sept fifteen

50mm     ISO320     f/2.5     1/400     5:41PM(Eastern)     9/15/17

Guys.  I haven't seen her smile like that before.  That's Brittany overflowing with joy because she gets to marry her gentle giant tomorrow. <3 nbsp="" p="">
(North Carolina sunsets are magic)

sept nine

50mm     ISO100     f/2.8     1/400     4:17     9/9/17

Congratulations, Seth and Grace Rice!!

#secondshoot

sept eight

50mm     ISO1600     f/2.5     1/80     9:37PM     9/8/17

Calm before the storm.  I think I should add it to my second shooter resume that I bring comics to read after the rehearsal and make the first shooter laugh. :)  Awkward Yeti/Heart & Brain is the bestest.

Tonight was yet another example of "I'm working, I can't take personal photos," until I remembered this was a thing and finally got it out.  Also, photographers aren't in near enough photos.  I love to catch them behind the scenes like they do so well for everyone else. :)

#shootphotographers

Dear world,

Today is a big day.  Today is the day I launch my website/blog for Joanna Kay Photography!  It has been in the works for quite some time now and it is officially up!  Go leave some love and enter the giveaway!  I've managed to work my three top hobbies into the giveaway.  That takes talent y'all. :-)

That's all for now.

Joanna Kay

Golden Saturday

I'm thankful for

-Sleep-overs with friends and long talks

-Rain and wind and 60 degrees temperatures that make you reach for a blanket and cup of warm liquid

-Voices that can speak and sing

-Beautiful flowers

-Rainbows that last for 30 seconds and then quietly slip away

-Grasshoppers that don't jump away, but climb onto you hand and just sit a while

-Cleanness.  Of Person and house and soul.

-Golden hour.  There were no words.

-This beautiful soul and her friendship to me.

-Wood-working with Daddy again

-Talks with Mom

-The words of hymns that speak clearly amidst my raw emotions

-My dear siblings, even though they are all gone right now.

Shannen ❘ Spring is Here!

This is Shannen!  We had a couple minutes to spare before Bible Study started one Sunday evening, so I dragged her she came outside with me to take advantage of the gorgeous spring light.

 This was the first day this year it was warm enough to go outside with a t-shirt.  It ended up snowing for the rest of the week and remained quite cool up until this past weekend.  Welcome Spring!  

The light was so incredible.  I can't keep it in a bottle, but I can look back at these pictures and see this face and be reminded. :-)  Shannen, your laughter is beautiful. 

Casey Rae ❘ Spring Portraits

Wow.  It has been forever.  I haven't posted a photo session here in months.  The truth is, I haven't taken photos in months.  Just after I started my education with CollegePlus! I went through a 3 month period of life re-arranging.  Spiritual formation.  Future evaluation.  Purpose.  Basics.

I've learned so much about myself and what God has for me.  During that whole time I didn't shoot hardly at all.  When I did my heart wasn't really in it.  Now I've come to a "spring" in my photography and a renewed passion for creating, capturing, and remembering.  On Friday I went out and shot some promo photos for my business with some friends and had an absolute blast.  I'm looking forward to challenging myself with new things!  Enjoy these portraits of Casey that I took. :-)  You may remember her as my first photography client EVER!  I took her senior pictures 1 1/2 years ago.

I'll leave you with my favorite. :-)

For more, check out the album on facebook. 

Human Trafficking Photo Essay

I'm reposting this from March 3, 2012 without the contest details so I can use it in a broader format.

It's Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and here is what I did last year to help out.

"Over the last few months I have heard more and more about human trafficking.  It started when I had to study underground economies for my ECOFIN committee at Model UN.  I read up on just about everything that is part of the underground economy and that includes human trafficking.  Human trafficking is "the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor." It is slavery.  What really tugged at my heart was the sex trade aspect of human trafficking.  I dug into it deeper and couldn't believe what was going on.  Girls as young as my little sister are being kidnappedand forced to be prostitutes!  And the worst part?  This isn't just Least Developed Countries and Developing Countries, this is ubiquitous.  It is happening in YOUR country, YOUR state, and more likely than not YOUR town.  Slavery is alive and well in the United States of America and we don't know it, or worse, don't care.  So my goal with this photo story is to make you aware of what is going on, and just perhaps inspire you to help.
The following is the essay I submitted with my work to explain the story.  I've removed my technical explanation of how and why I took the photos the way I did.
~~~

There are more human slaves in the world today than there every have been in the history of the world.  Human trafficking and specifically the sex trade is a huge issue in the United States and I feel strongly that we have a responsibility to do something about it.  Girls are being kidnapped everyday and prostituted in every city across the United States.  Slavery is alive and well.  

My first photo begins the contrast from the happy perfect world of one busy girl and the darkness of the traffickers world.  I used the corner of the building and the enhanced shadows of the alley to portray this disparity.  The girl is not very different than I. She is walking along hurriedly, happily unsuspecting, and talking on her phone with friends. Traffickers look for opportunities like this.  They have been waiting.



The second image in this series shows the abduction.  Our girl is confused and scared.  She remains the focus, but the ominous guys shadow the foreground and introduce the element of threat.  The knife’s presence is what initially keeps the girl quiet.  She will regret that decision later, no matter what the pain would have been.  Girls are kept from running away or making noises by threats on their and their families lives.  They are raped, abused, drugged, and prostituted every moment of their now miserable existence.  


Image three shows the girl being forced to put makeup on but the meaning is much deeper.  She is being forced to make herself up, look seductive, and sleep with as many men as possible.  In this image her spirit has not yet been broken, and despite the make up, the clothes, the gun, and the drugs on the table she is still fighting and angry.  She is still trying to resist.  Day after day of abuse and prostitution breaks down the girl and she starts to lose hope and faith in humankind.  She feels like she is trapped in a cage with no way out.  

Image four shows glass as the barrier between her and the outside world.  She is so close, yet so far.  She lives around us everyday and yet we don’t see her.  She has been crying and starts to feel emotional claustrophobia.  She cannot get out; she will never get out.  She is the only thing in the photo of significance so the negative space draws you to her eyes and tear stained face.  She wants to get out and has probably been pounding on the glass to no avail.  In the photo she is physically and emotionally exhausted.  All she wants is help--to get out.




Image five is the darkest saddest photo of the story.  Our character has given up hope.  She is absolutely alone in the world.  Even though she is forced to have sex with forty guys a night she is utterly alone.  Image five is meant to show the pain, isolation, and hopelessness of a girl trapped in the sex trade.  No one knows that she is sold like meat, and those who do don’t care or say it is her fault and then treat her like dirt.  What these girls need is not just our salvation, but our love and acceptance and protection of them.  As Danielle Mitchell so eloquently put it, statistics don’t matter.  These are people.  How high of a number of people exploited for sex do you need to do something?  If there is just one girl out there who is being trafficked, in your city, state, country, or the world then you should care, you should take her hand. 



Image six, sadly, does not end this story happily, but it offers a challenge.  Our girl is being dragged off, maybe to a new city, maybe to be beaten and raped again.  She is scared and scarred.  I focused on the hand to show the desperation and imply that she wants physical help, physical action.  She is reaching out pleading with you to stand by her and take her hand: she is asking, “Will you pull me out of my cage?  What will you do to help?  Will you love me?” "

A Puzzle ❙ time well spent

I'd had a burst of inspiration.  I finally knew what I was going to do with my dress and I wanted to get sketching right away.  I was busy and I was going to go hole myself up in my "studio" when a little voice piped from behind the loveseat:

"Hey, Jo, do you want to help me with my puzzle?"

Her back was turned and she couldn't see my shoulders droop and feet drag towards the exit.  She couldn't hear my thoughts saying "no, not now Emmy I'm busy.  Some other time." 

She didn't see my grimace as I realized what I would be missing.  She couldn't see my petulant face and repentant heart, she was still concentrating on finding that one special piece.

I realized that my little sister is days away from her 8th birthday.  What with my school and hers if I blinked I would miss her whole life.  I would wake up one day and a young lady would be my roommate, not the little girl I was so used to telling how to spell words while we wrote our various things late into the night or sang songs to and hugged during the thunderstorms.

I knew I should treasure this time I have with her.  Savor her crazy obsession with the candy cane striped socks with the fur on them and the crazy santa's elf hat she wears to hide that she hasn't brushed her hair and it's a rats nest.

I should remember the way the fire feels warming my back and the sound of her voice as she says "I've got another one" thirty times over.  I should never fail to encourage her with a "good one!" or "yeah!"

I don't want to ever put things above people.  I want to invest in people, and especially my siblings.  

And besides, I do love a good puzzle. 

 So I replied,

"Sure Emm, I'd love to."

Gary & Myrna ❘ Married

Welcome to the wedding of Gary and Myrna!  One fine chilly October morning I met Gary and Myrna out at Chapel in the Pines to capture their wedding!  There was no getting ready, no bouquet, to attendants.  It was just a simple 10 minute ceremony attended by only immediate family and my parents.  That is the funny part of the story.  He is a friend of my Dad's and work, and she was Emily's 1st grade teacher and a friend of my Mom's.  They met at my graduation party!  Here is how Gary told it to me: 

Jena told me about Myrna and I called her Easter weekend.  I caught her at a really bad time by surprise (extremely tired from traveling and waiting for a bus home from Midway airport). Nothing happened and I really never intended to call her again.  Then we saw one another at your graduation party.  We didn't really get a chance to speak one-on-one there and I couldn't gage that she had any interest in me.  I still didn't plan to call her afterwards, but your mom insisted.  The Friday of Memorial Day weekend (your mom still poking me), I finally called Myrna again and we spoke for about an hour.  Things clicked - thanks to your mom.  I asked Myrna to dinner the following evening and we went to Maxson Manor in Oregon.  I was doing back flips I was so excited.  I reserved and requested a table by the window, but it turned out we were the only patrons in the entire restaurant.  We still laugh about that.  That night, I knew I was with someone special.  She just swept me off my feet.  I couldn't believe I was actually having dinner alone with such a wonderful person.  The rest is history.  With only a few days exception, we have seen each other every day since.  I proposed with a cake I presented to her one night after dinner only a couple weeks ago at home.

And there you have it!  

Awaiting her entrance

Exchanging vows...

and rings!  

Lighting the unity candle.

Exuberant!

Congratulations all around.

Except for my parents and Nathanael (who second shot for me) this was everyone at the wedding.

There wasn't a reception, but we were invited to go out to lunch with the bride and groom and family.

 Where are you going on your honeymoon?

We just booked a 7 day inter-island cruise in Hawaii. Why Hawaii?  I asked Myrna on our very first date if she could travel any where she wanted, where would it be.  She said Hawaii.  I remembered that.   But little did I know at the time I would be asking about honeymoon destinations.

I asked Gary how they would describe each other and he answered for both of them. :-)  "She calls me Prince Charming (still not sure I can live up to that).  I call her a princess - a real life Cinderella.  And that's what she is to me."

Congratulations Gary and Myrna!  Thank you so much for trusting me to capture this moment for you!