Nigel and Esa asked me to shoot their wedding in Ocean City. A beach wedding. Exciting. I had a great time with them, even jumped into the water to get a shot or two. Glad I could capture their day. Great fun!

I also want to give a “shout out” to  a photographer friend of mine who goes by the KreativeJeanious. You’ve been an inspiration to me and my wedding photography. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to shoot together again soon.

Last Thursday night around 11:15pm I had a knock on my door and it was cousin Jared. I opened the door and he said “We need to go to the hospital, NOW. There’s been an accident.” Upon arriving at the hospital, I walked into a room and saw 3 people. My Uncle Gerald and Aunt Ruby on one side,  and Todd directly in front of me. I will never, ever, ever forget that particular moment, to see two parents who just found out that they lost their son, and a person who had witnessed what he had, and have something so terrible happen to a close friend, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.  The pain on his face in in his cries was unforgettable.

I think for most of us it is easy to overlook, but lets not forget that as a witness, there is someone that feels a different type of pain than any of us can feel. That pain of “Its my fault” or “It should have been me”. The pain of watching something so tragic happen just feet away from you. I can’t imagine what that is like, and I want to tell Todd directly that God has a plan for all of us, and Nate had an incredibly full life, and it was in Gods plan that his time on this earth was to come to an end. I miss him dearly, and am looking forward to seeing him again one day.

Thank you all for keeping our families in prayer. Its been a tough time, but we are leaning on each other and making it through. Todd, you are in our prayers as well and I’m looking forward to the day when we can see Nate and laugh and smile together.

At some point in the future, I’d like to give Todd a chance to read some messages of support from friends, family, and those who knew him and Nate when he’s ready. Please leave a comment below.

________________________________________________________________

The following is from Candice Sterling:

The last couple days have been some of the most difficult we have

experienced. I lost a dear friend- who was more like family and my

husband, Todd Sterling has been experiencing a pain I cannot begin to

understand. There are so many questions that we have struggled with.

We are trying to hold to promise in God’s word that, “(he) would not

have (us) to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,

that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we

believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep

in Jesus will God bring with Him.” 1 Thess. 4:13-14.

As many of you know, Todd was with Nathan at the time of the accident.

Many stories have circulated about details about that night. In an

attempt to honor the privacy of the family, I will not go into details

about the accident.  But, I do want to clarify that this was not a

“hit and run.”  The driver of the car did in fact stop and has

cooperated with officials.

Todd has been at home, taking things day by day.  We are in awe at the

strength, grace and God-fearing posture  the Anderson & Ottley families have taken.

The outpouring of love and support that we have received via text

message and email is greatly appreciated.  Watching Todd struggle with

the layers of pain associated with this has been difficult. We wake up

each day and have to believe that God is ABLE.

Please keep us all in your prayers. I encourage you all to continue

spreading the true message that Christ is coming soon and its

imperative that we, like Nathan, live our lives each day to the

fullest.

A few years ago I moved to Maryland. My first “church home” in MD was Miracle Temple in Baltimore. I can remember bringing my camera to church a few times, to “test” it out. I started out with people I know, then people I didn’t really know, then the a/v team, pictures of the head usher who I had a semi-crush on at the time etc… Eventually I allowed myself to get out into the sanctuary and try to capture church service as it was happening. This was very early on with the d70 and I had no idea what I was doing. Basically putting the camera on “auto” and trying to take pictures of what I thought would be interesting. A lot of photography for me has been seeing pictures I like, and trying to reverse engineer them and figure out how to make my pictures look that way. Later on I’d realize that step one is sell the $500 camera, and buy an $2000 one…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

One of the first pictures that I can remember taking is of Wintley Phipps, who came to the church as a guest speaker. I also took some of the praise and worship teams and other various parts of the service. Special thank you goes to Pastor Fredrick Russell and the web team at MT. Pastor Russell was inspirational to me in a lot of ways, mostly in helping me get involved in church. Some of the images made it to the churches website, and that was a real breakthrough for me. I remember sending a email blast (spam) to everyone I know saying “Guess what?!?!? My pictures are on a website!”

Fast forward two years, a couple camera’s, and 30 pounds later, I find myself back at MT again. I happened to see Pastor Dehm’s outstanding sermon title on Friday night (thanks Chip), and thought to myself I have GOT to capture this. Those of you who were there know what I’m talking about. In the end, sermon wasn’t quite the photographic opportunity that it could have been, but I found myself casually trying to capture things going on during the sermon. At the end of the sermon people were given an opportunity to get baptized that day, right then. As people were coming down, emotions were really running high.

So much of photography is learning how to be in the right place at the right time, and being able to anticipate what is going to happen next. Probably one of my main goals when I’m on a shoot is to try and capture the emotion of whats going on and blend in so I’m not a distraction.  As I sat on the front row just trying to be natural, and not be in the mix, just trying to be relaxed and anticipating something powerful to capture. My goal is to take pictures that 10 or 20 years from now, you’ll be able to look at the picture and it will tell a story. Just as the service was coming to a close, it happened.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been thinking about what this first post would be about. Should it just be my most recent photo shoot? Logical?  Yes. Interesting? Not so much. I could blog about a celebrity I’d like to photograph. That also might have been interesting, but probably only for males between 18-35. I’m imagining the readers of this blog will be MUCH more diverse, or at least I hope so. So what is my first blog post going to be about?

David and Carmen Anderson.

Many of you know and recognize those names very well, while others don’t recognize them at all. On a cold February morning back in 1982 gave birth to me at a hospital here in the DC area. Maybe Howard or Washington Hospital Center? I don’t remember at this point. Ironically, I don’t remember much about that day. But I know from hearing from both my dad and my mom it was an important day. A young healthy baby boy.

As time has gone on and I’ve gotten much more mature (of course in some ways…I’m still 12 lol) I’ve realized how important my parents are to me, and how much of a blessing they’ve been. Many friends of mine have lost their parents. Some at a young age, some older, and I’ve been very fortunate to be blessed with both of my parents to this day. Its funny that as I’ve gotten older, my parents have actually gotten more “important” to me. Whether its daily emails from mom “just checking in” or the Friday night calls from dad (well sometimes voicemails) those times have become infinitely more important that I expected. You think as a teen that your parents become less and less important, but for me it’s been the opposite.

I’d like to dedicate this blog to my parents. My first real digital camera was a Nikon d70s, purchased half with money I saved myself, and half as investment from them. I doubt that any of us thought at the time my photography would necessarily grow to where it is now, but by the grace of God it has.  I absolutely would not be here without their help. To mom and dad, for being there from day one, and instilling in me the drive to be best that I can possibly be, to both of you I say thank you.  This is only the beginning.

Dad

Mom

Mom & Dad