Well, it looks like I am going to be without a car for bit. Tuesday evening I was involved in an accident on highway 270. God was watching out for everyone involved because their were no injuries. It truly puts things in to perspective when you have a scare like that. Here is a picture of my poor car!
Okay, I am catching up on all my posts today. A little over a month ago I had the privilege to be invited to a shoot party hosted by Kelly Manno. We had a blast and our models were incredible! Thanks to Tasha and Jeff, and Laura for putting up with the rain and nutty photogs snapping photos of you all day…
I just want to apologize to all of the readers of my Blog for not posting in awhile. I know I am a loser! I have been really busy and my blog has been the last thing on my mind but today is a new day and I am posting today!!!!!
I had a great chance to shoot some soccer on March 29th (sorry for the late post but lots of things on my mind) when the Brazilian under 20 national team was in town to play a friendly match against the under 18 Gallagher Academy team and the SIUE college team. Each local team played a half against Brazil, let me tell you watching Brazil is like watching a well choreographed Ballet. The footwork of the Brazilian team was jaw dropping. My friends Rebecca and Brian invited me, Brian is a great soccer player who played European and MLS soccer in the nineties. He now is part owner of the St. Louis Goalkeeping Academy which is one of the only full time academies of it type in the United States and implements the latest in international-level training methods. Not to mention he is an AC Milan fan so we support the same team!
I often wonder who else builds masks for themselves? Not masks as in halloween masks of any such design, but human masks. One for when your sad or one for when your angry or bored or caring or even depressed. I will open up to all of you who read my blog, I have built many masks over my life. Sometimes I feel I could be the best mask builder on the earth. People know me as the happy, funny, cheerful guy who has a nice word for everybody, the latter is true I do have good words to say to everybody and I mean them when I say them. I love people and I think that is a true gift, but the others are not always true. That is when my masks come on. I have been through very hard times in my life and possibly to my detriment I have built many masks, because masks aren’t always the best path for you. Masks help you keep everything in and that can be very damaging, damaging to you and damaging to the people and the relationships you are in. I have learned that first hand and it is not fun! I have decided to through away my masks and to get real, now like a recovering drug addict it won’t be easy but damn it will feel good at the end. Leave it all on the table and let people take it as they may, besides what do you have to lose. I need to be comfortable with myself before I can let other people get comfortable with me, so shall we get comfortable. I THINK SO! I want the best for all of you and this is the start, go tell that person that you love them and want them “take off the mask of indifference”! Go tell that person that you need a hug and a shoulder to cry on “take off that mask of happiness”! Go tell that person that you don’t deserve to be treated that way “take off that mask of acceptance”! Go out and get real, and while your at it help someone else get real along with you. They will thank you at the end! Love you all!
Have I said how much I miss California lately! Their are many reasons I do miss it, my life would be quite different right now if I was still there. The reason I am thinking about it right now, SNOW!!!!! Don’t get me wrong I love snow but only if I can head down the slopes with a snowboard strapped to my feet in it, can’t do much with it in St. Louis other then shovel it. Not to mention after 7 years of having an SUV I just got a little sports car, smart thinking Chad. I’m off to make a snow angel and to try and avoid not eating the yellow snow, I heard its bad stuff.
Cheerio!
Hey everyone, I just entered Mindy and Chads wedding into The Knot wedding awards! You can view and vote for the entry at the link below and look for more entries in the near future!
Sometimes movies can be very thought provoking, deep and driven movies can leave you with a sense of knowing more then you did before. They can invoke change and can invoke hostility. Sometimes they just invoke a release from the troublesome world we live in, a little mind numbing humor. I recently watched Evan Almighty, the movie was good not great but one bit of dialogue really got me thinking so here it is. Morgan Freeman as God: “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”, this line really got me thinking. So many people pray for God to fix things but they don’t see that God is giving them the strength and opportunity to create the change. I have been as guilty as anyone of sitting back praying for God to create the change for me while not realizing that the whole time he was creating opportunities for me to make a meaningful life for myself with his help. DON’T LET THOSE CHANCES PASS, FOLLOW THE PATH!
I shot Matt and Sarah’s wedding over the weekend. I had such a great time and feel so blessed that they let me celebrate their special day with them. I want to tease all of you a little and let you in on one of the photo’s, I love Sarah’s look in this image.
In this new year I just want to thank all of you who have supported me and my vision. 2007 and the beginning of 2008 has been one of the hardest times I have ever been though and without your love and support I don’t know if I could have made it though. I lost a part of me and the love of someone very special that I don’t know if I can ever get back and it effects me to this day, I have memories that create very rough days at times but i keep my faith that God has purpose for me and my future. I just give you one piece of advice as we head into the future, do not leave anything unsaid. Embrace your feelings and needs and make them known. Look at your mistakes so that you can learn from them and never regret. Speak your mind and never be afraid of what you want most because with fear you can lose everything, and never give up hope. Dream’s come at no expense except when you have dreamt your life away. I love you all and hope that this year brings you all great happiness. I leave you with an image for the future and hopefully gives you hope. It is a spiral of light mimicking the spiral of life, let that spiral of life be a gift and embrace it for it is to precious to ignore.
Chad Jeffrey + Photographer 