Marj spent the day with me in California!

During a recent visit to California, I hosted a last minute spend a day with Marj of Stella Sweet Photography, a talented photographer who drove down from Sacramento. We hung out in the oh so quaint town of Carmel-By-The-Sea sipping lattes and chatting about our love of photography. I started the day taking some photos of her and showing her afterward how I edit and other tips and tricks. Then we met up with Carlie & Gabe for a fun engagement session style photoshoot there in the streets of Carmel and a few by the Pacific Ocean.

Carlie and Gabe are already married, but turns out, Carlie is also a wedding photographer in Santa Cruz, Ca. and she was excited to get in front of the camera for some updated pictures with her husband! I told these two, I hope I'm laughing as much as they still are when I've been married a few years too! They were oh so cute with each other giggling like an engaged couple all over again.

Here's my faves from the day of Marj and the photoshoot and the full slideshow at the end.














































And the slideshow....

Be Thou My Vision.

I'm always amazed at God's timing.

He always knows exactly where I need to be when I need to be there. Though I had signed up earlier this year for the Be Thou My Vision retreat for Christian women photographers, God knew it was exactly then, in the beginning of August, that I would need it the most... to escape to the beautiful town of Bend, Oregon and seek His will and His vision for the next year of my photography business.

The week before the retreat, it was a delicate transitional time in my life, a moment of new beginnings all over again, most importantly, a time I realized I needed to let go of things I couldn't control, and let God show up and prove how BIG He is.

While at the retreat in our daily quiet time, God sent me so many exciting visions for 2010 that I've already come home and starting work on behind the scenes. I'm excited to share more eventually when the time is right! :-)

But the best part of the retreat, I met so many beautiful women from all over the country with hearts that were even more beautiful and so passionately in love with Jesus. Each one opened up and courageously shared their testimonies, and I was so blessed in return for hearing their vulnerabilities and how God has so awesomely worked in each of their lives. I left the retreat thinking, "How could I ever doubt Him again? What a great God He truly is!" Thanks to Jane Johnson for organizing this great event that we could come together and worship!

I was a bad photographer and didn't bring my camera (or laptop!) because I knew I simply needed to unplug from work and the busyness of my schedule and relax and plug into what the Lord wanted to speak to me through the retreat. But my fellow Jacksonville buddy and roommate Kathyn Brown brought her camera and took some great photos! I borrowed the images from her blog to share!








And ok, so I did take a few pics with my iPhone to Twitter about. Here's one of my WPPI roomies and I, Heather Thorne and Jackie Blair. I love these girls, and it was so great to see each other again!

This time last year...

I love this inspiring song "Crazy Dreams" by Carrie Underwood:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnu5alQMmZw

If you were promised a safety net for your crazy dreams, what risk would you take?

Last year for me, the big risk without a safety net was starting my one-on-one workshop, "Spend A Day With Scarlett."

I remember my dad sitting at the kitchen counter, and I was over for a visit leaning on the counter in one of our business talks. I was telling him how my inbox was getting flooded with other photographer questions and how it was hard to keep up with it all while not neglecting my brides, but how much I wanted to help other photographers. I told him him about the idea I had for my "spend a days" where photographers could come hang out for a whole day and pick my brain and ask me anything and everything they wanted.

"What's holding you back?" he asked.

"I don't know, maybe the thought of failure. What if I put it out there and no one signs up? Plus, who am I to teach, I've only been doing this a year and a half," I explained.

Then he responded, with the oh so profound fatherly wisdom, "I would rather see you try something and fail than always wonder 'what if?' For all you know, it could be a big success."

Fast forward a year later today, and I had the honor of meeting 21 amazing photographers so far! They came from all over the country, and even two girls from Germany! I couldn't believe it!

So what's holding YOU back from going after your dreams? For all you know, you could succeed. Don't let fear of failure stop you from going after the things you really want, and if it involves helping someone else, that's a risk worth taking.

The path toward your dreams starts with one step. If I could do it, I believe you can do it too! :-)

Below is a collage of all the beautiful photographers who have come to spend a day with me in the past year. To each of you I met, thank you for allowing me to share my heart with you. It's been exciting watching how your businesses have grown since our time together! Don't forget how fabulous you are!

***SALE****
And lastly, I'm excited to be spending the day with more wondeful women in the coming months, but December will be the LAST month I host the one-on-one opportunity for a while to then start preparing for hosting group workshops in the new year. Yay! So if you are interested, I'm running a "clearance" sale until the end of this week to reserve your spot for 50% off! That's $750 in savings you can buy a new lens or something with! Woo hoo! Limited availability! Email me at scarlett@scarlettlillian.com to sign up! Sale ends Friday night at 5pm EST! :-)

Being carried through the waves.

Last week was one of those Floridian weeks where you feel like it will never stop raining. So yesterday, when I took Rhett for a walk, and saw the crisp blue sky AND felt a slight coolness blow through my hair, I knew it was too beautiful of a day not to go for a run at the beach.

What I thought was going to be a usual gasping-hacking-I-can't-breathe-because-I-haven't-run-in-months experience, turned out to be so much more deeper than that. I too have felt like there has been a lot of rain flooding my heart lately with a lot of transitional changes in my life, but for the first time, on the run, Jesus was showing me that the storms had finally passed and I was filled with this incredible unexplainable new joy that I know comes only from Him.

You know how it is when you get a new car, and suddenly you see the car everywhere? It's like that too with God, once you plug back into Him and start looking, you realize He's everywhere and I felt like that's how my run was seeing Him along the beach.

For instance, on my iPod, the song "God, You Reign" was playing "The skies proclaim, God You reign. You teach the sun when to bring a new day, creation sings, God, You reign." And as the song was playing, above me, appears out of nowhere, a guy parasailing along the coast heading in the same direction I was. We were both heading south, and I realized, the parasailer was so much like God. I run along life, with my limited perspective, only able to see what's in front of me, while God is above me soaring and sees it all. The big picture. He's up there, looking down, going before me asking me to simply to keep my eyes on Him and follow Him running in the same direction.

But what moved me the most was further down the coast, when I saw two people making their way into the water, and I saw one of them fall in the waves, while the other pulled her up with all his strength. I looked closer and realized, the one that fell was an older elderly woman, and walking before her, holding her close was a younger man who must have been her son. The way the elderly woman gripped her son, I could tell she was so scared to keep walking forward as the waves kept crashing her fragile body, afraid to fall again. But her son, with his back to the waves, kept walking backward and gently kept pulling his mom one step deeper into the water into the calm part where she could swim after walking through the shallow waves.

And I broke down into tears watching the beauty of this moment, of a son's protection over his mom, helping her battle the waves and how much that parallels our individual walk with Jesus, God's son, battling our own waves of life for us. I immediately thought of 2 Corinthians 9:9-10:

"But he said to me, "My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you." So I am very happy to brag about my weaknesses. Then Christ's power can live in me. For this reason I am happy when I have weaknesses, insults, hard times, sufferings, and all kinds of troubles for Christ. Because when I am weak, then I am truly strong."

Shortly after seeing the elderly woman and her son, I knelt down, grabbed a shell, and simply wrote "Thank You Jesus" in the sand just so overwhelmed and thankful for the reminder in that moment. And then I kept running, with little Rhettster by my side.

Here's a TwitPic of my fluffy running partner I just had to share. He might be small, but he ran 5 miles with me like the best of them! Such a champ!

Unplugging.

This past week, I attended a Christian women's photographer's retreat in Oregon called Be Thou My Vision. I didn't take the first picture because I didn't bring my camera. I didn't take my laptop to distract myself with editing or emails. (Ok, I did take my iPhone just in case). But it was so great to just unplug and go spend time with God and seek His will for the next chapter in my life and business. All I took was my bible, my prayer journal, and a few devotional books (and, well, clothes of course), and I realized it was the first time in long time that I simply allowed myself to slow down and.... breathe.

And to cry.

I mean like one of those long hard cries. The kind where everything you have been bottling up comes spilling out. All the hurt you've been harboring. All the hurt you realize you caused others. All the fears and doubts and insecurities and ways you've realized you've been selfish and self-centered. All the regrets and ways you know you've messed up in trying to obey the Lord and seek His best, yet keep slipping up again and again trying to numb the pain. All the things you want to be mad at God about, but yet you are trying with everything inside of you to keep trusting that "everything works together for the good of those who love Him." (Romans 8:28)

The last night there, we had an hour of worship, and when the song by Kari Jobe below came on, it just so expressed that place where I'm at in life right now:

Here before your altar
I am letting go of all I've held
Of every motive, every burden
Everything that's of myself

And I just want to wait on You, my God
I just want to dwell on who You are

Beautiful, beautiful
Oh, I am lost for more to say
Beautiful, beautiful
Oh Lord You're beautiful to me


As I shared with the girls as we circled the room with our prayer requests, it's so hard being in this place where I feel like I'm starting all over again, on my own. Not just relationship wise, but business wise, I feel these shifts happening where God is shaking things up to grow my business in new ways, and it's just a culmination of that fear of the unknown in all areas of my life, though at the same time I'm excited about new visions for the future He gave me at the retreat. And in the past six months, there's a been a shift in our relationship because I've had to almost learn who God truly is as my Heavenly Father now that my own father is gone. It's all new, it's all scary.... and though I don't know what lies ahead, I do know this is exactly where God wants me, where He wants you, each day, dependent on Him, continuing to wait and dwelling on who He is... beautiful.

Wendy & Jamal are married! Jacksonville Wedding at the Omni Hotel

This wedding left me speechless and completely changed my life.

For Wendy and Jamal, it wasn't just a celebration of their love, it was a celebration of God's love, and the generations of their family that came from all over the world.

As one person stood up at the reception and toasted, "Remember, keep Jesus in your marriage and everything else will work out." Wendy and Jamal started Day 1 exactly that way with a beautiful worship time at their ceremony as the congregation lifted up their marriage the Lord, and then at the reception at the Jacksonville Omni Hotel, the doors bust open with a full gospel choir entering and welcoming Wendy and Jamal into their party.

It was such a powerful day of worship for everyone who attended, and I'm confident every guest left a better person because of Wendy and Jamal's contagious love and they love they have for the One who brought them together. I can only imagine how together, God will use their marriage in the lives of many more as the years follow.

VENDORS:
CEREMONY: Hope Chapel
RECEPTION: Omni Hotel
CATERING: Silk Creations
VIOLINIST: Beverly Chapman
VIDEOGRAPHER: Siberian Pictures
EVENT PLANNER: Cole & Cole Designs
JEWELRY: Diamonds International
FLORAL DESIGNS: Curly Willow & Wilson's Limited,904.475.0003
CAKES: Cakes by Judy


Here's my favorites shots of the day and their full slideshow at the end:


The middle ring is a Promise ring that Wendy's dad gave her when she was a little girl.




Wendy was doing this for Jamal to see later! It means "I love you" in sign language.


I loved how Wendy's dad whipped out the iPhone right away when he first saw his princess.








Wendy started the ceremony by faithfully giving the Promise ring back to her dad. Such a beautiful moment!!


Beautiful runner!


I loved how Wendy's dad was praying over his daughter and her new husband.


My favorite shot of the day for all the reasons I talked about in the teaser.




Love this shot of Jamal and his mom after the ceremony.




Time for some fun shots around the Jacksonville Omni Hotel!












Wendy and Jamal had two receptions to accommodate their church family and other guests. Below are the two beautiful cakes from each! Cakes by Judy did a beautiful job!


Wendy & Jamal had a beautiful reception at the Jacksonville Omni Hotel!




It was time for CHURCH at the Jacksonville Omni Hotel! I love how they started their reception in worship with a full on choir and live band rockin' the house!




This was a precious part of a surprise slideshow.








And the slideshow....