Spain: A Picture a Day

Day 1:

La Plaza Mayor, Madrid

Day 2:

Flamenco dancer, Madrid

Day 3:

Trying on hats in the Plaza de España, Madrid

Day 4:

Cafe with Antontio in a bar that used to be a stable, Salamanca

Day 5:

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca

Day 6: 

A pulpo pincho, Salamanca

Day 7:

Paseo del Prado, Madrid

Day 8:

Foot study, Madrid

Photography: John & Jamie

My friends John and Jamie are back from their honeymoon to Austria. I'm glad because I missed them :)

Here are some beauties from their engagement shoot back in the Spring.

Photography: The Sewell's at Home

Another fun shoot I got to do this summer was with my friends Pat and Keri to help them celebrate their new home together (after 6 months of interstate marraige!). They are pretty awesome, and we're glad to have them both in Birmingham these days! Here are some favorites!

Photography: Allison & Joseph

I've gotten the opportunity to do a lot of photo shoots since this post (thanks people!), and I have really, really enjoyed it. With each experience I feel like I grow and learn a lot about my camera, my style, and my ability (or humble lack thereof) to make people feel comfortable. This week I'll share my favorites from some shoots earlier this summer.

Yesterday I got the opportunity to do Joseph and Allison's engagement pictures. We did the session at Jones Valley. Before the shoot I did a little bit of research looking at pictures I liked on pinterest, and noting ones that reminded me of Allison and Joseph. I planned a few ideas, jotted them down on a notecard, and headed to the farm. I felt so much more relaxed and in control because I had a plan. It was by far the most fun I've had doing a photo shoot. And, not surprisingly, because I was relaxed, so were my friends. Lesson learned! I'm mid-way through editing, but I couldn't wait to share since they are so stinkin' cute. Here's a teaser. One of my favorites:

Ok, fine. Here's another one.

More to come!

1st Harvest: Garden Updates in Pictures

Our first harvest of radishes.

Finally a wide angle view of the garden.

Stephen harvesting lettuce.

We got over 25 gallons of baby lettuce, arugula, and mustard greens!

Baby tomatoes in the "green house". A set of shelves with fluorescent lights.

Cucumbers, just peeking out.

Rosedale Garden Update: In Pictures . . .

Things are looking quite a bit greener!

Peas, which Keith trellised yesterday.

The farmer watering his crops

Mustard greens and arugula. Already full of flavor.

Sweet spring baby lettuces.

These were taken with my new camera! Thanks so much for the support! My new camera, a Canon Rebel 2Ti (an update from my Rebel Xti), is getting a workout this week with an engagement shoot, and big school events like the a pep rally and 8th grade field trip to Jekyll Island, GA to be captured for the Year book. I'm loving it! More about the field trip coming soon.

Planting Seeds

Almost a year ago Keith lost his job as an accountant as at a small business. It was his second time losing his job since we were married in 2008 and needless to say it was a pretty discouraging blow. At the same time, stirring beneath the sting of disappointment and uncertainty (we had just signed a contract to buy our house two weeks before), we sensed an excitement at so tangibly being in the grip of God's graceful hands as he held us and guided us one day at a time. We continued praying for guidance, specifically as to what the future held for Keith's career. Was he being called to something other than accounting? If so, what? It was overwhelming to think about.

Right around the same time I started interning at Jones Valley Urban Farm, just because I thought it would be a cool way to spend the summer off. When Keith found himself with an unexpected summer off as well, he joined me. The more time we spent on the farm, learning and enjoying the process of growing vegetables, the more we felt our hearts being drawn to invest in the dirt for more than just the summer. We were so blessed by the beauty of the whole cycle and the friendships we developed over hot days weeding and harvesting in the field. By the end of the summer Keith was working on the farm building the children's garden. We still had no idea what the future held, but we had a strong feeling that it would involve growing things.

In the fall some friends of ours told us about a non-profit working with youth in Rosedale, a historic neighborhood in Homewood. They  heard that the founder wanted to start a community garden and thought Keith might be interested in talking to him. I'll try not to make a long story too long and fast forward a bit. In December Keith began working with Simon Cyrene full time, building a community garden and working with the neighborhood kids through a program called Nehemiah's Quest. In addition to an existing program in which 50 kids ages 10-18 work to improve vacant lots and properties in the neighborhood every other Saturday, we're developing a more time-intensive program for the summer that will involve high schoolers in caring for the garden, processing the produce and selling it at the local farmers market, distributing baskets of produce to Seniors in the neighborhood, and learning about nutrition.

All that to say, today was a big day. After a couple weeks of working hard to build the raised beds and get the dirt in, today we planted our first seeds! With each seed dropped into the ground I said a prayer. It's so humbling--the seeds are SO small, and though you will work hard to care for them well, you can't help but know that you really are not in control here. 

A few garden details for those who are interested: Today for our earliest planting we planted spinach, mustard greens, salad mix (a combination of baby salad greens), arugula, beets, turnips, carrots, and radishes. We planted onions from starts we ordered from Johnny's Seeds (where we get all our seeds) because onions take a LONG time to grow from seed and can be tricky. We'll plant broccoli and lettuce indoors this week to transplant later in March. 

I'm planting similar things with my students in the Cornerstone garden this week, hopefully more pictures to  come!

"ART.FOR.THEM"

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I'll probably change the banner a lot as I am having so much fun playing with it, it's always good to see what people think of my work though. Sometimes the one the stands out is so obvious to others' eyes, and not so much to me! I've also been working on prints for Kate's art show to raise money for people to go down and serve street children in Peru. 

If you'll be in Birmingham on March, 14, come check it out! And if you won't be able to make the show, but you see something you like between now and the 14th, let me know which photo  you want, what size, and how much you'd like to donate to the cause, and I'll send you the print and give your donation to Kate's show. (email me at elaine.faith.davis@gmail.com)

1. something positive: take 2, 2. early view: take 2, 3. urban flowers, 4. late bloomers: take two, 5. andalucia wall: take two, 6. take two, 7. take 2, 8. stiches, 9. Untitled, 10. Untitled, 11. Untitled, 12. old stories, 13. pair, 14. sidewalk colors, 15. pretty, 16. joy

.I Heart Polaroids.

I may or may not be very late in discovering this, but through a friend of a friend's blog, I found this fabulous contraption that turns your ordinary old digital photos into lovely, quirky-colored, classic polaroids! How cool!? Here are a few of my fav's. 

Watch Out for Peanut Butter

Every once in a while I get an email from someone asking to use one of my flickr photos for a website, or something. I've even gotten requests for images used in a textbook and a church's CD cover. I think it's fun. Today's request was particularly random--one day my lovely, healthful breakfast, the next a warning for consumers to beware of deadly peanutbutter :)

I want to get better at photographing my friends, and this is an encouraging shot. I love this one I took yesterday at boulder fields of John. More here.

In other news. I made some delicious cheesy rosemary potato muffins today with no butter, and no flour. Pretty cool. The recipe is adapted from this one.

.New York.

Hello friends! I want to tell you all about our Christmas celebrations, but I have to gather up some goodies first. In the meantime, here is a photo recap of our fabulous seven-hour tour of the Big Apple. In typical me fashion, the battery to my camera pooped out within about three shots on the Ferry ride, but luckily my sister's little digital worked just fine.

We took the Staten Island Ferry (Free!) over in the morning. Then worked our way uptown, stopped at Ground Zero and the Chapel right across the street from it, then up to Chinatown, Little Italy and SOHO where we just walked around and stopped into H&M (my favorite store in Salamanca) for old time's sake. Then we walked around Union Square, but it was pretty empty. We did get to stop by ABC Carpet & Home as James recommended. A magical place.

Then it was up to Times Square.

We ate lunch at my Aunt's boyfriend's pizzeria right off of Times Square. The basil tomato pizza was unbelievable.

Love the tiles in the Subway.

Rockefeller Plaza was ridiculously crowded, but we couldn't miss it.

And to top it all off, Central Park was dusted in white. Perfect. More pictures here. 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Sufjan video and Christmas tree additions.

We made snowflakes last night :) Keith put them in our tree.

Bedouins International Haiti Film Premier

Keith and I have been doing what we can to help out with a really great non-profit here in Birmingham for almost a year. Honestly, Keith's accounting skills make him way more useful than me, but we really just enjoy getting to be a part of something good and have loved making friends with these guys. The organization is called Bedouins International (to evoke a sense of nomadic wondering . . . not really because it has anything to do with the people group . . .yet). They do photography, videography, web, and graphic design--basically all things media, for missionaries and non-profit groups with really important stories to tell, but no money to tell it well. For these groups, they do the artistic work for free. For other groups that can afford to pay them, they use the money to fund the work the do pro bono. And they are quite talented. Check out their website at bedouinsinternational.org and the founder and photographer, Stephen DeVries' website/blog at stephendevriesphoto.com. 

We will actually be taking a trip with them in May to do a project for an organization that we have known for a long time now called Hearts for the Children, in Guatemala City, Guatemala. We'll be doing a media presentation with still photography and audio to tell the story of a woman whose life has been redeemed by Christ through a project of Hearts for the Children that walks women through a rehab program to get them out of prostitution and a life on the streets. We're pretty excited. If you'd be interested in helping support this trip or the organization, you'll find ways to do that on the Bedouin's website.

All that to say that they recently finished the documentary, Caribbean Gold, they made for an organization down in Haiti that runs a school for children in a remote jungle village and has implemented a strategy to help these people to self-sufficiency by teaching them how to grow and produce vanilla, a crop that when it's producing is more lucrative than cocaine. On Friday night they had a premier of the documentary and a gallery of the amazing photography and Stephen let me take pictures of the evening. Here are the shots he posted on his blog: