NIGHT OF WORSHIP

All my life I have been told to hold back musically, how certain musical styles were evil, how certain instruments were not made to praise the Lord. And like a child, you believe what you are told, and you spend your whole life thinking you are playing for Jesus, but are you? Actually, you realize that you are so focused on not offending people or meeting someone else’s musical preferences that you have forgotten God altogether. These songs you are suppose to be “singing to him,” are actually just a performance for the audience in front of you.  And, you are actually doing exactly what GOD says not to do–hold back!

Enter Psalm 150 to my life. LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD! Not just the piano or organ, but the drums (cymbals), the dance, the strings–Every instrument…and don’t just play them…do it with all your HEART SOUL AND MIGHT–the loud instruments as well as the quiet instruments! LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD!

As I look back on my life, I never wanted to be someone that looked back with regret, but I must say, my biggest regret was not realizing that GOD wants to hear MY song to Him. That GOD wanted me to play music with everything in me. No matter if that song was too progressive for some, or if it looks like (heaven forbid) I mean what I am saying. Some people say that relevant music is just away integrate worldiness into the church and make it more acceptable…but I must say, that if that is the case, you are doing it wrong. When someone is in love, they look crazy to the rest of the world. When you are in love with God, your songs to him will look crazy to the rest of the world–no matter how many cool beats or sounds you add to it. Especially when that songs bleeds into the rest of your life and dictates a life of separation.

To me, I see music as a language. It is a language of a generation. This is the music of My Generation! Until the end of time, music will be the separation between generations.  Only love, forgiveness and understanding will break down this wall–after all, isn’t that what the church is suppose to be about?  And yes, I can play and sing other styles, but that would be a performance. It would be acting. It wouldn’t be free flowing song. It would be someone else’s song to Him…not mine.

Well, these pics and this mp3 is a collage of THE NIGHT OF WORSHIP held at the SAENGER Auditorium in Pensacola. This wrapped up 40 days of community service showing love to our community from my church–www.libertychurch.tv

NOTE: the mp3 is a collage of snippets that were just some musical hightlights from the night. There was alot that went on, and as soon as they get done mixing the recording (CD and DVD) you will want to get one!

It is an awesome feeling to be able to walk into a quiet room where no sounds exist. pic up your instruments and begin to create music for Him. all live music, all hearts tuned to God and all people there for one reason…WORSHIP HIM.

> DOWNLOAD MP3

Merry Miller

So you know when your deadline for a project is THE GRAMMY’s you better meet it!  haha.  Well that was how I met Merry Miller–the most fascinating, intelligent, driven, whirlwind of a person you will ever hear tales of.  She has cohosted THE VIEW, appeared on FOX NEWS…I could go on and on.  She called me at about 10PM one night in quite a predicament.   (she had gotten my name from SONICFLOOd)  Merry had lost her designer and she needed album covers for 5 projects–in 7 days!

This conversation lead to several 4 hour conversations till 3AM as we worked and talked.  Merry is a world renown harpist.  She has studied under the best and plays music with the best.  One of the projects I worked on was Gary Levinson.  What I didn’t know is that when you reach a certain position in “music world”  you no longer buy instruments, they come with that position and these instruments are hundreds of years old, sound like no other, and are worth more than three generations of my family tree’s income put together.

Our latest project together was the photography of her Christmas Baby Album called Merry Baby.  (side note: Harp music has been proven to calm babies better than any other music)   Our friends at Parent Magazine held a contest and found a kid that looked JUST LIKE MERRY to grace the cover of her CD.   Here I met some extraordinary people as well.  The mother of the child was a nuclear engineer and the first woman to become and officer at her academy.   But she confided to me that being a fulltime mom is harder than anything she has ever done!  WOW! Go moms!

My latest email from her was the sheet music she was working on for Chris Tomlin.  Girl gets around!  Follow her music at  www.harpmusictogo.com

Sonicflood Website

Talk about a divine appointments:  A friend of mine was opening for the band Sonicflood, and they graciously asked me to back them up on keys for an acoustic set.  Now let me stop here and explain who Sonicflood is if you are not into worship music…

Sonicflood was one of the first worship bands to make music to God in modern relavant style.  They are known as the “fathers of modern worship” and live up to the name.  Today their music is still the standard for their industry.

After the concert, I was ready to leave, but wanted to tell the band how much I enjoyed their set.  I am reluctant to EVER do that, because my thought is, “who am I and why would they want to talk to me?”  Anyhow, Rick Heil would not me just leave with that closing statement and struck up a conversation asking me what I did for a living.  The second I said “web designer” he replied, “WE NEED TO REDO OUR WEBSITE!”   He gave me his email and I thought I would never hear from him again.  God had other plans.

God put a stop on all the work I had coming in, so I worked up some design ideas and shot them over to Rick, before I knew it, we were collaborating on exactly what he wanted and refining the details. Then I get the call that Sonicflood is preparing for a Today Show appearance and wanted the site launched the next day!

It got done and that was just the start of a very rewarding business/friendship.

Kathy Paro Wedding

It was apparent when I showed up to take photos of the bride getting ready, that this wedding wasn’t going to be conventional!  From the rhinestone flipflops, the two sleeping dogs, the unseemly cold wind, to the bride and her girls drinking beers and watching the game.

Colorful would be a great way to describe the wedding!  The colors were so vibrant!  the beach was in rare form.  Like the emerald coast decided to defend its title this day!  The wedding was held at a private home on Pensacola Beach.  The decorations were spectacular, the ring bearers were hairy…yes, Isaid “hairy.”  The bride and grooms two dogs walked down the aisle in perfect form.

These people knew how to celebrate!  And that’s what we did…well they did I just captured it on film.

Jessica Ward Wedding

Weddings are always an adventure. This one was no different. But regardless of what is thrown your way, as a photographer, you have to keep your eyes focused on your goal: to capture the beauty and wonder of day.

The elegance of bride, her beauty, her adornment, her graceful moves, her glow. It doesn’t matter that the groomsmen didn’t have their socks and couldn’t dress until 15 minutes before the wedding for photos. It doesn’t matter that the wedding had to start 30 minutes late. It doesn’t matter that as people are lining up to walk down the aisle, it is realized that there was no rehearsal to work out the bugs…you just celebrate the day, the union, the beauty of “forever.”

The wedding was a little chaos, a few things unplanned, alot of love, and much celebration…sounds like life doesn’t it.

Eppicmoments Photography is all about capturing all of these moments.
www.eppicmoments.com

BROOKE WOODS SMITH

Hands down: my favorite photography projects are music artists. Maybe it’s because it combines all three of my passions – music, photography and design. Or, maybe it is because music artists are also easy to work with. They always want to be edgy, but they aren’t too ” modelly.”

It is a combined effort. Both of us bringing inspiration, direction and beauty to the project. Its kind of like when I accompany a talented female vocalist on the piano….it is a constant game of trust. The vocalist has to have enough confidence in their own timing to just go out there…but enough trust that I am going to be there to catch them when they release their vocals.

The artist in this series is Brooke Woods Smith. And I have had the priviledge to work with her both musically and photography-y (yes, I made up that word…they’re just words. they don’t own me!) So the trust was already established and we had a blast taking photos for her upcoming project. She is beautiful and is just as much a model as she is a talent. She is the complete package and I am honored to have had this part in her career.

If you are into the local music scene, you have, no-doubt, heard her beautiful voice. She sings at the Chumucka(?) Opry House. She is wrapping up Country project with my friends at Coleman Studios in Navarre. Look for it soon! Then we can all say, “I knew here back when…”

WHEN LOVE FIRST CRIED

I am hugely honored to be a part of so many cool projects lately. God is definitely good! I love projects that I know will be around for years to come, distributed internationally–and to have eternal returns is more than I could ask for!

Recently, I began the task of putting an image to SONICFLOOd’s latest Christmas Project. My only direction was to include the title “When Love First Cried” and as Rick said,”Uh…just keep it scriptural.” Equipped with this description, I began my grueling process of researching what is out there, what is new, what is old, what has been done, what hasn’t been done. Then I began to form my own ideas of what this message should look like.

I knew it needed to be blue–don’t ask me how, I just did. Well you can see the result. When I submitted it to the good people of SONICFLOOd, I knew I hit the mark when I got the email back that they cried in the office when they first saw it!!!! I have since gotten this same response a few times.

So often I design things to help people make money…and that is definitely part of my job. But when you can combine that with making people’s life richer for seeing it, making them see something that moves them emotionally…well, I just don’t know what to say, but thank you, God.

The project includes:

• CD artwork
• Myspace redesign
• Flair
• Bumper stickers
• Banner ads
• Website
• Email Campaign
• Greeting Cards