Harbour View Soft Launch // Hampton Roads Photographer

I've mentioned this before, but I'm blessed to attend Liberty Baptist Church in Hampton on Sundays. September is always a big month for us, since we host a yearly event called Liberty Fest, which is a huge carnival-type day open to the community. We serve a barbecue lunch and provide free games, inflatables, go karts, a petting zoo, and a ton more. Last year we added food vendors-deep fried Oreos, funnel cakes, ice cream...needless to say, it's a HUGE deal and a ton of fun!

This year, September is even bigger than usual, as we are blessed to be launching our first multi-site campus on September 8 in the Harbour View area of Suffolk. The last few weeks, the Harbour View campus has been in 'soft launch' phase, where we are holding services on Sundays to make sure everything is working and in place for Grand Opening. At a multi-site, we have live worship with a band and then listen to the message live as it is simulcasted across the James River from the Hampton location. Technology is such an amazing thing, and it blows my mind that we're able to do that.

I was able to shoot pictures there last Sunday so we could look back and remember this special time in the life of our church before we see all the new faces God will bring to us over time. If you live in or around Suffolk and you're looking for a church, check us out this Sunday at 9:15 or 11am. I think you're gonna love it!

Fox Hole Kingdom at Dirty South // Hampton Roads Event Photographer

I've posted about Fox Hole Kingdom before, and I'm sure I'll post more about them in the future! If you missed it last time, Fox Hole Kingdom is an up-and-coming Hampton Roads band. They play a mix of rock, Christian, alternative, and indie. They've only been together a few months, but they are super polished and even have a few original songs.

Last Saturday, they got to be the opener for Spencer Ryan's Dirty South CD release! Spencer is a country artist who just recorded his first album, which you can find on iTunes now. He is incredibly talented, and a really down-to-earth guy as well.  I had so much fun taking pictures of FHK, and I even snapped a few of Spencer and his band (one is at the end of this post).

Here's some pictures of a great band and a great show. While you're at it, check out Fox Hole Kingdom's Facebook page here, listen to some music, and see if you recognize some of their promo photos ;) Have a great day everyone!

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What I've Learned... // Spady Sunday

Some of you may know this already, but I have shoulder surgery scheduled for a couple weeks from now, on August 30. I dislocated my shoulder in a skateboarding accident about a month ago now. That sounds way cooler than what actually happened, but I'll stick with it.

Anyways, it's been kind of a rollercoaster of figuring out how to deal with an upcoming surgery. I'm SUPPOSED to immobilize my shoulder, but we all know that didn't happen :) I shot a wedding two days after the dislocation and have shot a few events since then. I have a portrait session coming up soon, so I don't really plan on slowing down. But in every other area, I have slowed it WAY down. I'm using one arm for 90% of the stuff I do. If I don't, I'll feel it later. 

I wanted to share some ridiculous things I've learned since this whole thing happened. This is all for humor - no complaints here, I'm going to get fixed and that's a huge blessing! But some of this is pretty funny. So here we go. Top 10 things that are SUPER hard to do with one arm: 

1. Tear toilet paper - I know, that's weird. But it is really hard to do. Elbows come in handy.
2. Unscrew lids/bottles/caps - obviously, but I never knew how much this happened until now! As I told a coworker, all things childproof have now also became Maria-proof.
3. Drive a manual - ALL we have are manuals. Thankfully we've been able to borrow an automatic for awhile. And speaking of...
4. Making ANY adjustments while driving - car too hot? too cold? music too loud? phone ringing? rain starting to come down? TOO BAD!
5. Put my hair in a ponytail - one of the things i break my arm out of the sling for. I'm also teaching my husband this skill. It's going...slowly...
6. Make my bed - ok, I could totally do this if I really wanted to. But it turns out that I really don't want to, and it's not worth the hassle. This feels amazing.
7. Put contacts in - I hate touching my eye. More than anything. So whenever I normally put them on, I have to pry it open and stick the contact in as quickly as possible before I blink. This does not happen without the prying hand.
8. Text/do anything on my phone - this one is terrible. I can WRITE better with my left hand than I can use my phone. I feel like I went back a couple thousand years to the caveman era with this one.
9. Tie my shoes - for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to do this. If you have tips, please pass them on!
10. Grocery shop with a basket - tried this one today. I must have looked super pathetic, because some guy looked at me and said, "Well that doesn't look fun."

All that to say, I hope you've had a good laugh, and I hope more than anything that you begin to appreciate your dominant hand/arm! It's invaluable to me...never again will I take it for granted!

Happy Sunday, y'all!