My Salvation Story Through My Photos - Mississippi Photography

Once upon a time I was on a very lonely road. Going through life, going through the motions but always feeling an emptiness inside. Something was missing. I had money, a college degree, and a great family, but it never was enough and I never felt complete. Then one day it all came crashing down. But that's not the end of the story. So let me start at the beginning...

Joyless Life

Growing up my life was kinda like this picture. No color, no joy. The people around me were like these trees. Just as weak as I was and feeling like they could break at any minute. Potholes and broken roads were at every turn. I burned a lot of bridges with people that I held resentment with. For the first 30 years of my life I was living this Hwy 80 life, when there was an entire Interstate 20 right next to me. 

The Crash

Then one day it all came crashing down. I was working three jobs. My regular job and also trying to run two small businesses of my own. You see, I wanted to be rich. To have power and notoriety. I lost my businesses and almost lost my family. My beautiful wife and two kids were ready to walk out the door. I deserved it. I was a terrible husband and father that only thought of himself. I was "doing all this for them" to give them money and "things". But that's not what they wanted. My pride and desire to have worldly things had consumed me like the vines on this building until one day my legs literally collapsed from underneath me. 

The Rebound

Some of my friends had been trying to tell me about this "other life". This "I-20" life that was focused on others and not myself. That was focused on happiness and a contentment that didn't involve power and money. They told me that Jesus loved me and that he could help me.

Baby Steps

They invited me to church and welcomed me and my family with open arms. I took baby steps at first. I just committed to going on Sunday's at first. I didn't make any major decisions or become this Jesus freak. It just felt right and it felt like I was finally on the right track and the darkness I felt for so long finally started seeing light again. Those dead trees that had been all around me starting growing vibrant leaves and the new life of green surrounded me.

Salvation Is Here

Then one day it happened. I had just left church and it started to sink in. I heard a message that Jesus had died on the cross for me. I never really knew what that meant until that night. It meant that before Jesus there was no way for a sinner like me to get to heaven.  But because Jesus died on the cross I had a way to get to heaven. I prayed to Jesus and told Him that I know that I am a bad person, that I had done a lot of sins in my life. I told God through many tears that I was sorry and that I needed him to come into my life. 

Joyful Life

It was just that simple, and suddenly that emptiness and void that I had felt for years was overflowing with joy and peace. I was a new man at 30 years old. I felt like a kid again. A kid not afraid to look silly. To raise my hands in praise. I felt clean and like I had a new start as a new child. I felt like God had taken away all my guilt, my shame, my sin. He let me start over again, and even though I still fail sometimes, he is faithful to forgive me and now I know he will always love me.

Amazing Grace

It's been over 12 years since that day. I'm still not rich monetarily, but I am rich in so many other ways! I thank God everyday for rescuing me. I thank Him for saving my marriage, and for teaching me how to raise my kids. I love him and talk to Him everyday. I call on Him when I'm tired, when my daughter takes off down the highway on her way back to college, and when the sunrise comes over the horizon and I start snapping pictures. My life today is kinda like this picture. With Jesus up high in the sky, I am below trying to be a reflection of Him. 

Delta Colors

Well we once again took off into the delta this weekend and found that the delta was alive and well! The colors ranged from the rich greens of the growing crops to the orange glow of the sunrise to the reds of the rusty delta farm equipment and the blues of the beautiful summer sky. Hope you enjoy!

Right before the sun cracked the horizon, I grabbed this shot of a Marty silhouette! His blog this week focuses on the awesome sunrise we shot. Check it out!

 

Then came a beautiful sunrise!

The sun was shining bright on these gorgious delta crops

Mount Helena was alive and well. The house is huge, but seems so small against the big beautiful blue sky.

Another incredible day. I never tire of driving through my home state. No matter how much you shoot these delta monuments, we always seem to find something new!

Delta Sunrise

Took off Saturday morning with my friends Marty and Jerry and went straight into the heart of the Mississippi Delta. We drove straight up 61 North not knowing what to expect or see. The rain was falling, so we thought a sunrise would be hard to find with all the clouds. Well about 6:45 the clouds started breaking and the sun was a bright orange as it tried to find a peephole through the storm! Boy o boy did we find a sunrise! Here is the "Big Red Barn" silhouetted with the awesome Delta sky.

This tree was on the east side of the highway straight across from the barn

On Marty's blog this week he discussed the rare "double shotgun" house we found. Here is my shot of what I called the "Delta Duplex"!

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the long pause between posts. Christmas is behind us now and I hope your like me and ready to take on the new year! I am so blessed. I have great friends, a great family, a great church and a great God who takes care of me every day. I did get out over the holiday's and take a few pictures. Hope you enjoy.

We were in perfect position (thanks to Marty!) for this BEAUTIFUL sunrise. The winter cold had long claimed these plants, but when you frame them inside the sunrise reflection they come back to life!

Fall is here - Vicksburg, Mississippi

From green to orange to brown, the colors of Fall are upon us! I travel around Vicksburg with my friend Marty Kittrell and he has pinpoint precision of where just about every tree is that is changing colors in a photographic spot. The Military park, Cherry Street, and other prime locations. Photos are ripe for the picking. There is only about a two week window to grab that perfect frame. The trick is going by there every day until it's just right! Marty is teaching me the tricks.

My Home Town - Vicksburg, Mississippi

I've lived in Vicksburg, Mississippi my entire 41 years, but only in the last few months have a ever really experienced it. I'm like so many other Vicksburgers that drive by the Mississippi River, the bridges, the Military park, and so many other scenes of Vicksburg everyday and not give them a second thought. But no more. Lately I've been into photography and have been using my home town as a backdrop for many of my pictures. There is so much of God's beauty within a 10 mile radius of my home that in my 41 years of living here I'm only now seeing for the very first time. Here are a few of those shots.




Mint Springs waterfall! A WATERFALL! Here in Vicksburg. It's off in the woods off of 61 north! Never knew it was there. It is so beautiful and this cool morning was a perfect backdrop for my camera.


This was taken Oct 17th in Ceder Hill Cemetery. The clouds were rolling in that morning and provided an almost divine backdrop for this silhouette of Christ.



The sun was setting on this barge as it headed South down the Mississippi. The reflection is what caught my eye as it pushed along.



Another barge in a BEAUTIFUL sunset that was just full of pinks and blues as the storm had just left that evening.



The old courthouse museum in downtown Vicksburg. To this day, I've never been inside. But this day was the downtown flea market and I caught the old courthouse in this sunrise.



Old Constitution Firehouse. I was driving by before sunset one morning and the lights lit up the front of the building and brought it to life.



Downtown bricks lit up by the sunset. The gas lamps and the pristine city landscaping really shows off the beautification of our city.




The same pink and blue sunset as it takes over the courthouse.

One Glorious Day

It was an afternoon I'll never forget. A day that I could have thrown away and laid on the couch but for some reason decided to go and try to find God's beauty through the lens of my camera. The following is a blog that captured my afternoon over the span of about 6 hours.

It was a day that had beautiful blue skies, but every weather report said the rain was coming. So when Marty called me to go shoot some pictures, I was skeptical. But I met him and Jerry at the end of the driveway and 15 minutes later and we took off on our journey. What happened over the next few hours can only be shown in the pictures that we got that day.

First stop, Earl's Art Shop! What can I say about Mr. Earl? I have passed by his house at least 50 times in my life, and I always had something judgmental to say about "whoever" lived in that house. "He was crazy, he must be an old man, he was off his rocker". But then I met Earl. He is an artist. His house is art. His life is art. He has a studio deep in the heart of this monstrosity of a home that he pours out his heart into his artwork. Then I found out that his artwork has been sold to some pretty high profile blues clubs. My friend Marty has 5 or 6 of his pieces and now I'm proud to say that I own one as well. Earl loves to paint Pepsi logos and Tabasco logos, but for some reason there was a painting he did of an old guitar (see it there over his shoulder). Well that one instantly caught my eye and I had to have it. It was absolutely the best $30 dollars I ever spent. I still owe him $10 dollars, because all I had on me that day was a $20 dollar bill. But that's ok, now I have to go back!

Hey, just meeting Earl would have been enough of a photo shoot to call it a day, but that was just the beginning of our journey. We then stopped off at the trestle bridge at Bovina. I had never seen this bridge before, the only time I had ever been there was once at night back in high school, but as an adult now to have something so beautiful so close to home and to have never seen it, I felt almost ashamed. The view from underneath this railroad structure was fantastic. The symmetrical arches that got larger as you got closer to the main footing was an architecture that you don't see on modern structures. Today, engineers dont waste time on the "art" of the structure, but only on the functionality. And today, the bridge, combined with the cloudy sky and the trickling of water that was flowing underneath made it yet another perfect photo stop on this journey. But as you can see in this picture, the rain clouds started pushing the blue sky out of the way, and within an hour we found ourselves in the throws of a rain storm.

Yes the storms were here as promised, but that didn't deter us. We headed down Hwy 80 towards Edwards and right before it started actually raining, the deep black storm clouds were right on top of us, making the perfect backdrop for the photos we captured next. This field that we saw out the right side passenger's window as we headed east was a perfect photo stop, the background tower provided plenty of photos as well, but it would be later in the day on the way home that God would give us a better photo of the tower, so more on that later.

These clouds were something that normally if I saw them, I would run into my house and baton down the hatches until the sun came back out later. But not today. Today, I was right in the middle of the madness. The clouds in this deep black state were almost apocalyptic. The sun was still barely shining through the horizon, as you can see by the shadows and the rich green landscape, but overhead was the complete opposite. It was this overhead canvas that I used as the backdrop for the next set of photos.

The Edward's cemetery provided the foreground image for the next shot. This beautiful statue was the guardian angel for the soul she sat on top of. The clouds was no threat for her as she sat there undaunted by the approaching storm. She had weathered many storms before, her tombstone read from the early 1900's.

So let me remind you of how this afternoon started. I was "skeptical" of going out and taking pictures today, and then I grab this shot. I am thinking oh my God, if I had missed this shot I would have been sick to my stomach. This is so beautiful, and to capture it in a photo allows me to relive that moment over and over again.

Then it poured down rain. While it rained we drove through Edwards, Mississippi looking and the downtown locations and shooting the breeze with casual conversation. Did you know that Edwards provided many a backdrop for the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou", so once again I am learning as we go, and I plan on watching the movie again to match up the places I saw in person today.

Stay with me now, I'm telling you that this story is far from over. We thought that because the sun was setting and it was getting somewhat dark, we better head home. The rain had stopped by this time and we went back down Hwy 80. Well God had other plans, we thought we were heading home, when in fact, the pictures had only begun.

Remember that tower I mentioned earlier. Well on the way home, we looked out the driver's side window as we headed back west, and Marty said "I bet we see a rainbow in that field with the tower." and low and behold, there it was! It was actually two rainbows, as you can barely see the second one on the right side. Again, it appeared to be getting dark, but the rain stopped, the clouds started opening up and the sun was still there! It was simply hiding behind the clouds. We shot that rainbow until we could shoot it no more and this time the sun really was going away, so we took off once again.

But we are still not through! The sunset mixed with the storm conditions provided the perfect icing on the cake. What earlier in the day was an apocalyptic pallet of deep blacks and grays, was now something out of a Mars landscape.

Check out these pictures, I was standing right in the middle of this glorious beauty. It was the "perfect storm" of beauty. The rain made the railroad tracks shine like glass, the sunset lowering over the horizon with the rain clouds made this perfect color palette of pinks and blues. It was like a fireball on the horizon. These are real photos! I still can't believe it when I look at them. We were surrounded by this, it wasn't in just one direction, it was all around us.

Another aspect of this whole day was the friendship. Marty has taken something that he loves and offered to share this gift with anyone that wants to experience it. He knows every "secret" place in central Mississippi for a to experience God's beauty. He knows every waterfall buried deep in the woods, he knows what tree to go shoot in the fall time because the leaves will be falling and the colors will be unbelievably beautiful. He tells Jerry and I all the time as we zoom in on a flower, that "God made every detail of that flower." My friend Marty and his family is going through some difficult times right now and as I write this and remember that God made every detail of the flower, I think of a bible verse for Marty.

Matthew 6:25-34 - "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

If God will take care of the birds and flowers, then surely he will take care of my friend Marty and his family.

Looking back it is almost laughable, God set this day up for us, I am 1000% sure of that. There is no way this day could have been this perfect otherwise. We took a day that most people would have just laid around the house and waited out the storm, and made it one of the most incredible experiences of my life. This truly was one glorious day!