Backstage at the Ryman

I have a love affair with hymns. Growing up in a baptist church I was never very far from a hymnal, but it wasn't until college that it became a part of the fabric of my being. I became involved with a college ministry called RUF (Reformed University Fellowship). It was here I met the Belmont RUF pastor, Kevin Twit, who quickly invited me and the other students into a world of dusty hymn texts that filled his entire house and his life. The words were richer than anything I had ever heard and as they told a glorious story of the Gospel I understood God's "Love That Will Not Let Me Go".

Indelible Grace is the hymn project born out one of the first Belmont RUF groups 10 years ago. The main idea was to take these old texts (some forgotten) and put them to new music. Since then 6 albums have been produced and and recorded by the same people who started it and are now successful musicians. Last night at the Ryman they performed many of these hymns who have become beloved to RUF students, churches, and a new generation of children who are now growing up with these hymns. Kevin Twit and his wife, Wendy were so passionate about putting last night together. I was more than thrilled to help with merchandise mostly because I love telling people about the CD's and the beautiful songs on them. Praise God for amazing mentors and an amazing night!

You can go to the Indelible Grace site >here< to hear the music!



Oh, and did I mention that we are crazy? Exibit A - Melissa Hill.


I love this girl.



Matthew Smith


Kevin explaining one of the songs



Derek Webb

Beautiful Grace

Not only was today PERFECT weather, I had the chance to shoot a friend of mine who just happens to be extremely talented and beautiful :) Grace needed some stuff for her recital poster and lucky for me, she had a gem of a place to shoot at. In fact, we ended up going over the scheduled hour because we were having so much fun. Not to mention she bought me coffee at the end.... how sweet! Grace, I had such a hard time choosing what to blog. All of them were amazing. Enjoy!

Mark Akin

Let me just say that I am SO glad the weather has finally decided to get more spring-like. It's also recital poster season. Mark Akin, a guitar major at Belmont, needed some shots done for his own recital coming up. I wanted to get some candids not thinking about the fact that I would be quite entertained by his playing . Almost got distracted for a minute!

Session!

These lovely ladies are part of an all women accapella group at Belmont. They needed some stuff for their concert poster which is coming up pretty soon. You would never knew it was freezing outside! Session, you were all such troopers :)

DJ Dorian

Dorian is a local DJ who got set up with me for some promo shots. They are going to be used for an upcoming DJ competition at the Cannery Ballroom where Dorian will battle it out against 7 other DJ's. Sounds like he would be pretty hardcore, which he is, but he was also a really nice guy and waaaay too easy to work with. This was all shot at Photolux Records in Nashville. Pretty freaking sweet. Oh, and it's free so you should totally go people.

Lovely Agnes

Agnes called me this weekend for an emergency session. Her recital posters needed to be up asap, so it was Mary Lauren to the rescue. She was a little apprehensive about getting pictures done, but as you will be able to see she was a natural! No plastered on smile here. I believe these perfectly represent her - calm, quiet, and beautiful! It was her idea to go to the Scarret-Bennet center which is a gem. Definitely going back there to shoot. Oh, and did I mention that the weather was PERFECT. 70 with a slight breeze :)










Here is the recital poster I designed for her:

Chick of Awesomeness

Jamie needed some stuff to vamp up her music page on myspace. She's a country artist with some serious natural ability in front of a camera. We shot this at a new place I found around campus and it worked sooo well.