what are you doing with your life?

All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given us.

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Since I've been back in Davidson, I've gotten these questions time and time again:

What do you do all day now that you're graduated?

How's life after college?

Here comes a long-winded answer... I've got time, a lot of it, and it's such a blessing. Something really hard about the last two years was having a long list of things I wanted to learn and explore and understand, but not having enough time to do that in addition to going to class, doing my homework, and taking & editing pictures. Editing pictures was what I did in my "free time." Photoshoots are what I did to take a break from a homework-filled afternoon.
Now, it's the opposite; Photography is work and I adore the feeling of freedom that I feel like the Lord has given me with such intention after that time of waiting. I have freedom to shape my time & build my business, trusting and depending on God to provide shoots and contacts and wisdom. I'm reading One Thousand Gifts, and it is blowing my mind, teaching me to be more fully present where I am and more grateful for the little things. Seeing every single shoot and the time I had with clients as a gift completely transformed my heart last semester. The idea that "thanksgiving precedes the miracle" that keeps coming up in the book is not only attractive because of the miracle part, but also the way I've seen it shape my days, which from a different perspective might appear very mundane.
So, here I am, still partly in denial that I'm out of college, living life like this {this is where you should've started reading for the concise answer ;) ....
-I've set up work hours (this is the first step to having a job, right?). I'm learning what it means to have free time not filled with photography, and what it looks like to be so excited about the time I've set aside for work.
-Per Nancy Ray's photographers advice page, I'm learning to say, “I am a photographer.” Sounds easy, I suppose, but the idea of sharing with people that it's my dream is still a little intimidating for me. I guess there's no going back now :)
- Because of this post by Jamie Delaine, I'm spending my work hours not only editing and responding to emails, but being more proactive than I've ever been about learning business. I'm figuring out how sole-proprietorships, LLC's, taxes, and bank accounts work. Fun, right?
- I'm setting goals, and I'm praying though my goals. I'm figuring out ways to run my business that will allow me to {hopefully} serve in Africa and South America regularly, and to consistently give a percentage of what I make to a to-be-decided organization.

If you made it this far, thank you! Thanks for reading my blog, thanks for being supportive, thanks for asking me these questions and making me think hard about what I'm doing.

And since no post is any fun without pictures, here are four fun ones that I just got developed from a mustard yellow film camera that I've made my play toy.

I clearly don't yet have a system down for when to press the shutter and when to wind my camera. The majority of pictures were double exposures like this one (but less interesting).

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.

-Oswald Chambers