The Front Lines of War!

What can I say, I've recently been talking about how much my youth group has grown and how it has contributed so much to my spiritual growth over the past couple weeks. I have however, failed to mention something that has helped me out throughout the week when I'm not at church, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

FCA has grown so much and I can not even express how much of a blessing it is to see that other kids at Cypress Creek are bold and wanting to profess and proclaim their love for Christ. For years, I have been trying to get myself to be more bold in my classrooms, in my lunchroom, in my hallways, etc. God has answered my prayers by encouraging me with FCA!

This past Thursday, November 18, our FCA held a rally during lunch in order to tell other student about FCA and to tell other students about God's truth. Here are some pictures.

One of the pastors who has become a big influence and part of FCA is Pastor Alan Adorno (right). He gave this awesome sermon that consists of rhymes, almost like a rap. It was definitely awesome and a true blessing. When you get the chance, I highly recommend that you listen to the words that Pastor Alan says and to really meditate on them. The rhyme is called, "I got water in my gospel?!?!"

We had originally planned to give away free pizza to help lure in the students but at the last minute, we were informed that we could not do so. We knew this was Satan in the works, trying to suppress what we knew God would do. In the end, God proved to be faithful yet again! By the end of the day, 45% of the WHOLE ENTIRE student body at Cypress Creek attended the rally. No free food necessary, nothing. God is good. If you have any questions about FCA or any other questions in general, click here to contact me.

Samosas and Butter Chicken

So before I actually write about what I want to, I just felt like I should give a quick update. Over the past weeks, I've begun to REALLY see how faithful and true God really is. His unconditional love and grace over my life has been, overwhelming. From the awesome car that I have, to the two best parents, to the best of friends, to the best two sisters, to the best mentors in my life, and to everything, God has made sure to make me feel loved and watched over! My faith has grown in ways that I never would have imagined and I'm glad to say that although I have my set backs, it's not trouble for me to come back! 

Although spiritually I'm doing phenomenal, it is all starting to hit me, I'm growing up. I have my license now and within a couple months, I'll have to start SAT prep along with taking the SATs themselves. Not only that, but all the IMPORTANT assignment for being in the IB program are all coming within the next year. It's not doubt that my play time is relatively over! I have to get serious and start paying attention to life. I realized that it was time for me to grow up when I hated thinking about how when I get a job, I won't have a lot of "chill" time with my friends. Play time is over for me my friends. HOWEVER! It's a good thing photography isn't COMPLETELY play for me!

This past Friday, I had an excused absence to skip fifth, sixth, and seventh period to attend this years 2010 ISA Festival. For those of you who have been following me over the past year (at least), you may remember photographs from the 2009 ISA Festival last year. The ISA Festival is a festival put together by the Indian Student Association (ISA) to help educate the kids of Cypress Creek High School about Indian food, culture, dress, dance, etc.

While the ISA festival is usually held in the amphitheater, this year it was in the auditorium! For me, it was bitter sweet! As a part of the audience, I LOVED IT, no more suffering in the hot sun. However, as the photographer, I hated it! The auditorium has HORRIBLE lighting and unless you are a professional photographer, these low light situations = nightmare for amateur photographers such as myself. Despite the low light though, I must say, I captured some decent photographs. ENJOY!

So the festival started off outside where everyone could get a chance to eat some naan, samosas, butter chicken, and other delicious Indian food along with the chance to purchase from Indian jewelry and get some henna done!

Henna (right) and some of the Indian jewelry

Some of the Indian dances

And here is the fashion show that everyone usually always looks forward to.

*By the way, Ana Alexander and Ahnaf chowdhury(bottom left) are really not that orange. The extreme amount of orange pigmentation is due to the poor lighting/ orange stage lights....*

More of the fashion show.

At the end, the performers invited members of the audience 

to come up on stage and learn some of the Indian dances.

Overall, it was AWESOME! It was hands down the best ISA festival that I have been to and I am so, SO proud of the person who was in charge, Nisha Desai! While there were other members of ISA also putting it together, I would personally like to give a HUGE shout out to Nisha! she was constantly stressing out and going over and beyond the expectations of ISA to ensure that this was the best one yet. HUGE SHOUT OUT to all of the performers and the backstage crew too! Awesome job everyone!

Slow It Down...

So this past Tuesday, I got pulled over for going at a rather fast speed. Of course, my IMMEDIATE reaction was to start praying. Due to God's unconditional mercy and grace, I was let off the hook but the cop specifically told me, "Slow it down!"

I realized that a lot of times, we tend to go to God only when we need something. A good grade, a break, forgiveness, or a 'favor', many times, we tend to only go to God when we need something. I realized that I do this a lot and in fact, I needed to "slow it down." I got so caught up in serving in the church, doing photography as a 'business' that I do not exactly enjoy the things I am supposed to as a hormonal, 16 year-old teenager.

I realized that I do not get to play sports as much as 'normal' teenagers, I don't hang out or "party" as much as a normal teenager should, nor do I really ENJOY life as much as I should... at least, I didn't.

Just as a quick update, over the past couple months, our youth ministry, Harvest, has been growing LIKE CRAZY! The youth are responding and for many kids, church, on a Saturday night, is their favorite day of the week, PRAISE GOD! I can honestly testify that ever since our Saturday Night Fellowships have improved, my life itself has also improved. As a SLT member, it is such a blessing to see that the youth are responding to whatever the SLT plans. Whether it be joint services or outreach projects, THE YOUTH ARE RESPONDING! I realized that in general, ever since SNF has improved, and ever since I started to SOLELY trust in God, I actually enjoy life.

I have been enjoying life in ways that I never thought possible. I enjoy my friends much more and I honestly believe that I have created stronger friendships somehow. I enjoy God in ways that I never did before. I feel this sense of comfort and enjoyment in know that I LOVE God more these days.

Anyways, just a small update on how I've been. As you can see, I've been doing rather well. Here are just a couple pictures from a golf tournament that I photographed a couple weeks ago...

P.S
Golf-tournaments are officially the most boring sport to photograph. haha

Apparently, the top right picture is VERY PROPER form... 

That's my dad! haha.

I just really like the contrast between the golfers and the background!

X-Tending Hands

Pulling weeds

Trimming hedges

Cutting down trees

Pulling out tree stumps

Moving buckets and buckets and buckets of sand

Planting a flower garden

Using 12 bags of mulch

And after five hours of manual labor

We were able to minister to some people in Orlando 

With the little talents we are blessed with.

     At Harvest, our Student Leadership Team has been thriving and looking for MULTIPLE ways to get connected into our community. Whether it be Winter Garden, Windermere, Ocoee, Pine Hills, or even Orlando as a whole, one of our visions has a team is to minister in what little ways we can.

     One major thing that we're trying to do these days is to somehow find some kind of ministry or outreach to do, twice a month. Whether that be feeding the homeless, volunteering at a shelter, painting an apartment, etc., our main objective is to show the people of Orlando the love that God has for His children. So for our first project, we partnered with an organization called X-Tending Hands.

     Today's project was to go to a house over in Pine Hills and to do perform simple acts of kindness by cleaning up their yard. The house shelters women who are homeless, sick, etc. The house serves as a place of refuge and hopefully, hope for the residents there. Today's project included all that was stated above, along with many, many more. 

So these are SOME of the tasks that we did.

I honestly can say that I am so proud to be a part of this team. 

It was hot, it was hard, it was difficult,

And yet, not one complaint came from anybody.

Although it can't be seen too clearly, 

we planted a small flower bed type thing to sort of, beautify the entrance. 

Although it also cannot be seen too clearly here either, 

overall, the whole land itself was much more clean and much more... 'presentable.'

AWESOME JOB SLT!

So here are two pictures of the whole crew that helped out (top row)

Along with a picture of our SLT (bottom row)

This is P. Chung and Jin from OCBC (left & middle),

Along with Carl who is Luis's wing man.

Luis is a member of the men's facility located about 5 min from this facility (women's)

Luis could have done everything on his own,

better than us in fact, but I think he enjoyed the help.

Carl was Luis's wing man for everything.

Carl is also like a mini-P.Chung (right)

     Overall, the day was DEFINITELY a success. Lots of people showed up, a lot was done, and God definitely used us to minister to the people of this shelter. I cannot praise/recognize the SLT enough for ALL that they did. I am SOOOO proud to be a fellow SLT member with them. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me.

*** Many props to Pastor Albert Young for taking a majority of the photos***

Commissioning and Happy Birthday to Manny Kim!

So within Harvest, our adults are made up of cell churches. One of our cell churches, the Clara Kim Cell Church (college), grew to be too big so they had to be split up. With a new cell church comes the need for a new cell shepherd and by unanimous decision, Paul Kim was selected. Today, after the sermon and worship time, we took some time to commission Paul as a cell church leader by washing his feet.

Some pictures of the leaders praying for Paul

After church, many of us moved over to the Stoneybrooke West Country Club to celebrate our very own head pastor's daughter's first birthday, Emmanuelle Kim. It was an awesome time of thanksgiving to God, fellowship, and celebration for a very beloved baby within Harvest.

Some detail shots

More detail shots

A Korean tradition when a baby turns 1

Some pictures of the guests [I have no idea why Yeari is in all of them]

And now, around 6 in the evening, my uncle and my cousin came down to Florida to visit and of course, my little cousin Audrey, being the model that she is, wanted to take some pictures. Here's two of my favorite.

Just A Small Update...

So I'm in my junior year of the IB program and supposedly this is supposed to be the hardest year. While I haven't experienced massive amounts of work, school definitely has not changed one bit. I'm still trying to get back into the routine of getting 5 hours of sleep, doing homework for many hours, struggling over chemistry, etc. This has however taken away any time for photography....

I was cleaning my room yesterday and found these rocks that I had taken from Ecuador. For those who are now tuning in, I went on a mission trip to Ecuador back in late July. I had found the rocks that I had taken for memories, one from each city we ministered in (minus Quito). There are so many things that remind me of Ecuador...

• The song "Worthy is the Lamb"
• The Salvation bracelet I have in my backpack
• Every pick-up truck I see
• Anything with cilantro
• Fresh juices
• Hair cuts
• Many, many more...

Despite all the stress that school causes (IB, SATs, etc), these memories are what keep me sane. 

I definitely hope to get some photography in my schedule within the next couple months so be sure to stay tuned. ;-)

100th Post/Homecoming Dance 2010

So about this time two years ago, I had created this blog with hopes to show some of my work. receive some constructive criticism, and to somewhat get myself out there. I honestly admit that I have indeed gotten somewhat better since I first started, but i'm still not nearly close to where I want to be, so hopefully that will happen soon. Thank you so much to those of you who have kept up with me and looked at my work on a consistent basis. Apparently I've gotten approximately 300 views over the past two years (is that good or bad???) but yea again, thank you guys so much for you support!

So my close friend, Joseph Kim goes to school with me and we tend to tell everybody that we're cousins. So, this being my "cousins" senior year, he and his friends went to the CCHS Homecoming Dance 2010. If you remember, I went last year with my sister and her friends and took some pictures for them. This year again, I was given the awesome opportunity to take pictures for my "cousin" and his friends.

For some reason, I tried to pay special attention to Nisha just because she was the homecoming princess AND because she took the liberty of setting up the whole night for many of her friends so...

MAD PROPS TO NISHA DESEI!

They definitely knew how to pose well too!

More so than the boys, I paid special attention to the girls. At events like these, (e.g. Homecoming, prom, Winter ball, etc.) I believe that the girls are still the most important and the main priority so, I made sure to make that a point even when it came time to pictures.

The Homecoming Princess and her boys

The boys....

The whole group, 33 people....

The whole group again.

So overall, it was definitely awesome that they would a trust an amateur like me to take their homecoming pictures. I am EXTREMELY thankful to them for letting me photograph their homecoming day. I was REALLY nervous because I didn't want to ruin their homecoming day; hopefully I didn't. Very beautiful ladies, and handsome men. I could not have asked for better people to take pictures of. Thank you guys for letting me capture your SENIOR homecoming day!!!

A Bittersweet Night

So I wanted to start off with a small update. Since I've come back from the Ecuador Trip that I went on back in late July, I can honestly admit that my life isn't RADICALLY different, but I am constantly reminded of what I learned while I was down there. There are so many things around Orlando that remind of Ecuador... weird isn't it?!?! I haven't gotten the chance to do as much photography as I had hoped for and I can honestly say that I do miss it a lot.

- Do I miss all of the post-production? Not so much.
- Do I miss lugging around all of the equipment? Not so much.
- Do I miss standing on my feet all day, walking back and forth on a football field? Not so much.
- Then what do I miss?

I miss snapping away shots. The one thing that I love about photography is that I am in control. I don't have to listen to a teacher, do it a certain way, or even take CERTAIN pictures. I'm given a general subject,   and I am my own instructor. The best is getting that PERFECT candid shot. You know, the shot of the dad giving his little girl a kiss, the photograph of the girl with "that look" in her eye as she watches her boyfriend play football (ha-ha), it's those perfect "kodak moments" that make it all worth it. Cliche??? YES!!! But the truth is, you will never understand it until YOU are behind the lense.

Yesterday, Friday, September 17, 2010 was Cypress Creek's homecoming football game where the homecoming parade would take place, and where the homecoming queen and king would be announced. How is this bittersweet? Unfortunately, our football team did not exactly play to the best of their ability and ended the night with another loss, however, last night was the night where the homecoming queen and king would be announced along with homecoming floats and other fun stuff. While I don't have much more to say, here are some of the pictures that I got.

The CCHS stadium has horrible lighting and due to the fact that I, as a teenage, amateur photographer with no steady income, NO income for that matter, I do not exactly have the correct equipment for low lighting situations such as a football game at night. That would explain the blurriness.

Some of the CCHS bear pride. More so senior pride than bear pride. ha ha

More pride.

Katarina Rodriguez and Stephany Duenas were two homecoming queen runner-ups (top right)

And without further or due, THE CCHS HOMECOMING QUEEN AND KING, AMANDA HORNE AND STEPHEN ROCHET LOPEZ! Two friends, very good friends if I am able to add (at least from my perspective.... ha ha) that I am very proud of. Congratulations you guys!

Afterwards, we had a small photo shoot. Both Amanda and Stephen are two very photogenic people = AWESOME models, haha. Congratulations again you guys.

In case some of you are wondering, I took most of these photographs with the Canon 15mm fish eye. It was the widest lense that I had. The next in line would have been my 28-135 which is a tad bit too close. I do however LOVE the fish eye so in regards to my personal preference, it all worked about... but honestly speaking at the same time, I think the photos came out great even with the fish eye.

**** PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!****

If you see a photograph that you like/appreciate, not to sound like a grinch (if that makes sense), but PLEASE do not copy the photograph straight from my blog (right-click, save image as) and claim it your own. I do own copyrights to my photographs so if you want them, just talk to me. This isn't a way for me to get all the credit or to make others know that I took it, not you, but it's a reminder that out of respect for any artist, whether they be a painter, photographer, videographer, poet, author, music artist, etc. this is THEIR work! So again, if you see something that you like, just talk to me about it. To find out contact information, click here.

Why not?!

So I was on Facebook and saw the opportunity to win a free Macbook Pro, iMac, iPad, iPod, and other awesome prizes. There are 9 ways to enter the contest and this is one of them. While a lot of them are way via Twitter, they had the chance to enter through my blog.

Logos Bible Software is giving away thousands of dollars of prizes 

to celebrate the launch of Logos Bible Software 4 Mac on October 1. 

Prizes include an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an iPod Touch, and more than 100 other prizes!

They’re also having a special limited-time sale on their Mac and PC

base packages and upgrades. Check it out!

So yes, this is my way of enterring the contest but also gives you a chance to enter as well.  Click here and enter in any ways you can and have the opportunity to win some prizes!

2010 Harvest Summer Missions - Ecuador

About 3 weeks ago, I posted an informational update in regards to a mission trip that I would be going on from July 25-31. Here we are, 3 weeks later, back at home. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing the trip was. The trip went perfectly and for someone like me [one who complains a lot] I have no regrets, no disappointments, and no complaints about the trip. The pictures that I took cannot even begin to express how beautiful the land there is, it cannot express the love I saw in the eyes of my own team members and the people of Ecuador, and cannot even begin to demonstrate or show how effectively God used us to do His will.

Without a doubt, this mission trip was THE highlight on my summer and hands down one of the best experiences of my life. With months of prayer and preparation, we went into Ecuador ready to do whatever it was that God called us to do. For many of you, you may just be interested in the photos but for those of you interested in how my trip REALLY was, feel free to contact me and ask me questions, ask for my testimony, etc. Here are a couple pictures and a video with which I hope to try and provide just a mere visual and small explanation of how blessing this trip was for my team and me.

Some pictures prior to our departure. 

The bottom, right picture is a picture of Quito, Ecuador at night from the air plane.

Some of the B-E-A-U-TIFUL scenery in Ecuador

Our first FULL day in Lumbaqui, we made a quick stop in a town called "Cabeno" to make some of our own sugar cane juice.

Not too long before our arrival in Ecuador, local church in Lumbaqui was broken in to and the kitchen sink was stolen. So, to help increase security and safety, we helped build a wall around the church after we made our sugar cane juice.

Later that day, around 3 or 4 PM, we headed back to Cabeno to tell the town's people that our mission team would be giving our free hair cuts at the local church while leading a nighttime service.

Some of the neighbors

Our time in Synangue was to be spent helping this unreached village known as the "Cofan Village."

Our time in Synangue was supposed to be spent putting up the walls for the church that our team last year spent time laying down the foundation for. Our plans were changed, and instead, we spent our time in Synangue (2 days) moving the bricks for the walls in a series of 5-6 different "transfers." We moved 1,000 cinderblocks, each weighing about 5lbs,  from...

1. Where they were to a river bank
2. Across one river
3. Across a small island
4. Across another river
5. To a river bank on the other side
6. From the river bank up a 60 degree hill (more or less)
7. Finally, from the top of that hill up another hill, finally to the church.

You can pretty much sum it up as us transferring 2.5 tons of cinderblocks 7 times or as us transferring a whole church 7 times. haha 

Some of us were able to carry 6 cinderblocks, others carried 2.

While we were training in Orlando, we had practiced three skits. 

We decided to perform all three of skits on our last day in Lumbaqui at the local church.

We also taught the kids about Jonah and acted our the story.

The top two photos (left & middle) were from a skit that we call "Bus Stop."

The top right and bottom left are from a heart skit that we created, 

and the bottom right is the start of Jonah.

The top left picture here is also from the story about Jonah while the remaining three photos are from a skit that we call "Sin Chair."

On our trip back to Quito, we stopped by a beautiful waterfall (above) and a natural cold & hot spring known as "Papallacta."