higerd family.

on christmas eve it was windy and cold. but the sun was out and the sky was blue. the makings for a interesting photo shoot to be sure. some how we pulled it off and ended up with some cool and fun shots of the Higerd family. so much fun! I love this crew!

one of my besties from growing up in the Sierras: Hannah...



Garrett and ReAnnon and baby on the way...




Grandma Betty (she has her 90th birthday this year!! wow!)...


Gabe, Mary and Caroline and baby on the way...



and the whole family...

winter.

i love the winter months. snow. sledding. the warm fire place. hot apple cider. snowmobiling. christmas. homemade goodies. LOVE IT. i have been home for two weeks now and it has been such a time of refreshment and relaxation. i have spent so much time with my family...it had been wonderful. here are a few photos of the first snow of my time at home:

christina & than

hey everybody. so i have gotten super behind on my posts over my winter break. i don't have the luxury of high speed internet at my parent's house and the adventures to the coffee shop have been far and few. but alas here I am to catch up. :)

So, before I headed home for the Holidays, I photographed Christina and Than's wedding ceremony at Elings Park in Santa Barbara. It was an absolutely b-e-a-u-tiful day! I had such a great time, and I loved hanging out with the bridal party for a bit after the ceremony. Here a few of my favorite photographs and click here for a slideshow of all of my favorites.

stacie & will's engagement shoot.

this past weekend, Stacie's finacee was in town, so we headed down to the Santa Barbara Courthouse to do their engagement shoot. it was a blast. here are a few of my faves. i can't wait for their wedding in july.

portraits.

I got the chance the do some portrait photography with some family this weekend and it was so much fun. I took a few portraits of my sister and brother-in-law for a Christmas card and then photographed my cousin Katy. Then I did a family portrait of the Sigmen family-they are practically family :) so much fun.

thanksgivin' shipley style.

I love a good ol' shipley thanksgiving. yumm. we headed up to my grandparents house up in Reno and it was so much fun. I got the chance to hang out with my beloved granma and we got to help her prepare the thanksgiving feast. It was such a treat. You see, when I was a wee lad and in my homeschoolin' years, I had home-ec with my granma...and she taught me the ins and outs of cookin'. so it was like old times in the kitchen together. I even put on an apron for old times sake.

she taught me how to make the legendary ROLLS, which are most delectable treat in ze world! I have to carry on the Shipley tradition of having hot rolls at every important family gathering.

give thanks.

As my lungs fill with the crisp and cool autumn air, I am reminded of years and memories gone past here in my hometown of Crowley Lake. The countless strolls around the Juniper Loop with my walking-enthusiast of a mother, the hour-long conversations and prayers with my dear friend, mentor and second-mother, Lisa, the uncontrollable, ab-tightening laughter around our dinner table, and my dad’s random impersonations and dance moves in the living room are all such fond moments and memories ever seeded in my heart and mind—memories for which I am deeply grateful.

As we near the day of thanksgiving when we gather ‘round the china and crystal laden table that is adorned with the most delectable Thanksgiving treats one could ever imagine, I thought it proper and fitting to think through and perhaps write about a few of the someones and somethings for which I am grateful. So alas, here I am with a cup of hot apple cider snuggled up in my mom’s cushy, green chair where I am warmed by the heat of the orange-flamed fire.

I am thankful for the small moments in the life—laughing at a stupid joke, playing in the fallen piles of leaves, tasting winter’s first snowfall, wedging grains of sand in between my toes, paddling out at dawn to catch the first wave of the day with my dad.

I am thankful for the people in my life…
Arielle – I appreciate the grace, love and warmth you bring to my life.
Larissa – I am grateful for the joy and laughter and fun you bring to my life.
Liane – I am so thankful for the constant support and encouragement you have been to me.
Josh – I am grateful for the way you get me excited about life and about photography.
Granma – I am so grateful for all you have taught me and for the moments I get to spend with you.
Michele – I am grateful for the way you have poured so much time, love and energy into my life and have been committed to my growth and development.
Sister – I love how we can just be together doing nothing and still manage to laugh and have a good time.
Dad – I am thankful for your sense of humor and for the ways in which you have rubbed off on me ☺
Mama – I am so grateful for your constant presence. You have always been present in so many ways and I have always known you were there.
Lisa – I am so grateful for the ways you remind me who I am and how you are so strong and faithful and other-centered in the midst of pain and exhaustion. You encourage my faith!
Hannah – I am thankful for the memories we have shared and for how constant and growing our friendship is.
Eric – I love how you love everyone around you in such an honest way and you let nothing hinder you. You see beyond the exterior and into the heart. I love that.

This is just the cliff notes version of all the things for which and the people for whom I am thankful. I am so blessed. I am tearin’ up here thinking about it. Thank you for being such an integral part of my life and for loving me, encouraging me, supporting me and for making me a better friend, a better man, and a better follower of Christ. Thank you!

rebecca + andrew

wow! what an incredible wedding. the setting was simply beautiful and bride and groom were a ton of fun. my friend (and roommate) Chris Johnson came and photographed with me. we had a blast. it was such a blessing to be part of Rebecca and Andy's day and I so enjoyed it. here are just a few of my favorites.

weekend read.

it is funny how things in life connect. here's the story: basically i have been having a hard time in recent weeks academically, spiritually, relationaling and emotionally. i am surviving in though. just trying to get by. make it to the end. you see, i don't like this way of life. it is not healthy. it is not fun. it is not what we are purposed for. so much of life is living in the moment. in the present. in the here and now. i am not good at the kind of living. i always find myself in survival mode-just make it to graduation, to next week, to the end of the day. what about the means? what about the process? what about the life in between? and then, i find myself doing all this doing for the sake of impressing other people rather than for the sake of doing, or for their sake, God's sake or my own. i forget to write because, simply to write. to go for a run, simply to go for a run. so photograph, simply to photograph.

so this past weekend, after a afternoon conversation over blenders, a co-worker and good friend of mine, Benji Brunell, challenged me to do three thing for myself this weekend. so i vowed to stop, slow down, and just do something i enjoyed doing. not to meet an assignment or fulfill some responsibility, but just to DO something for me.

then, i was telling my friend, mentor, boss, life-planner, Michele Mollkoy, about this conversation with Benji and about where i was at in life. so i told her i was trying to understand what self-forgetfulness and other-centeredness looked like in my life right now. "Jeff, i have a book for you to read." sure enough, it was entitled "forgetting ourselves on purpose." ironic. you see michele is just like that. she just knows something about timing. she knows when to encourage me when i need encouragment, and how to challenge me when i need to be challenged. she knows when to pray for me and when to kick me in the butt. ah, i am so gratful for her. so she gave me the book to read over the weekend. but the deal was that i had to actually read it. and to prove that i did, i had to make a post about it. so, alas, here we are.

so i read Brian Mahan's "Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition." there is so much richness and goodness in this book, but what struck me most wass a simple question: "what are you looking for?" he goes on to quote Thomas Merton. "if you want to identify me, ask me not where i live, or what i like to eat, or how i comb my hair, but ask me what i think it is that is keeping me from living fully for the thing i want to live for." isn't that powerful? a tough question, but profound.

here are a few other quotes for the book:

"to study the self is to forget the self and to forget the self is to be enlightened by 10,000 things" - Dogen

"if you wish to be compassionate, study wht it is that you are not compassionate" - Walker Percy

"the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" - Fredrich Buechner

so, thanks for the book michele. good times. i learned a few things...and now, i am off to see if i can figure out how to forget myself...hmmm.

home.

home. love it. crowley lake, california. ah, yes. most people have no idea where that is and that is what is so great about it. it is so po-dunk. haha. i spent the past five days there and it was wonderful. i hung with my family, read, studied, watched my sister and ma's volleyball games (they are both coaches), and watched half of the PLANET EARTH serious. it was such a fun weekend. i am addicted to planet earth. have you all seen it? it is incredible. this world we live on is so complex and beautiful. we are so blessed.