A look at Glen Lake.

My family has a little cabin on Glen Lake in Northern Michigan. I rather enjoy trying to capture the colors around me. I hope you enjoy it. :)

The shores of Lake Michigan.

Ducks with purple wings :)

Glen Lake is has the bluest water I have ever seen.

It's God. Can you see him?

Dance like no one's watching.

Here are some dance shots I took of my friend Natalie at Cheekwood. Hope you like them as much as I do!

It's soon to be in sight.

My friend Megan who I have mentioned just returned from her mission trip to China! I'm hoping to go on one similar to hers next summer with Visiting Orphans. She visited several orphanages in several cities and was able to love and play with those kids and see their interactions with their nannies. It is such an amazing experience and I can't wait until I have a chance to go. I got some pictures from her trip. They are all amazing and sweet but, since I love pictures SO much I'm just going to limit myself to 2 pictures. She had 5 albums total on Facebook so you can see how this is a challenge for me.

I am hoping to finalize my trip plans by the end of summer and set my sights on a destination and goal for fundraising. I'll keep everyone posted as the journey continues and I make plans. :)

As of now.

Right now, at this moment, my friend Megan is in China. She is working with the company I'm hoping to partner with next summer. I've mentioned her in previous posts but her love and devotion to this trip and those kids still astounds me. She decided to go back to China (after going last summer with Visiting Orphans) about 3 months ago and still was able to raise a bunch of money towards her trip and receive donations to take with her for the kids such as silly string and water balloons. 
Right now, at this moment, she is making a difference. I am so sad that I wasn't able to go with her this year but at the same time I am extremely proud of her for going through with this even with the obstacles she faced financially and spiritually. Her journey shows her devotion and faith and she was able to decide that she might want to be a missionary when she gets older. How cool is that? She found her passion and is following it. She has a huge heart and I would love if everyone would keep her and her team in their thoughts and prayers these next two weeks as they travel to love on those kids.
Right now, I am so ready to begin fundraising. I have some prices listed on this blog but they are very flexible and will probably be changing as I figure things out. Any help would be awesome. I am talking to my friend about possibly going on this journey with me and we shall see where this year takes us. I (and my friend if she goes) will be fundraising all year and will keep you updated! I'm still selling frames and prints if anyone is interested. :)


Thanks to all!
Anna
I take pictures of things that matter to me in hopes that they will matter to others as well.

This is the lovely Megan :)

I See You.

   So, recently I've been thinking about my decision to go to China. It was all so sudden. I don't regret it at all though. :) I have been thinking about going on a mission trip to a different country for a while now I just didn't know exactly where I wanted to go. China was always in the back of my mind. My friend went on a mission trip to China last summer and around the same time I decided I was going to take the first step and go on a trip, she decided she needed to go back to China. She decided this about 3 months before the trip and started fundraising. Her faith through the whole thing is astounding and inspiring. This sparked my interest in going to China. I definitely knew I wanted to work with kids so I went to the website for the organization she is going with called Visiting Orphans and automatically clicked on China even though they have a list of many more countries they send groups to. Today when I started thinking about it, I realized I was always going to go to China. I was put into tears from my friend's stories from her China trip last summer and one of my other dear friends adopted her sweet little sister from China last summer. As a preteen I played with two little girls down the street who were adopted from China and Vietnam by a single mother and knew I wanted to adopt from China one day.
   When thinking about my friend deciding to go to China only months before the trip, it made me think of the saying "I See You". This is how the Na'vi, the inhabitants of the planet Pandora in the movie Avatar, greet each other. Avatar is basically a futuristic Pocahontas story and some of you may think it is a little silly or geeky for me to reference this. But they don't just mean that they physically see each other standing there. They go into a deeper meaning saying that they actually see that person. They see who they really are. I feel that through this whole experience my friend has allowed me and the others around her to actually see her. My decision to go to China was not known by most of the people closest to me at first. My parents actually found out because my youth minister put this blog in our church's e-mail. I got so excited about my decision to go that I just jumped and didn't ask anyone's opinion about if I should go or where I should go. I just jumped. I decided that I need to actually be in the moment and not worry about the future so much. Like I talked about in the previous post Like A Child, I just took a step and let God take it from there.
   I am challenging myself to be in the moment during this journey. I am also going to challenge myself to actually see the people I encounter. I decided to initiate this so fast that it has taken me this long to realize all of this. I am so lucky to be able to take this journey and to watch friends around me take this journey as well. I hope my friends are able to see me more as I do this and to understand me. I want to live in the moment and not worry so much about getting enough money or packing the right things. I am going to trust in God and have faith like a child.
I see you.
~Anna

Sweet Rylie who was adopted last summer and now has a loving home and family. :)

Like a Child.

   I have recently been listening to the song "Like a Child" by Jars of Clay. The chorus really made me think. It says:
"They say that I can move the mountains and send them crashing into the sea. They say that I can walk on water if I would follow and believe with Faith Like a Child."
   This is a new goal in my life. I am going to look at everything with the innocence of a child and just trust in what is planned. I'm not going to try to push things to happen. I am going to initiate and see where it takes me. With faith like a child I can hopefully take away some of the stresses of life and just spend more time with my relationship with God. This song makes me cry sometimes. The lyrics and the fact that they have a little girl saying, "I've got joy like a fountain! Be kind one to others. In Jesus Christ Your son." in the recording just gets to me. It makes me think about letting go and not worrying about controlling my future. It helps me to think about knowing what I want and working to get there but knowing that God has it all under control.
    The children in the orphanages may have not been exposed to letting God take control. They may wonder why they don't have parents if they are old enough to understand. I hope that I can spread a little joy and faith into their lives and allow them to believe in what they may not understand. But from experiences I have had and heard about, they continue to have some sort of faith even if they don't know it. This is something I am so excited to witness. I can't wait to start to get things finalized and to begin planning this trip. I am beyond words for my excitement. Everyday I think of something I hope to capture on film and share with people.

A sweet little girl praying at Vacation Bible School at Harpeth Presbyterian Church.

~Anna

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Here are some more pictures for you guys to see! Again, I have all my pictures on my Facebook page AEGphotography :) Thank you to everyone who is keeping up with me! I hope the new layout makes things easier to find!

Earth Day 2011 with 35mm fine color film and Natalie, Claire, and Cristina.

A 2010 spring day with 35mm film and Emma, Megan, and Rachel.

 Dance shoot 2010 with Rachel, Allison, Hannah, and Megan.

Dance shoot with Emma at Pinkerton Park.

Shoot with 35mm film and Haleigh-2010.

Cross at Harpeth Presbyterian Church-taken in 35mm film.

Shoot with Emma-35mm film.

 Downtown Franklin.

 Downtown Franklin 35mm film with Haleigh, Molli, Megan, Emma, and Hailey.

35mm shoot with Emma.

Some of these are from when I first started working with film and cameras and began thinking further than "point and click" but I still like them. :)

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever...it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything."