carey pace: 2009

finally! and please say hello

I hate to be fussy, but if you do happen to stop by my little piece of the internet, please take a moment to say hello! I'd love to hear from whoever you are who take interest in my work! aka - leave a comment! and please don't feel shy. Leave a comment every time you visit!

Now to the finally!

Shortly before Thanksgiving I purchased my own domain name and hosting. Big step! I'm usually really good at figuring the tech stuff out all on my own. But making my blog be at my domain name stumped me. I could NOT get it to work! I kept trying over Thanksgiving, when any technical support was off for the holiday. I got myself so frustrated that I decided to "put it down and come back"...

So today, on another holiday, I tried again. And enlisted the help of technical support. The wonderful Jeremy T. was just.... wonderful! So finally, I welcome you to www.careypace.com!!! Big step, huh? Thanks, Jeremy T.

hudson

There is just something amazing, miraculous and exciting about the birth of a new little life that God created. I wish I could put it into words, but I can't. The emotion stirred deep within me is just too big for words. To document the precious newness of a life -- to be part of that as an artist -- is such a honor to me. I still can't believe I've been able to do this for five families!

On top of witnessing new life, documenting brand new parents just makes me giddy on the inside. Particularly parents who do NOT look like I did at this point in my life (what on earth have I done!?!), but have sheer elation over their precious little one. And even more especially when the daddy is head over heels in love.

Meet little Hudson and his parents. Can you not feel their elation? I love it.

view Hudson's entire gallery here

relatives

Remember my nephew? Well, he's grown, too. And to celebrate that and my brother's three little blessings, we did a family session. We did it where they live, in my hometown... and believe it or not, at a location that I've never, ever visited before. (which, to know where it is, if you were from there, you wouldn't believe I'd never been!) And man, what I've missed out on! It was a perfect selection by my brother's wife, M. I had a blast trying to capture the essence of my nephews and their family. I was really pleased with how it turned out.

[by the way, my brother owns his own business! Jim Beaver's Music Studios! You should visit his site and his blog. He teaches music lessons for all sorts of instruments.]

joy

Sometimes things go better than others. For example, when I shot my friends this day, the pieces most certainly did NOT fall into place. The light was failing me, and then I tried one too many photography experiments with the camera than I was ready to do, and the result was not my best work. Disappointed and frustrated with myself doesn't even begin to describe it. (but I hope to have a go again and do much, much better!)

And then other times? Other times, everything goes right.

joy [joi] –noun

1. the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.

These are special people to us. And these children are special miracle children. This family hadn't sent Christmas cards in years, and this year I asked if we could remedy that. Spur of the moment one afternoon I called and asked if they could come over in a few hours to take the photographs. The light was supposed to be okay still (since the time change limits the light in the afternoons now so much). There were still some leaves in the trees, so everything wasn't dead, and the background would be okay. I hadn't taken the time to research and think about posing. Everything just fell into place. And it was lovely. The kids did awesome. My methods worked. And the parents so so so so SO worked with me to make it fabulous.

These images just invoke pure joy in me. Don't they you?

Not only are the kids just precious, but I'm overcome with joy because I did good!!! All the things I've been working to improve on came together and the images are just great. I love it. This is my favorite session I've ever done, hands down. And I don't find it coincidental at all that it came together and I didn't have a chance to over control or over think it!

repeat - Natalie!

What a compliment it is when someone likes your work enough the first time to call you back and ask for a new session!!!

Mom K took me up on my offer to design holiday cards and wanted a cute shot of her girls (adamantly opposed to being in any herself... pffft!). Remember newborn Natalie? Well she's grown! And she has the sweetest little grin.... unfortunately, she is very, very stingy with it! It doesn't stay on her face long, we believe in a complete attempt to keep the camera from capturing it! But I was quick and got a few! That was K's main assignment for me!

And big sister Sarah is just the best. Apparently she thinks I'm something special. It's very cute. But, my, is she the little model poser! I. COULD. NOT. GET. HER. TO. STOP. POSING! My passion is capturing the real genuine smiles and laughter -- not the sit with your hands in your lap, look at me, and say cheese. But this girl is INTO posing and cheese! She's just beautiful, and it makes me chuckle still to remember the day we took these images.

goooooooo Wonder Pets!

I love my new friend, Rachel. We just "click". Due to both being moms of little ones, we haven't had a lot of time to actually "spend" together, but I know one day when we do, we'll never be able to shut up!!! What DID stay at home moms DO before the internet!!!???

Rachel has 3 precious blessings. And in their house, Wonder Pets is a preferred show. (it's SO funny how different kids have different preferences! Nathan could not care less for the Wonder Pets!) So Rachel's mom got all seamstressy crafty and made the three kids their own Wonder Pet costume for Halloween! Rachel asked if I could take a photo of the 3 of them together in their awesome costumes, to document the special occasion. Here is the final result:

Are those not amazing little costumes???

Although we had intended to acquaint ourselves with the Hot Air Balloons at Funfest this year, Rachel was our official tour guide for FunFest! We are still so grateful for all her help then -- we had SUCH a good time! Can't wait for next year! She let us in on all the good spots, helped us know where to go, what to make sure to see, what to miss, etc. Awesomeness combined with just lovely company. At any rate, Friday evening before the balloon glow (which again, I wouldn't have known about if not for Rachel, and was my FAVORITE part of funfest, hands down!), I took a few of her 3 lovelies. They are precious little children.

too busy to smile at me... ah, the life of a 3 year old

young life

Shawn and I are VERY strong supporters of the ministry of Young Life. I could go on and on about it... but I'll leave that to you to discover, since this IS my photography blog. In October we had the amazing privilege to spend the weekend at Windy Gap Young Life Camp in Weaverville, NC. Although Young Life does have "family camp," that I look forward to taking our own little ones to some day when they are older, we visited on a normal teen weekend. What an amazing thing to get to SEE Young Life operate, and SEE those kids being impacted!

Because the annual fundraising banquet was coming up, and because Scottie, our local YL area director, hadn't been able to update his photos in years due to budget constraints, I decided to volunteer my photographic skill to try to capture some awesome moments just for that purpose! I contacted Color Inc, my preferred print lab. Their customer service had always been beyond superb to me. My contact there left things with "if you ever need anything, please don't hesitate to ask."

So... I DID! I let them know about Young Life here, what I was planning to do at Windy Gap, and asked if we could have a discount to get some BIG BIG BIG prints made. Their reply? We were floored. The discount was huge. Just huge. What a tremendous, tremendous blessing!!! Words can't describe it.

The banquet was held on October 26. The prints were there and hanging around. It was the first time I've seen "my" work displayed anywhere, let alone in 12 huge 24x30 prints and 3 banners. Utterly huge banners. It was really, truly cool for me to see. And I hope and pray that they somehow helped the people who attended the banquet to FEEL a small taste of what Young Life can do in the life of a teenager. The forever impact on a life.

Here were my favorites from that weekend.

splash pad

[so I'm trying to get caught up on blog posting that I've put off for a while.....]

I'd like to say that the following pictures were of MY kids at the local splash pad. I LOVE the splash pad. I think it is just plain awesome. And it's FREE! What a fabulous thing for us to do.... Alas.... when we, as in my own family, go to the splashpad -- Nathan spends the entire time lying on the concrete, NOT in the water. And Cora spends the entire time trying to run off into the grass surrounding the facility. Needless to say, I have NO even mediocre photos of MY kids at the splashpad.

But one day we met my friend Amy, her kids, and some kids that she kept for the summer there, and THEY cooperated with me! (is this not a sight for sore eyes on this cold, rainy day!)

hands

In August I was commissioned as a photographer. It was the first time for something like this. The church that planted our church was honing its core values, and was creating something very visual to go with it. At the time, I didn't know that. At the time, all I knew was this was a project for Grace Fellowship in Johnson City. I was given written descriptions and asked to bring that forth into a visual image.

After all was said and done, I was very pleased with how they turned out. I'm not 100% sure which images were actually chosen for each theme, so I showed my favorite-favorites. It's amazing what emotion just hands can convey! But I understand that 3 of my images are hanging big-big-BIG in one of the rooms at their facility. What an honor!!!

Pursuing Growth
Seeking greater personal growth in all situations
(Proverbs 4:5-9; Luke 2:52; Philippians 3:12-14;James 1:1-4)