I hate rigged games. No matter what you do, you always end up losing because somebody's got it in for you from the very beginning (I think almost all the games I play are rigged ;-) ).
Life feels rigged at times as well. It's funny how sometimes the worst thing that could possibly happen does and you find yourself picking up the broken pieces wondering what went wrong and asking, "Why does this always happen to me?"
When facing tough situations, I think the greatest difficulty is coming to grips with the truth that God works all things out for the good to those who love Him. It's so easy to look at circumstances and wonder if God's really in control. We question His omniscience, His goodness, His ability to play the role of God. After all, how can a supernatural being that we can't see really be in full control of all of our circumstances and work through them for our benefit? I think that in the end it all has to come down to simple, unfaltering faith.
I won't pretend to have the answers (I've got too many questions myself to qualify as a reputable source of information), but from experience I know that most situations that come our way are designed for our growth. There is so much I've learned from making mistakes that it's hard to look back and wish that those "bad things" had never happened. Were it not for the difficult things I've dealt with in my life, I wouldn't have the insights and experience I have now. And though I wish the road of life was smooth and straight, I know that were it not for the jolts in the road, I'd fall asleep at the wheel and wind up in the ditch with a dented fender and a ruined life.
So is it possible that maybe God is all-knowing and is working all things out for my good? I would have to say yes...
Here we are at Week 12 and still going full-bore!
Recently I purchased a new chess set, so I had to find a way to incorporate it into one of my images (how can you pass up new props?). For lighting a used two strobes, one with a couple CTO gels shooting onto a white collapsible backdrop, and the other setup with a beauty dish to act as key light. I also used a couple white cards to give some fill on the shadow-side. I then shot myself separately with the same lighting setup and then composited the two images together. I wasn't sure at the beginning if I wanted the final image to be black and white or color, but I decided I liked the warm tones of the color version, so I decided to stick with it.
My hope is that these images are inspiring you to try new things and shoot for images that you only visualize in your dreams. A lot of these photos I would have never thought possible, but with a little incentive (namely this weekly blog post), I've managed to produce stuff that surprises even me. So what's holding you back from producing work that will knock your socks off? Why don't you start today?
