I had the privilege of spending an entire week at a special family camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Not only did I get to spend the glorious week with my family (sans cooking, dishes, laundry, etc!) but I also had the honor of being the event / camp photographer. As I was capturing the joy, smiles, fun, activities and love throughout the week, I had a overwhelming sense of gratitude for this gift. The gift of my ability and talents to be able to serve as the event photographer. The gift of experiencing such a fun week with my family and friends. The gift of expressing my creativity and creating the highly anticipated camp pic'deo (slideshow)... starting with a blank canvas and sculpting this experience using music, drone footage, video, and photography to express the essence of the week at camp (confession: at 2 in the morning, while working on the pic'deo for several hours, I had to remind myself about this "GIFT" - it helped me push through, honestly!). The gift of the beauty that surrounded us at camp. But most of all, I was overwhelmed with the gift of enjoying camp through the lens. What I mean by that is there is a really special thing that occurs when photographing an event... I'm always on the lookout for those special "moments" to capture and everything I look at, everything I see, is the potential for a beautiful picture. Photography has taken my life to a higher level in the sense that I am constantly seeking those precious moments and do you know what happens when you look for those things? Those beautiful moments are more apparent, more abundant, more obvious. "...Seek and you shall find..." Matthew 7:7

So as I marvel about the week I just experienced at Redwood Christian Park, which overflowed with organized activities, games, powerful worship, inspirational speakers, delicious meals and desserts, train trip to Santa Cruz boardwalk, relaxing downtime (or so I hear), and a refreshing pool, here are a few of the highlights: