Joy Cherie Photography Blog

Sweet Nora.

“You should listen to even the smallest voice, someday it could be the one that makes a difference.”
― Crystal Marcos

It’s never too cold to take a picture.

Or too anything really. This was a winter session of The Gallahans and their new puppy Filson (how distinguished)! Filson was a surprise for the girls two weeks before we photographed and the session turned out smashing.

These aren’t the ones that they chose for the Christmas card (which I loved btw) but they are the ones that just melt me. New puppy embrace, sister excitement (run to mommy!) and alone time with the parents because each parent has a special connection with their children.

Just a note on the kids running.

Pure introvert, extrovert play here. The “run!” shot first started out as a race and the youngest (introvert) was NOT having that. Then something beautiful happened. We asked the oldest to hold her hand…and pure joy.

You see it here.

Hope you’ve held someone’s hand in pure joy this month.

xoxo,

Joy

Something really cool just happened.

In my office doing sludge work. Y’know, the kind of work you do because you have to not because you want to and this time I was can’t-lift-another-finger discouraged and couldn’t do it. So I went somewhere for inspiration.

My own website. And gosh darn, I was so inspired (and surprised) that I went to my blog and then to the archives of some recent personal work and I finally…smiled.

You see, I found pleasure and enjoyment in something I created. In the age of Pinterest, FB, Twitter, Instagram etc it’s so easy to look at your work and constantly judge it by the criterion of what’s hot and happening around you. But when, if even for a moment, you bury your head into your soul you might just find something shiny and wonderful.

I looked inside and found art. I met the artist and I was pleased with her and her…was me.

And that felt pretty ding-dang good.

I hope that you too will take a moment to explore your soul.

-xoxo,

Joy

*****

The above photos are of The Frisson family and were all shot on film. I stayed with them in Georgia earlier this year while attending a FIND workshop with the generous and kind Jonathan Canlas. All info about the workshop can be found here: http://filmisnotdead.com/

Keesha

Shot on some unknown film a very literal year ago on Nikon F4. Self-developed.

Sweet Keesha had just decided to embrace her very natural curl and we decided to commemorate it with a photograph. Simultaneously, I have been learning to embrace my own photographic style and have come to love the softness of this image and reject the idea that each and every image must be tack sharp to oblivion to contain beauty.

This is beautiful.

And I accept it.

A mantra I am learning to repeat to myself daily.

“They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise

I have been missing from this blog for quite some time. In short… life. One thing life has taught me this year though is even through adversity, through pain, through difficulty and confusion there is always love. Always something to love. Someone to love. Something to be grateful for. It’s the pushing through that gets you there.

That gets you to really live.

Te adoro my love.

Candace and Duane Samuels. Oct 8th, 2011. Richmond, VA

“But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips.”
— Khalil Gibran

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.”
— Khalil Gibran (The Essential Kahlil Gibran)

Sweet Alice giving Sugar Sadie a taste of a tickling feather :), 2011

I am off the rest of this week for a little R&R sooooo….I’ll just leave you with a little romance.

xoxo

Dan & Allie, www.joycherie.com

“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”
— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

Baby Belen. Child of a darling friend.

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

- Kahlil Gibran

poem via http://www.katsandogz.com/onlove.html

friend Ashley via God.

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
— Confucius

Joel Ventura. Singer/Songwriter. 19.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
— Albert Einstein

Alecia H. Journal Session ending graduate school/before starting law school.

Here’s a small reminder to make art and beauty wherever you are. And if you are just a little bit scared, find your strength in collaboration.

xoxo,

joy

“We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.”
— T.S. Eliot (Four Quartets)