Jacksonville Pictage User Group September Meeting

This month for the Jacksonville Pictage User Group meeting, we had dinner in St. Augustine and followed it up with a rockin' high fashion photoshoot around the streets and alleys of the historic city.

If you are interested in trying out our photography group, shoot me an email at scarlett@scarlettlillian.com and I'll sign you up on the next Evite list to RSVP!

Special thanks for to our models Kam and Eric for strikin' their supermodel looks!

I'm starting to really become addicted to off camera lighting with my 580 EXII strobe and a few PocketWizards. Always fun to try new things!

Dixie spent a day with me!

Earlier this month I had back to back Spend A Days with all these amazing photographers! Dixie came from Texas and by the end of the day, we felt like long lost friends. She and I had been emailing for a few years now, so by the time her day got here, it was like catching up with a girlfriend you haven't seen in a while.

Dixie's day also fell on a last minute mid week wedding I booked, so she got the opportunity to second shoot Rachel & Mike's wedding with me. Here's the photos I took of her fabulous self in the beginning of the day!

Connie spent the day with me!

Connie came up from Orlando and we had so much fun bonding over photography and cupcakes! Like the previous day with Candice, Connie and I played a lot with off camera flash and Pocket Wizards for our Bridal Glam photoshootat Big Talbot Island! Nicole has been married for a while but had a fun time putting her dress back on to model for us! She and I went to high school together, so it was fun to see her again!

Here's some cute shots I took of Connie to start the day, and then my faves from the photoshoot below!

Candice spent a day with me!

Last October, there was a sweet girl who came up to me at Amy & Joe's wedding asking a million photography questions. When Candice arrived at my home to spend a day with me, she reminded me, "I was THAT girl that annoyed you!" LOL! She didn't annoy me, it was fun to have someone to talk to at the wedding and share about photography with, and I was excited to get to know her better recently during our day together.

The weather decided to pour rain, so we moved our Bridal Glam photoshoot together in doors and I taught her about off camera lighting with Pocket Wizards and how cool my Lite Panel Micro video light looks in a crunch situation when the weather doesn't want to participate.

Here's some sweet shots of Candice and my faves from our photoshoot of Apryl-Marie! Apryl's make up was done by awesome make up artist friend Paulina Perez!

My mom and the marathon.

Whew.... somehow... only through God's strength... I ran 12 miles on Saturday. And I'm STILL sore today.

So, not only am I training to run the 26.2 With Donna breast cancer marathon on February 21, 2010, my mom has decided to join the race too! But we have different missions. My goal is to finish the marathon, her goal is to START the marathon. My mom is NOT a runner, but she IS a breast cancer survivor and she's using the marathon as motivation to train and get back in shape after the ravages her body went through with chemo and radiation and a mastectomy. My mom has started a new blog documenting her journey training. I invite you to follow her on the journey and cheer her on!

http://dashingafterdonna.blogspot.com




I'm still raising money for my fundraiser for the marathon. I'm excited to share that I've raised 42% of my goal. I could still use your help! The money goes toward Mayo Clinic research and to help those battling breast cancer. Will you help the cause and donate?

http://donate.breastcancermarathon.com/2010marathon/Scarlett

Also, if you know of anyone who has battled cancer, I'm going to make a tshirt of everyone I'm running for. Please add their name to the comment box in my previous blog entry you can find at:

http://scarlettlillian.blogspot.com/2009/09/262-with-donna-national-marathon-to.html

Lauren & Robert TEASER!

Some people leave such an impact in your life.

Lauren Wright is one to me. I'll explain more later. :-)

Today I had the pleasure of shooting her engagement session to her sweet and funny man, Robert. Here's a teaser from the shoot! More to come soon!

Interviewed on the Pictage blog!

I'm getting soooooo excited about speaking at the upcoming Pictage PartnerCon conference in New Orleans in November. If you haven't signed up yet to attend, I know there's only a limited amount of seats available, so check out the details here:

http://blog.pictage.com/?p=1911

In the meantime, Pictage interviewed me and featured me on their blog this week. Yay! You can read the full interview here:

http://blog.pictage.com/?p=1772

Jacksonville Pictage User Group Photoshoot Teaser

Tonight we had a rockin' fashion shoot in St. Augustine for our Jacksonville Pictage User Group meeting! More to come, but here's a few teaser shots of hotties Cam and Eric!

Blackmailing myself.

There's some things I swore I would never pull out of that box of things I never wanted anyone to see from my past. But today, that changed, and I rewatched with a new perspective my singing talent performance during the Miss Mandarin High School pageant.




I don't like to admit I used to do pageants. It got started when my mom entered me in the Miss Baby Jacksonville pageant and I won my first crown at 6 months. And well, my only crown. I did a few more pageants growing up, but looking back, good Lord, I will NOT put my daughter in pageants! (No offense mom!) I just hate how superficial they are.

Rewatching the Miss MHS pageant video, I couldn't help but think of the Beth Moore bible study I'm doing right now with my church about the book of Esther. Esther was a regular girl who, after the king's own version of a beauty pageant, was chosen as the Queen of Persia. Her big historic moment came when she had to stand up to her king to insist he stop the upcoming annihilation of the Jews. The movie, "One Night With The King," is based on the book of Esther, and the scene that always sticks out to me is the moment she has to fulfill her destiny. She runs in the rain to the king's quarters, risking everything by attempting to enter his quarters without being called first, something she could be killed for in those days (um, being queen is tougher than I thought!). But instead, she trusts God and bravely pushes through the doors in that dramatic Hollywood entrance of slow motion and momentous music playing. It was her moment, "for such a time as this." (Esther 4:14)

So, ok, no, competing in the Miss MHS pageant wasn't highly important in saving the world, but, to me, it required that same kind of courage, being the shy wallflower I was in high school, to show my high school the real me I had been holding back. I remember being a nervous wreck waiting behind the curtain for it to open. Those few seconds waiting on stage felt like an eternity as I tried to talk myself out of it.

"I can't do this. What the heck am I about to do here? This is the WHOLE high school about to watch me. I'm crazy, WHAT was I thinking signing up to do this?" So many random thoughts going through my head. Needless to say I was a mess of insecurities!

WHY are we always so quick to tear ourselves down? Even when the Lord was first calling Esther to her mission, her first reaction was "Um, it's kind of bad timing here, I kind of have some issues going on with my marriage, the king hasn't even called for me in 30 days!" (Paraphrased obviously! (Esther 4:11)

As I waited behind the curtain, the next thing I noticed, I looked in the right wing of the stage and I see none other than the very first guy who broke my heart. He was that "Mr. Man on Campus" who I confessed to earlier in the year that I liked him and he gave me a few pity dates only to drop me like a fly, and I learned the hard way why crushes are called crushes. He had an acting part in the opening of the pageant performance, but WHY did HE of all people have to be standing in the wing of the stage as the last thing I saw before my performance? Even further ironic, his current girlfriend of the time was the one that introduced my talent act. :-) Oh how God is a funny God.

Then the curtain opened, and it was showtime! I had no choice. It was time to bomb or it was time to shine.

I know I'm blackmailing myself here, but I thought I would share the performance so you could laugh with me at me. I couldn't stop laughing at how cheesy I was singing about the man of my dreams, but yet rewatching it, so proud of the teen version of me courageously walking through her biggest fear in that moment.



http://vimeo.com/6739029


What stirred the memory of all of this was last night I reconnected with another high school crush on Facebook. I confessed to him 10 years later what a huge crush I used to have on him, and he confessed back how I made his jaw drop during that Miss MHS performance and how stunning he thought I looked that night.

Wow!

Really?

I made HIS jaw drop?

Get out of here.

Really?

(Big grin!)

So, um, yeah, that made like my LIFE.

All the butterflies he used to make me feel walking by him in the hallways, they all came fluttering back when I read that. Like, wow. No, I didn't go on to win Miss MHS, but hearing that compliment, even 10 years later, was so much better than winning a crown. :-) (Thank you Aaron!)

What's holding YOU back from walking through your fear and maximizing your potential? Like Esther, God loves to use ordinary people in extraordinary ways for His kingdom. Who knows, maybe this is your time to walk through your fear for such a time as this!

Published in Water's Edge Magazine

It's fun when I get random emails finding out I was published again! The latest was in Jacksonville's Waters Edge magazine. I had two pictures published. One in the ad for my fabulous make up artist friend, Paulina Perez, who used a photo I took of her. The second was my fabulous bride Danielle and her wedding planner Cassie of Flaire Weddings, that I took of them discussing details at Danielle's wedding.

So excited! You can view the full issue here:

http://watersedgeweddings.travidia.com/SS/Page.aspx?secid=69907&pagenum=14&sstarg=&facing=true&




Paulina's picture with her ad. Go hire her! She's was named #1 Make Up Artist in Jacksonville Bride magazine along with moi as #1 photog! Woo hoo!


Danielle and Cassie on the left!

Rachel & Mike are married! Ponte Vedra Beach Wedding

What I love about being a wedding photographer is simply, documenting love. Sure, I love all the details and the fashion and the big parties, but it's the love and the passion each couple shares that I want them to remember from their special day. For Rachel and Mike, their wedding wasn't about the froo froo, it was about the beauty of simplicity. Their 9-9-09 wedding was joined by a few friends, while they kicked off their shoes and had a barefoot wedding overlooking the gorgeous Atlantic Ocean at Guana River State Park. It was a perfect day and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful setting sun for their photos.

Here's my faves from their wedding!


















































And here's a fun shot my second shooter Dixie caught of us when I showing Rachel and Mike a sneak peek.