like incredible, planned photos. Maybe I should have just claimed that those were planned shots…

I’ve learned some things from this experience.
1. When your photographer has children the same age as your kids, it certainly helps with compassion and understanding.
2. Even children don’t function well in 8000% humidity.
3. Photographers are part acrobat. Marion was able to get herself into some crazy positions to get the best shot. She’s amazing.
4. Two year olds do not smile on command. I actually knew this before we began, but I had delusions of grandeur.
5. Photographers have amazing minds. They can “see” things that I can’t see and that fascinates me.
6. Next year I won’t book our session in July. I’ll shoot for October. Or perhaps January.

I hope and pray that Marion didn’t laugh her way through editing our shots. I’m afraid our session might look like a blooper reel and that we might end up on one of those “Awkward Family Photo” websites by accident. Hope not.

So here’s my shameless plug. Check out Marion’s website (link above!). If you live in or near west Georgia, and need a fantastic photographer, you should book a session with her. She’s amazing in all ways and God has truly blessed her with talent!

Share with me: Do you have any good stories to go along with some of your favorite photos?

4 Comments

Filed under Family, Just For Fun, Parenting

Tagged as Jennifer K. Hale, Marion's Photography, photography, photos

July 13, 2011 · 6:29 am

Sob Story

We open on a distressed young woman, her heart racing with fear, her eyes welling with tears, her body racked with exhaustion from the constant emotional turmoil she faces. Her life is a struggle, and she has no idea when or if her prayers will ever be answered. She cries. A lot.

Okay, readers. How long do you give her before you tell her to get over it? One chapter? Five chapters? Stick with her until the end of her journey?

In one of my novels, a romantic suspense, my main character finds herself in a situation that is so emotional, so frightening and so frustrating, that her outlook for a good portion of the book is bleak, to say the least. She fights feelings of depression with every ounce of strength she can muster, yet isn’t very successful for much of the story. She’s a real damsel in distress, and just like in any good romance, a hero will appear to help her out, but not before she’s gone to some really dark places within herself.

But it’s a normal, human reaction. Her setting and issues really give her a great excuse. Her circumstances are completely out of her control, and she feels lost. In fact, I think that her reaction to the horror, anger, and frustration is far better than my own would be, if I found myself in the same situation.

But does a reader want to read a story about a girl who is truly suffering, even if her situation calls for it? Can she still be classified as a heroine if she spends much of her time struggling against her own emotions?

The concern is not whether or not the reader will permit the leading lady to have her emotions, because they will immediately recognize the truth and organic nature of them.

The concern is whether or not the reader will stick with the emotional roller-coaster that the story presents in order to find out whether or not our heroine is able to battle her circumstances to achieve her happy ending.

I recently made a few edits to my manuscript because I wanted my main character to be a bit stronger. Even though I know how strong she is, I worried that the reader would find her to be too weepy. I wanted her to cry just little less, and fight against her situation a little more, even if that meant I replaced a few tears with anger.

Anger seems a more powerful emotion than weeping fear, and therefore the reader would find her to be someone who refused to accept her situation, even though I had already written her to be a character of great faith (although desperate for answers).

Depression is powerful. Conveying those emotions of hopelessness are necessary for a good part of the story, for the situation truly calls for it. But deep inside her, even when she can’t see it, our leading lady is truly strong enough to become a hero.

Share with me: What do you think about characters who delve deeply into emotions? When the story calls for it, are you willing to stick with it until the end to see if that happy ending is possible? Or do you prefer your heroines to be just that, strong heroines from page one, with only slight vulnerabilities?

5 Comments

Filed under Writing

Tagged as anger, depression, happy ending, heroine, Jennifer K. Hale, writing process

July 11, 2011 · 6:57 am

Enough Is Enough…Or Is It?

The effects of sin are numerous, and are ugly, horrible, yet very serious realities that we must face everyday. Thankfully, our gracious and merciful God provided us redpetion for our sinful nature through the blood of his son, Jesus Christ.

And yet, the effects of the choices of sin seem to become even more magnified when a believer, a follower of Christ, one who has professed a personal faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, is the perpetrator.

Sadly, I face this situation now with someone I know, someone I care about.

When a fellow believer, or someone from your family, or someone who is a friend, or from your church, or in your community chooses to follow a path that is contrary to the discipleship and teachings of Christ, the Bible is very clear on how we should handle that situation.

Matthew 18:15-20 states:
¹⁵ “If your brother or sistersins,go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’¹⁷ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
¹⁸ “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will beloosed in heaven.
¹⁹ “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

But when it comes right down to it and it’s time to confront that person in Christian love, just how should we handle it?

There’s a fine line between a group of Christians confronting (in Biblical love) another about sin, and a group of Christians attacking someone else for personal choices they don’t agree with. A very fine line.

And what if the person who is confronted doesn’t want to listen? What if that person rejects all forms of care and concern because he or she knows that their choices are wrong, and therefore doesn’t want to listen to convicting words?

Then it’s time for the next step. Then it’s time to call in the leadership of the church. And if that doesn’t work, then we face the difficult task of treating them as we would a “pagan or tax collector.”

If you’ve ever had to face this difficult task, then you know how frustrating it can be to have to look at someone you care about, someone you call friend, and have to turn away, knowing that they are blatantly choosing sin over the truth they know so well.

My Biblical side knows that Christ himself sanctioned these steps of discipline to remind the believer that Christ’s sacrifice provides the means necessary to be in the presence of God, to be in the fellowship of believers. But my human side wants to punch that believer in the face because they know better– because they are hurting not only themselves, but those around them; the people who care about them most. Is this a wrong reaction? Is this human anger or righteous anger?

What if confronting this person, even in Christian love, drives them further away from Truth?

What if expelling them from your fellowship of faith turns them off from returning to the church forever?

What if you have to stand by and watch them destroy everything that has been good because of their bad choices?

Are these questions that should concern us as followers of Christ, or is it completely the responsibility of the believer to walk away from their choices of blatant sin and return to Truth?

And personally, how should we as individuals treat this person? When I see this person, do I shake hands or offer up that face-punch I want to deliver so badly? (Yeah, yeah. I know that’s not righteous anger.)

The difficulty lies in my own nature and desire to have this person “see” what they are doing by saying, “Hey. Enough is enough. Knock it off. You’re hurting those who love you most.”

I realize that someone cannot truly be helped unless they want help. I realize that every person has to make their own decisions and choices. And I realize that our prayers will be answered, for God is sovereign. For now I’ve decided that prayer is the most powerful weapon I have to fight the sin that so tightly grips my friend, whether they want my help or not.

That’s the cool thing about prayer– no one can stop you from praying for them.

Share with me: I’ve presented many questions in this post. I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions, especially if you’ve faced a similar situation.